André Leme Fleury

Customizing the Technology Roadmapping Technique for Software Companies

Software importance keeps growing fast and consistently for many organizations. The growth of software functionality in manufactured products and the emergence of digital media, convergent spaces including digital content, software, and multi-channels to the market, are recent examples of organizational changes where software assumed a central position for the corporate strategy. This paper analyzes the alignment between strategic objectives and software development processes at software companies and proposes a methodology to ensure that development processes are aligned with the corporate capabilities required to exploit future market opportunities. The methodology includes the categorization of different software companies according to their core capabilities and the customization of the technology roadmapping technique for software companies. The research process included the realization of case studies and a survey

Sourcing software content for manufactured products

Abstract There has been a rapid growth of software content in manufactured products (i.e. software embedded in a product other than a PC, or software provided as part of a product offering such as software running on a PC allowing the user to configure a product) in recent years, greatly extending the functionality and consumer appeal of products in sectors as diverse as cars, consumer electronics, and scientific instruments. This trend presents traditional mechanical engineering companies (and others) with the problem of deciding whether and how to include software content in their products. The purpose of this paper is to present and justify a management tool that helps companies facing these problems. It is in the form of a checklist decision aid and focuses on the question of whether to develop software internally or externally to the company. The paper first reviews work addressing ‘make or buy’ issues and builds on these ideas to explore the issues specific to software, through case studies and interviews. It then describes work to assess industrial preferences for the format of a decision aid, and in response to this develops the checklist of factors grouped around the themes of ‘business interest’, ‘task suitability’, ‘supplier suitability’, and ‘collaboration arrangements’. Validated through workshop and interviews, this checklist guides managers through the software sourcing process. An online version of the checklist also provides the means for a company to accumulate its own experience of sourcing decisions for future reference.

Inovação como transição: uma abordagem para o planejamento e desenvolvimento de spin-offs acadêmicos

An academic spin-off is a new type of firm that often comes to exploit a radical innovation capable of creating a new market or defying the rules of an established industry. Employing a combination of literature research, multiple case studies and interventions based on action research, this study aims to contribute in two ways to the literature on innovation and entrepreneurship. First, it proposes a concept of innovation as a transition in three dimensions: level (deviation from a rule), length (number of features and actors involved) and trajectory (sequence of innovations over time). The second contribution is building a framework that has a non-linear and recursive structure and integrates innovation with planning and the development of spin-offs, thereby addressing uncertainty management. Finally, it is concluded that the proposed framework can help entrepreneurs, investors and universities with the challenge of creating a firm to exploit a radical innovation.

Developing an analytical framework for study of emerging country multinationals’ operations management

The rise of emerging country multinationals (EMNEs) is opening new perspectives for the study of international operations management (IOM). Research may address issues which are inexistent when the object of study is long-established developed country multinationals (DMNEs). One of the issues that may be noticed, and will be studied in this article, has to do with the design and implementation of new international operations networks. In contrast to DMNEs, internationalisation of EMNEs is strongly influenced by two further factors: country-of-origin effects and role in global production networks. Therefore, studies of EMNEs’ international operations networks must embrace two other analytical levels besides the network level: the strategic level of the headquarters and the operational level of the subsidiaries. The analytical framework in this study has been developed through the use of constructs and concepts from both IOM and international business literatures. Such framework applied to three Brazilian multinationals leads to relevant insights on the internationalisation of EMNEs as well as the design and implementation of international operations networks for such late-moving firms.

An Analysis of the Advantages, Challenges and Obstacles of Cloud Computing Adoption to an Academic Control System

The evolution of cloud computing (CC) over the past few years is certainly one of the greatest advancements in the history of computing. However, for this technology to reach its potential there must be a clear understanding of the issues involved in its adoption. The purpose of this exploratory case study is to build an evaluation model that takes into account aspects such as the advantages, challenges and obstacles of adopting CC. To assess the feasibility and usefulness of such model, an Academic Control System (ACS) from an International School was analyzed. Such analysis enabled the development of recommendations, the provision of inputs and the suggestion of actions necessary to launch the ACS as a cloud service. The model revealed challenges regarding governance, human resources (HR) management, project management and organizational culture to deal with innovations and changes. Such challenges shall be taken into account in the cloud strategy. Also, security issues, business models, technical capacity, performance, service level agreements (SLA) are obstacles that organizations willing to provide such services must face. According to the model, the recommendations to overcome such challenges and obstacles include HR management good practices, risk management processes and well-defined decision making instances.

Software development strategic management: A resource-based view approach

Business strategies vary from market analysis to resource capability positioning. In this context, the Resource-Based View approach analyses organizations as a group of resources in order to continually enhance their business results. Software development is a knowledge-intensive activity, demanding specific human resources. So, software organizations would have to intensify their strategic forces in order to preserve and improve their capabilities. Aiming to verify how the relationship between resources and competitive advantage occurs, this paper presents the outcomes of a research that was applied at Brazilian software companies, repeating a similar study performed in Europe in 2004. The variables used in both researches are: (a) value of the resource to organization, (b) rarity to obtain it, (c) imitation by competitors and (d) substitution of resources. Results have been statistically evaluated using contingency tables and chi-square tests and they had shown the same tendency of the previous European study: value and rarity practically exercise the same influence over the competitiveness, while substitution and imitation act in an inverse way. However, this Brazilian research also verified that companies should have their own core competences to obtain competitive advantages and would transform them in the main and most visible competition elements: schedule, cost and quality.

Developing methods for the identification of competences needed for software production and utilization in industry

Software plays an increasingly relevant role in modern life. Particularly, software enables most features of innovative goods and services. However, the way in which software production should be organized is still open to discussion. Although software development has been extensively researched by software engineering theorists and practitioners, there is an increasing concern that the linkages between software suppliers and software users should be clarified, bringing new research possibilities for the Technology Management discipline. The purpose of this paper is the presentation of a new framework for an improved understanding of the existing relationships between software users and suppliers. Software users were characterized by using insights originated from a research in the Telecommunication industry. To characterize software suppliers, two distinct surveys were realized. Finally, to clarify the different relationships that exist between software users and suppliers, we analyzed which competences are required from the supplier company in order to understand the specific needs of each group of user companies and to develop and deliver the most appropriate software system.

Gestão de Stakeholders e Design Thinking: Um Estudo de Caso em Projeto de Mudança Organizacional

O objetivo deste trabalho e investigar a gestao de stakeholders no contexto de projetos de mudanca organizacional. Adicionalmente, o trabalho investiga como o Design Thinking pode ajudar na gestao de stakeholders. A abordagem metodologica utilizada foi a de estudo de caso, cuja unidadede analise foi um projeto de integracao dos processos de trabalho de equipes. Os resultados apontam para sinergia entre as tecnicas de gerenciamento de stakeholders e Design Thinking. O DesignThinking promoveu maior colaboracao e confianca entre os stakeholders devido sua abordagem participativa ao longo do desenvolvimento do projeto.

Accessible aircraft seat and console controls for passengers with disabilities through mobile devices

People with disabilities usually face difficulties during travel in aircrafts. Among these difficulties, there are limitations while seated during the journey. The seat and console controls may be hard to reach and use or not accessible at all. Considering the trend of airliners to allow the usage of wireless devices during flights, personal mobile devices become an option for improving comfort and creating a better experience for passengers with disabilities. This paper presents a proposal for accessible aircraft seat and console controls through the use of personal mobile devices wirelessly connected to the aircrafts systems. It describes a conceptual prototype with twelve basic functions that allows the use of the in-flight entertainment (IFE) controls, the seat controls and the console above the seat through passengers own mobile device.

Uma abordagem sistêmica do processo de produção em engenharia web, na fase de concepção

Web applications production presents problems like low quality; non-compliance with deadline and budget, ad-hoc, chaotic and unstructured process. Moreover, different disciplines and knowledge areas, with particular approaches and methodologies, contribute with this type of production. A particular knowledge area named Web Engineering was developed to focus on these questions; however, it is not consolidated yet. This work aims to present guidelines to the definition of the Web applications production process, from a systemic approach, where the different disciplines, roles and activities are correlated, in the conception phase. The research method utilizes tree cases studies and two action-researches to create a theoretical model through analysis of particular situations. The work identifies a design space formed by the dimensions Form, Function, Information and Technology, related to the main disciplines involved in Web applications production: Design, Software Engineering and Communication & Media. According to the design standard used, it is concluded that there is a best fit for the production process, oriented by one or more dimensions of the design space, allowing a quick evolution of the project to the expected quality level.