Context: Acceptance testing is an important activity that verifies the conformance of a system to its acceptance criteria. It aims to provide a detailed communication of domain knowledge and is used to evaluate whether the customer requirements are met. Existing literature lacks empirical evidence for acceptance testing. Especially in the context of industry practice, it is not in the authors' consideration, except for a few studies, where the authors have investigated the state of practice in a specific domain. Objective: This study aims to recognize the state of research and practice of acceptance testing in Agile Software Development and investigate the similarities and differences in both perspectives. The study contributes to identify the industry-academia gap in the context of acceptance testing. Research Method: To identify the acceptance testing practices and challenges from research, I have conducted a literature review. For the industry perspective on acceptance testing practices and challenges, I have conducted an interview-based survey of the practitioners working in the Agile Software Development environment. I followed the snowball search strategy to search the primary studies, whereas to select the respondents, I used the convenience and snowball sampling method. For data analysis, I followed the approach of thematic synthesis. Results: The results of this thesis are the outcome of a literature review of 20 selected studies and an interview-based survey with 12 practitioners representing10 companies. I identified acceptance testing practices and challenges from research and industry. In the research, the most recommended form of acceptance testing is acceptance test-driven development (ATDD), and the majority of the studies are referring to the use of FIT for acceptance testing. Customer involvement in different phases of acceptance testing is recommended in research. From the interviews, I come across that acceptance testing is manual at large in the industry, and the most challenging aspect is the customer’s involvement. Conclusions: From the findings of this thesis, it is concluded that there is a gap between the research and industry perspective of acceptance testing practices. Currently, acceptance testing in the industry is mostly manual, the research is not focusing on this aspect of acceptance testing. Despite the differences, there are some commonalities as well. Especially, most challenges of acceptance testing are similar in both perspectives. Researchers have to consider the commonalities, and they have to look at how they can minimize the acceptance testing challenges from the perspective of the industry.

The fashion industry has for several years been driven by fast cycles of cheap industrial mass production and unsustainable consumption. At the same time the burden on the environment has been significant. New business models to prevent the environmental impact have therefore been developed, and circular business models have gained interest. Remanufacturing as one of the central activities within circular business model is not a new concept for the fashion and apparel industry, but there is a lack of focus of how to prioritise and develop the concept. The focus of the study is to understand the relative importance of the challenges and the enabling conditions that influence the adoption of remanufacturing as transition towards a circular economy within the fashion and apparel industry. The purpose is also to show the practitioners’ perspective on a relatively new phenomenon within the fashion and apparel industry, which can clarify how to further prioritise and direct the development of the concept. Furthermore, it is also expected to identify and investigate what might be the main challenges and the enabling conditions within remanufacturing. This research is conducted through a mixed method with a deductive approach where knowledge about generic challenges and the enabling conditions within remanufacturing was collected from a systematic literature review, as a modification of a Delphi method. An utilisation of online questionnaires led to verify relative importance of challenges and the enabling conditions for an adoption of remanufacturing as a transition towards a circular economy within the fashion and apparel industry. The result from the online questionnaire was analysed through finding consensus among the collected data. The result shows that the most important perspective for an adoption of remanufacturing was related to business model-, costs- and consumer perspective. Specifically, the challenge with how to change the business model seemed to be essential, and the lack of financial benefits and influencing the consumer behaviour was received to be of great importance. Identified enablers were collaborations and communication. There was no agreement among the most important challenges and the enabling conditions. However, the operations- and core- perspective where considered important by many. Significant consensus was found between the practitioners and their opinion about what influences an adoption of remanufacturing as a transition towards a circular economy. The practitioners’ verification and opinions of challenges and the enabling conditions can serve as support for managers in an adoption of remanufacturing, and provide guidance regarding what is essential to consider for an transition towards a circular economy. This study highlights and identifies what motivates and makes the adoption of remanufacturing attractive, as a way to transition towards a circular economy, in particular it provides support and guidance regarding how strategies can be developed and where to focus further development.

本研究從實務界選擇廣告創意人的準則出發，探討大學教育在因應廣告創意的實務需求時，所提出並加強的課程設計方向。務使大學廣告創意教育所培育的廣告創意人才，符合實務界的用人期待。 廣告是一門實用科學，如何讓教育與實務緊密結合，是廣告教育的最大挑戰。因此課程設計益發重要。在文獻探討中，實務界認為大學廣告課程有太過學術化、脫離現實競爭等議題。實務界希望他們的創意人員，在學校能就概念、技術、溝通三種技巧學習，還要理解廣告公司環境裡的競爭性、官僚行為、內部政治跟商業行為等等；期待創意課程同時涉足判斷力養成、有策略紀律、熟悉國際廣告、團隊精神、提案技巧、對公司政治具備敏感度等等。 在個案研究及深度訪談後，進行對廣告創意課程的設計。個案研究以廣告系修習廣告文案進階課程的學生進行教學實驗。深度訪談則集中在國內各大廣告公司資深創意人對國內廣告創意教育的認識與建議上。 研究發現符合實務界理想的廣告創意課程有下列方向：現實感、發想概念的能力、判斷力的養成、教導想法、職業認知、提案技巧、作品集、加強實務師資、從國際廣告吸取經驗、團隊精神。並據此由實務界觀點出發，結合作者經驗建構出八節符合實務需求的廣告創意課程：1.如何從創意哲學中培養看廣告概念的眼光。2.創意簡報。3.消費者心聲。4.廣告概念。5.創意概念。6.創意執行手法。7.創意素材。8.評估廣告。 / This study started with how advertising agency chose their employees, and how the university advertising creative curricular played their role on educating students to meet the expectation, and how to design or reinforce the current creative curricular. The objective was to educate the students in a way that met the practitioners’ perspective. Advertising was a pragmatic science. How to tie education with practitioners’ expectation tightly was a real challenge. In literature studies, the practitioner considered that the university creative curriculum constrained with over-academic, and lack of the knowledge of competition in real world. The practitioners were looking for creative personnel who studied the skills of concept, technique and communication, as well as the competition, bureaucracy, politics and business reality in the advertising agency. The creative curriculum was expected to teach following disciplines: self-editing, adherence to strategy, exposing to awards annuals, partnership, presentation, agency politics…etc. After conducting a case study and several in-depth interviews, a design for creative curriculum was ready to form. The case study was experimented with students who took advertising copywriting program in university. And the in-depth interviews were from agency’s senior creative personnel who talked about their point-of-views on their knowledge and suggestion for university creative curricular. Research suggested that the creative curriculum to meet the practitioners’ perspective must include the following principles: learning the reality, capable of generating concepts, teaching cerebration, understanding the nature of business, presentation skill, portfolio, uses of practitioners’ experiences, learning from global advertisements, and team work. And based on those practitioners’ perspectives, along with the writer’s personal experience, an eight-lesson program for university advertising creative curriculum was designed: 1. To See an Ad. 2. Creative Brief. 3. Cunsumer Insight. 4. Advertising Concept. 5. Finding the Creative Concept. 6. Some Tools to Create an Ad. 7. Creative Executions. 8. How to Evaluate Creative.