Agile software development approaches have had significant impact on industrial software development practices. Today, agile software development has penetrated to most IT companies across the globe, with an intention to increase quality, productivity, and profitability. Comprehensive knowledge is needed to understand the architectural challenges involved in adopting and using agile approaches and industrial practices to deal with the development of large, architecturally challenging systems in an agile way.

"Agile Software Architecture" focuses on gaps in the requirements of applying architecture-centric approaches and principles of agile software development and demystifies the agile architecture paradox. Readers will learn how agile and architectural cultures can co-exist and support each other according to the context. Moreover, this book will also provide useful leads for future research in architecture and agile to bridge such gaps by developing appropriate approaches that incorporate architecturally sound practices in agile methods.
Presents a consolidated view of the state-of-art and state-of-practice as well as the newest research findings Identifies gaps in the requirements of applying architecture-centric approaches and principles of agile software development and demystifies the agile architecture paradox Explains whether or not and how agile and architectural cultures can co-exist and support each other depending upon the context Provides useful leads for future research in both architecture and agile to bridge such gaps by developing appropriate approaches, which incorporate architecturally sound practices in agile methods

Method engineering is a very young field. Generally, method engineering can be considered from engineering of an entire methodology for information systems development to engineering of modeling techniques according to project requirements. Computer aided method engineering is about generation and use of information systems design techniques according to user needs. Some times such environments are called generic tools or MetaCASE. Computer-Aided Method Engineering: Designing Case Repositories for the 21st Century presents a contribution on a methodology and architecture of a CASE repository, forwarding a theory that will bring about the component based development into CASE tool design and development covering a repository construction principle for the 21st century.

"Information Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage with Data" is about making smart decisions to make the most of company information. Expert author William McKnight develops the value proposition for information in the enterprise and succinctly outlines the numerous forms of data storage. "Information Management" will enlighten you, challenge your preconceived notions, and help activate information in the enterprise. Get the big picture on managing data so that your team can make smart decisions by understanding how everything from workload allocation to data stores fits together.

The practical, hands-on guidance in this book includes:

Part 1: The importance of information management and analytics to business, and how data warehouses are used Part 2: The technologies and data that advance an organization, and extend data warehouses and related functionality Part 3: Big Data and NoSQL, and how technologies like Hadoop enable management of new forms of data Part 4: Pulls it all together, while addressing topics of agile development, modern business intelligence, and organizational change management

Read the book cover-to-cover, or keep it within reach for a quick and useful resource. Either way, this book will enable you to master all of the possibilities for data or the broadest view across the enterprise.
Balances business and technology, with non-product-specific technical detailShows how to leverage data to deliver ROI for a businessEngaging and approachable, with practical advice on the pros and cons of each domain, so that you learn how information fits together into a complete architecture Provides a path for the data warehouse professional into the new normal of heterogeneity, including NoSQL solutions

An application administrator installs, updates, optimizes, debugs and otherwise maintains computer applications for an organization. In most cases, these applications have been licensed from a third party, but they may have been developed internally. Examples of application types include enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer resource management (CRM), and point of sale (POS), legal contract management, time tracking, accounts payable/receivable, payroll, SOX compliance tracking, budgeting, forecasting and training. In many cases, the organization is absolutely dependent that these applications be kept running. The importance of application administrators and the level to which organizations depend upon them is easily overlooked.

"Application Administrators Handbook" provides an overview of every phase of administering an application, from working with the vendor before installation, the installation process itself, importing data into the application, handling upgrades, working with application users to report problems, scheduling backups, automating tasks that need to be done on a repetitive schedule, and finally retiring an application. It provides detailed, hands-on instructions on how to perform many specific tasks that an application administrator must be able to handle.
Learn how to install, administer and maintain key software applications throughout the product life cycleGet detailed, hands-on instructions on steps that should be takenbefore installing or upgrading an application to ensure continuous operationIdentify repetitive tasks and find out how they can be automated, thereby saving valuable timeUnderstand the latest on government mandates and regulations, such as privacy, SOX, HIPAA, PCI, andFISMA and how to fully comply"

As new technologies and professional profiles emerge, traditional education paradigms have to be adapted to new scenarios, creating favorable conditions for promoting transversal skills among students. Consequently, there is a growing demand for training in emergent skills to solve problems of different natures, distributive leadership competencies, empathy, ability to control emotions, etc. In this sense, one of the challenges that educators of all different educational levels and training contexts have to face is to foster these skills in their courses. To overcome these obstacles, innovative and disruptive methodologies, such as game-based learning activities like escape rooms, can be a great ally for teachers to work on transversal skills and specific knowledge at the same time. Using Disruptive Methodologies and Game-Based Learning to Foster Transversal Skills gathers knowledge, skills, abilities, and capabilities on innovative and disruptive methodologies that can be applied in all educational levels to foster transversal skills. This publication contains different contributions focused on the description of innovative educational methods, processes, and tools that can be adopted by teachers to promote transversal skills such as creativity, critical thinking, decision-making, and entrepreneurial skills. This book is ideal for teachers, instructional designers, educational software developers, academics, professionals, students, and researchers working at all levels in the educational field and provides valuable background information to professionals who aim to overcome traditional paradigm obstacles and meet student needs by means of innovative and disruptive methodologies.

"Credible Checklists and Quality Questionnaires"starts off with an examination of the critical but commonly overlooked checklist method.

In the second chapter, questionnaires and surveys are discussed. Asking questions sounds simple, but the hard truth is that asking questions (and designing questionnaires) is a difficult task. This chapter discusses being mindful of the choice of words, order of questions and how early questions influence later questions, answer scales and how they impact the user response, questionnaire design, and much more.

The final chapter provides examples of some common questionnaires (both free and fee-based) for assessing the usability of products.

After reading this book, readers will be able to use these user design tools with greater confidence and certainty."

As organizations and research institutions continue to emphasize model-driven engineering (MDE) as a first-class approach in the software development process of complex systems, the utilization of software in multiple domains and professional networks is becoming increasingly vital. Advances and Applications in Model-Driven Engineering explores this relatively new approach in software development that can increase the level of abstraction of development of tasks. This publication covers the issues of bridging the gaps between various disciplines within software engineering and computer science. Professionals, researchers, and students will discover the most current tools and techniques available in the field to maximize efficiency of model-driven software development.

In recent years, swarm intelligence has become a popular computational approach among researchers working on optimization problems throughout the globe. Several algorithms inside swarm intelligence have been implemented due to their application to real-world issues and other advantages. A specific procedure, Fireworks Algorithm, is an emerging method that studies the explosion process of fireworks within local areas. Applications of this developing program are undiscovered, and research is necessary for scientists to fully understand the workings of this innovative system. The Handbook of Research on Fireworks Algorithms and Swarm Intelligence is a pivotal reference source that provides vital research on theory analysis, improvements, and applications of fireworks algorithm. While highlighting topics such as convergence rate, parameter applications, and global optimization analysis, this publication explores up-to-date progress on the specific techniques of this algorithm. This book is ideally designed for researchers, data scientists, mathematicians, engineers, software developers, postgraduates, and academicians seeking coverage on this evolutionary computation method.

Although the majority of information that is published by the current web is aimed at human consumption, the browsers which contain this information are only able to interpret HTML mark-up to visualize this content. Semantic web intends to address the stability between human and machine. Advancing Information Management through Semantic Web Concepts and Ontologies provides an analysis and introduction on the concept of combining the areas of semantic web and web mining. Emphasizing semantics in technologies, reasoning, content searching and social media, this book aims to be an essential source for practitioners, researchers and academics alike.

Formal and Practical Aspects of Domain-Specific Languages: Recent Developments is a collection of academic works containing current research on all aspects of domain-specific language. This book is a comprehensive overview in the computer language field and aims to be essential for scholars and practitioners in the software engineering fields by providing new results and answers to open problems in DSL research.

Since its first volume in 1960, Advances in Computers has presented detailed coverage of innovations in computer hardware, software, theory, design, and applications. It has also provided contributors with a medium in which they can explore their subjects in greater depth and breadth than journal articles usually allow. As a result, many articles have become standard references that continue to be of sugnificant, lasting value in this rapidly expanding field.
In-depth surveys and tutorials on new computer technologyWell-known authors and researchers in the fieldExtensive bibliographies with most chaptersMany of the volumes are devoted to single themes or subfields of computer science

Culture is dependent upon intertextuality to fuel the consumption and production of new media. The notion of intertextuality has gone through many iterations, but what remains constant is its stalwart application to bring to light what audiences value through the marriages of disparate ideology and references. Videogames, in particular, have a longstanding tradition of weaving texts together in multimedia formats that interact directly with players. Contemporary Research on Intertextuality in Video Games brings together game scholars to analyze the impact of video games through the lenses of transmediality, intermediality, hypertextuality, architextuality, and paratextuality. Unique in its endeavor, this publication discusses the vast web of interconnected texts that feed into digital games and their players. This book is essential reading for game theorists, designers, sociologists, and researchers in the fields of communication sciences, literature, and media studies.

Coinduction is a method for specifying and reasoning about infinite data types and automata with infinite behaviour. In recent years, it has come to play an ever more important role in the theory of computing. It is studied in many disciplines, including process theory and concurrency, modal logic and automata theory. Typically, coinductive proofs demonstrate the equivalence of two objects by constructing a suitable bisimulation relation between them. This collection of surveys is aimed at both researchers and Master's students in computer science and mathematics and deals with various aspects of bisimulation and coinduction, with an emphasis on process theory. Seven chapters cover the following topics: history, algebra and coalgebra, algorithmics, logic, higher-order languages, enhancements of the bisimulation proof method, and probabilities. Exercises are also included to help the reader master new material.

With today's technological advancements, the evolution of software has led to various challenges regarding mass markets and crowds. High quality processing must be capable of handling large groups in an efficient manner without error. Solutions that have been applied include artificial intelligence and natural language processing, but extensive research in this area has yet to be undertaken. Crowdsourcing and Probabilistic Decision-Making in Software Engineering: Emerging Research and Opportunities is a pivotal reference source that provides vital research on the application of crowd-based software engineering and supports software engineers who want to improve the manner in which software is developed by increasing the accuracy of probabilistic reasoning to support their decision-making and getting automation support. While highlighting topics such as modeling techniques and programming practices, this publication is ideally designed for software developers, software engineers, computer engineers, executives, professionals, and researchers.