scholarly journals Inter-team communication in large-scale co-located software engineering: a case study

2022 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Bjarnason ◽  
Baldvin Gislason Bern ◽  
Linda Svedberg
Keyword(s):  
Software Engineering ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Collaborative Effort ◽  
Team Communication ◽  
Work Processes ◽  
Distance Measurements ◽  
Software Products ◽  
Development Organisation ◽  
Develop Software

AbstractLarge-scale software engineering is a collaborative effort where teams need to communicate to develop software products. Managers face the challenge of how to organise work to facilitate necessary communication between teams and individuals. This includes a range of decisions from distributing work over teams located in multiple buildings and sites, through work processes and tools for coordinating work, to softer issues including ensuring well-functioning teams. In this case study, we focus on inter-team communication by considering geographical, cognitive and psychological distances between teams, and factors and strategies that can affect this communication. Data was collected for ten test teams within a large development organisation, in two main phases: (1) measuring cognitive and psychological distance between teams using interactive posters, and (2) five focus group sessions where the obtained distance measurements were discussed. We present ten factors and five strategies, and how these relate to inter-team communication. We see three types of arenas that facilitate inter-team communication, namely physical, virtual and organisational arenas. Our findings can support managers in assessing and improving communication within large development organisations. In addition, the findings can provide insights into factors that may explain the challenges of scaling development organisations, in particular agile organisations that place a large emphasis on direct communication over written documentation.

From Entrepreneur to Big Player

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-34
Author(s):  
Ruey-Shiang Shaw ◽  
Sheng-Pao Shih ◽  
Ta-Yu Fu ◽  
Chia-Wen Tsai
Keyword(s):  
Business Model ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Software Industry ◽  
Stable Phase ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Software Products ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
Major Player

The software industry faces drastic changes in technology and business operations. The research structure of this study is based on the business model for software industries proposed by Rajala in 2003. The researcher employed an ex post facto research design to conduct a case study of the Galaxy Software Service Co., a company that is representative of the software industry in Taiwan. The main research goal of this study is to explore how this particular company developed into a large software company in the Taiwanese software sector, which is characterized by a prevalence of small- and medium-sized businesses, over a period of 25 years. This study employs a case study design and relies on in-depth participation and interviews to acquire a complete data set of the company’s internal operations. The evolution of the business model from the company’s inception until the present day has been divided into four phases: the entrepreneur phase, the growth phase, the stable phase, and the innovative breakthrough phase. The company developed into a major player in the software industry for 3 reasons: it has always insisted on a product differentiation strategy based on the sole reliance on software products, it started out as a software products dealer and gradually developed its own research and development capability, and it built a large-scale project management capability and received CMMI certification. These factors make the company stand out from other System Integrated businesses in the Taiwanese software sector offering both hardware and software products.

We can't help feeding the monster: the social handling of uncertainty in an environment of high-risk and fast-paced change

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-100
Author(s):  
Øyvind R. Haugen ◽  
Jens Preil
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Work Processes ◽  
Role Identities ◽  
Development Organisation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Gain Access

In this article the authors present a case study that they conducted in the research and development organisation of a global pharmaceutical company. The aim of the study was to explore the social handling of uncertainty in a business environment characterised by high-risk and fast-paced change. The authors present a new methodological approach in which they combine grounded theory and depth hermeneutic analysis to gain access to the social reality of the organisation. The creation of work role identities and social imaginaries were the two main variables emerging from the data. The authors discuss how certain coping strategies against anxiety and emotional distress affect the design and execution of work processes. Furthermore, they explore to what extent social-scientific research methods can be applied to study the unique observations and interpretations made by the organisation's members, and how this knowledge can inform the development of organisations and management of change processes.

A Family With Autosomal-Dominant Progressive Sensorineural Hearing Loss

1996 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Halpin ◽  
Barbara Herrmann ◽  
Margaret Whearty
Keyword(s):  
Speech Production ◽  
Hearing Aids ◽  
Role Models ◽  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Speech Language Pathology ◽  
The Family ◽  
Patient Will ◽  
Language Pathology

The family described in this article provides an unusual opportunity to relate findings from genetic, histological, electrophysiological, psychophysical, and rehabilitative investigation. Although the total number evaluated is large (49), the known, living affected population is smaller (14), and these are spread from age 20 to age 59. As a result, the findings described above are those of a large-scale case study. Clearly, more data will be available through longitudinal study of the individuals documented in the course of this investigation but, given the slow nature of the progression in this disease, such studies will be undertaken after an interval of several years. The general picture presented to the audiologist who must rehabilitate these cases is that of a progressive cochlear degeneration that affects only thresholds at first, and then rapidly diminishes speech intelligibility. The expected result is that, after normal language development, the patient may accept hearing aids well, encouraged by the support of the family. Performance and satisfaction with the hearing aids is good, until the onset of the speech intelligibility loss, at which time the patient will encounter serious difficulties and may reject hearing aids as unhelpful. As the histological and electrophysiological results indicate, however, the eighth nerve remains viable, especially in the younger affected members, and success with cochlear implantation may be expected. Audiologic counseling efforts are aided by the presence of role models and support from the other affected members of the family. Speech-language pathology services were not considered important by the members of this family since their speech production developed normally and has remained very good. Self-correction of speech was supported by hearing aids and cochlear implants (Case 5’s speech production was documented in Perkell, Lane, Svirsky, & Webster, 1992). These patients received genetic counseling and, due to the high penetrance of the disease, exhibited serious concerns regarding future generations and the hope of a cure.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner--A case study in large-scale design integration

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. L. McMullin ◽  
A. R. Jacobsen ◽  
D. C. Carvan ◽  
R. J. Gardner ◽  
J. A. Goegan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Design Integration ◽  
Scale Design

Disruptive innovation and operationalization in local and sustainable food systems: Examining the University of Toronto-Local Food Plus partnership

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 120-139
Author(s):  
Lori Stahlbrand
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Disruptive Innovation ◽  
Government Support ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
University Of Toronto ◽  
The University

This paper traces the partnership between the University of Toronto and the non-profit Local Food Plus (LFP) to bring local sustainable food to its St. George campus. At its launch, the partnership represented the largest purchase of local sustainable food at a Canadian university, as well as LFP’s first foray into supporting institutional procurement of local sustainable food. LFP was founded in 2005 with a vision to foster sustainable local food economies. To this end, LFP developed a certification system and a marketing program that matched certified farmers and processors to buyers. LFP emphasized large-scale purchases by public institutions. Using information from in-depth semi-structured key informant interviews, this paper argues that the LFP project was a disruptive innovation that posed a challenge to many dimensions of the established food system. The LFP case study reveals structural obstacles to operationalizing a local and sustainable food system. These include a lack of mid-sized infrastructure serving local farmers, the domination of a rebate system of purchasing controlled by an oligopolistic foodservice sector, and embedded government support of export agriculture. This case study is an example of praxis, as the author was the founder of LFP, as well as an academic researcher and analyst.

Algorithm of combining chromatography mass spectrometry-untargeted profiling and multivariate analysis for identification of marker-substances in samples of complex composition

2020 ◽  
Vol 86 (7) ◽  
pp. 12-19
Author(s):  
I. V. Plyushchenko ◽  
D. G. Shakhmatov ◽  
I. A. Rodin
Keyword(s):  
Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Multivariate Analysis ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Complex Composition ◽  
Unified Protocol ◽  
Chromatography Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Marker Substances ◽  
Selection Testing ◽  
Untargeted Profiling

A viral development of statistical data processing, computing capabilities, chromatography-mass spectrometry, and omics technologies (technologies based on the achievements of genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics) in recent decades has not led to formation of a unified protocol for untargeted profiling. Systematic errors reduce the reproducibility and reliability of the obtained results, and at the same time hinder consolidation and analysis of data gained in large-scale multi-day experiments. We propose an algorithm for conducting omics profiling to identify potential markers in the samples of complex composition and present the case study of urine samples obtained from different clinical groups of patients. Profiling was carried out by the method of liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. The markers were selected using methods of multivariate analysis including machine learning and feature selection. Testing of the approach was performed using an independent dataset by clustering and projection on principal components.

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