Software acquisition: a business strategy analysis

The paper argues that there are new insights to be gained from a strategic analysis of requirements engineering. The paper is motivated by a simple question: what does it take to be a world class software acquirer? The question has relevance for requirements engineers because for many organisations market pressures mean that software is commonly acquired rather than developed from scratch. The paper builds on the work of C. H. Fine (1998) who suggests that product, process and supply chain should be designed together, i.e., 3D concurrent engineering. Using a number of reference theories, it proposes a systematic way of carrying out 3D concurrent engineering. The paper concludes that the critical activity in supply chain design is the design of the distribution of skills and the nature of contract

A Quality-Aware Approach to Web Services Procurement

Web services bring programmers a new way to develop advanced applications able to integrate any group of services on the Internet into a single solution. Web services procurement (WSP) is focussed on the acquisition of web services, including some complex tasks such as the specification of demands, the search for available offers, and the best choice selection. Although the technology to support them already exists, there are only a few approaches wherein qualityof- service in demands and offers is taken into account, in addition to functionality. In this paper, we present some implementation issues on a quality-aware approach to WSP, whose solution is mainly based on using mathematical constraints to define quality-of-service in demands and offers.Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología TIC2000-1106-C02-01Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología FIT-150100-2001-78Junta de Comunidades de Castilla La Mancha PCB-02-00

Automating the Procurement of Web Services

As government agencies and business become more dependent on web services, software solutions to automate their procurement gain importance. Current approaches for automating the procurement of web services suffer from an important drawback: neither uncertainty measures nor non-linear, and complex relations among parameters can be used by providers to specify quality-ofservice in offers. In this paper, we look deeply into the roots of this drawback and present a proposal which overcomes it. The key point to achieve this improvement has been using the constraint programming as a formal basis, since it endows the model with a very powerful expressiveness. A XML-based implementation is presented along with some experimental results and comparisons with other approaches.Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología TIC 2000–1106–C02–01Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología TIC2003-02737-C02-01Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología FIT-150100-2001-7

The use of graph theory in modelling thematic structure in the content of documents

In this thesis a graph theoretic model of thematic structure in the content of written documents has been examined. The graph model is derived from the documents using a form of Content Analysis to define the major themes contained in the documents and a relation between those themes. The themes are identified with the vertices of a graph and the relation defines the edges. The resulting graphs can be studied in terms of their invariants to provide quantitative measures of thematic structure. These measures are used to describe and compare the structure of ideas in groups of documents. The model has been tested empirically using a substantial body of documents of the Scottish National Party over forty years and a smaller number of Scottish Conservative Party documents. In this analysis the model proved to be direct and substantively plausible. It was found to be immediately useful in generating a new kind of structural hypothesis and in forcing clarification of concepts such as 'centrality' and ’complexity'. Individual measures, such as eccentricity were sensitive, others, such as rank degree, more robust. The usefulness of the measures was limited by a lack of substantive theory. The assignment of undated documents was attempted. Longer documents could be accurately placed in the correct period, shorter ones were difficult to assign. Extensions to the model towards a multi-level, full relational structure have been investigated. These would not be practicable without further computerisation. An outline architecture for a computerised model has been proposed. The theoretical implications of a structural model for a system of ideas has been examined and the relation of this work to similar work on manifest idea-systems in cognate disciplines has been noted. The model is likely to be most useful in the empirical study of such systems

Evaluation in software engineering: ROI, but more than ROI

This paper presents a short survey and analysis of a variety of evaluation methods, which are potentially useful for strategic software design. The methods described address a broad range of concepts of value. The paper complements previous economics driven software engineering research work on standard accounting techniques. A summary account of the underlying principles of each method is given, the methods are classified according to these principles and a way of choosing an appropriate method described

Exploiting software supply chain business architecture: a research agenda

This paper addresses economic and management issues in software engineering. It outlines a research agenda aimed at improving the economic return on software investments, based on a better understanding of the relationships between the costs, benefits and risks associated with system requirements and the way in which the software is designed, developed, acquired and delivered

PEArL: a systems approach to demonstrating authenticity in information systems design

The process of information systems (IS) design has been dominated by the demands inherent in providing a technical solution to a perceived problem or need. Engineering IS design methods applied in order to satisfy the problem situation tend to have a preoccupation with verifying specifications as being mathematically correct. Diffculties arise when the ideas underpinning verification are extended in an attempt to ‘prove’ the validity of a proposed design for an IS. A pure engineering approach does not facilitate a response to the subjective elements within social situations, which experience has shown to be essential in demonstrating the pertinence of new designs to those concerned. We suggest that, by applying interpretivist systems ideas, it is possible to support concerned individuals in reflecting upon crucial aspects of the inquiry, enabling those individuals to judge the relevance or ‘authenticity’ of the learning, according to their own values and beliefs. The elements of participants, engagement, authority, relationships and learning are suggested as being crucial. These make up the mnemonic PEArL, which is offered as an aide-mémoire for those concerned with IS design

Right Scaling for Right Pricing: A Case Study on Total Cost of Ownership Measurement for Cloud Migration

Cloud computing promises traditional enterprises and independent software vendors a myriad of advantages over on-premise installations including cost, operational and organizational efficiencies. The decision to migrate software configured for on-premise delivery to the cloud requires careful technical consideration and planning. In this chapter, we discuss the impact of right-scaling on the cost modelling for migration decision making and price setting of software for commercial resale. An integrated process is presented for measuring total cost of ownership, taking in to account IaaS/PaaS resource consumption based on forecast SaaS usage levels. The process is illustrated with a real world case study