Theses and articles - Cloud Software Program

Benefits of Software Renting in Cloud Business

Published by: TolgaTuncbilek Last modified: 2012.09.19

Arto Ojala

University of Jyväskylä

arto.k.ojala@jyu.fi

Abstract. In the new era of computing, software can be sold and delivered as a cloud service, and software renting has become a strategic tool to compete in the market. In this multi-case study, software renting was found to help the case firms to (i) differentiate themselves from competitors; (ii) increase their competitive advantage by making the software available for a larger customer group, and (iii) decrease the price of software by using centralized software delivery and maintenance.

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Thesis:Applicability of a model based development environment for many-core DSP programming in a large-scale Lean and agile R&D organization

Published by: AriTurunen Last modified: 2012.09.17

The thesis analyzes new model based development tool’s applicability to the Ericsson Finland Lean and agile R&D organization. The development organization consists of tens of developer teams who develop software for embedded carrier grade telecommunication devices.

The focus of the analysis is on tool’s applicability to the organization’s ways of working. The ways of working are based on the Lean and agile software development principles. The tool’s usability is also addressed by the thesis author, but no systematic usability tests were conducted.

The analyzed development tool is designed for many-core DSP development. Ericsson has observed that the DSP development speed has slowed down drastically after the introduction of many-core DSP processor architectures. Thus, the goal of the tool is to fasten the many-core DSP code development by raising the abstraction level of the software artifact.

The telecommunications industry and its nature are explained to present the problem scenario and the demanding industry requirements for the tool. The Lean manufacturing and Lean software development are introduced to give an understanding of the culture embraced within the organization.

The software development processes used in the organization are based on the theories of agile software development. The agile development is introduced with its principles and how they are actually used. The development method for the whole organization follows loosely Scrum, which is scaled on enterprise level. Most of the teams are also using Scrum to support to their task planning and continuous improvement, by executing Scrum meetings such as the daily scrum and retrospectives.

The organization structure is explained with the tool’s different stakeholders, which consists mostly of developer teams. The currently used development environment with the most important tools is presented.

During the case study many effects on way of working were identified, both the negative and the positive. Mostly the negative issues were related to the usability of the tool. One issue identified is the possible long term risk in the modeling tool adaptation. Once an application is designed with the modeling tool, the organization becomes dependent to the tool. Changing the development tool for the application afterwards would be a major effort.

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User Participation in Software Design via Social Media: Experiences from a Case Study with Consumers

Published by: TolgaTuncbilek Last modified: 2012.09.11

Pirjo Näkki
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
pirjo.nakki@vtt.fi
Kaisa Koskela-Huotari
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
kaisa.koskela-huotari@vtt.fi

User participation has proved to have many benefits in software development. The traditional methods for participation rely mainly on face-to-face meetings and are therefore not easily applicable to designing online services targeted at distributed consumers. Social media have become widely used among consumers and could thus offer many opportunities for involving users in software design. We present a case study in which a group of users participated for over six months in the process of designing a new online service via social media tools. The users played an active role in the development of the system, tailoring it to their own needs. Our results show that social media provide real possibilities for user involvement in software design and also shape some elements of the participation process. In social media, user contributions are mainly small and dispersed over time, but users can be involved almost continuously in the design process, thus enabling them to have a more active role in decision-making. Software development practices need to be modified so that small user contributions fit into the process.

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USAGE OF CLOUD SERVICES A Survey for Consumers in USA, Japan and Finland

Published by: TolgaTuncbilek Last modified: 2012.09.11

Kaarina Karppinen, Kaisa Koskela, Timo Koivumäki
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Kaitoväylä 1, 90570 Oulu, Finland
kaarina.karppinen@vtt.fi, kaisa.koskela@vtt.fi, timo.koivumaki@vtt.fi

Keywords: Cloud services, End users, Consumer behaviour, Quantitative method.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine how commonly cloud services are used by consumers around the world and to discover possible differences in cloud service usage within various countries. An online survey was conducted in three countries (Finland, USA and Japan) with more than 3000 respondents. The results show that almost all respondents have used at least some cloud services but the Japanese use them substantially less than the Americans or the Finns. From the five cloud service categories examined in the survey, webmail services are the most commonly used by 91 percent of the respondents. Out of all cloud service examples in our survey Youtube is the most popular one.

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Three User-Driven Innovation Methods for Co-creating Cloud Services

Published by: TolgaTuncbilek Last modified: 2012.09.11

Ting-Ray Chang and Eija Kaasinen
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland,
Tekniikankatu 1, P.O. Box 1300,
FI-33101 Tampere, Finland
{ting-jui.chang,eija.kaasinen}@vtt.fi
Abstract. The role of users in design is changing from one of passive research subjects to one of active co-designers. Users are the best experts of their everyday life experiences, making them great potential sources of innovation. User-driven innovation requires methods by which user ideas can be captured and worked on further with designers. In this paper, we describe our experiences of three different methods to co-create cloud services. Our aim was to innovate with users how open access to telecommunication data such as user location, user profile and usage logs could be utilised in cloud services. The user-driven innovation methods included focus group, crowdsourcing in an open web lab and face-to-face interaction in an open innovation showroom. We compare these three methods and identify the best usage possibilities for each. We propose guidance on selecting user-driven innovation methods based on the available resources and targeted results.

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Three approaches to co-creating services with users

Published by: TolgaTuncbilek Last modified: 2012.09.11

Eija Kaasinen, Kaisa Koskela-Huotari, Veikko Ikonen, Marketta Niemelä and Pirjo Näkki
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
Espoo, Finland
firstname.lastname@vtt.fi
ABSTRACT
The role of users in service design is changing from passive research subjects to active co-designers and content creators. This new direction can be supported with inspiring physical or virtual spaces where users, designers and other actors can meet informally and participate in service design as equals. In this paper we describe three different approaches to co-creation spaces: web-based Owela, physical showroom Ihme, and Living Labs that combine both physical and web elements. We compare these approaches based on the innovation phase they are most suitable for, the methods as well as the strengths and challenges of the approaches. All the three co-creation spaces manage to bring co-creation close to the users’ everyday life. Participation is quite independent of time and in Owela independent of place as well. Users can select their level of contribution, varying from short comments to long-term participation in development projects. Direct designer/user interaction supports turning the designer’s mind-set from technical features to user experience. This facilitates the design of services that are accepted by and interesting to users.

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