Elena Orta

A System Dynamics Approach to Web Service Capacity Management

This paper presents a dynamic simulation model applied within the field of web services capacity management. The main purpose of the model is to help manage the web services capacity that providers assign their customers accordingly so as to ensure the fulfillment of the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) established.Therefore, the model allows for the analysis of the effects of different web services capacity management polices on the service performance and on the penalties to be assumed by providers for non-compliance with the response times agreed with their customers. The main aims of the sensitivity analysis carried out in the case study of this research paper are as follows: (1) to assess the fulfillment of the SLAs according to the web service capacity contracted by the customer, (2) to determine the lowest web service capacity and those capacity management parameters that ensure that the actual service performance is the one that has been agreed on (3) to evaluate the penalties that the web service provider should assume for non-compliance with response times.

Decision-making in IT service management

Simulation modeling is widely used to support decision-making in different business areas and management tasks. Given the growing importance for real-world organizations to improve Information Technology Service Management (ITSM), this paper focuses on the application of these techniques to support decision-making in this field. A review of published research articles that describe an application case has been conducted and it shows that different simulation approaches are extensively used to solve particular problems in the context of several processes. However, in these works there is no evidence of a systematic use of both ITSM frameworks and simulation model development methodologies. Given their importance to build valid simulation models, this paper proposes a novel decision-making framework whose main component is a specific methodology to systematically build simulation models that help solve real-world organization problems applying ITIL recommendations. To illustrate the usefulness of this framework, two application cases in the context of the ITIL capacity management and incident management processes are summarized. The model simulations provide information about the process results, performance and behavior with different process configurations. Moreover, optimization experiments allow managers to determine the optimal process configuration that meets the established objectives. A review of research papers that apply simulation modeling in an ITSM context is presented.A decision-making framework to improve ITSM focused on simulation modeling is proposed.The framework main component is a specific simulation model development methodology.Two application cases of the framework in the field of ITIL processes are presented.The ITIL processes analyzed are capacity management and incident management.

Using simulation to aid decision making in managing the usability evaluation process

Abstract Context This paper is developed in the context of Usability Engineering. More specifically, it focuses on the use of modelling and simulation to help decision-making in the scope of usability evaluation. Objective The main goal of this paper is to present UESim: a System Dynamics simulation model to help decision-making in the make-up of the usability evaluation team during the process of usability evaluation. Method To develop this research we followed four main research phases: (a) study identification, (b) study development, (c) running and observation and finally, (d) reflexion. In relation with these phases the paper describes the literature revision, the model building and validation, the model simulation and its results and finally the reflexion on it. Results We developed and validated a model to simulate the usability evaluation process. Through three different simulations we analysed the effects of different compositions of the evaluation team on the outcome of the evaluation. The simulation results show the utility of the model in the decision making of the usability evaluation process by changing the number and expertise of evaluators employed. Conclusion One of the main advantages of using such a simulation model is that it allows developers to observe the evolution of the key indicators of the evaluation process over time. UESim represents a customisable tool to help decision-making in the management of the usability evaluation process, since it makes it possible to analyse how the key process indicators are affected by the main management options of the Usability Evaluation Process.

A Simulation and Gamification Approach for IT Service Management Improvement

This paper proposes a conceptual framework for improving Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) processes that is based on as follows: (a) to build a simulation model of the process to improve that enables IT managers to assess the process performance and analyze the effects of changes in the process before their implementation in the organization; and (b) to gamify the model simulation experimentation to increase IT managers motivation and engagement, and drive their behavior through model simulations to meet the established objectives. To illustrate the usefulness of the framework, an application case in the context of the ITIL service capacity management process is summarized.

Analyzing Strategic Business Rules through Simulation Modeling

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) holds promise for business agility since it allows business process to change to meet new customer demands or market needs without causing a cascade effect of changes in the underlying IT systems. Business rules are the instrument chosen to help business and IT to collaborate. In this paper, we propose the utilization of simulation models to model and simulate strategic business rules that are then disaggregated at different levels of an SOA architecture. Our proposal is aimed to help find a good configuration for strategic business objectives and IT parameters. The paper includes a case study where a simulation model is built to help business decision-making in a context where finding a good configuration for different business parameters and performance is too complex to analyze by trial and error.

Met4ITIL: A process management and simulation-based method for implementing ITIL

Abstract A key requirement for service providers is to define, manage and deliver Information Technology (IT) services to effectively support business goals and customer needs. Several process reference models for the IT service management (ITSM) have emerged, being Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) the reference model accepted as de facto standard for ITSM. This paper introduces a novel method for implementing ITIL which is based on business process management lifecycle and simulation modeling. An application of the method to implement the incident management process in a Spanish company is also presented. The method has been reviewed by ITIL experts and evaluated from the process stakeholders’ perspective using a questionnaire. The answers provided to the questionnaire show the usefulness of the method to address critical success factors and to support the application of adequate process management practices.

Gamification for Improving IT Service Incident Management

Support groups’ agents are a very important element of IT service incident management process, and to increase their motivation and commitment, to improve their skills and to modify their behaviors is fundamental for improving the process and meeting the business objectives. Gamification, the application of game elements in non-game contexts to modify and influence the behavior of the people, is helpful in this field. This paper introduces a method for gamifying the incident management process that is based on the gamification method proposed by Werbach and Hunter and ITIL incident management process. To illustrate the usefulness of the method proposed an example of use is also presented.

Applying Agent-Based Simulation to the Improvement of Agile Software Management

Among agile methodologies, eXtreme Programming (XP) is one of the best known and better defined. However, one factor that hinders its application is the lack of native XP support for project management. One of the techniques that could help in the improvement of XP projects management is the simulation modeling. In this paper, we examine, through a literature review, the evidences of the application of modeling and simulation techniques to support the management in XP projects. From this review we conclude that there is still work to be done in this area, and more specifically in the teamwork management, having in mind that agile team management is the most influential factor in achieving agile team productivity. As a proof of concept, we present Sim-Xperience: a simulation model to assist the XP team in the management of their projects; this model, unlike those found in the literature, has been developed following the agent-based paradigm, especially suited to simulate social behaviors. Through the model input parameters you can configure the specific features of the project you want to simulate and of the development team. Thus, the model allows you to analyze the effect of different decisions on team management process, observing the evolution of the project development as well as the deviations in comparison with initial estimations. To illustrate the model simulation we have conducted a case study, where we have seen the results of the simulation model under two different allocation tasks strategies, concluding that using a strategy where the team member experience is not the priority criterion is better for the increase of team experience in the long term.

A Simulation Approach to Decision Making in IT Service Strategy

We propose to use simulation modeling to support decision making in IT service strategy scope. Our main contribution is a simulation model that helps service providers analyze the consequences of changes in both the service capacity assigned to their customers and the tendency of service requests received on the fulfillment of a business rule associated with the strategic goal of customer satisfaction. This business rule is set in the SLAs that service provider and its customers agree to, which determine the maximum percentage of service requests that are permitted to be abandoned because they have exceeded the waiting time allowed. To illustrate the use and applications of the model, we include some of the experiments conducted and describe our conclusions.

Collaborative development of reusable educational resources for software engineering and information systems core subjects

In the context of the European Higher Education Area adaptation process, a group of teachers of the Computer Science degree of the University of Cadiz have developed an initiative for the collaborative creation of a set of educational resources that are used or supplemented in diverse courses of software engineering and information systems core subjects. This initiative has been implemented as the proposal of a project, which has been accepted in the context of a call for higher education innovation projects for teachers and researchers and is developed along the academic year 2008/2009.