Bakgrund: Hjärtsvikt är ett av Sveriges vanligaste kroniska tillstånd och medför begränsningar i patienternas vardag. Genom att utföra egenvård kan patienter vidta åtgärder som förebygger försämring av det kroniska tillståndet. Tidigare forskning visar att egenvård är avgörande för ett liv med välbefinnande trots kroniskt tillstånd, men att informationen mellan sjuksköterskor och patienter brister, vilket får konsekvenser för egenvården. Syfte: Att beskriva patienters erfarenheter av egenvård vid hjärtsvikt. Metod: En systematisk litteraturstudie med beskrivande syntes utifrån Evans av elva stycken kvalitativa artiklar. Resultat: Patienter erfor både möjligheter och hinder vid utförandet av sin egenvård. Kunskap, motivation och stöd från närstående samt hälso- och sjukvården gav patienterna möjligheter till att utföra god egenvård och skapade ett tema. Brist på förståelse och information, psykiska och emotionella barriärer, kostrestriktioner, fysiska begräsningar och rädslor samt ekonomiska begränsningar var hinder som medförde att patienter inte utförde egenvård, skapade ett tema. Slutsats: Kunskap om det kroniska tillståndet och stöd från omgivningen bidrar till ökat självförtroende hos patienterna, vilket medför förbättrad egenvård. Bristande information och förståelsen av informationen hindrar patienterna från att ta hand om sin hälsa och egenvården försämrades. Det framkommer att försämrad egenvård leder till försämrat tillstånd av hjärtsvikt, vilket kan medföra lidande hos patienterna samt en försämrad livskvalitet. / Background: Heart failure is one of the most common chronic conditions in Sweden and enatils the patients to live their life normal and fully. With self-care, patients can prevent the chronic conditions to get worse. It is shown in previous research that self-care is a fundamental factor for a life with wellness in defiance of their chronic conditions, but the advice, knowledge and information between nurses and patients often deficiencies which often cause patients to fail their self-care. Aim: The self-care experience for patients with heart diseases. Method: A systematic literature study with descriptive synthesis designed by Evans of 11 qualitative articles. Results: Patients experience both opportunities and difficulties in performing their self-care. The motivation, knowledge and support that the patient’s relatives and health care give results as opportunities to make a greater self-care recover. When there is lack of understanding and information, mental and emotional barriers, cost constraints, and physical as well as economic limitations, the patient induce to not take care of its health and therefore the self-care fail. Conclusion: Knowledge about the chronic conditions and support from relatives increases the patient’s self-confidence certain improvement in self-care. When there is lack of knowledge and understanding of the information, patients tend to act unhealthy and aggravate their disease. Decreased self-care tend to impaired state of heart failure, which may lead to a patient's disorder.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-22T20:50:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-02-27 / Objetivo: fazer uma revisão sistemática dos estudos que avaliam qualidade de vida (QV) em pessoas com transtornos alimentares (TA). Método: foram realizadas buscas bibliográficas em seis bases de dados (MEDLINE, EMBASE, LILACS, PSYCINFO, Cochrane Depression, Anxiety and Neurosis Group Database Trials e Cochrane Library) e buscas manuais em duas revistas (The International Journal of Eating Disorders e Quality of Life Research: An International Journal of Quality of Life Aspects of Treatment, Care and Rehabilitation), abrangendo o período de janeiro/1975 até junho/2008. Todos os estudos que avaliaram QV ou qualidade de vida relacionada à saúde (QVRS) nos TA através de instrumentos validados, genéricos ou específicos para transtornos alimentares, foram objeto desta revisão. Os estudos com amostras clínicas e revisões sistemáticas foram avaliados e classificados de acordo com as diretrizes do “NHMRC additional levels of evidence and grades for recommendations STAGE 2 CONSULTATION”. A avaliação de estudos com amostras populacionais foi baseada no guideline de avaliação de estudos de prevalência do Evidenced-Based Mental Health (EBMH). Estudos qualitativos foram avaliados de acordo com os critérios desenvolvidos pelo Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group para estudos qualitativos, e os estudos de validação de instrumentos de QV específicos para transtornos alimentares foram avaliados com base nos critérios desenvolvidos pela Scientific Advisory Committee of the Medical Outcomes Trust. Resultados: as estratégias de busca forneceram um total de 29.537 referências. A leitura dos títulos permitiu a exclusão da maior parte dos artigos, de tal forma que 2.758 resumos foram avaliados mais detalhadamente. Posteriormente, 173 artigos foram analisados, gerando a inclusão de 41 estudos nesta revisão. Discussão: de modo geral, os estudos revelam prejuízos na QV de pacientes com TA. A avaliação da QV em sujeitos com transtorno da compulsão alimentar periódica (TCAP) apresenta resultados mais concordantes. Há pouca evidência e discussão para sujeitos com bulimia nervosa (BN) e, em sujeitos com anorexia nervosa (AN), a avaliação requer cautela. A maior parte dos estudos utilizou instrumentos genéricos na avaliação da QV e quatro instrumentos de QV específicos para TA estão em fase de validação. Conclusões: embora existam crescente interesse e aumento nas pesquisas sobre QV e TA, os resultados desta revisão apontam predominância de estudos de corte transversal, estudos com amostras pequenas, estudos populacionais sem controle de variáveis confundidoras e poucos estudos de validação de instrumentos específicos, o que limita a generalização dos resultados encontrados. Assim sendo, novas pesquisas que levem em conta os aspectos citados são necessárias para melhor delineamento do problema e de sua forma de avaliação. / Purpose: To conduct a systematic review evaluating eating disorders (ED) quality of life studies. Methods: Bibliographic searches were made on six eletronic databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, LILACS, PSYCINFO, Cochrane Depression, Anxiety and Neurosis Group Database Trials, e Cochrane Library), and manual searches were performed on two journals (The International Journal of Eating Disorders, and Quality of Life Research: An International Journal of Quality of Life Aspects of Treatment, Care and Rehabilitation), concerning to the period of january/1975 to june/2008. All eating disorders quality of life studies assessed through validated measures, generic or specific to ED, were included in this review. Studies with clinical samples and systematic reviews were evaluated and classified based on “NHMRC additional levels of evidence and grades for recommendations STAGE 2 CONSULTATION” criteria. Studies with populational samples were evaluated based on Evidenced-Based Mental Health (EBMH) prevalence guideline. Qualitative studies were evaluated based on Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group criteria for qualitative research, and studies validating specific quality of life measures for ED patients were evaluated based on Scientific Advisory Committee of the Medical Outcomes Trust criteria. Results: A total of 29.537 articles were identified. Most of them were excluded by title and 2.758 abstracts were read more carefully. Next, 173 articles were analyzed, providing the inclusion of 41 articles in this review. Discussion: Overall, the studies demonstrate impairment on eating disorders patients quality of life. The evaluation of binge eating disorder (BED) subjects revealed concordance between the results. Little evidence and discussion were observed to bulimia nervosa (BN) subjects, and the evaluation of anorexia nervosa (AN) subjects request caution. Most studies used a generic instrument to evaluate quality of life in this population and four specific eating disorders quality of life instrument were developed, being at validation phase. Conclusion: In spite of a growing interest on the theme and increasing number of research on eating disorders quality of life, the results of this review denote a preponderance of crosssectional studies, small samples sizes, populational studies with no control of confounding variables and few studies about validation of specific eating disorders quality of life instruments, which limits the generalization of the findings. Therefore, researches considering these aspects are necessary to allow a better drawing of the problem and its evaluation. / TEDE / BV UNIFESP: Teses e dissertações

A utilização de uma gestão de portfólio de projetos permite que as empresas possam se adaptar rapidamente frente as turbulências advindas do ambiente interno e externo e com isso, possam rearranjar os projetos para que estes estejam alinhados com estratégia da organização. Entretanto, o modelo tradicional de gerenciamento de portfólio possui procedimentos que não seguem necessariamente essa característica de agilidade e adaptação. Na maioria das vezes os procedimentos são pouco visíveis, extensos e poucas vezes são interativos ou divulgados por todos os níveis hierárquicos das organizações. Dessa maneira o propósito deste trabalho é a aplicação de práticas, métodos e ferramentas ágeis na gestão de portfólio de projetos. Para isto, foi realizada uma revisão sistemática da literatura, a análise crítica do modelo tradicional por 7 especialistas da área e desenvolvimento de um modelo com base na análise das respostas das entrevistas por três especialistas sendo 2 da área acadêmica e 1 profissional da área. Os principais resultados revelam, que a existe uma escassez de trabalhos referentes a utilização de ferramentas ágeis em gestão de portfólio de projetos e na percepção dos entrevistados, a aplicação de práticas, métodos e ferramentas ágeis atende o quesito de gestão visual, melhor interação entre as equipes de trabalho, democratização da informação relativa à tomada de decisão e ferramentas alinhadas com a proposição ágil. / The use of project portfolio management allows companies to adapt quickly to the turbulence arising from the internal and external environment and with that, can rearrange the projects so that they are aligned with the organization's strategy. However, the traditional portfolio management model has procedures that do not necessarily follow this characteristic of agility and adaptation. Most of the time the procedures are barely visible, extensive and are rarely interactive or disseminated by all hierarchical levels of organizations. In this way, the purpose of this work is the incorporation of agile practices, methods and tools in project portfolio management. For this, a systematic review of the literature, the critical analysis of the traditional model by 7 specialists of the area and the development of a model based on the analysis of the answers of the interviews by three specialists were carried out, being 2 of the academic area and 1 professional of the area. The main results show that there is a shortage of work related to the use of agile tools in project portfolio management and the perception of the interviewees, the incorporation of agile practices, methods and tools attends to the question of visual management, better interaction between work teams, democratization of decision-making information and tools aligned with the agile proposition.

Submitted by Regina Correa (rehecorrea@gmail.com) on 2016-09-19T19:48:16Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DissFHOC.pdf: 4797220 bytes, checksum: b0135398de121773d22185e9ed8dce59 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marina Freitas (marinapf@ufscar.br) on 2016-09-21T12:30:21Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissFHOC.pdf: 4797220 bytes, checksum: b0135398de121773d22185e9ed8dce59 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marina Freitas (marinapf@ufscar.br) on 2016-09-21T12:30:28Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissFHOC.pdf: 4797220 bytes, checksum: b0135398de121773d22185e9ed8dce59 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-21T12:30:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissFHOC.pdf: 4797220 bytes, checksum: b0135398de121773d22185e9ed8dce59 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-26 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Nowadays supply chains have grown in size and complexity. In this environment, unforeseen events (ruptures) in the flow of goods, services or information can occur unexpectedly, having increasingly significant impacts on companies. Resilience is defined as the ability to prepare, adapt and react to ruptures, thus maintaining operations connected and having control over the structure and functions. Considering this, the activities carried out by inbound logistics may influence creating resilience in the supply chain, mainly by including the flow of materials and supplying the company, which are activities directly affected during the ruptures. However, little is known about how the inbound logistics contribute to creating resilience. Taking this into account, the aim of this study is to identify which resilience enablers there are and how inbound logistics use them to create supply chain resilience. A systematic literature review of resilience and inbound logistics, followed by content analysis defined what the activities of inbound logistics are, which resilience enablers there are in the supply chain and also defined how the activities make use of the enablers. In the next step of the research, a multiple case study of 2 Brazilian dairies was performed. Interviews were transcribed and content analysis was conducted using the QDA Miner software. Case-by-case and cross-case analyses were carried out, observing how different types of rupture can influence the enablers used. Thus, the resilience enablers present in cases were highlighted, and the activities that use them were defined, localized facilitators were, reacting speed, collaboration, communication, supply chain structure, flexibility, risk management, product innovation, contingency planning, redundancy, company's financial health, security technology, cross-functional groups, knowledge management, visibility and supplier quality. Knowledge about the relationship between them enables the companies studied to manage their resources more profitably and extend these practices to their suppliers. It should also be mentioned that the companies studied operate with low inventory levels, therefore other companies in the same situation can use the knowledge gained from this research to administer facilitators in order to recover from ruptures. / Nos dias atuais, as cadeias de suprimento têm crescido em tamanho e complexidade. Nesse ambiente, eventos inesperados (rupturas) no fluxo de bens, nos serviços ou nas informações podem ocorrer de forma repentina, tendo impactos cada vez mais significativos às empresas. A resiliência é definida como a capacidade de preparação, adaptação e reação a rupturas, mantendo assim as operações conectadas e o controle sobre a estrutura e as funções. Nesse sentido, as atividades realizadas pela logística inbound podem influenciar a geração de resiliência na cadeia de suprimentos, principalmente por englobarem o fluxo de materiais e o abastecimento da empresa, atividades diretamente afetadas durante as rupturas. Entretanto, pouco se sabe a respeito de como a logística inbound contribui com a geração de resiliência. Nesse sentido, o objetivo deste trabalho é identificar quais são os facilitadores à resiliência e como a Logística inbound utiliza-os para a criação de resiliência na cadeia de suprimentos. Uma revisão sistemática da literatura a respeito de resiliência e de logística inbound, seguida de uma análise de conteúdo, definiu as atividades da logística inbound, os facilitadores à resiliência na cadeia de suprimentos e as atividades que fazem uso dos facilitadores. Em uma etapa seguinte do trabalho, realizou-se, um estudo multicaso considerando dois laticínios brasileiros. Para isso, foram realizadas entrevistas que posteriormente foram transcritas e submetidas a uma análise de conteúdo com auxílio do software QDA miner e foram feitas análises caso a caso e intercasos, observando como os diferentes tipos de rupturas podem influenciar os facilitadores utilizados. Desse modo, os facilitadores à resiliência presentes nos casos foram destacados, bem como definiram-se as atividades que os utilizam, os facilitadores localizados foram agilidade de reação às rupturas, colaboração, comunicação, estrutura da cadeia de suprimentos, flexibilidade, gestão de riscos, inovação do produto, plano de contingência, redundância, saúde financeira da empresa, tecnologia de segurança, grupos interfuncionais, gestão do conhecimento, visibilidade e qualidade do fornecedor. O conhecimento de como as atividades da logística inbound utilizam os facilitadores, possibilita que as empresas estudadas gerenciem seus recursos de forma mais profícua e estendam essas práticas a seus fornecedores. Destaca-se ainda que as empresas estudadas operam com níveis de estoque baixos, portanto outras empresas com a mesma condição podem utilizar-se dos conhecimentos aqui desenvolvidos para administrar os facilitadores, de forma a se recuperar das rupturas.

A utilização de uma gestão de portfólio de projetos permite que as empresas possam se adaptar rapidamente frente as turbulências advindas do ambiente interno e externo e com isso, possam rearranjar os projetos para que estes estejam alinhados com estratégia da organização. Entretanto, o modelo tradicional de gerenciamento de portfólio possui procedimentos que não seguem necessariamente essa característica de agilidade e adaptação. Na maioria das vezes os procedimentos são pouco visíveis, extensos e poucas vezes são interativos ou divulgados por todos os níveis hierárquicos das organizações. Dessa maneira o propósito deste trabalho é a aplicação de práticas, métodos e ferramentas ágeis na gestão de portfólio de projetos. Para isto, foi realizada uma revisão sistemática da literatura, a análise crítica do modelo tradicional por 7 especialistas da área e desenvolvimento de um modelo com base na análise das respostas das entrevistas por três especialistas sendo 2 da área acadêmica e 1 profissional da área. Os principais resultados revelam, que a existe uma escassez de trabalhos referentes a utilização de ferramentas ágeis em gestão de portfólio de projetos e na percepção dos entrevistados, a aplicação de práticas, métodos e ferramentas ágeis atende o quesito de gestão visual, melhor interação entre as equipes de trabalho, democratização da informação relativa à tomada de decisão e ferramentas alinhadas com a proposição ágil. / The use of project portfolio management allows companies to adapt quickly to the turbulence arising from the internal and external environment and with that, can rearrange the projects so that they are aligned with the organization's strategy. However, the traditional portfolio management model has procedures that do not necessarily follow this characteristic of agility and adaptation. Most of the time the procedures are barely visible, extensive and are rarely interactive or disseminated by all hierarchical levels of organizations. In this way, the purpose of this work is the incorporation of agile practices, methods and tools in project portfolio management. For this, a systematic review of the literature, the critical analysis of the traditional model by 7 specialists of the area and the development of a model based on the analysis of the answers of the interviews by three specialists were carried out, being 2 of the academic area and 1 professional of the area. The main results show that there is a shortage of work related to the use of agile tools in project portfolio management and the perception of the interviewees, the incorporation of agile practices, methods and tools attends to the question of visual management, better interaction between work teams, democratization of decision-making information and tools aligned with the agile proposition.

Context: Global software development is the emerging trend in today’s world as it provides the software companies with certain advantages like access to skill and cheap labor, low development cost etc. There are also many challenges and risks involved in globally distributed software project as compare to co-located projects like communication, coordination and control etc. due to geographical separation. There is also a recent interest in applying agile methods in offshore projects in order to minimize certain offshore challenges. Agile methods in collocated environment demands high communication, coordination and collaboration between the team members. However implementing agile methods in distributed environment is beneficial and challenging too, because of inherited GSD challenges. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully understand the benefits and challenges of applying agile methods in distributed project before actually initiating the development. Objectives: This research study aims to look at current empirical evidence regarding benefits and challenges of applying agile methods in offshore projects, in order to understand it properly. Furthermore, we have examined that which of the benefits and challenges reported in literature can be seen in practice. This helped us in finding out the similarities and differences between the benefits and challenges that are reported in literature and in practice. Methods: To fulfill our aims and objectives we have first conducted the detailed systematic review analysis of the empirical studies from year 2000-2010. The systematic review approach helped us to collect and summarize the empirical data available regarding the benefits and challenges of applying agile methods in offshore projects. The research studies were identified from the most authentic databases that are scientifically and technically peer reviewed such as Inspec and Compendex, IEEE Xplore, ACM digital library, Springer Link, Science Direct, Google Scholar, Scopus, ISI Web of Knowledge and Willey Inter Science Journal Finder. Furthermore, industrial survey was conducted in order to identify whether the benefits and challenges enlisted in literature can be confirmed by practitioners. This helped us in determining the similarities and differences between benefits and challenges that are reported in empirical literature and industrial survey. Results: From systematic review results, we have found the list of benefits and challenges of most applied agile practices such as daily scrum meetings, sprint planning meetings, sprint review meetings, retrospective meetings, pair programming, short release and on-site customer. The most common benefits related to above identified agile practices are early problem identification, project visibility, increase communication, coordination and collaboration, trust, clarification of work and requirements, early client feedback and customer satisfaction. Similarly the most common challenges associated with above identified agile practices are lack of linguistic skills, culture differences and temporal differences. From survey result, it was found that the majority of benefits and challenges identified through literature review are prevalent in software industries to some extent. We were able to identify the benefits and challenges of agile practices such as daily scrum, sprint planning meetings, sprint review, retrospective meetings and short release. The most common benefits of above identified agile practices highlighted by survey participants are project visibility, early problem identification, increase coordination, opportunity for knowledge sharing and transferring, immediate feedback from client, and opportunity for understanding the task properly. Similarly the most common challenges identified by survey participants are language problems, temporal difference and difficult to explain and understand problems or issues over communication technologies. However, there are certain challenges like trust and culture issues, which have received most attention in the empirical literature, but are not identified by majority of industry respondents. Conclusions: From the information attained so far regarding the benefits and challenges of agile methods in offshore projects, we observed that there is an emerging trend of using agile methods in offshore projects and practitioners actually found it beneficial. The benefits of agile practices does not achieve straightaway there are certain challenging factors of GSD too, which can restrict the implementation or make the methodology not useful such as communication, coordination and collaboration. These challenges are usually occurred due to geographical separation, lack of trust and linguistic skills, culture difference etc. The presented work add contribution in a sense as to the best of our knowledge no systematic review effort has been done in this area with specifically focuses on highlighting the benefits and challenges. From survey results we found that majority of benefits and challenges highlighted by survey participants are to some extent same with what we have already studied in literature. However there are certain important challenges which have received most attention in empirical literature but were less identified by the survey participants like trust issue and culture difference. The benefits and challenges identified through industrial survey do not add much information into our attention. This does not mean that all possible benefits and challenges of applying agile methods in offshore project have been explored. The responses which were received from industry practitioners were quite few to make any kind of arguments. There is a probability that we missed the important benefits and challenges related to particular agile practices during our industrial survey. Therefore we conclude that a much thorough and inclusive answers should be required to identify the benefits and challenges of applying agile methods in offshore projects.

Context. Global Software Development (GSD) or Global Software Engineering (GSE) is defined as the plan of action in which the software development is performed under various boundaries, such as temporal, political, organizational and cultural [1,2] . The projects developed in globally distributed environment are containing more risks than projects developed in collocated environment because of different challenges such as temporal, geographical and socio-cultural distances [67]. In this thesis communication risks have been discussed along with their causes and effects that hinder the effectiveness of GSD projects. Moreover mitigation practices to resolve communication risks and their negative impacts are also discussed. Objectives. The study describes the identification of communication risks, their causes, effects and the practices to mitigate the risks from both literature and industrial perspectives. Some recommendations has also been discussed on the basis of these resulted communication risks and their mitigation practices. Methods. Detailed systematic literature review in order to collect the data from relevant empirical studies with respect to our scope has been conducted in the first phase. Studies were selected from various Electronic Data Sources (EDS) such as IEEE Xplore (IEEE), ACM Digital Library (ACM), Inspec (IS), Compendex (CD), ISI Web of Science (WoS), Cite Seer (CS), Google Scholar (GS), Science Direct (SD), Springer Link (SL), Wiley Inter Science (WIS), and Business Source Premier (BSP). In second phase 22 industrial interviews were conducted from 13 different multinational organizations. In third phase data analysis has been made based on the analysis of ground theory. On the basis of the codes of grounded theory, comparative analysis has been performed between literature and industrial settings. At the end of the thesis some recommendations has been provided in order to resolve communication risks in GSD. Results. As a result of systematic literature review 44 risks, 44 causes, 38 effects and 63 practices have been identified in GSD with respect to communication. 27 risks, 22 causes, 19 effects and 39 mitigation practices were identified from the industrial interviews. These risks, causes, effects and practices are not only described in this thesis but also mapped in relation to each other. At the end in comparative analysis the combined risks, causes, effects and practices were identified in tabular form. In total 47 risks, 45 causes, 39 effects and 65 mitigation practices were identified through this work. Conclusions. Communication plays a fundamental role in achieving the best practices in Global Software Engineering. This study points out the salient risks and limitations that hamper the process of smooth communication in geographically dispersed teams. The causes and effects of the mentioned risks are discussed in detail and a set of recommendations is provided to cope with those risks and to minimize their effect. The resultant set of recommendations is based on the best suitable practices which shall be followed by globally distributed organizations to achieve a fully communicated environment just like an in-house development setting. / 0046760622684

Context: The problem this thesis address is concerned with experimental software engineering and is associated with validity of the studies with students as subjects. Often in software engineering experiments students are used because students are easily available and are willing to participate in experiment studies, professionals are rarely available to participate in research study and there are several benefits of using students as research subject.The validity of experiments studied with students are questioned because students are less experienced and skilled compared to professionals. Objectives: The goal of this research is to find evidence whether or not the research studies with students as subjects can be trusted to get valid results. Identify factors that influence the results of experiment studies with students. Identify the ways to improve the validity of experiment studies with students. Methods: In this systematic literature review a number of article sources are used, including Compendex, Inspec, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, and Springer Link. Experiment studies in software engineering are selected after reading titles and abstracts to decide whether the articles are relevant to the subject. Snowball sampling is done to identify several experiment studies that address same research problems. Results: It is found that graduate students serve as good proxies to study professional practices compared to undergraduate students, because there are significant differences between result/findings of studies with undergraduate students as subjects and studies with professionals as subjects. The following factors influencing the results of experiment studies are identified: Number of subjects, Task related knowledge, Motivation levels of subjects, Training provided, Task related experience and Incentives or grades given for participation in the experiment. This study also identifies some problems with the way of conducting and reporting experiments in software engineering. Addressing these problems could improve the validity of experiment studies with students. Conclusion: The results indicate that students can be used to study professional practices but they cannot be said true for all areas and problems of software engineering because the results of experiment studies with different type of subjects in different area and problems are varying. Which means that whether or not students could be used to study a professional practice depends upon the research problems being studied, type of students subjects chosen for the study, difference between students chosen and professionals to whom the results/findings will be generalized. We conclude that graduate students serve as good proxies to study professional practices compared to undergraduate students. The cumulative experience or overall industry or academic experience of subjects does not seem to be affecting the result/findings of experiment studies unless the overall experience includes task related experience. Even though the study identified above mentioned factors that influences the results/findings of experiment studies there still might be few factors which the study might have failed to identify due lack of data. We suggested improvements for reporting that could improve the comparability of studies. / Often in software engineering experiments students are used because students are easily available and are willing to participate in experiment studies, where as professionals are rarely available to participate in research study. This thesis investigates whether it is ok to use students as experiments subjects while studying professional practices. Thesis also investigates the factors which influences the results of experiment studies with students. The derived knowledge from the thesis can assists researchers improve the way of conducting and reporting software engineering experiments, It also aids in improving the comparability of experiment studies.

Context: Software engineering researchers are guided by research principles to conduct any type of research. Though, there are many guidelines to detail how a particular research method can be applied, there is always a necessity to continue and to improve the existing empirical research strategies. The context of this thesis is to address guidelines for conducting controlled experiments in Global Software Engineering (GSE). With this thesis, the state-of-the-art of conducting experiments in GSE research has been explored. Objectives: The goal of this thesis is to analyze the existing experiments in GSE research. Research problems addressed with GSE experiments and the state-of-the-art of overall GSE experiment design need to be analyzed. Appropriate guidelines should be drawn in order to provide strategies to future GSE researchers in mitigating or solving GSE specific experimentation challenges. Methods: A systematic literature review (SLR) is conducted to review all the GSE experiments that are found in the literature. The search process was done on 6 databases. A specific search and quality assessment criterion is used to select these GSE experiments. Furthermore, scientific interviews are conducted with GSE research experts to evaluate a set of guidelines (thesis author’s recommendations) that address the challenges when conducting GSE experiments. Thematic analysis has been performed to analyze the evaluation results and to further improve or implement any suggestions given by the interviewees. Conclusions: The results obtained from the SLR have provided a chance to understand the state-of-the-art and to analyze the challenges or problems when conducting controlled experiments in GSE. The challenges that are identified in GSE controlled experiments are found to be with experiment study-setting, involving subjects and addressing GSE relevant threats to validity in a GSE experiments. 9 guidelines are framed, with each guideline addressing a specific challenge. The final guidelines (that resulted after interviews) provide effective recommendations to GSE researchers when conducting controlled experiments. / +919441308167

Global Software Development (GSD) is an emerging trend in today's software world in which teams are geographically dispersed, either in close proximity or globally. GSD provides certain advantages to development companies like low development cost, access to cheap and skilled labour etc. This type of development is noted as a more risky and challenging as compared to projects developed with teams under same roof. Inherently the nature of GSD projects are cooperative in which many software developers work on a common project, share information and coordinate activities. Coordination is a fundamental part of software development. GSD comprises different types of development systems i.e. insourcing, outsourcing, nearshoring, or farshoring, whatever the types of development systems selected by a company there exist the challenges to coordination. Therefore the knowledge of potential challenges, associated threats to coordination and practices to mitigate them plays a vital role for running a successful global project.