Eloy Gonzalez

Large-scale smart grids as system of systems

Smart Grids are advanced power networks that introduce intelligent management, control, and operation systems to address the new challenges generated by the growing energy demand and the appearance of renewal energies. In the literature, Smart Grids are presented as an exemplar SoS: systems composed of large heterogeneous and independent systems that leverage emergent behavior from their interaction. Smart Grids are currently scaling up the electricity service to millions of customers. These Smart Grids are known as Large-Scale Smart Grids. From the experience in several projects about Large-Scale Smart Grids, this paper defines Large-Scale Smart Grids as a SoS that integrate a set of SoS and conceptualizes the properties of this SoS. In addition, the paper defines the architectural framework for deploying the software architectures of Large-Scale Smart Grid SoS.

ENERGOS: Integral smart grid management

The smart grid revolution demands a huge effort redesigning and enhancing current power networks, as well as integrating emerging scenarios such as distributed generation, renewable energies and the electric vehicle. This novel scenario will present a huge flood of data that can be only handled, processed, and exploited with the help of cutting-edge ICT technologies. We present here the ENERGOS project that fully addresses this evolution, and detail accurately how it will deal with the challenges posed by the smart grid paradigm.

An exploratory study in communication in Agile Global Software Development

Global software development (GSD) is gaining ever more relevance. Although communication is key in the exchange of information between team members, multi-site software development has introduced additional obstacles (different time-zones and cultures, IT infrastructure, etc.) and delays into the act of communication, which is already problematic. Communication is even more critical in the case of Agile Global Software Development (AGSD) in which communication plays a primary role. This paper reports an exploratory study of the effects of tools supporting communication in AGSD. More precisely, this paper analyses the perception of team members about communication infrastructures in AGSD. The research question to which this study responds concerns how development teams perceive the communication infrastructure while developing products using agile methodologies. Most previous studies have dealt with communication support from a highly technological media tool perspective. In this research work, instead, observations were obtained from three perspectives: communication among team members, communication of the status of the development process, and communication of the status of the progress of the product under development. It has been possible to show that team members perceive advantages to using media tools that make them feel in practice that teams are co-located, such as smartboards supported by efficient video-tools, and combining media tools with centralized repository tools, with information from the process development and product characteristics, that allow distributed teams to effectively share information about the status of the project/process/product during the development process in order to overcome some of the still existing problems in communication in AGSD.

Communication in Agile Global Software Development: An Exploratory Study

Agile Global Software Development is gaining relevance and importance. While communication is key for exchanging information between team members, multi-site software development introduces additional obstacles and delays. This paper reports an exploratory study on the impact of infrastructure on communication. Although this topic has been a subject of interest many issues remain unaddressed. In this paper we address both team member communication and the combination of project and product development. One of the main conclusions is that communication can be improved if tool infrastructure combine different levels of information i.e. team members, project status and product status. The use of simple tools, such as Vsee in SmartBoards is useful for reducing distance between sites. Dependency on bandwidth is not a new issue but is still relevant.

Big Data Value Engineering for Business Model Innovation

Big data value engineering for business model innovation requires a drastically different approach as compared with methods for engineering value under existing business models. Taking a Design Science approach, we conducted an exploratory study to formulate the requirements for a method to aid in engineering value via innovation. We then developed a method, called Eco-ARCH (EcoARCHitecture) for value discovery. This method is tightly integrated with the BDD (Big Data Design) method for value realization, to form a big data value engineering methodology for addressing these requirements. The Eco-ARCH approach is most suitable for the big data context where system boundaries are fluid, requirements are ill-defined, many stakeholders are unknown, design goals are not provided, no central architecture pre-exists, system behavior is non-deterministic and continuously evolving, and co-creation with consumers and prosumers is essential to achieving innovation goals. The method was empirically validated in collaboration with an IT service company in the Electric Power industry.