Software based systems incrementally provide critical services to users. Mobile telephone systems, for example, are used in circumstances in which the malfunctioning may have disastrous consequences.
During the last years, software has been incorporated in devices used in daily life,…

In spite of years of research and development, formal structured estimation of time and effort required to develop a Management Information System (MIS) is still an open problem. Usual estimation techniques applied by now are supported by the not so…

In today’s world, in both the public or private organizations, there exists the problem that the organizations have to create value, are changing, but the tools to measure them are not. On the other hand, in the current economy, the…

Numerical Taxonomy aims to group in clusters, using so-called structure analysis of operational taxonomic units (OTUs or taxons or taxa) through numerical methods.
These clusters constitute families. Structural analysis, based on their phenotypic characteristics, exhibits the relationships, in terms of…

The Standardization of a development process for systems of medium complexity, entirely supported by an integrated development environment, could mean a double contribution to the industry of systems development. On the one hand it would contribute to the reduction of…

Using COTS software promises faster time-to-market, which can yield substantial advantages over competitors with regards to earlier placement of a new product on a market. At the same time, component-based software introduces risks, such as unknown quality properties of the…

During the last years a lot of projects and lines of research have emerged from different proposals trying to find the best way to reach data integration. Two powerful techniques have appeared separately – ontology and contextual information – in…

The star model, broadly used in data warehouse modeling, is a logical model, so its representation is strongly dependent on the database technology used for its implementation, usually relational. The method recommended for designing a dimensional system would be the…

In a scene where stakeholders are geographically distributed, communication presents new challenges for research areas. Considering the characteristics of interpersonal communication and the virtual area where it is carried out, the importance of applying interdisciplinary approaches, such as Cognitive Engineering,…

The structured techniques for systems analysis and design are still the most widely known. One of the alternatives of this technique is the JAD methodology (Joint Application Design). This methodology is an improvement with respect to the existing ones -…