Juan Manuel Luzuriaga

Trends on COTS component identification

Identification of COTS candidates is a complex activity itself. It implies not only dealing with an impressive number of possible candidates but also with unstructured information that requires a careful analysis. In this context, some proposals currently use description logics to develop an ontology for matching requested and provided services, or propose taxonomies for classification; others suggest extending the identification stage with a learning phase, which provides support to the COTS component discovery process. In this paper, we present common features and differences among some of these proposals, identifying relevant issues for COTS component classification and identification in the near future.

Electronic notification of court documents: a case study

The issues concerning judicial statements focus on the frequency with which they are issued and the manner in which people are -- or are not -- notified. Nowadays, technology offers the justice-media relationship many opportunities; and electronic notification rises as a common media for communication. However establishing a trustable procedure is not usually easy. In this context, the Court of Neuquén, Argentina, has proposed a pilot project to permit the notification of court documents electronically, in a system that replaces the existing paper filing system. The purpose of the project is to increase the efficiency of serving documents, to decrease cost without hindering transaction safety. To do so, the process schema is supported by a process improvement framework, which includes a well-established electronic signature procedure. In this paper, we describe the electronic notification schema and illustrate with a case study. Discussion is addressed to draw risks and lessons identified when managing the pilot project.

Setting SPI practices in Latin America: an exploratory case study in the justice area

Little is understood about which factors affect a software process improvement (SPI) initiative in a governmental organization and how the organizations environment determines these factors. This lack of understanding can inhibit SPI initiatives in organizations that find themselves too small for formal SPI models or standards. The main objective of our project is to investigate whether the recommendations of a Latin American SPI model -- Competi Soft -- would be useful for a middle-ranged governmental organization. In this paper, we introduce a case study, where customer satisfaction is improved. Our preliminary experience indicates that customer satisfaction might be significantly increased by incorporating supporting processes.

Design and implementation of an electronic signature solution in the Justice Area

The real value of electronic signatures is not in their application to software products but in the level of security and trust they provide in a process. They should be able to provide identification of a sender and at the same time, they should be easy to use, and meet all legal and regulatory requirements as indicated by the legislation. It is obvious that electronic signatures offer a wide range of advantages to a government organization; however, their implementation needs to carefully consider what features are best suited to the specific needs of organizations. In this paper, we introduce a case study in the Justice Area where trust and better productivity were the important features to be supported. We draw some recommendations from the case study by addressing previous requirements, as well as social and managerial issues.

Improving Resource Management: Lessons from a Case Study in a Middle-Range Governmental Organization

AbstrAct In BLOCKINorganizational BLOCKINstudies, BLOCKINresource BLOCKINmanagement BLOCKINis BLOCKINthe BLOCKINefficient BLOCKINand BLOCKINeffective BLOCKINdeployment BLOCKINof BLOCKINan BLOCKINorga-nizations BLOCKINresources BLOCKINwhen BLOCKINthey BLOCKINare BLOCKINneeded. BLOCKINSuch BLOCKINresources BLOCKINmay BLOCKINinclude BLOCKINfinancial BLOCKINresources, BLOCKINinventory, human skills, production resources, or information technology. Usually small organizations have to carry out these activities themselves because they cannot yet afford part-or full-time help. However, they should always ensure that policies that conform to current regulations are applied. This is especially true for middle-ranged governmental organizations. In this chapter, we discuss a case study where resource management was addressed through recommendations of a process improvement model called MoProSoft. We illustrate the resource management procedure and we draw some lessons learned from the case study.