Analysing the Obstacles in Agile Software Development Approach: A Review

The development of reusable and extensible software for business purposes has been the hallmark of the day. More developers are taking advantage of numerous approaches towards reaching their goals. One such approach is the agile approach in the development of extensible applications which has become so popular since its introduction over a decade ago. Using an agile approach that has a defined value in developing applications portray numerous benefits which have been identified by various scholars pointing out their outcomes as motivating factors of its adoption. With all such outline benefits, there exist some potential obstacles to agile developmental approach which has not been fully addressed. Hence, this article is aimed at analysing the obstacles which software developers face during agile development through a database search and also to guide them on ways to overcome such obstacles.

An Analysis of Social Media Usage by Public Relations Departments in Select Private Universities in Kenya.

This paper investigates the use of Social Media by Public Relations departments in two large private universities in Kenya. Social media are web-based applications where the creation of profiles and connections of people takes place. Social media use is constantly growing amongst organizations, as technology and globalization evolve, so do the role of Public Relations hence becoming inevitable in everyday practice. Despite the availability of social media platforms, little is known on how they are used to communicate. Contrariwise, the extant literature discloses that at present, there is moderately negligible research with focus on the use of social media in public relations in private organizations. This study is grounded on the outcomes of a research submitted in lieu of a Doctoral degree in Mass Communication at the St Augustine University of Tanzania involving 270 survey participants and 2 in-depth interviews. Data was generated using questionnaires and analysed using SPSS version 23 whereas interviews were analysed thematically. Findings reveal that University K and St Paul University use social media to: publicize activities; send information to the public; change public opinion; enhance information value; lobby public support as well as to provide the public with a question-and-answer platform. This paper highlights need to pay more attention to the content and public’s need besides embracing other available social media tools and technologies to promote trust amongst the public and the organization. And also, need to devise means of adjusting to the inevitable changes regularly besides diverse approaches in strengthening PR practice and regulation.

RFID-Based Automated Supermarket Self-Billing System

Supermarkets are large retail stores operated on a self-service basis. They sell a range of goods from agricultural produce to electronics with tagged prices. They are coupled with numerous advantages like supporting advanced means of payment like cheques, credit cards, smart store electronic cards and mobile money, offering transportation incentives and discounts. The study aimed at coming up with an RFID-Based billing system through automation. The methods and materials used included document reviews, observational experiments, system design, implementation and testing based on current situations in the supermarket business. Findings showed that there are several weaknesses with the existing systems and the new system could ably uphold the time resource, efficiency improvement of both workers and customers, and it is secure, cost-effective, and time-saving especially from queues. The widely implemented system can improve the revenue gap and possibly rejuvenate the national or international economy to a large extent.

An Analytical Review of Existing Supermarket Billing Systems

Retail shops and stores form part of the nation’s business sector involved in selling and providing several goods and services. The main objective was to study and analyse existing supermarket billing systems and possibly identify their weaknesses and strengths. This will enable us to generate an RFID billing system that is unique and even more advantageous than the existing systems. The methodology used was qualitative involving hard and soft document reviews and observational experiments. Findings revealed that there are several billing systems which include the manual price tag system where a mini-computer (calculator) is used to sum up the total bill per customer at a time, the barcode reader system, the smart chart with store cards, and the ‘smart shopping cart. It was noted that these have the advantage of giving confidence all the items are counted, paid for, save time and are cheap to use. However, they are also associated with several weaknesses like long waiting time (queues), the systems require a lot of human effort to read the barcodes which is not efficient, barcode systems sometimes fail to read, possible human errors while entering information, possible cheating through wrongly-fed information and the desynchronization effects because of the unreliable network. This was an awareness drive about the existing supermarket billing systems in order to enhance further studies on better ones

ICT for Sustainability or Sustainability in ICT? A Review of the Role of ICT in Enhancing Sustainability versus the Need to Enhance Sustainability in ICT

Is ICT a solution to sustainability problems or is it just a greater environmental problem? Throughout their lifecycle, ICT products and services are associated with significant levels of energy consumption and carbon emissions. On the contrary, despite being one of the main contributors to global carbon emissions, the ICT sector has a crucial role to play in boosting productivity and sustainability in many sectors—education, transport, agriculture, business, buildings, health, power, and manufacturing. To improve their efficiency and mitigate carbon emissions from ICT products, producers and end-users of such ICT products should therefore, employ measures that enhance their sustainability. Such measures identified in this article include the use of sustainable manufacturing processes, sustainable procurement/purchasing of ICT products, proper ICT product use, reuse, recycle, and proper disposal of ICT devices that are out of use. In data centres, such measures include virtualisation, recovery and reuse of waste heat, designing data centres to allow free cooling, control of restricted air conditioning, replacement of old servers and processors with new energy-efficient ones, and locating data centres near renewable energy sources. This is because apart from enhancing sustainability in the ICT sector itself, ICT has the potential to enhance sustainability in other sectors through improvement in efficiency and reduction in carbon emissions. This article discusses how ICT can enhance sustainability in the transport, power, manufacturing, and building sectors, which are the major energy consumers and carbon-emitting sectors.

An Investigation of Coping Strategies Adopted by Small-Scale Sugarcane Growers in Bungoma County, Kenya

This paper reports on one of the findings of a study undertaken to investigate the coping strategies used by small-scale sugarcane growers in Bungoma County, Kenya. A descriptive survey design was used. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed in the selection of the divisions, villages, key respondents, and sugarcane farmers to be interviewed. Primary data were collected using questionnaires from 100 small-scale sugarcane growers’ household heads from Bumula Sub-County. Data were collected during the month of December 2016. Qualitative data collected were analysed thematically. Quantitative data was analysed using regression in SPSS version 23 and Microsoft Excel. Results from small-scale sugarcane farmers in Bumula Sub-County revealed a declining farmers’ participation in sugarcane farming activities in the area. Coping strategies identified included off-farm income-generating activities, sale of sugarcane by-products and non-contracted cane farming. Significance test qualification was based on a percentage of adjusted R2 and within 0.3 to 0.7 ranges for Beta weight value. The correlation coefficient (R-value) for the model was 0.362, indicating a moderately positive relationship between variables. The coefficient of determination (R2) was found to be 0.284 (28.4%). Adopted coping strategies accounted for 28.4% variability in the declining farmers’ participation in sugarcane farming. This result suggests the existence of other factors that explain the remaining 71.6% of the variation in the declining farmers’ participation. Farmers should enhance both on-farm and off-farm income-generating activities, sugarcane by-products value addition, and non-contracted cane farming in order to reverse the outcome and result in an enhanced farmers’ participation in sugarcane farming activities by 36.2%

Real-Time Monitoring of Network Devices: Its Effectiveness in Enhancing Network Security

The business world has been significantly affected by network intrusion leading to infringement of privacy and unprecedented economic losses. Therefore, real-time monitoring of network devices is important due to the enhanced and complex network systems in organizations and associated cyber threats. Real-time monitoring provides adequate alerts and updates regarding specific networks and their performance as soon as they occur. Constant monitoring of devices also makes it possible for organizations to detect any possible challenges that the networks may be encountering. This paper examines the effectiveness of real-time monitoring of network devices in a bid to enhance network security. The study was an empirical review of recently published research papers, journals, internet sites, and books with relevant content. The findings of this study revealed that Real-time device monitoring has many potential advantages to organizations by securing their systems thereby enhancing their overall performance.

The Evolution of GSM Technologies into 5G and the Imminent Emergence of Transformative Telemedicine Applications: A Review

Telemedicine is the delivery of health care services over a distance by health care providers using electronic technologies for the diagnosis, information exchange, treatment and disease prevention, injuries prevention, research and evaluation, and for continuing education for the health care provider. Telemedicine has been in existence since the 1960s, through telephone and video technologies. Over several decades, wireless broadband technology has become better with advancement with internet speed becoming almost ubiquitous. According to a telemedicine study by World Health Organization, 114 countries, that is, (59%) of member states, revealed that teleradiology has the highest rate of established service provision globally at (33%). Close to 70% of the countries indicated the need to know the cost and cost-effectiveness of telemedicine solutions, and above 50% needed to know about the infrastructure needed for telemedicine implementation while 60% needed clarification on clinical uses. With the evolution of Global System for Mobile (GSM) Communication services into 5G, it is the objective of this study to demonstrate how a combination of faster communication at lower latencies can be used to provide clinical support that overcomes geographical barriers using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), with a goal of transforming healthcare service provision. A resultant prototype telemedicine application capable of medical diagnosis using artificial intelligence techniques demonstrates with the highest accuracy at 93.68% match. The medical similarity index of pathogens is captured from digital sources such as USB microscopes and scanners as medical images or specimens.

Information and Communications Technology Integration and Performance of Tertiary Institutions in Nairobi County, Kenya

ICT infrastructure and ICT proficiency have become essential components of higher education for both learners and instructors. This study examined the effect of ICT infrastructure and ICT proficiency on the performance of tertiary institutions in Nairobi County. Simple random sampling method was used to select the respondents. A sample size of 60 respondents was drawn from the ICT specialists employed in the tertiary institutions. Data was collected using questionnaires and the internal reliability analysis showed Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.83. Results findings established that ICT infrastructure and ICT proficiency resulted in better performance of tertiary institutions. The study concluded that ICT infrastructure and ICT proficiency affect the performance of tertiary institutions positively. A recommendation is that tertiary institutions should integrate the use of ICT in different aspects of learning to enhance performance.