Tuomas Mäkilä

How to Define Software-as-a-Service – An Empirical Study of Finnish SaaS Providers

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a relatively new and much hyped model of software delivery where the software is procured as a service over the Internet. We found that there were several different definitions of SaaS. Based on these definitions, we distilled a list of five characteristics that are required for a firm to be considered a SaaS provider. Using survey data from the Finnish software industry, we tested the proposed criteria. Closer examination of the survey indicated the criteria were necessary but not sufficient. Therefore, we extended the criteria to better grasp the phenomenon and tested the changes through a qualitative validation. Also, we found that while a large number of firms are producing software that is technically SaaS, pure SaaS-based business models are much more rare in Finland.

Agile methods for embedded systems development - a literature review and a mapping study

There is a wide area of applications that use embedded systems, and the number of such systems keeps growing. The required functionality and complexity of embedded systems are also constantly increasing, and development of such products is becoming increasingly harder. This requires new thinking on the product development processes, and one such emerging philosophy is the agile methods. These methods were created by the software engineering community where they are commonly used. Since then, they have been adopted in embedded systems development; however, whether they can improve the embedded systems product development processes remains an open question. This study aims to bring forth what is known about agile methods in embedded systems development and to find out if agile practices are suitable in this domain and what evidence is there to support the findings. We conducted a literature review and a mapping study to answer these questions. The scope of this study is not only limited to embedded software development, but also to embedded hardware and integrated circuits. We have found that agile methods can be used in the embedded domain, but the methods and practices need to be adapted to suit the more constrained field of embedded product development. Furthermore, the field of embedded product development has wide diversity of products with different needs and domain-specific problems so that no single method is applicable, but rather many methods and practices are needed for different situations.

Revenue Models of Application Developers in Android Market Ecosystem

Mobile application ecosystems have growth rapidly in the past few years. Increasing number of startups and established developers are alike offering their products in different marketplaces such as Android Market and Apple App Store. In this paper, we are studying revenue models used in Android Market. For analysis, we gathered the data of 351,601 applications from their public pages at the marketplace. From these, a random sample of 100 applications was used in a qualitative study of revenue streams. The results indicate that a part of the marketplace can be explained with traditional models but free applications use complex revenue models. Basing on the qualitative analysis, we identified four general business strategy categories for further studies.

Agile principles in the embedded system development

Agile manifesto with its four values and 12 principles provides widely accepted definition of agile. Agile methods have been actively used in software engineering and other fields are starting to utilize agile development methods as well. Embedded system development combines software, hardware and mechanical engineering activities and thus has some characteristics and constrains which are not found in pure software engineering. These constraints have earlier been described to be leading to some reinterpretation of agile practices. However, understanding how these constraints affect the applicability of agile philosophy in embedded domain has not yet been systematically analyzed. Here we will discuss about agile methods and its applicability in embedded system development through the 12 principles of agile manifesto. We aim to capture the philosophy of agile rather than only individual practices, by presenting redefined principles for embedded system development.

Impact of Serious Games on Health and Well-being of Elderly: A Systematic Review

Besides their entertainment value, serious games can have beneficial therapeutic effects for elderly people that improve their health and well-being. Games are likely to be accepted by elderly persons who have enjoyed games their lives, and because there are more and more of such elderly, it is important to investigate games as a therapeutic device. This research reviewed the literature focusing on the effects of games on elderly persons in three main types of effects: physical, cognitive, and social effects. The majority of reviewed papers focused on physical and cognitive effects, and were published in recent years, which emphasizes the relative novelty of this topic and suggests that future research will need to address social impact as well. In addition, while many papers claimed positive impacts as a result of using games, our review found that more attention should be given to research designs.

Agile methods in embedded system development

Examines three cases on applying agile practices into embedded system development.Visibility of work and system-wide understanding increased.Improved communication diminished the need for internal documentation.Slow hardware development and specialization of team members challenged agile methods.If not possible to present working product, visualize the progress in other ways. Agile methods are widely utilized in software development but their usage in embedded system development is often limited to software. A case study of three industrial cases was carried out to understand how to tailor agile methods effectively including also hardware development.Agile practices, mostly derived from Scrum, were tailored to fit the needs of each team and the method development was closely followed. Surveys conducted in the beginning and in the end of the cases were compared and complemented with interviews to understand the new working methods and their effects.Case evidence shows that interdependencies between work of each developer were taken into account better, visibility over the whole product increased and need for internal documentation diminished due to improved communication, but dividing hardware tasks into iterations was experienced difficult. With some tailoring, agile practices are beneficial also in the embedded system development.To successfully adopt agile methods into embedded system development, the team must consist of all the project members, the natural cycle lengths of different disciplines and different knowledge between the developers must be accepted and built upon, and the progress of the product must be presented or visualized in the end of each iteration.

Developer Driven Approach to Situational Method Engineering

This position paper reflects SME into software development. We argue that to apply SME in software development projects, construction of method fragments should also take place during the project by the method users. The topic is current due to two key technologies, EPF and SPEM, that enable illustrative and prompt method construction. The paper looks at the relevant background in both SME and software development processes, identifies four levels of method management work, discusses the method reuse strategy, and presents an example of on-the-fly method construction.

Examining User Experience in an Augmented Reality Adventure Game: Case Luostarinmäki Handicrafts Museum

In this paper we examine the user experience test results of Augmented Reality Adventure Game designed to Finnish Cultural Heritage Site Luostarinmaki Handicrafts Museum in Turku and discuss about the possible and preferable content, development and economic decisions and guidelines for augmented reality applications for museum and Cultural heritage sites.

Can embedded space system development benefit from agile practices

We study in this work piloting agile practices in embedded space system development projects. The case involves three companies acting as last or next to last subcontractors in a space project.Initial interviews and a subsequent survey revealed challenges that embedded space system development poses to the agile software development. These include high specialization and emphasis on individual performance, formal customer interface requiring extensive documentation, and the management of several simultaneous projects.Iterative way of working is characteristic to agile systems development, but novel to the examined project teams. We observed that it enhanced team collaboration through planning and reviewing the work together and in transferring emphasis from the individuals to the team. Resource allocation between projects was taken properly into account when planning the iteration, or when cancelling an iteration for the project. Furthermore, the customer interface was tackled better by utilizing backlogs.According to the end survey and interviews, the main benefits of the agile practices were better communication and knowledge sharing inside the team, enhanced teamwork, and setting the pace for the sometimes slowly proceeding embedded space system development. Also documentation, while it barely changed, was seen more adequate in two of the cases. Overall, the teams felt that they were given a better possibility to affect their ways of working.The case study results show that agile practices can be applied to embedded space system development with notable benefits.

Reforming the representation of the reformation: Mixed reality narratives in communicating tangible and intangible heritage of the protestant reformation in Finland

This paper introduces a case in which cultural heritage is communicated by combining historical narrative with Mixed Reality (MR) technology. The art of representing intangible heritage and making abstract and complex transformations comprehensible with MR technology is being discussed through a case example. MR application Sanan seppä (“Wordsmith”) represents the history of the Protestant Reformation in Finland (1527 onwards). The application has been implemented inside the Turku Cathedral in Southwest Finland. The application offers a set of short scenes appearing in different places inside the Cathedral. Technically, the app runs in a tablet computer, and it is based on a 3D game engine. Bluetooth beacons are used for coarse positioning, and 3D point cloud technology is applied for markerless tracking. The app supports social media services and includes links to background information about the characters and events within the story. We argue that MR technology is more than well suitable for communicating both tangible and intangible cultural heritage. In our case example we examine how different kinds of cultural heritage connected with the reformation can be visualized and made more comprehensible. In practice, this means combining the Turku Cathedral, objects within it and digital elements with MR enables showing how the reformation has affected both Finnish culture and material surroundings. The changes inside a church space — the tangible proof of changes brought by reformation — are rather easy to depict but even more immaterial things like customs or opinions can be made visible. With the help of the 3D characters the Sanan seppä application shows how the reformation could have affected the everyday life of people from different backgrounds. Thus the MR application makes the past appear more polyphonic than in more traditional ways of mediating the past. Reference material from various sources has been used when creating the application, and users of the application are provided with information about the sources used.