Agile software development methods are characterized by developer’s empowerment through self-organization, incremental requirements and constant knowledge sharing. Despite some effort to elaborate how successfully agile methods can be applied in co-located development teams, little is known on how the same is done when the development teams are distributed. Our research focus is to uncover factors that influence the successful application of agile methods in distributed development teams using a software development company as our case study. With three distributed teams applying different agile methods, we conducted focused ethnography alongside interviews to comprehend what and how various factors under distributed development teams influence successful agile methods application. It seems, all that matters is team structure, team spirit, effective communication, product requirements, and knowledge sharing. The team structure has more influence than other factors and therefore our suggestions for successful application of agile methods in distributed software development is to focus on the development team, above all factors. The analysis shows that the development methods themselves have little to do with the successful application of agile methods in distributed software development teams.

Submitted by Nayara Passos (nayara.passos@ufpe.br) on 2015-03-12T13:40:04Z No. of bitstreams: 2 TESE Ivaldir Honório Junior.pdf: 7117978 bytes, checksum: e0486b82f2f59b6cca275a9dd360589d (MD5) license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-12T13:40:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 TESE Ivaldir Honório Junior.pdf: 7117978 bytes, checksum: e0486b82f2f59b6cca275a9dd360589d (MD5) license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / É comum hoje em dia que equipes de projeto estejam organizadas de forma distribuída, ou seja, seus integrantes estão em diferentes cidades, estados ou países. Essa configuração deu origem, na área de desenvolvimento de software, a estratégia de negócio chamada Desenvolvimento Distribuído de Software (DDS). Atualmente, pode-se perceber que o número de empresas que estão aderindo ao DDS é bem mais significativo quando comparado há alguns anos atrás. As empresas visam ganhos de qualidade, produtividade e diminuição de custos. Por tais motivos, o DDS vem despertando um grande interesse de pesquisadores nos últimos anos. A distribuição geográfica das equipes tem criado diversos desafios ao processo de desenvolvimento de software e à gestão dos seus projetos. Dentre esses desafios, destaca-se a comunicação pois é necessária a toda e qualquer atividade do ciclo de desenvolvimento. A comunicação torna-se crítica à medida que os recursos tradicionais de comunicação em projetos (e.g. reuniões face a face, comunicação não verbal, visualização do trabalho in loco, entre outros) passam a ser limitados e/ou substituídos por meios tecnológicos (e.g. videoconferências, e-mails, mensagens instantâneas, entre outros). Diante desse contexto, esta tese teve como objetivo conceber um modelo de maturidade para comunicação em projetos DDS. Para propor esse modelo de maturidade optou-se por um estudo ad-hoc da literatura, bem como duas revisões sistemáticas da literatura em conjunto com um estudo de campo qualitativo. Em seguida, propor-se uma versão inicial do modelo e realizou-se dois grupos focais para avaliá-lo de forma preliminar. Os resultados obtidos com esses dois grupos focais, foram utilizados para gerar uma nova versão do modelo. Em seguida, realizou-se uma survey através de entrevistas semi-estruturadas para avaliar a nova versão do modelo com especialistas. Neste sentido, a principal contribuição desta pesquisa de doutorado é o modelo de maturidade para a comunicação que visa estabelecer boas práticas de comunicação em DDS para maximizar o sucesso dos projetos. Por conseguinte, este trabalho também contribui com o ainda incipiente corpo de conhecimento da área projetos e em especial projetos DDS. Este entendimento é útil não apenas para estudos futuros na academia, mas também para empresas de software iniciando suas operações em DDS. Elas podem se beneficiar do conhecimento consolidado e utilizá-lo para guiar a definição de seus processos de comunicação em tais ambientes distribuídos. / Nowadays, software teams are often organized in a distributed way, that is, team members are located in different places, with the distance varying from the level of cities, states or countries. This distributed configuration promoted the creation of a business strategy called Distributed Software Development (DSD). Nowadays, the number of companies adhering to the DSD strategy is much more significant when compared to few years ago. Companies aim for quality and productivity gains and the redution of development costs. For those reasons, DSD has increased interest of Software Engineering researchers over the last years. The geographic distribution of the teams has created several challenges to the development process and to the management of software projects. Among these challenges, communication can be highlighted as one of the most critical since it is necessary to support all and every activity during the development life cycle. Communication becomes critical as the traditional communication channels (e.g., face-to-face meetings, unplanned discussions, and non-verbal communication) become limited and substituted by technologic media (e.g., videoconferences, e-mails, and instant messengers). Given this context, this thesis aimed to develop a model to software teams to improve the maturity in of communication processes distributed projects. To propose this maturity model, I conducted an ad-hoc review of literature followed by two systematic reviews of literature and a qualitative study. I then proposed an initial version of the model and next conducted two focus groups (qualitative study) to preliminarily evaluate the model. Insights from this study were used to generate a new version of the model. Next, I conducted semi-structured interviews to evaluate the new version of the model with experts. Therefore, the main contribution of this research is a maturity model for communication that aims to establish good communication practices in DSD to maximize the success of a DSD project. My work contributes also to the still incipient body of knowledge about communication in the DSD area. This understanding is useful not only to further studies in the academy but also to software companies that are starting DSD operations. They can benefit from the knowledge consolidated in the model and use it to guide the definition of their communication processes in such distributed settings.

Optimisation is one of the most important and challenging part of any engineering design. In real world design problems one faces multiobjective optimisation under constraints. The optimal solution in these cases is not unique because the objectives can contradict each other. In such cases, a set of optimal solutions which forms a Pareto frontier in the objective space is considered. There are many algorithms to generate the Pareto frontier. However, only a few of them are potentially capable of providing an evenly distributed set of the solutions. Such a property is especially important in real-life design because a decision maker is usually able to analyse only a very limited quantity of solutions. This thesis consists of two main parts. At first, it develops and gives the detailed description of two different algorithms that are able to generate an evenly distributed Pareto set in a general formulation. One is a classical approach and called Directed Search Domain (DSD) and the other, the cylindrical constraint evolutionary algorithm (CCEA), is a hybrid population based method. The efficiency of the algorithms are demonstrated by a number of challenging test cases and the comparisons with the results of the other existing methods. It is shown that the proposed methods are successful in generating the Pareto solutions even when some existing methods fail. In real world design problems, deterministic approaches cannot provide a reliable solution as in the event of uncertainty, deterministic optimal solution would be infeasible in many instances. Therefore a solution less sensitive to problem perturbation is desirable. This leads to the robust solution which is the focus of the second part of the thesis. In the literature, there are some techniques tailored for robust optimisation. However, most of them are either computationally expensive or do not systematically articulate the designer preferences into a robust solution. In this thesis, by introducing a measure for robustness in multiobjective context, a tunable robust function (TRF) is presented. Including the TRF in the problem formulation, it is demonstrated that the desirable robust solution based on designer preferences can be obtained. This not only provides the robust solution but also gives a control over the robustness level. The method is efficient as it only increases the dimension of the problem by one irrespective of the dimension of the original problem.

<div>Rain drop size distributions (DSDs) in severe convective storms are highly variable in time and space. DSDs can be derived from polarimetric radar observations at high spatiotemporal resolution but these observations are often lacking near the surface owing to radar horizon issues. Disdrometers provide “ground-truth” measurements and validation of radar-derived DSDs but are by nature limited point measurements. Moreover, substantial evolution of the DSD can occur between the lowest radar elevation angle and the surface. Recent studies have shown that hydrometeor size sorting (HSS) is an important and even dominant process contributing to DSD evolution in severe storms; many physical processes such as the strength of the updraft, transient effects, and storm-relative mean winds are contributing factors to continued size sorting. In this study, we focus on strong storm-relative mean winds that induce sustained size sorting owing to the different residence times of hydrometeors of different sizes as they fall in severe storms. The resulting differential advection leads to a distinct horizontal spread of hydrometeors of different sizes at the bottom of a given layer. The goal of this study is to evaluate the impact of size sorting on DSD evolution from the radar level to the surface. To accomplish this, we develop and apply a raindrop trajectory model to compute the evolution of DSDs between radar observations aloft and the surface. For simplicity and to isolate the effects of size sorting, we neglect processes such as breakup, collection, and evaporation, and assume a horizontally homogeneous wind profile. We use disdrometer and radar data, which measure DSDs at the surface and provide the observed quantities aloft, respectively. The disdrometer data was collected from portable disdrometers as a collaboration between Purdue University, University of Oklahoma, University of Massachusetts, and the National Severe Storms Laboratory during the VORTEX-SE 2017 field campaign. NEXRAD data from KHTX Huntsville, AL and KGWX Columbus Air Force Base, MS was retrieved from the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).</div><div><br></div><div>We evaluate three separate cases, a tornadic QLCS on 30 April 2017, a cluster storm on 27 March 2017, and a squall line on 25 March 2017. After the radar data is pre-processed, we retrieve the DSDs from the radar by assuming a gamma distribution and discretize them into PARSIVEL bins to produce a gridded dataset of DSDs. We then apply the raindrop trajectory model to compute the DSDs at the surface which are then compared directly with disdrometer observations. Analysis and comparisons from all cases yield similar results in that-the sorted radar DSDs at the surface are overall closer to the disdrometer observations than the original radar DSDs aloft. Results also show that the spatial variation of DSDs is higher at the surface due to size sorting by the storm-relative mean winds.</div><div><br></div>

No description available.

Uncertainty in software development and business environment and the need to increase thespeed of development have driven organizations to search for methods that are responsive toboth change and speed. Providing iterative development, agile development involvescustomers and users through different phases of development, and delivers frequent releasesof software to customer while receives the corresponding feedback. Using this approach, agiledevelopment thus aims at addressing mentioned issues of speed and uncertainty whiledeveloping only what customer needs from the beginning of the project. On the other hand,distributed software development is used in many organizations to reach global talent andglobal market. The problems associated with distributed software development such as lack ofenough communication and team coherency, have forced project managers to combine it withagile to mitigate these social problems. This study focuses on distributed agile development,its suitability for a typical project and its challenges and deficiencies. Text analysis andinterviews using qualitative methods are used in this scientific research work. From thetheoretical view point, different text covering agile methodology, distributed development andcombination of them were considered. This study covered two parts: first, an evaluation ofagile and distributed development opportunities and problems to help determine whether ornot distributed development is suitable for a project and second, considering the challengesonce starting to use this method and practices required to regard them. For the empirical part,the focus was put on Volvo IT employees by having seven interviews with members who arecurrently active in distributed agile development. These interviews were used to compare andverify the finding of the theoretical part. The results of the study were categorized into twosections. In the first part, important elements required to verify the suitability of using thismethod are provided. The recommended factors for this evaluation are cost, productivity,customer, team structure, etc. In the second part, the challenges of using distributed agiledevelopment were categorized into four parts: (a) challenges of selected agile method, whichthe focus in this study is Scrum, (b) challenges with time-zone differences, (c) communicationchallenges and (d) finally team building challenges. The required practices to address thesechallenges were also provided. / Program: Masterutbildning i Informatik

O distúrbio da diferenciação sexual que resulta em ambiguidade genital na criança, denominado atualmente de Anomalias da Diferenciação Sexual (ADS), tem se constituído como um problema e um desafio aos profissionais que tratam desses casos. Apesar de existir um número considerável de estudos sobre o tema, ainda não há um consenso sobre sua extensão, manejo e repercussões para os pacientes e seus pais. Este estudo buscou investigar as representações de mães e pais, de crianças com ADS, sobre a identidade de gênero de seus filhos. Foram entrevistados 3 mães e 3 pais de filhos nascidos com ADS, de diferentes idades. A entrevista narrativa e a análise de conteúdo foram utilizadas, respectivamente, como forma de coleta e análise dos dados. Os resultados mostraram que, tanto mães quanto pais, atribuem fundamental importância à anatomia da genitália como critério para definição da identidade sexual da criança, base sobre a qual se constitui, ao longo de seu desenvolvimento, a identidade de gênero da mesma. O estudo também possibilitou o levantamento e discussão de outros aspectos considerados importantes na opinião das mães e dos pais entrevistados como, por exemplo, o impacto emocional do diagnóstico quando do nascimento da criança, a investigação etiológica, o tratamento da ADS, o manejo médico e questões acerca do futuro dos filhos com ADS, que foram discutidos na pesquisa. / The disorders of sexual diferentiation which result from genital ambiguity in children, nowadays called Disorders of Sex Development (DSD), have become a problem and a challenge for the professional team who deals with these cases. Besides a large number of articles about this issue, there is no consensus about its extension, management and repercussion for patients and their parents. This study investigated the representations of gender identity of mothers and fathers of children with DSD. Three mothers and three fathers of children of different ages with DSD were interviewed. Narrative Interview and Content Analysis were used, respectively, as procedures of data collection and data analysis. The results showed that both mothers and fathers assigned fundamental importance to the genital anatomy as a criterion for sexual identity definition based on which gender identity will develop. In addition, this study also highlighted others aspects considered as important by the interviewed parents, such as the emotional impact of the diagnosis at birth and during the etiological investigation and treatment, the medical management, and issues about their children with DSD future.

O distúrbio da diferenciação sexual que resulta em ambiguidade genital na criança, denominado atualmente de Anomalias da Diferenciação Sexual (ADS), tem se constituído como um problema e um desafio aos profissionais que tratam desses casos. Apesar de existir um número considerável de estudos sobre o tema, ainda não há um consenso sobre sua extensão, manejo e repercussões para os pacientes e seus pais. Este estudo buscou investigar as representações de mães e pais, de crianças com ADS, sobre a identidade de gênero de seus filhos. Foram entrevistados 3 mães e 3 pais de filhos nascidos com ADS, de diferentes idades. A entrevista narrativa e a análise de conteúdo foram utilizadas, respectivamente, como forma de coleta e análise dos dados. Os resultados mostraram que, tanto mães quanto pais, atribuem fundamental importância à anatomia da genitália como critério para definição da identidade sexual da criança, base sobre a qual se constitui, ao longo de seu desenvolvimento, a identidade de gênero da mesma. O estudo também possibilitou o levantamento e discussão de outros aspectos considerados importantes na opinião das mães e dos pais entrevistados como, por exemplo, o impacto emocional do diagnóstico quando do nascimento da criança, a investigação etiológica, o tratamento da ADS, o manejo médico e questões acerca do futuro dos filhos com ADS, que foram discutidos na pesquisa. / The disorders of sexual diferentiation which result from genital ambiguity in children, nowadays called Disorders of Sex Development (DSD), have become a problem and a challenge for the professional team who deals with these cases. Besides a large number of articles about this issue, there is no consensus about its extension, management and repercussion for patients and their parents. This study investigated the representations of gender identity of mothers and fathers of children with DSD. Three mothers and three fathers of children of different ages with DSD were interviewed. Narrative Interview and Content Analysis were used, respectively, as procedures of data collection and data analysis. The results showed that both mothers and fathers assigned fundamental importance to the genital anatomy as a criterion for sexual identity definition based on which gender identity will develop. In addition, this study also highlighted others aspects considered as important by the interviewed parents, such as the emotional impact of the diagnosis at birth and during the etiological investigation and treatment, the medical management, and issues about their children with DSD future.

O distúrbio da diferenciação sexual que resulta em ambiguidade genital na criança, denominado atualmente de Anomalias da Diferenciação Sexual (ADS), tem se constituído como um problema e um desafio aos profissionais que tratam desses casos. Apesar de existir um número considerável de estudos sobre o tema, ainda não há um consenso sobre sua extensão, manejo e repercussões para os pacientes e seus pais. Este estudo buscou investigar as representações de mães e pais, de crianças com ADS, sobre a identidade de gênero de seus filhos. Foram entrevistados 3 mães e 3 pais de filhos nascidos com ADS, de diferentes idades. A entrevista narrativa e a análise de conteúdo foram utilizadas, respectivamente, como forma de coleta e análise dos dados. Os resultados mostraram que, tanto mães quanto pais, atribuem fundamental importância à anatomia da genitália como critério para definição da identidade sexual da criança, base sobre a qual se constitui, ao longo de seu desenvolvimento, a identidade de gênero da mesma. O estudo também possibilitou o levantamento e discussão de outros aspectos considerados importantes na opinião das mães e dos pais entrevistados como, por exemplo, o impacto emocional do diagnóstico quando do nascimento da criança, a investigação etiológica, o tratamento da ADS, o manejo médico e questões acerca do futuro dos filhos com ADS, que foram discutidos na pesquisa. / The disorders of sexual diferentiation which result from genital ambiguity in children, nowadays called Disorders of Sex Development (DSD), have become a problem and a challenge for the professional team who deals with these cases. Besides a large number of articles about this issue, there is no consensus about its extension, management and repercussion for patients and their parents. This study investigated the representations of gender identity of mothers and fathers of children with DSD. Three mothers and three fathers of children of different ages with DSD were interviewed. Narrative Interview and Content Analysis were used, respectively, as procedures of data collection and data analysis. The results showed that both mothers and fathers assigned fundamental importance to the genital anatomy as a criterion for sexual identity definition based on which gender identity will develop. In addition, this study also highlighted others aspects considered as important by the interviewed parents, such as the emotional impact of the diagnosis at birth and during the etiological investigation and treatment, the medical management, and issues about their children with DSD future.

After coming into government in 1994, the African National Congress (ANC) committed and became a signatory to some of the international, regional and national instruments for human rights and social security such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (Section 27(1) (c)), makes specific provision for the promotion and recognition of human rights such as social and economic rights, provision of health, water, shelter and social security. This includes provision for appropriate social assistance to people who are unable to support themselves and their dependants. For human rights to be effectively realised, policies governing the administration of social grants needed to be updated to address all the inequalities of the past and poverty. Before 1994, the formulation and operationalisation of policy in South Africa was characterised by a lack of transparency, while participation and the inclusion of all affected stakeholders was limited. To address this situation, the primary objective of this study was to develop a policymaking framework for the effective implementation of social assistance by the Department of Social Development (DSD) and the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA). The study included an assessment of the extent to which the existing policy-making framework for social assistance in South Africa has affected policy implementation within and between SASSA and DSD. To achieve this primary objective, a number of secondary objectives had to be achieved. These included: • To explore and conduct a literature survey on the prevailing theories and models of the existing theoretical framework and principles of the public policy-making process and policy implementation; • To analyse statutory, regulatory requirements and guidelines defining the functionality and relationship between DSD and SASSA in the implementation of the social assistance programme; and • To develop guidelines and propose key recommendations on how DSD and SASSA can improve on policy-making processes to achieve a more effective implementation of the social assistance programme. A case study design was followed for data collection, with SASSA Gauteng region as case study. Data was collected by means of interviews using an interview schedule, and was conducted with both regional and local office staff as units of analysis. The empirical findings emanating from the interviews indicated that, although there is some collaboration between DSD and SASSA during the policy-making processes, there are strong indications that this is not cascaded down to the operational levels for implementation. All of the interview participants agreed that the nature of current policy processes is reactionary to problems facing the South African Government. Participants maintained that there is limited or no consultation between DSD and SASSA before any agenda-setting process to determine the level of commitment and buy-in from stakeholders. Within the policy-making context public participation as defined by the UNDP (1981:5) in Cloete and De Coning (2011:91) entails the creation of opportunities that enable all members of a community and the larger society to actively contribute to and influence the development process and to share in the fruits of development. According to the findings, policy formulation and implementation between DSD and SASSA require people with specific policy formulation, policy analysis and general research skills. Monitoring and effective evaluation of impact and analysis of the policy should also be considered as one of the key areas requiring urgent improvement. The recommendations provided are aimed at assisting both DSD and SASSA, in terms of social assistance, and to add value to the current policy-making, implementation, and service delivery processes. / M Public Administration, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015