Marko Heikkinen

MANAGED FORMATION PROCESS OF R&D NETWORKS

Because of fundamental changes in the competitive environment, the amount of resources and knowledge needed in research and development (R&D) activities has become overwhelming for a single organisation. Moreover, new technologies create lucrative new possibilities for new service development, which are out of reach for a single organisation. Thus, there is a strong need to perform R&D activities in networks. This study increases the understanding of R&D networks by presenting an empirically grounded process model of the formation of such networks. The model has three main elements: the initial conditions, the role of network webber and the sub-processes through which the formation progresses. The process model highlights the importance of the network webber both in triggering the formation process and in managing the process. Moreover, the model suggests a view of the process that is overlapping and iterative, i.e., the sub-processes of enabling the network, acquiring actors, assuring continuity, formal structuring, learning and developing commitment do not follow each other in a certain order.

Virtual reality prototyping-a framework for the development of electronics and telecommunication products

Virtual reality prototyping is a promising technology that combines the virtual reality approach to advanced modeling, simulation and user interface techniques. The technology adjoins development models of different engineering disciplines to an executable simulation model of a product. A designer, or a customer, can see, touch, hear and operate a future product before its physical implementation with lower cost and effort than earlier. In this paper, the virtual reality prototyping research in the field of consumer electronics and telecommunications is described. The possibilities and benefits of the technology are presented, and a process and research environment for the development of virtual prototypes is introduced. The environment is demonstrated with a public pilot case-a pen-like wireless cellular phone interface device. Finally, the possibilities of virtual reality prototyping as a comprehensive design framework, including software and hardware simulation features, are considered and the future work is described.

Benefits and challenges of new mobile service development in R&D network

The competitive environment of organizations has changed remarkably in line with rapid technological development and globalization of markets. This has lead to a situation where the amount of resources and knowledge needed in the development of new offerings has become overwhelming for a single organization. Consequently, nowadays organizations—both commercial and non-commercial—are performing research and development activities in networks consisting of multiple types of actors. This is also the case in industries developing new services for consumers’ mobile handhelds. This paper introduces a network view to new mobile service development and argues that a thorough understanding of acting in the network environment is a pre-requisite for successful mobile service creation. This viewpoint is emphasized in an information-rich case study, which describes the formation and operations of a network, which created a new mobile service for a sports team.

Graphical animation as a form of prototyping real-time software systems

An analysis of prototyping of embedded Real-Time Systems by means of graphical animation techniques is presented. We analyze the fundamental characteristics of prototyping and their relation to animation mechanisms. We show that animation strongly inherits certain benefits of prototyping while at the same time animation is able to alleviate some of the drawbacks of prototyping. A survey of known visualization techniques for real-time system animation is presented with an assessment to their relative strengths and weaknesses. Finally, the animation approach taken in Esprit project no. 5570, IPTES, is described. Our approach is unique in enabling animation of heterogeneous system models, i.e., combinations of submodels belonging to different levels of abstraction.

IDERS: an integrated environment for the development of hard real-time systems

IDERS is a new generation environment for developing real time critical systems. It integrates specification, design and code within a single framework, provides support for incremental prototyping and allows early validation through testing and animation. The system is based on a kernel that eliminates ambiguities and supplies dynamic semantic checks. Customization facilities allow one to tailor the environment to specific notations, preserving the benefits of the formal kernel. The software process is modeled by a process centered software engineering environment that guarantees the complete visibility of both the development process and the evolving products. The IDERS project supplies a specific process model inspired by B. Boehms spiral life cycle model (1988).

Business networks and new mobile service development

Nowadays both companies and research & training institutes share a strong need to perform research and development activities in networks. Because of drastic changes in the competitive environment the amount of resources and knowledge needed in the development of new offerings has become overwhelming for a single organization. This is also the case in organizations developing new mobile services. This empirically grounded paper introduces a network view to new mobile service development and argues that more attention should be placed on collaborative actions in creating new mobile services. An information rich case study of this paper introduces a collaborative network developing a new mobile service for the supporters of a sports team. The case study is used to describe the development and operation of new service developing network.

Visualisation of real-time software in host-based simulation environment

In the development of complex real time systems, design flaws often become visible only during the integration phase. This causes delays in the delivery of the product and compromises its quality, because, for efficient integration testing, a major part of the system has to be implemented. Tool support in the target hardware environment may also be inadequate for detecting the causes of errors. An approach of smoothing the transition from design models of real time software to actual implementations is proposed. It is based on simulating the target environment and operating system in the host workstation where the design takes place. The Implementation Animator (IA) is a tool for visualisation and testing of embedded real time software. It is a part of the IDERS toolset that facilitates integrated validation of heterogeneous system models consisting of executable specifications, design models and the final code.

Executable Object-Oriented Graphical Models of Real-Time Software

Specifications and design languages based on graphi- cal notations are becoming an important part of the real-time system design process. Graphical animation enables the designer to validate designs before actual system construction and improves communication and teamwork in real-time software development projects. In recent years the use of object-orien,ted methods in software specification and design has spread widely. The object-oriented design methods provide a firm platform for system design as systems get larger and more complex. However, the applicability of object- oriented design methods to real-time software develop- ment is not so straight-forward. Dynamic behaviour and timzng aspects are no2 well supported by exist- ing object-oriented design techniques. We describe our initial experiences in overcoming these deficiencies with the approach of executable object-oriented speci- fication and design models and graphical visualisation of behaviour.

Visualised real-time operating system simulation in a heterogeneous prototyping environment

Understanding the behaviour of a complex real-time system is often a trying task for designers and implementors. The debugging tools of the target platform may be primitive, which makes the overall validation of the system laborious. Quite often the initial validation activities are moved to the development workstation where the development tool support is better. The Implementation Animator (IA) is a tool for visualization and testing of embedded real-time software in the workstation environment. It contains the simulation of a complete real-time operating system with detailed animation of the application behaviour as well as the operating system internals.

Balancing Risks in Quality-Driven Design

Balancing risks versus advantages of using new but untried technology is often encountered in product design. Using the newest technology holds significant advantages in terms of performance, cost, or miniaturization. However, new technology often suffe..