Manual deploys and testing of code can be both time-consuming and error-prone. Many repetitive manual steps can lead to critical tests or necessary configuration being forgotten or being skipped due time-constraints resulting in software that doesn’t work as intended when deployed to production. The purpose of this report is to examine whether continuous delivery(CD) could lead to any positive effects and if there are any obstacles for CD in an Episerver project at Sigma ITC. The study was done by implementing a CD pipeline for a project similar to a real project at Sigma then letting the developers work with it and interviewing them about their current workflow, their attitude towards the different steps involved and if they saw any problems with CD for their project. Even if the developers, in general, where positive to CD they had some reservations about it in their current projects. The main obstacle the developers saw where the time/cost which would affect the customer and also some uncertainty around the complexity in testing Episerver. The results show that there could be positive effects of CD even if the project type is not optimal for reaping all the CD benefits, it all depends on people involved seeing a value in testing and the questions around testing in Episerver are straightened out.

Denna uppsats studerar förutsättningarna för att implementera mjukvaruutvecklings - metoden Continuous Delivery (CDE). Problemställningen som lade grunden för studien, var att det inte finns någon enhetlig standard för CDE. Studien ämnade att undersöka om detta innebar att metoden har varierande innebörd inom olika företag och om de således, i viss mån tillämpar skilda tillvägagångssätt med metoden. Ytterligare en aspekt var att se vilka utmaningar företagen upplevde vid övergången till CDE. Att undersöka om det var främst organisatoriska eller utvecklingsrelaterade problem som upplevts. Samt hur de hanterade kommunikation och tillit till medarbetarna och arbetet inom verksamheten under förändringen. För att belysa problemen, beskrevs teori med fokus på organisatoriska och tekniska utmaningar med Continuous - metoderna: Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CDE) och Continuous Deployment (CD). Teorikapitlet samt tidigare studier inkluderade även forskning om kringliggande koncept som DevOps och LEAN. Metoder, vilka kan underlätta implementationen av CDE. Datainsamlingen genomfördes med öppna individuella intervjuer med representanter från sex stycken företag, där de delade med sig av deras erfarenheter av och syn på CDE. Studien visar att anledningen till att företag väljer att arbeta med CDE, är att de vill gå från utvecklingsmetoder, vilka kräver många beslut inför varje förändring, till ett mer flexibelt arbetssätt där de funnit fördelar som: bättre kvalitet på det som levereras, snabbare leverans av affärsvärde till kunder samt kortare feedback - loopar. Företag som gör en övergång till CDE väljer dessutom ofta att inte automatisera hela vägen ut till produktion, enligt CD, då de ser utmaningar med att säkra kvalitén. Studien har identifierat ett antal faktorer som viktiga för en framgångsrik implementering av CDE, samt faktorer som kan resultera i en svår övergång. / This thesis studies the conditions needed for implementing the software development method Continuous Delivery (CDE). The problem identified for the study, is that there is no standardized approach for CDE as of today. The intentions of the study were to determine whether this means that the method will have a shifting tenor within different companies, and if so, will these companies implement the method with different approaches. Another aspect was to determine which types of challenges the companies were faced with during the transition towards CDE. To review whether the challenges were foremost organisational or development related. And how the organisations handled the communication and trust towards the co-workers and the development work within the organisation during the change towards the method. To highlight these issues, we presented theories with focus on organisational and technical challenges with the different Continuous practices were made. The practices being: Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CDE) and Continuous Deployment (CD). The theory chapter and former studies also contains research about surrounding concepts such as DevOps and LEAN methods, which can aim to facilitate the implementation of CDE. The empirical data collection was performed using open individual interviews with informants from six different companies, where they shared their experience and views on the method CDE. The study demonstrates that the reason organisations chose to implement CDE, is that they want to transform from software development methods, which requires a lot of decision making for any change, to a more flexible work procedure, in order to experience benefits such as: better quality of what is delivered, faster deliveries of business value to the customers and faster feedback-loops. Organisations that make the transition towards CDE also tend not to automate all the way to production, as in agreement with CD, this because the organisations identify challenges with assuring that the quality is sufficient. The study has identified a number of factors that are essential for a successful implementation of CDE, along with factors that may result in a less successful implementation.

This thesis has been carried out at the Swedish Board of Agriculture. The client wants to orientate towards a development environment and architecture that allows for more frequent software deliveries than in the current situation, to increase the business benefits of the development work carried out. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a process to iteratively move towards an architecture and development environment that enable Continuous Delivery. Continuous delivery aims to a very high extent to treat a developer's code as part of a potential release candidate. This in turn causes high demands on being able to secure the reliability of both the infrastructure and the individual developers’ contributions. The work has been carried out in cooperation with developers, infrastructure engineers, architects and team leaders on The Swedish Board of Agriculture. Theories have been tested within the IT organization to ensure their reliability and applicability in the organization. A process has been developed with the limitation that it has not been tested in a production environment because of the limited timeframe available. However, it has been demonstrated that the process is feasible for the systems that acted as the main testing candidates during the thesis. / Detta examensarbete har utförts vid Statens Jordbruksverk. Uppdragsgivaren önskar att orientera sig mer mot en utvecklingsmiljö och arkitektur som möjliggör tätare leveranser än i dagsläget, för att öka verksamhetsnyttan av det utvecklingsarbete som genomförs. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att ta fram en process för att iterativt kunna gå mot en arkitektur som möjliggör för Continuous Delivery, eller kontinuerlig leverans. Kontinuerlig leverans syftar till att i mycket hög mån behandla en utvecklares kod som en del av en potentiell releasekandidat. Detta för i sin tur med sig höga krav på att kunna säkra tillförlitligheten av både infrastruktur samt den individuelle utvecklarens bidrag. Arbetet har utförts i samarbete med utvecklare, infrastrukturtekniker, arkitekter samt teamledare på Jordbruksverket. Teorier har testats inom IT-organisationen för att se dess tillförlitlighet samt tillämplighet på just Jordbruksverkets organisation. Arbetet påvisar att det är möjligt att dela upp monolitiska system och gå närmare något som liknar kontinuerlig leverans, utan att behöva genomföra stora förändringar inom organisationen. En process har tagits fram med begräsning att den inte testats i produktionsmiljö på grund av tidsbrist. Det har dock påvisats att processen är gångbar för det system som varit testkandidat genom arbetets gång.

Este trabalho mostra uma aplicação de conceitos de produção enxuta em uma empresa de processo contínuo. Existe uma percepção por parte de algumas destas empresas de que, sendo de fluxo contínuo, elas se adequam mais aos princípios da produção em massa, não sendo portanto aplicáveis a elas os conceitos de produção enxuta. Também existe a crença, igualmente questionável, de que elas já são enxutas por natureza, devido ao elevado nível de automação com pouca manipulação e movimentações discretas. Este trabalho mostra que isso nem sempre é verdade e que uma empresa de processo contínuo pode se beneficiar consideravelmente da aplicação de conceitos de manufatura enxuta. É apresentada aqui uma revisão bibliográfica das principais ferramentas e conceitos de produção enxuta. Também é apresentado um caso já documentado na literatura técnica de aplicação destes conceitos em uma empresa química de processo contínuo. A seguir é mostrado o caso de aplicação de produção enxuta conduzida pelo autor em uma empresa de grande porte do setor termoplástico no estado de São Paulo, que tem características de processo contínuo. São também apresentados os resultados desta aplicação, evidenciando os ganhos obtidos como redução de 21% no indicador de refugo e 14% no tempo médio de set up, e algumas considerações sobre aplicação de produção enxuta em empresas desta natureza. / This paper shows a application of the concepts of lean production in a continuous process company. There is a misconception from some companies\' part that because they have continuous process, they fit more the mass production principles, therefore it is not valid to them the concept of lean production. There is also the belief, questionable as well, that they are naturally lean, due to the high level of automation with little handling and discret movements. This paper shows that this is not true and that continuous process company can benefit considerably from the application of the lean production concepts. It is presented here a bibliography review of the main tools and concepts of lean production. It is also presented a documented case of the application of these concepts in a chemical industry with continuous process. Next, the case of the application of lean production is showed, conducted by the author in a big company of termoplastic in the state of São Paulo that presents the characteristics of continuous process. The results of this application is presented, enfasizing the results obtained, it was obtained 21% of reduction in the screp indicator and 14% in the midium time of the set up and also some comments about the application of the lean production in these kinds of companies.

As curvas limite de conformação (CLC) são utilizadas há mais de 50 anos. Propostas inicialmente para o desenvolvimento de produtos provenientes da indústria automobilista em função das necessidades apresentadas pela área, são atualmente aplicadas de maneira geral para a indústria da estampagem na produção de inúmeros tipos de peças, oferecendo previsões de possíveis falhas e/ou defeitos durante as etapas do processo de estampagem. As CLC´s permitem prever o afinamento excessivo, enrugamento, estiramento e é claro, a fratura da peça. As diferenças metalúrgicas existentes entre os dois processos iniciais - fundição contínua (F.C.) e fundição semicontínua (F.S.C.) - resultam em diferenças nas propriedades finais obtidas para uma mesma rota de laminação a frio e recozimentos intermediários do material especificado. Desta forma, torna-se indispensável um estudo sobre a influência dos processos de fabricação iniciais F.C. e F.S.C. com relação à estampabilidade da liga, sendo esta avaliação efetuada através das CLC´s obtidas por ensaios de tração uniaxiais, propostos pelo IRSID (\"Institut de Recherches de La Sidérurgie\"), (lado esquerdo da curva ?2 < 0) e ensaio Erichsen (lado direito da curva ?2 > 0) e do ensaio de Nakazima reduzido em 60%, ou seja, todo o ferramental e os corpos de prova utilizados nos ensaios foram reduzidos em 60% das dimensões mencionadas pela norma ISSO 12004-2. A diferença microestrutural apresentada entre as etapas de fabricação dos dois processos avaliada através de ensaios de determinação do tamanho de grão, limites de resistência à tração, escoamento (0,2%), alongamento (em 50,80 mm), coeficientes de encruamento n, resistência K, ensaios de \"orelha\", levantamento da CLC0, Erichsen e textura, auxiliaram nas conclusões finais do levantamento das CLC´s para os dois processos do material acabado e metodologias. O processo de fundição semicontínua nas condições processadas apresentou melhores combinações entre as propriedades, exceto na formação de \"orelha\" apresentada na etapa intermediaria de processamento do material. Principalmente o parâmetro CLC0 no plano da chapa, resultou em uma deformação ?1 19% (?2 = 0), superior à apresentada pelo processo F.C., deformação muito importante para a fabricação de peças estampadas. Evidenciou-se também uma diferença de aproximadamente 37% entre as metodologias IRSID x Nakazima reduzido na obtenção da deformação plana para o processo F.C. e 31% para o processo de F.S.C.. Nas condições de deformação; estiramento biaxial, tração uniaxial e embutimento profundo, a chapa produzida pelo processo de fundição contínua apresenta melhor desempenho. / Forming limits curves (FLC) are used for more than 50 years. Initially proposed for the development of products from the automobile industry in terms of the needs of the area. It is currently being applied in general to the metal forming industry in the production of numerous types of parts, providing predictions of possible faults and / or defects during the stages of the stamping process. The FLC\'s can predict excessive thinning, wrinkling, stretching and of course, the fracture of the part. The existing metallurgical differences between the two initial processes - continuous casting (C.C.) and semi-continuous casting (S.C.C.) - result in differences in the final properties obtained for the same route of cold rolling and intermediate annealing of the specified material. Thus, it is essential to study the influence of the initial manufacturing processes CC and SCC with respect to the formability of the sheets. This investigation is based on the, assessment of the FLC\'s obtained by uniaxial tensile tests proposed by IRSID (\"Institut de Recherches de Sidérurgie\"), (?2 < 0, left side of the curve) and Erichsen test (right side of curve. ?2> 0) and the Nakazima test reduced by 60%. The difference between the sheets obtained in both processing routes was evaluated by the following parameters: grain size, tensile strength limits, yield strength (0.2%), elongation (at 50.80 mm), strain hardening coefficient n, resistance K, \"earing\" test, lifting of the CLC0, Erichsen test and texture where discussed in view of the obtained FLC\'s for both the two processes of the finished material. The semi-continuous casting process in processed conditions showed better combinations of properties except the formation of \"earing\" presented at the intermediate stage of processing of the material. Particularly the evaluation of the FLC0 parameter resulted in a strain in the plate plane ?1 19% (?2 = 0) superior to the sheet obtained by the continuous casting process. A difference of approximately 37% between the IRSID x Nakazima methodologies was also reduced in obtaining the flat deformation for the F.C. process and 31% for the F.S.C. process. However, for other deformation paths; biaxial stretching, uniaxial traction and deep drawing of the results for the continuous casting sheet were superior.

Continuous delivery (CD) is a software engineering approach where the focus lays on creating a short delivery cycle by automating parts of the deployment pipeline which includes build, deploy-, test and release process. CD is based on that during development should be possible to always automatically generate a release based on the source code in its current state. One of CD's many advantages is that through continuous releases it allows you to get a quick feedback loop leading to faster and more efficient implementation of new functions, at the same time fixing errors. Although CD has many advantages, there are also several challenges a maintenance management project must manage in the transition to CD. These challenges may differ depending on the maturity level for a maintenance management project and what strengths and weaknesses the project has. Our research question was: "What challenges can a maintenance management project face in transition to Continuous delivery?" The purpose of this study is to describe Continuous delivery and the challenges a maintenance management project may face during a transition to Continuous delivery. A descriptive case study has been carried out with the data collection methods of interviews and documents. A situation analysis was created based on the collected data in a shape of a process model that represent the maintenance management projects release process. The processmodel was used as the basis of SWOT analysis and analysis by Rehn et al's Maturity Model. From these analyzes we found challenges of a maintenance management project may face in the transition to CD. The challenges are about customers and the management's attitude towards a transition to CD. But the biggest challenge is about automation of the deployment pipeline steps. / Continuous Delivery (CD) är en metod inom systemutveckling där fokus ligger på att skapa en kort leveranscykel genom att automatisera delar av deployment pipeline vilket innehåller bygg-, deploy-, test- och releaseprocessen. CD bygger på att det alltid under pågående utveckling skall vara möjligt att automatiskt generera en release utifrån källkoden i dess aktuella tillstånd. En av CD’s många fördelar är att man genom kontinuerliga releaser får en snabb feedbackloop vilket leder till snabbare och effektivare införande av nya funktioner, samtidigt som man åtgärdar fel. Även om CD har många fördelar finns det också flera utmaningar ett förvaltningsuppdrag måste hantera vid en övergång till CD. Dessa utmaningar kan skilja sig beroende på vilken mognadsnivå ett förvaltningsuppdrag befinner sig i och vilka styrkor och svagheter uppdraget har. Vår frågeställning har varit: "Vilka utmaningar kan ett förvaltningsuppdrag stå inför vid en övergång till Continuous Delivery?" Syftet med denna studie är att få en ökad förståelse för Continuous Delivery samt vilka utmaningar förvaltningsuppdrag kan stå inför vid en övergång till Continuous Delivery. En beskrivande fallstudie har genomförts med datainsamlingsmetoderna intervjuer och dokument. Av insamlad data skapades en nulägesanalys i form av en processmodell över förvaltningsuppdragens releaseprocess. Den har använts som grund för en SWOT- analys och en analys med hjälp Rehn mfl’s Maturity model. I från dessa analyser kom vi fram till utmaningar ett förvaltningsuppdrag kan stå inför vid en övergång till CD. Utmaningarna handlar dels om kunder och ledningens inställningar inför en övergång till CD. Men den största utmaningen gäller automatisering av delarna i deployment pipeline.

In this thesis, we address the problem of minimizing the average delay of data pack-ets served by a transmitter on a static, point-to-point link. The transmitter dynamically chooses state-dependent admission and transmission rates, while adhering to average throughput and transmission power constraints. The transmitter is modelled as an infinite buffer Markov queue with adjustable arrival and service rates. Data packets arrive at the system according to a Poisson process with rate, Λ, and are admitted at a rate, λnwith 0≤ λn ≤ Λ, depending on the number, n, of data packets present in the system. The packet size is assumed to be exponentially distributed, and the controller chooses a transmission rate, µn, at most equal to a maximum value, M, depending on the current backlog, n, in the system. The objective is to minimize the average delay of data packets in the system subject to a throughput lower bound constraint, while satisfying an upper bound on the average transmission power. This constrained MDP problem is solved using a Lagrange relaxation approach and analysed for the cases with throughput and power constraints that are achievable with equality by appropri-ate values of the Lagrange multipliers. A procedure is developed, based on explicit formulae, using which optimal admission and service rates as a function of the packet queue length are obtained.

Continuous optimization problems are optimization problems where all variables<p>have a domain that typically is a subset of the real numbers; mixed discrete-continuous<p>optimization problems have additionally other types of variables, so<p>that some variables are continuous and others are on an ordinal or categorical<p>scale. Continuous and mixed discrete-continuous problems have a wide range<p>of applications in disciplines such as computer science, mechanical or electrical<p>engineering, economics and bioinformatics. These problems are also often hard to<p>solve due to their inherent difficulties such as a large number of variables, many<p>local optima or other factors making problems hard. Therefore, in this thesis our<p>focus is on the design, engineering and configuration of high-performing heuristic<p>optimization algorithms.<p>We tackle continuous and mixed discrete-continuous optimization problems<p>with two classes of population-based heuristic algorithms, ant colony optimization<p>(ACO) algorithms and evolution strategies. In a nutshell, the main contributions<p>of this thesis are that (i) we advance the design and engineering of ACO algorithms to algorithms that are competitive or superior to recent state-of-the-art<p>algorithms for continuous and mixed discrete-continuous optimization problems,<p>(ii) we improve upon a specific state-of-the-art evolution strategy, the covariance<p>matrix adaptation evolution strategy (CMA-ES), and (iii) we extend CMA-ES to<p>tackle mixed discrete-continuous optimization problems.<p>More in detail, we propose a unified ant colony optimization (ACO) framework<p>for continuous optimization (UACOR). This framework synthesizes algorithmic<p>components of two ACO algorithms that have been proposed in the literature<p>and an incremental ACO algorithm with local search for continuous optimization,<p>which we have proposed during my doctoral research. The design of UACOR<p>allows the usage of automatic algorithm configuration techniques to automatically<p>derive new, high-performing ACO algorithms for continuous optimization. We also<p>propose iCMAES-ILS, a hybrid algorithm that loosely couples IPOP-CMA-ES, a<p>CMA-ES variant that uses a restart schema coupled with an increasing population<p>size, and a new iterated local search (ILS) algorithm for continuous optimization.<p>The hybrid algorithm consists of an initial competition phase, in which IPOP-CMA-ES and the ILS algorithm compete for further deployment during a second<p>phase. A cooperative aspect of the hybrid algorithm is implemented in the form<p>of some limited information exchange from IPOP-CMA-ES to the ILS algorithm<p>during the initial phase. Experimental studies on recent benchmark functions<p>suites show that UACOR and iCMAES-ILS are competitive or superior to other<p>state-of-the-art algorithms.<p>To tackle mixed discrete-continuous optimization problems, we extend ACOMV <p>and propose CESMV, an ant colony optimization algorithm and a covariance matrix adaptation evolution strategy, respectively. In ACOMV and CESMV ,the decision variables of an optimization problem can be declared as continuous, ordinal, or categorical, which allows the algorithm to treat them adequately. ACOMV and<p>CESMV include three solution generation mechanisms: a continuous optimization<p>mechanism, a continuous relaxation mechanism for ordinal variables, and a categorical optimization mechanism for categorical variables. Together, these mechanisms allow ACOMV and CESMV to tackle mixed variable optimization problems.<p>We also propose a set of artificial, mixed-variable benchmark functions, which can<p>simulate discrete variables as ordered or categorical. We use them to automatically tune ACOMV and CESMV's parameters and benchmark their performance.<p>Finally we test ACOMV and CESMV on various real-world continuous and mixed-variable engineering optimization problems. Comparisons with results from the<p>literature demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of ACOMV and CESMV<p>on mixed-variable optimization problems.<p>Apart from these main contributions, during my doctoral research I have accomplished a number of additional contributions, which concern (i) a note on the<p>bound constraints handling for the CEC'05 benchmark set, (ii) computational results for an automatically tuned IPOP-CMA-ES on the CEC'05 benchmark set and<p>(iii) a study of artificial bee colonies for continuous optimization. These additional<p>contributions are to be found in the appendix to this thesis.<p> / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This diploma thesis deals with the delivery of software products to end users and automation of related processes. After the initial introduction to the issue of deployment, as it is defined by one of the widely used software engineering methodology RUP (Rational Unified Process), the thesis devotes to practices as Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery and Continuous Deployment which are directly oriented to the delivery of a software product based on automated processes. The second part depicts the design and the implementation of the solution for automation of the deployment of web applications in PHP within the specific developer company. The design part itself covers the analysis of the current state of the manual deploying process of business applications along with possible ways of automation its parts (updating the source code and database schema, application configuration, etc.), the definition of essential requirements for the solution and analysis of available tools which is the base for the selection of the most suitable tools for each component forming the resulting solution. The thesis also depicts interesting or nontrivial parts of implementation of each component, the practical case of usage of the system, the subsequent evaluation of the resulting solution along with estimated benefits and suggestions for the future expansion of its functionality.

If T:C(H,X)-->Y is a bounded linear operator then there exists a unique weakly regular finitely additive set function m:-->L(X,Y**) so that T(f) = ∫Hfdm. In this paper, bounded linear operators on C(H,X) are studied in terms the measure given by this representation theorem. The first chapter provides a brief history of representation theorems of these classes of operators. In the second chapter the represenation theorem used in the remainder of the paper is presented. If T is a weakly compact operator on C(H,X) with representing measure m, then m(A) is a weakly compact operator for every Borel set A. Furthermore, m is strongly bounded. Analogous statements may be made for many interesting classes of operators. In chapter III, two classes of operators, weakly precompact and QSP, are studied. Examples are provided to show that if T is weakly precompact (QSP) then m(A) need not be weakly precompact (QSP), for every Borel set A. In addition, it will be shown that weakly precompact and GSP operators need not have strongly bounded representing measures. Sufficient conditions are provided which guarantee that a weakly precompact (QSP) operator has weakly precompact (QSP) values. A sufficient condition for a weakly precomact operator to be strongly bounded is given. In chapter IV, weakly precompact subsets of L1(μ,X) are examined. For a Banach space X whose dual has the Radon-Nikodym property, it is shown that the weakly precompact subsets of L1(μ,X) are exactly the uniformly integrable subsets of L1(μ,X). Furthermore, it is shown that this characterization does not hold in Banach spaces X for which X* does not have the weak Radon-Nikodym property.