Software Architecture

What is software architecture? A clear and simple definition is that software architecture is about making important design decisions that you want to get right early in the development of a software system because, in the future, they are costly to change. Being a good software architect is not easy. It requires not only a deep technical competency from practicing software architecture design in industry, but also an excellent understanding of the theoretical foundations of software architecture are gained from doing software architecture research. This chapter describes some significant research, development, and education activities that the author has performed during her professional trajectory path to develop knowledge, skills, and experiences around this topic.

Conservative Style, Liberal Production: Hemudu’s Binary System for Maintaining its Scapular Shovel Tradition in the Southern Yangzi Delta, 7000–6000 BP

In the past two decades, archaeological studies of knowledge and skill transmission for pottery and lithic production in preindustrial societies have significantly improved our understanding of how technological traditions were transmitted and how the transmission processes influenced technological persistence and changes. However, case studies of craft transmission for osseous technology are rare despite their equal importance to pottery and lithic industries in preindustrial societies. Our research fills the gap by examining early Hemudu Culture’s (7000–6000 BP) scapular implements in the southern Yangzi Delta to understand the linkage between learning and maintaining the scapular shovel tradition in Hemudu’s socio-economic context. We first traced the history of scapular tools to the precedent Kuahuqiao Culture (8200–7000 BP), then used published experimental results to identify the product traits pertinent to craft learning and infer Hemudu scapular shovel blades’ learning and production patterns. Hemudu scapular shovels had a unique, complicated hafting style and an evidential raw material preference for old water buffalo scapulae. However, the blades’ morphological details and technical solutions varied significantly. In addition, most finished products display manufacturing mistakes resulting from crafters’ lacking skills, experience, and intervention. Practice pieces are rare compared to finished and used products. Although additional evidence implies that practice might have been more common than the studied sample suggested, it was carried out with less-than-ideal bones and insufficient for developing technical competency. We argue that the Hemudu societal norms for a scapular shovel applied only to the highly visible aspects of the implement. The shaft and ligatures could reduce the visibility of many manufacturing flaws on the shovel blade to reach the desired visual effect of the shovel. The shovel blades were made by household crafters emulating from an artifact or a memorized template but had insufficient training and practice in manufacturing. Communities of practice were minimal to nonexistent among the shovel makers; alternative mechanisms to maintain the technical norms or hold a high product standard were also lacking. Therefore, we concluded that the scapular shovels were less important as a technical implementation than a visual communicator of social identity. The binary system of conformist style and material preference mixed with loose quality control in the shovel blade production reveals that social conformity and the associated learning pattern are circumstantial and fluid even for a community’s iconic implement. Further research with other artifact types in Yangzi Delta would help shed light on whether similar learning patterns were applied besides the creation of scapular shovels.

Appliance Control with IOT-Arduino of Voice Command Detection for Mobility Impaired People

People with physical mobility disabilities experience limited ability to perform daily routine. Integration between home appliances and Internet of Thing (IoT) can be used to support these people. The technology allows tasks to be performed much more easily and enable access to applications and services that would be a challenge with existing digital user interfaces. However, the developed system that is commercially available is costly and equipped with highly specific interfaces which may require considerable technical competency to conduct system interfacing. The purpose of this study is to develop a low cost IOT system for voice-enabled lamp control by utilizing Google Assistant that is available in commercial Android based mobile devices, allowing user to operate lighting appliances without moving. Personal assistance using Google platform embedded with Arduino microcontroller, ESP8266-based NodeMCU development board and integrated Blynk application allow for remote monitoring capability. The system is remotely controlled from a tablet or smartphone to assist disabled people with restricted mobility, in particular those with lower limb disabilities. The system had been tested and demonstrated that the lamp control can be easily accessed by voice command that is then validated using voice pitch analyzer. Test result indicated that capability of the integrated voice control system is verified up to a maximum distance of 24.5 meter, making it a potential implementation in any customized smart home or room system for people with mobile disability.

The Application of Mix Delphi-AHP Method in Identification and Prioritization Competencies Needed by National Tax Collector

This study aimed to identify and prioritize competencies needed by the national tax collector. This study was conducted in two regional offices of the Directorate General of Taxes that consists of sixteen tax offices. Fourteen former national tax collector’s top performers from the 2017 to 2020 periods participated as the expert panel in two online Delphi surveys on different rating scales (five-point and nine-point) to clarify the list of competencies identified by the researcher from literature reviews and documentation studies. The Delphi panel reached a consensus for sixteen competencies in both surveys representing three categories: managerial, technical, and sociocultural competencies. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to analyze the priority of competencies. Forty-six respondents, which consists of the National Tax Collector and the Head of the Audit, Appraisal, and Tax Collector Section, were participated in the AHP survey. The result shows that technical competency was the top priority among the category of competencies followed by sociocultural and managerial competencies. Based on the overall scores, the competencies' priority rankings from the top to the lowest, respectively, are sociocultural adaptation, soft collection, adhesive and unifying the nation, hard collection, tax knowledge, identification and profiling of tax bearer, integrity, compliance risk management, ICT literacy, communication, result orientation, decision-making, teamwork, public service, managing change, and developing self and others. Keywords: Competency, Delphi, Analytic Hierarchy Process, Tax Collector.

Challenges in Designing and Development of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS) as Perceived by Instructors across India

The study aimed to explore the challenges perceived by the instructors during the designing and development of MOOCs in India. The data was collected through a mailed questionnaire with the help of Google form. A total of 79 respondents were involved across India. Descriptive research design was used for this particular study. The study revealed that content development (2.48) was perceived as a big challenge by the instructors because most of the content was available in video form. Learners’ engagement (2.33) was found as the second most important challenge perceived by the instructors. Other important challenges were time pressure during the development of MOOCs (2.20); moderating discussion forum (2.11) and technical competency (2.06). It can be concluded that among all parameters content development is hectic and the most challenging. One can be more effective in content development when others parameters like technical competency, discussion forum etc. are tackled properly so that more time and energy can be given in content development.

Study on RCA and HFMEA in Patient Safety with Measurable Outcomes: A Case Scenario

Introduction: Safety concerns of outborn neonatal infant babies during transportation to the NICU had been a concern. Better team coordination and improvement in the technical competency of the care providers helped implement the ambulance policy. Methods: With the background of the Donabedian model and Juran's Trilogy concepts, process improvisation was performed. The RCA (Root Cause Analysis) and HFMEA (Healthcare Failure Mode and Effects Analysis) as tools were used for better deliverables. Results: The measurable outcomes in terms of time taken for departure before and after were compared, which showed considerable significance. By measuring the baby temperatures, a significant difference was seen in clinical aspects. Discussion: Lack of infrastructure, equipment for neonatal transportation was a challenge that required prioritization of budget allocation. The procurement policy of equipment had to be relooked for user-friendly strategies. Lack of trained staff and doctors, which were major issues, required an intense training and development module. The challenges of hypothermia, ventilation issues during transportation of neonates were of major concern, were tackled using quality tools. Application: To minimize the mortality and morbidity of neonates, infants by Specialized Pediatric Critical Care Transport (SPCCT) ambulance policy was implemented. The value addition was to minimize the risks and prevention of hazards. Conclusion: Improvement in the Technical competency of nurses and caregivers was observed. Nurses were well exposed to handling transporting sick babies. Logistics, equipment handling was performed properly. With better team coordination, the babies were safe. The trust and confidence among the members of the community at large improved. The patient footfall increased in numbers.

Analyzing Technical Competency, Relational Capabilities and Cognitive Abilities on Customer Satisfaction at Distributor Companies in Indonesia

In the current era of globalization, business competition is getting tougher and as a market leader, companies must always maintain their performance and improve their performance, so that customer satisfaction is always maintained. Especially the performance of mechanical services to customers whose performance must be maintained. Main problem faced by PT United Tractors heavy equipment service division is a decrease in customer satisfaction. The decrease in satisfaction is thought to be caused by a decrease in mechanics technical competence, the lack of mechanical ability to maintain good relationships (relational capability) with customers and the ability to identify problems (cognitive abilities) faced by customers. The purpose of this research is to analyze the impact of technical competency, relational capability and cognitive ability toward customer satisfaction and to analyse the impact of customer satisfaction toward customer loyalty. As a quantitative research, the study distributed questionnaires to 200 respondents who are customers who used mechanics services, so that it can be seen what variables have a significant impact on customer satisfaction. The findings of this study are that cognitive ability and technical competency have a significant impact on customer satisfaction, while relational capability has no significant impact on customer satisfaction. The influence of customer satisfaction on customer loyalty has a significant impact.

Storing Moral Identity as a Core of the Professional Identity for Future Nurses

Evolving in time, the nursing profession construction started based on moral values, which were underlined by Florence Nightingale (1989) and it was associated with compassion and care, but with the technical development and increasing the complexity of care provided, nursing went from a job to a profession, which asks more and more technical competency and more and more pragmatism (Serra, 2008), losing in time the humanity part of the care, overwhelmed by the detachment discourse which became dominant in the times of an evidence based medicine (Charon, 2016; DasGupta, 2014). Going back to humanity became one of the main concerns of the researchers in the last decade and that put the focus on developing the interactional capacity of the students in nursing (Benner et al., 2009; Charon, 2016; Fagermoen; 1997; Gold, 2020; Sharpless et. al., 2015), one of the most important skill to develop being attentive listening (Charon, 2016) in the relation to the patient and the colleagues, attitudes promoted with the Narrative Medicine Program (NMP) conceived by Charon (2016), who is a doctor and professor at Medicine Faculty in Columbia University in United States. Conclusion: The data resulted from this study suggests the need to direct the curriculum on the professional identity of the future nurses’ development, which is in the same line with other studies, but also the need to help the students in the management of the experiences from their clinical practice considered significant to them, which could sustain the development of a professional identity guided by care and focused on the relationship with the patient.

An Analysis of PhD Students' Views on the Competencies of their Supervisors

This study aims to examine the opinions of PhD students who are in their dissertation-writing stage, on their supervisors' "core competency", "technical competency" and "managerial competency". Designed as a case study, it employs a qualitative research methodology. The sample of the study consists of 15 PhD students determined by using the criterion sampling method, which is one of the purposive sampling methods. The data were collected through a semi-structured interview form. The obtained data were analyzed through content analysis. The findings revealed that some of the PhD students found their supervisors inadequate in terms of technical, managerial and core competencies while some of them had positive opinions on the competencies of their supervisors. PhD students learn about how supervising processes work and compare themselves to their peers by communicating with each other directly and through social media. The study is original and important since it makes a significant contribution to revealing the effectiveness of PhD supervision.

Development of Emergency Response Team Technical Competency (ER2TC) Assessment Tool for Offshore Process Safety

The importance in identifying safety critical task in high-risk industries for competence assessment is greatly emphasised to ensure the personnel is well equipped with high level of competence and assurance in certain safety critical tasks. Lack of competency had resulted in various accidents in oil and gas industry. Failure in escape, evacuation, and rescue (EER) operation in history has led to tragic consequences associated with high number of fatalities, such as Alexander L. Kielland platform collapse, Piper Alpha disaster and tragedy of Ocean Ranger. Although competency assessment is widely implemented in offshore industry, accident still occur which indicates that reliable competency assessment is highly essential. In this research, a technical competency assessment tool is developed to assess the technical skills of each individual in emergency response team during EER activities. Case studies are selected to evaluate the designed Emergency Response Team Technical Competency (ER2TC) assessment tool where a range of different inputs and parameters are designed and tested on the designed tool. Analysis is conducted to identify how the overall output is affected by the uncertainty from the designed tool’s input and discover the impact of potential errors in the tool towards the output generated from the tool. The ER2TC assessment tool overcomes personal subjectivity and biasness of assessors, thus, producing reusable and reliable tool for decision makers in the evaluation of candidates. This tool has also implemented stricter assessing criteria to evaluate the performance of candidates in EER activities. This is seen as necessary due to the critical nature and the must to ensure the successful for EER operations as any failure could potentially results in loss of lives. Thus, this ER2TC assessment tool has indeed sufficient to assess the technical skills of personnel in ensuring the success of EER operations in offshore installations.