In contemporary software development, an emergent understanding of the problem domain and envisioned goals forms the basis of designing, testing and development activities. Lack of a common understanding of the domain can result in costly rework or client dissatisfaction. Research shows that the development of shared understanding in this context is a complex and error-prone process and there is room for improvement. Is this because practitioners are not following suggested practice from literature? Or are the actual barriers to shared understanding not being addressed by current tools and techniques? Is the development of shared domain understanding even viewed as problematic (or even important) by practitioners? These are some questions that need to be investigated in order to effectively design process improvements and tool support in this area, yet there is little information related to this. This study takes a multi-case study approach, which incorporate semi-structured interviews with representative from ten small-to-medium organisations. This study focuses on the vendor’s perspective and includes a mix of application domains. Result of the interviews is analysed to discover themes and patterns related to an analysis framework constructed from the literature review. The findings indicate that vendors perceive the process of developing shared application-domain understanding with their clients as being both problematic and important to a successful implementation. Twelve barriers have been identified from the analysis. The results also confirm that the process of sharing understanding development is generally perceived as being evolutionary and collaborative. This process is described by most interviewees comprises iterative phases of elicitation, confirmation and refinement of the understanding. A definite preference for face-to-face interaction is evident at regular times throughout development, particularly in early stages, although the importance of ad-hoc communications by phone or email, as domain knowledge needs arise, is also emphasised. Access to cooperative domain-expert throughout development is generally seen as a critical success factor. Several companies report using in-house domain-expert as client “proxies” in this regard. There is a mix of attitudes apparent regarding the direct communications of developers with client stakeholders. This ranged from insisting that developers are involved from initial elicitation and “kick-off” meetings, to “shielding” developers almost entirely from client. In terms of representations of understanding, participants relate natural-language, screen-shots, mock-ups, prototypes and product-demonstrations as the most useful artefacts for sharing and confirming understanding of the problem domain. They emphasise the importance of flexibility and client familiarity with the representations. In general, there is no clear separation between problem and solution spaces evident when the interviewees discussed representations of understanding, and the preference seems to be for concrete rather than abstract representations. In conclusion, comparisons between the findings and literature generally confirm contemporary thinking regarding domain knowledge sharing, although a number of barriers were given particular emphasis in this field study. The use of computer-based tool support is not widespread and the need to improve the domain knowledge sharing process and tool support in practice is widely acknowledged by the participants in this investigation. This study has identified some fruitful areas of research in this regard.

In contemporary software development, an emergent understanding of the problem domain and envisioned goals forms the basis of designing, testing and development activities. Lack of a common understanding of the domain can result in costly rework or client dissatisfaction. Research shows that the development of shared understanding in this context is a complex and error-prone process and there is room for improvement. Is this because practitioners are not following suggested practice from literature? Or are the actual barriers to shared understanding not being addressed by current tools and techniques? Is the development of shared domain understanding even viewed as problematic (or even important) by practitioners? These are some questions that need to be investigated in order to effectively design process improvements and tool support in this area, yet there is little information related to this. This study takes a multi-case study approach, which incorporate semi-structured interviews with representative from ten small-to-medium organisations. This study focuses on the vendor’s perspective and includes a mix of application domains. Result of the interviews is analysed to discover themes and patterns related to an analysis framework constructed from the literature review. The findings indicate that vendors perceive the process of developing shared application-domain understanding with their clients as being both problematic and important to a successful implementation. Twelve barriers have been identified from the analysis. The results also confirm that the process of sharing understanding development is generally perceived as being evolutionary and collaborative. This process is described by most interviewees comprises iterative phases of elicitation, confirmation and refinement of the understanding. A definite preference for face-to-face interaction is evident at regular times throughout development, particularly in early stages, although the importance of ad-hoc communications by phone or email, as domain knowledge needs arise, is also emphasised. Access to cooperative domain-expert throughout development is generally seen as a critical success factor. Several companies report using in-house domain-expert as client “proxies” in this regard. There is a mix of attitudes apparent regarding the direct communications of developers with client stakeholders. This ranged from insisting that developers are involved from initial elicitation and “kick-off” meetings, to “shielding” developers almost entirely from client. In terms of representations of understanding, participants relate natural-language, screen-shots, mock-ups, prototypes and product-demonstrations as the most useful artefacts for sharing and confirming understanding of the problem domain. They emphasise the importance of flexibility and client familiarity with the representations. In general, there is no clear separation between problem and solution spaces evident when the interviewees discussed representations of understanding, and the preference seems to be for concrete rather than abstract representations. In conclusion, comparisons between the findings and literature generally confirm contemporary thinking regarding domain knowledge sharing, although a number of barriers were given particular emphasis in this field study. The use of computer-based tool support is not widespread and the need to improve the domain knowledge sharing process and tool support in practice is widely acknowledged by the participants in this investigation. This study has identified some fruitful areas of research in this regard.

The Philippines is a country with a lot to offer within the tourism sector. With its 7107 islands, it offers diversity in culture and a wide range of tourism destinations. However, tourism development in the Philippines has not been as successful as its neighbouring countries. In order to develop the country as an attractive destination, collaboration is needed. The cooperation of different stakeholders as well as the importance of trust and reciprocity is vital for an effective collaboration. Destination development within the tourism industry is seen as a collaboration or cooperation between different stakeholders who in part have something to gain in joining the collaboration. The relationship among the stakeholders may be based on previous interactions. In addition, concerning their respective involvement within the collaboration, theories argue that stakeholders do not necessarily exercise equal participation. With the use of the WOW Philippines campaign as an example of collaboration involving several stakeholders, the theories within collaboration shall be examined. At the same time, the theories will aid in researching the factors that may or may not be responsible for the advancements of thecampaign. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the different theories within collaboration with the WOW Philippines campaign as an example of a collaborative endeavour. This thesis is addressed to students within the discipline of tourism development for future studies. The researcher has utilized the hypothetico-deductive method which entails the examination of three theories within collaboration. Three hypotheses formulated from these theories will be either confirmed or dismissed in the end of the study. With the help of the hypotheses, the researcher has concluded that aspects of trust and reciprocity within collaboration are vital in its success. Although in this case, it refers to a country’s perception of trust and reciprocity. The problem domain i.e. destination development aiming on increasing inbound tourism cannot be said to be the main reason for the achievements of the campaign. It is a contributing factor, as well as, the involvement of the stakeholders. The theories are acceptable in different levels with regard to the WOW Philippines campaign i.e. they cannot be either taken as individual reasons for its advancements or proclaimed as false. These theories are intertwined which means their relevance to each other is important in the case of tourism development in the Philippines.

<p>The Philippines is a country with a lot to offer within the tourism sector. With its 7107 islands, it offers diversity in culture and a wide range of tourism destinations. However, tourism development in the Philippines has not been as successful as its neighbouring countries. In order to develop the country as an attractive destination, collaboration is needed. The cooperation of different stakeholders as well as the importance of trust and reciprocity is vital for an effective collaboration.</p><p>Destination development within the tourism industry is seen as a collaboration or cooperation between different stakeholders who in part have something to gain in joining the collaboration. The relationship among the stakeholders may be based on previous interactions. In addition, concerning their respective involvement within the collaboration, theories argue that stakeholders do not necessarily exercise equal participation. With the use of the WOW Philippines campaign as an example of collaboration involving several stakeholders, the theories within collaboration shall be examined. At the same time, the theories will aid in researching the factors that may or may not be responsible for the advancements of thecampaign.</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the different theories within collaboration with the WOW Philippines campaign as an example of a collaborative endeavour. This thesis is addressed to students within the discipline of tourism development for future studies.</p><p>The researcher has utilized the hypothetico-deductive method which entails the examination of three theories within collaboration. Three hypotheses formulated from these theories will be either confirmed or dismissed in the end of the study.</p><p>With the help of the hypotheses, the researcher has concluded that aspects of trust and reciprocity within collaboration are vital in its success. Although in this case, it refers to a country’s perception of trust and reciprocity. The problem domain i.e. destination development aiming on increasing inbound tourism cannot be said to be the main reason for the achievements of the campaign. It is a contributing factor, as well as, the involvement of the stakeholders. The theories are acceptable in different levels with regard to the WOW Philippines campaign i.e. they cannot be either taken as individual reasons for its advancements or proclaimed as false. These theories are intertwined which means their relevance to each other is important in the case of tourism development in the Philippines.<strong><em></em></strong></p>

A hybrid method that addresses the design and optimization of long-span steel trusses is presented. By utilizing advancements in present day computing and biologically inspired analysis and design, an effort has been made to automate the process of evolving optimal trusses in an unstructured problem domain. Topology, geometry and sizing optimization of trusses are simultaneously addressed using a three stage methodology. Multi-objective genetic algorithms are used to optimize the member section sizes of truss topologies and geometries. Converting constraints into additional objectives provides a robust algorithm that results in improved convergence to the pareto-optimal set of solutions. In addition, the pareto-curve plotted based on how well the different objectives are satisfied helps in identifying the trade-offs that exist between these objectives, while also providing an efficient way to rank the population of solutions during the search process. A comparison study between multi-objective genetic algorithms, simulated annealing, and reactive taboo search is conducted to evaluate the efficiency of each method with relation to its overall performance, computational expense, sensitivity to initial parameter settings, and repeatability of finding near-global optimal designs. The benefit of using a three stage approach, and also implementing the entire model on parallel computers, is the high level of computational efficiency that is obtained for the entire process and the near-optimal solutions obtained. The overall efficiency and effectiveness of this method has been established by comparing the truss design results obtained using this method on bridge and roof truss benchmark problems with truss designs obtained by other researchers. One of the salient features of thisresearch is the large number of optimal trusses that are produced as the final result. The range of designs available provides the user with the flexibility to select the truss design that best matches their design requirements. By supporting human-computer interactions between these stages, the program also incorporates subjective aesthetic criteria, which assist in producing final designs in consonance with the user's requirements.

A hybrid method that addresses the design and optimization of long-span steel trusses is presented. By utilizing advancements in present day computing and biologically inspired analysis and design, an effort has been made to automate the process of evolving optimal trusses in an unstructured problem domain. Topology, geometry and sizing optimization of trusses are simultaneously addressed using a three stage methodology. Multi-objective genetic algorithms are used to optimize the member section sizes of truss topologies and geometries. Converting constraints into additional objectives provides a robust algorithm that results in improved convergence to the pareto-optimal set of solutions. In addition, the pareto-curve plotted based on how well the different objectives are satisfied helps in identifying the trade-offs that exist between these objectives, while also providing an efficient way to rank the population of solutions during the search process. A comparison study between multi-objective genetic algorithms, simulated annealing, and reactive taboo search is conducted to evaluate the efficiency of each method with relation to its overall performance, computational expense, sensitivity to initial parameter settings, and repeatability of finding near-global optimal designs. The benefit of using a three stage approach, and also implementing the entire model on parallel computers, is the high level of computational efficiency that is obtained for the entire process and the near-optimal solutions obtained. The overall efficiency and effectiveness of this method has been established by comparing the truss design results obtained using this method on bridge and roof truss benchmark problems with truss designs obtained by other researchers. One of the salient features of thisresearch is the large number of optimal trusses that are produced as the final result. The range of designs available provides the user with the flexibility to select the truss design that best matches their design requirements. By supporting human-computer interactions between these stages, the program also incorporates subjective aesthetic criteria, which assist in producing final designs in consonance with the user's requirements.

The thesis deals with a problem of the design of information system. The design of system is provided with Rational Unifeid Process methodology. This thesis creates a list of requests to system. It makes an analysis and a design of current information system. It useses a RUP methodology to realize two first phases, inception phase and elaboration phase. Created elaboration phase of document is a base for creating programming prototype in Ruby on Rails environment using Ruby language with combination of HTML code.