Wolfram Pietsch

QFD for customer-focused requirements engineering

Here an overview of the state of the art of QFD in software development or also called software QFD is given. The differences between classic QFD in manufacturing industries and software QFD are described. Following certain software specific QFD models (Zultner, Shindo, Ohmori, Herzwurm and Schockert), which can be considered as the most appreciated ones in theory as well as in practice, are introduced. Experiences in practice with these software QFD models are presented as well. Finally, through explaining the main principles of a special QFD variant for e-commerce, called continuous QFD (CQFD), we will show that QFD is suitable for planning electronic business applications as well.

Guidelines for the Analysis of IT Business Models and Strategic Positioning of IT-Products

Depending on the perspectives and the stage within the life cycle IT product are viewed and managed differently. A model is presented that integrates different perspectives and stages serving as an aid for the analysis of business models purposeful and focused positioning of IT-products. Four generic business models are analysed with regard to the product management function in general and the positioning field for IT-products specifically: off-the-shelf, license plus service, project, and system service.

Customer-Oriented specification and evaluation of IT service level agreements

Service Level Agreements (SLA) are used to determine required and actual performance of IT departments. According to current research and practice, SLA definitions are based on technical performance criteria that may be captured easily such as ‘system availability’; the specific needs of the IT system are not considered explicitly. Hence, high system performance does not lead to high customer satisfaction in practice. A methodology based on Quality Function Deployment (QFD) for the customer-oriented specification of SLAs for IT Services is presented and validated in a case study. At first, elementary service requirements of the customers must be separated from service functions and technical performance criteria. Then performance requirements are correlated with performance criteria and evaluated with regard to effectiveness. A case study employing the method is presented and finally, strategic options for the improvement and positioning of IT Services in an organisation are discussed.

Konnektionistische Tourenplanung für die Dezentrale Vertriebsaussendienststeuerung

Die Aufstellung effizienter Tourenplane stellt eine wichtige Aufgabe im Rahmen der industriellen Vertriebslogistik dar. Der dezentrale Einsatz konventioneller Tourenplanungssysteme war bisher, u.a. wegen der hohen technischen Anforderungen, nicht moglich. Kon-nektionistische Verfahren ermoglichen die effiziente Losung spezifischer Anwendungsprobleme, die weder mit konventionellen Algorithmen noch mit Expertensystemen befriedigend gelost wurden; sie zeichnen sich u.a. durch (quasi-) parallele Verarbeitung, ein gutes Naherungsverhalten und Lernfahigkeit aus. Es werden Vorteile und Einsatzmoglichkeiten konnektionistischer Verfahren fur die Tourenplanung verdeutlicht und ein Prototyp eines konnektionistischen Softwaresystems vorgestellt. Bei einem kundenorientierten Ansatz ist neben den logistischen Restriktionen der relative Wert des personlichen Kundenbesuchs (abhangig vom Umsatzpotential und der ublichen Besuchsfrequenz) zu berucksichtigen.

A Framework for Strategic Positioning of IT-Products

IT Products are viewed and managed differently depending on the perspectives and the stage within the life cycle. A model is presented that integrates different perspectives and stages serving as an aid for the analysis of business models and focused positioning of IT-products. Four generic business models are analysed with regard to the product management function in general and the positioning field for IT-products specifically: off-the-shelf (license), license plus service, project, and system service (incl. cloud computing).

Modeling Knowledge about Long-term IS Integration and Integration-oriented Reengineering with KADS

In today’s enterprises, many old information systems (IS) are in use. Maintenance costs can easily account for the major portions of IS budgets. Further problems arise from lack of data integration and lack of functional integration, leading to redundancies and inconsistencies. This state of affairs can be improved by reengineering old IS and gradually integrating them into modern distributed environments. During this long-term process, many risks have to be dealt with. To treat risk explicitly, Boehm’s spiral model can be employed but generally it requires experienced professionals. In this paper, we propose a knowledge-based approach to risk management. Knowledge models based on KADS methodology are presented in order to facilitate application of the spiral model.

Vergleich konnektionistischer Modelle und konventioneller Optimierungsverfahren am Beispiel der Maschinenbelegungsplanung

Fur die Erstellung von Maschinenbelegungsplanen wurden im Operations Research aufwendige Optimierungsverfahren konzipiert und entsprechende Programme entwickelt. Maschinenbelegungsprobleme sind klassische Vertreter der Klasse der np-vollstandigen Probleme, also sichere Kandidaten fur kombinatorische Explosion der Losungsalternativen. Deshalb ist der Einsatz konventioneller Planungssysteme wegen der hohen Rechneranforderungen der gangigen Verfahren an die Hardware oft nicht praktikabel.