The Hybrid-Agile Design of Experiments Methodology

A DOE (Design of Experiments) is the laying out of a detailed experimental plan in advance of doing the experiment. Optimal DOEs maximize the amount of information that can be obtained for a given amount of experimental effort. The traditional DOE methodology is waterfall-type methodology implying a sequential and linear life-cycle process. The success of the experiment and usefulness of the results are highly dependent on the initial experimental setup and assumptions, and does not allow to go back and change something that was not well-documented or thought upon in the design stage. The fast-changing software development industry have made it understandable that the traditional waterfall methodology for developing systems, which follows similar patters to the traditional DOE, lacks the agility required for developing robust systems. These limitations have triggered the development of agile: a type of incremental model of software development based on principles that focuses more on flexible responses to change, instead of in-depth planning at the design stage. This paper proposes the hybrid-agile DOE methodology – a methodology that incorporates agile principles in traditional waterfall DOE methodologies – to design effective experimental layouts that allow for improvement during the experimental trial process. The methodology is applied to the natural ageing of adhesives tapes for building applications. This methodology can overcome traditional DOE, by adding agility in the whole process, especially in cases where the investigated products lack prior information and are characterised by large variability.

Agile design and development of a high throughput cobas® SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR diagnostic test

Diagnostic testing is essential for management of the COVID-19 pandemic. An agile assay design methodology, optimized for the cobas® 6800/8800 system, was used to develop a dual-target, qualitative SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR test using commercially available reagents and existing sample processing and thermocycling profiles. The limit of detection was 0.004 to 0.007 TCID50/mL for USA-WA1/2020. Assay sensitivity was confirmed for SARS-CoV-2 variants Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Kappa. The coefficients of variation of the cycle threshold number (Ct) were between 1.1 and 2.2%. There was no difference in Ct using nasopharyngeal compared to oropharyngeal swabs in universal transport medium (UTM). A small increase in Ct was observed with specimens collected in cobas® PCR medium compared to UTM. In silico analysis indicated that the dual-target test is capable of detecting all >1,800,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences in the GISAID database. Our agile assay design approach facilitated rapid development and deployment of this SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR test.

Development of an Evidence-based Digital Support for Sustainable Return to Work for Persons with Chronic Pain and their Employers: A User-centered Agile Design Approach (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Persons with chronic pain experience a lack of support after completing rehabilitation and the responsibility for the return-to-work (RTW) process is taken over by the employer. Additionally, the employers describe not knowing how to support their employees. For example, some employers wanted more information how their employees’ chronic pain will affect their work status. Smartphone apps have been increasingly used for self-management, but there is a lack of available eHealth apps providing evidence-based digital support for persons with chronic pain and their employers when they RTW. OBJECTIVE To describe the development of an evidence-based digital support for sustainable return-to-work for persons with chronic pain and their employers (SWEPPE). METHODS A user-centered agile design (UCD) approach was applied. The multidisciplinary project team consisted of health care researchers, a user representative, and a software team. Two reference groups of seven persons with chronic pain and four employers participated in the development process and usability testing. Mixed methods were used for collecting early input and feedback from the reference groups throughout the process. The design was revised using feedback from the reference groups. The content of SWEPPE was developed based on existing evidence and input from the reference groups. RESULTS The reference groups identified the following as important characteristics to include in SWEPPE: keeping users motivated; tracking health status and work situation; and following progress. SWEPPE was developed as a smartphone application for the persons with chronic pain and a web application for their employers. SWEPPE consists of six modules: the action plan, daily self-rating, self-monitoring graphs, the coach, the library, and shared information with the employer. The employers found the following functions in SWEPPE to be the most useful: employees’ goals related to return-to-work; barriers to RTW; support wanted from the employer and the ability to follow employees’ progress. The persons with chronic pain found the following functions in SWEPPE to be the most useful: setting a goal related to RTW; identifying barriers and strategies; and self-monitoring. Usability testing revealed that SWEPPE was safe, useful (i.e., provided relevant information), logical, and easy to use with an appealing interface. CONCLUSIONS This study reports the development of an evidence-based digital support application for persons with chronic pain and their employers. SWEPPE fulfilled the need of support after an Interdisciplinary Pain Rehabilitation Program with useful functions such as setting a goal related to RTW, identification of barriers and strategies for RTW, self-monitoring, and sharing information between employee and employer. The UCD’s agile design approach contributed to creating SWEPPE as a relevant and easy to use eHealth intervention. Further studies are needed to examine the effectiveness of SWEPPE in a clinical setting.

Promoting FAIR Data Through Community-driven Agile Design: the Open Data Commons for Spinal Cord Injury (odc-sci.org)

The past decade has seen accelerating movement from data protectionism in publishing toward open data sharing to improve reproducibility and translation of biomedical research. Developing data sharing infrastructures to meet these new demands remains a challenge. One model for data sharing involves simply attaching data, irrespective of its type, to publisher websites or general use repositories. However, some argue this creates a ‘data dump’ that does not promote the goals of making data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR). Specialized data sharing communities offer an alternative model where data are curated by domain experts to make it both open and FAIR. We report on our experiences developing one such data-sharing ecosystem focusing on ‘long-tail’ preclinical data, the Open Data Commons for Spinal Cord Injury (odc-sci.org). ODC-SCI was developed with community-based agile design requirements directly pulled from a series of workshops with multiple stakeholders (researchers, consumers, non-profit funders, governmental agencies, journals, and industry members). ODC-SCI focuses on heterogeneous tabular data collected by preclinical researchers including bio-behaviour, histopathology findings and molecular endpoints. This has led to an example of a specialized neurocommons that is well-embraced by the community it aims to serve. In the present paper, we provide a review of the community-based design template and describe the adoption by the community including a high-level review of current data assets, publicly released datasets, and web analytics. Although odc-sci.org is in its late beta stage of development, it represents a successful example of a specialized data commons that may serve as a model for other fields.

Key Approaches, Risks, and Product Performance in Managing the Development Process of Complex Products Sustainably

In the Industry 4.0 environment, being sustainably competitive is essential in global markets. In an endeavor to optimize the added value in the design process of complex products such as robots, managing the development process of such products is studied. The present study identifies the level of product performance that yields maximum return on product development in Industry 4.0. The study also identifies and reviews the key approaches to understanding and managing the design process of such complex products. It has been found that the hybrid approach is the most efficient approach. The study proposes an approach to effectively manage risk in the product design process that hybridizes attributes of both the lean and agile design paradigms. The proposed approach has been validated using five case studies with 99% level of statistical confidence. The results of this study enable efficient development of complex products such as robotic systems towards realizing sustainable competitiveness.

Software Architecture for Planning Educational Scenarios by Applying an Agile Methodology

This paper focuses on research related to the difficulties introduced by academic re-sources management in institutions of Higher Education and specifically in the Fundación Universitaria de Popayán, a private university, where the planning of aca-demic scenarios is performed manually at the beginning of each academic period for an average of 1,776 subjects and suitable location for an average of 8,000 students, which leads to determine the importance of considering a software architecture that theoretically supports software development, physically and logically, allowing de-velopment in a successful and reliable way that reduces errors, costs, and time in the results, specifically for the case study at the Fundación Universitaria de Popayán. Therefore, the research has made it possible to find the need for an architectural vision and a base for the effective development of software, supported by the different views of authors with years of research on the subject. The research itself is supported by the agile design thinking methodology, the basis for meeting the needs of the end user, and where the quality attributes workshop method is included in the prototyping phase, which guarantees to involve stakeholders in advance for the control of quality attributes in the project. This article shows the flaws that arise in the academic scenar-io management process and the importance of establishing, from the architecture and agile methodology, a process that remedies the difficulties of the process performed.

A Review of the IT Service Design Process in Agile ITSM Frameworks

The current and most used IT Service Management (ITSM) frameworks (ITIL v2011, CMMI-SVC, and ISO/IEC 20000) correspond to a rigor-oriented paradigm. However, the high dynamism in business requirements for IT services has fostered the emergence of agile-assumed ITSM frameworks. In contrast with the Software Engineering field where the rigorous and agile development paradigms co-exist because both paradigms are well-known and well-accepted, in the ITSM field, agile ITSM frameworks are practically unknown. This chapter, thus, reviews the main emergent proffered agile ITSM frameworks (Lean IT, FitSM, IT4IT, and VeriSM) focusing on the IT service design process category. This process category is relevant because an IT service is designed after its business strategic authorization and the IT service design determines the future warranty and utility metrics for the IT service. The main findings suggest the need for clear and effortless agile ITSM frameworks with agile design practices to guide potential ITSM practitioners to cope with the new digital business environment.