As a collection of ideas and methodologies, systems thinking has made an impact in organizations and in particular in the information systems field. However, this main emphasis on organizations limits the scope of systems thinking and practice. There is a need first to use systems thinking in addressing societal problems, and second to enable people involved in developing the information society to reflect on the impacts of systems and technologies in society as a whole. Thus, there are opportunities to review the scope and potential of systems thinking and practice to deal with information society-related issues.

Systems Practice in the Information Society provides students of information systems as well as practicing Inofrmation Systems managers with concepts and strategies to enable them to understand and use systems thinking methodologies and address challenges posed by the development of information-based societies. This book brings experiences, ideas, and applications of systemic thinking in designing and evaluating socio-technological initiatives. Using a number of cultural contexts, this book explores how organizations, including governments, can enable better access to information and communication technologies and improve the quality of life of individuals.

As a collection of ideas and methodologies, systems thinking has made an impact in organizations and in particular in the information systems field. However, this main emphasis on organizations limits the scope of systems thinking and practice. There is a need first to use systems thinking in addressing societal problems, and second to enable people involved in developing the information society to reflect on the impacts of systems and technologies in society as a whole. Thus, there are opportunities to review the scope and potential of systems thinking and practice to deal with information society-related issues.

Systems Practice in the Information Society provides students of information systems as well as practicing Inofrmation Systems managers with concepts and strategies to enable them to understand and use systems thinking methodologies and address challenges posed by the development of information-based societies. This book brings experiences, ideas, and applications of systemic thinking in designing and evaluating socio-technological initiatives. Using a number of cultural contexts, this book explores how organizations, including governments, can enable better access to information and communication technologies and improve the quality of life of individuals.

VerilogA(R) Quickstart is a basic, practical, introductory textbook for professionals and students alike. This book explains how a designer can be more effective through the use of the Verilog hardware description language to simulate and document a design. By understanding simulation, a designer can simulate a design to see if a design works before it is built. This gives the designer an opportunity to try different ideas. Documentation allows a designer to maintain and reuse a design more easily. Verilog's intrinsic hierarchical modularity enables the designer to easily reuse portions of the design as intellectual property' or macro-cells'. VerilogA(R) Quickstart presents some of the formal Verilog syntax and definitions and then shows practical uses. This book does not oversimplify the Verilog language nor does it emphasize theory. VerilogA(R) Quickstart has over 100 examples that are used to illustrate aspects of the language. In the later chapters the focus is on working with modeling style and explaining why and when one would use different elements of the language. Another feature of the book is the chapter on state machine modeling. There is also a chapter on test benches and testing strategy as well as a chapter on debugging. VerilogA(R) Quickstart is designed to teach the Verilog language, to show the designer how to model in Verilog and to explain the basics of using Verilog simulators.

The demands of increasingly complex embedded systems and associated performance computations have resulted in the development of heterogeneous computing architectures that often integrate several types of processors, analog and digital electronic components, and mechanical and optical components?all on a single chip. As a result, now the most prominent challenge for the design automation community is to efficiently plan for such heterogeneity and to fully exploit its capabilities.

A compilation of work from internationally renowned authors, Model-Based Design for Embedded Systems elaborates on related practices and addresses the main facets of heterogeneous Model-Based Design for embedded systems, including the current state of the art, important challenges, and the latest trends. Focusing on computational models as the core design artifact, this book presents the cutting-edge results that have helped establish Model-Based Design and continue to expand its parameters.
The book is organized into three sections: Real-Time and Performance Analysis in Heterogeneous Embedded Systems, Design Tools and Methodology for Multiprocessor System-on-Chip, and Design Tools and Methodology for Multidomain Embedded Systems. The respective contributors share their considerable expertise on the automation of design refinement and how to relate properties throughout this refinement while enabling analytic and synthetic qualities. They focus on multi-core methodological issues, real-time analysis, and modeling and validation, taking into account how optical, electronic, and mechanical components often interface.
Model-Based Design is emerging as a solution to bridge the gap between the availability of computational capabilities and our inability to make full use of them yet. This approach enables teams to start the design process using a high-level model that is gradually refined through abstraction levels to ultimately yield a prototype. When executed well, Model-Based Design encourages enhanced performance and quicker time to market for a product. Illustrating a broad and diverse spectrum of applications such as in the automotive aerospace, health care, consumer electronics, this volume provides designers with practical, readily adaptable modeling solutions for their own practice.

Maintaining compatibility among all affected network and application interfaces of modern enterprise systems can quickly become costly and overwhelming. This handbook presents the knowledge and practical experience of a global group of experts from varying disciplines to help you plan and implement enterprise integration projects that respond to business needs quickly and are seamless to business users. The Handbook of Enterprise Integration brings together the latest research and application results to provide infrastructure engineers, software engineers, software developers, system designers, and project managers with a clear and comprehensive understanding of systems integration technologies, architectures, applications, and project management techniques involved in enterprise system integration. The text includes coverage of mobile communications, standards for integrated manufacturing and e-commerce, RFID, Web-based systems, and complete service-oriented enterprise modeling and analysis. Practitioners will benefit from insights on managing virtual teams as well as techniques for introducing complex technology into businesses. Covering best practices in enterprise systems integration, the text highlights applications across various business enterprises to help you: Bring together existing systems for business processes improvement Design and implement systems that can be reconfigured quickly and easily in response to evolving operational needs Establish procedures for achieving smooth migrations from legacy systems-with minimal disruption to existing operations Complete with case studies, this book illustrates the current state of the art in the context of user requirements and integration and provides the up-to-date understanding required to manage today's complex and interconnected systems.

In a comprehensive approach this book covers the end-to-end process from request management to change management, error management and migration management to acceptance testing and final data clean up. It is based upon nearly twenty years of experience in tests, acceptance and certification, when introducing medium to large IT systems including complex software for administrations and industry in many countries. There exist a variety of methodologies with different characteristics having emanated from various schools and consultancies to support such activities. However, it is obvious that because of the diversity in organisational levels in companies the rigor of application of such methodologies quite often suffers with regard to more pragmatic approaches. In view of economic considerations this may be unavoidable. For this reason no new or consolidated methodology shall be presented but an approach oriented on practical criteria coming closer to reality and offering methods, which can provide assistance on a case-by-case basis.

The art, craft, discipline, logic, practice and science of developing large-scale software products needs a professional base. The textbooks in this three-volume set combine informal, engineeringly sound approaches with the rigor of formal, mathematics-based approaches.

This volume covers the basic principles and techniques of specifying systems and languages. It deals with modelling the semiotics (pragmatics, semantics and syntax of systems and languages), modelling spatial and simple temporal phenomena, and such specialized topics as modularity (incl. UML class diagrams), Petri nets, live sequence charts, statecharts, and temporal logics, including the duration calculus. Finally, the book presents techniques for interpreter and compiler development of functional, imperative, modular and parallel programming languages.

This book is targeted at late undergraduate to early graduate university students, and researchers of programming methodologies. Vol. 1 of this series is a prerequisite text.

Comprehensive and self contained, this tutorial covers the design of a plethora of combinational and sequential logic circuits using conventional logic design and Verilog HDL. Number systems and number representations are presented along with various binary codes. Several advanced topics are covered, including functional decomposition and iterative networks. A variety of examples are provided for combinational and sequential logic, computer arithmetic, and advanced topics such as Hamming code error correction. Constructs supported by Verilog are described in detail. All designs are continued to completion. Each chapter includes numerous design issues of varying complexity to be resolved by the reader.

Since 1994, the European Conference on Product and Process Modelling (www.ecppm.org) has been providing a review of research, development and industrial implementation of product and process model technology in construction. The 7th European Conference on Product and Process Modelling (ECPPM 2008) provided a unique discussion platform for topics of key importance for the AEC/FM industry, with a focus on two main themes:

- Structuring of product and process information for enhanced collaborative teamwork and information sharing in this fragmented industry, and

- Advanced Computing, Information and Communication Technology addressing the resolution of challenges for the AEC/FM industry in the upcoming years.

Leading experts delivered up-to-date, comprehensive presentations on the broad achievements in research, development, standardisation and industrial implementation of product and process data technology. This book covers a large spectrum of topics, including process optimisation, extended products and future services for homes and buildings infrastructures, decision support systems for universal design of buildings, ICT-based applications for energy efficiency, environmental monitoring, the ageing population, assistive technologies for the built environment, policy, legal framework, and rules and regulations, and will be of interest to scientists and professionals working in these areas.

This updated edition offers an indispensable exposition on real-time computing, with particular emphasis on predictable scheduling algorithms. It introduces the fundamental concepts of real-time computing, demonstrates the most significant results in the field, and provides the essential methodologies for designing predictable computing systems used to support time-critical control applications. Along with an in-depth guide to the available approaches for the implementation and analysis of real-time applications, this revised edition contains a close examination of recent developments in real-time systems, including limited preemptive scheduling, resource reservation techniques, overload handling algorithms, and adaptive scheduling techniques. This volume serves as a fundamental advanced-level textbook. Each chapter provides basic concepts, which are followed by algorithms, illustrated with concrete examples, figures and tables. Exercises and solutions are provided to enhance self-study, making this an excellent reference for those interested in real-time computing for designing and/or developing predictable control applications.

With extraordinary clarity, the Systems Biology: Principles, Methods, and Concepts focuses on the technical practical aspects of modeling complex or organic general systems. It also provides in-depth coverage of modeling biochemical, thermodynamic, engineering, and ecological systems. Among other methods and concepts based in logic, computer science, and dynamical systems, it explores pragmatic techniques of General Systems Theory. This text presents biology as an autonomous science from the perspective of fundamental modeling techniques. A complete resource for anyone interested in biology as an exact science, it includes a comprehensive survey, review, and critique of concepts and methods in Systems Biology.

A must-have book for systems analysts, architects and managers interested in enhancing successful communication in their organisation.* Provides detailed examples of how to understand and implement 'fundamental modeling concepts' for IT-systems communication* Provides an already successfully implemented model that has been used at: Siemens, Alcatel, SAP and others* Benefits from extensive theoretical and practical research* Provides guidelines on how 'fundamental modeling concepts' can be used to support UML, OO, MDA and Architectural Patterns

Design Journeys for Complex Systems is a designer's handbook to learn systemic design tools to engage stakeholder groups in collaborative design to address complex societal systems. Systemic design uses systems thinking and service design to address large-scale societal contexts and complex socio-technical systems. These are contexts characterized by social and technological complexity, high uncertainty, and often problematic outcomes. Using a tour guide metaphor, the book trains people's mindsets and provides tools for dealing with hyper complexity, to enable understanding of systemic problems, and to build capacity to collaborate in teams to produce action proposals.

Mechatronic design processes have become shorter and more parallelized, induced by growing time-to-market pressure. Methods that enable quantitative analysis in early design stages are required, should dependability analyses aim to influence the design. Due to the limited amount of data in this phase, the level of uncertainty is high and explicit modeling of these uncertainties becomes necessary.

This work introduces new uncertainty-preserving dependability methods for early design stages. These include the propagation of uncertainty through dependability models, the activation of data from similar components for analyses and the integration of uncertain dependability predictions into an optimization framework. It is shown that Dempster-Shafer theory can be an alternative to probability theory in early design stage dependability predictions. Expert estimates can be represented, input uncertainty is propagated through the system and prediction uncertainty can be measured and interpreted. The resulting coherent methodology can be applied to represent the uncertainty in dependability models.

In two editions spanning more than a decade, The Electrical Engineering Handbook stands as the definitive reference to the multidisciplinary field of electrical engineering. Our knowledge continues to grow, and so does the Handbook. For the third edition, it has expanded into a set of six books carefully focused on a specialized area or field of study. Each book represents a concise yet definitive collection of key concepts, models, and equations in its respective domain, thoughtfully gathered for convenient access. Systems, Controls, Embedded Systems, Energy, and Machines explores in detail the fields of energy devices, machines, and systems as well as control systems. It provides all of the fundamental concepts needed for thorough, in-depth understanding of each area and devotes special attention to the emerging area of embedded systems. Each article includes defining terms, references, and sources of further information. Encompassing the work of the world's foremost experts in their respective specialties, Systems, Controls, Embedded Systems, Energy, and Machines features the latest developments, the broadest scope of coverage, and new material on human-computer interaction.

Until now, almost all books on logical database design focused exclusively on relational design. However, modern database management systems have added powerful features that have driven a movement away from truly normalized database design. Logical Database Design Principles reflects these recent changes. The book begins by covering traditional logical design principles, followed by an analysis of the normalizing and modeling of data. It then examines designing for specific purposes, such as object-oriented databases, online transaction processing (OLTP), and data warehouses. As the text progresses, it moves from the purely logical into some physical design, as determined by how the features of modern databases are implemented. Because this is a logical-design book, the authors attempt to make the examples database-neutral. Because various vendors implement features in different ways, this volume sometimes offers examples from a specific database management system. When necessary, it highlights a specific application, clearly demonstrating the concept being discussed.

This important, state-of-the-art book brings together for the first time in one volume the two areas of Legacy Systems and Business Processes. The research discussed has arisen from the EPSRC research programme on Systems Engineering for Business Process Change, and the book contains contributions from leading experts in the field.
Both the consumer and supplier of IT have problems with legacy systems and business process change, so Systems Engineering for Business Process Change will be of great interest to practitioners who are encountering, or likely to encounter, problems with legacy systems and business process change, as well as researchers preparing future research programmes, and those studying system and business evolution.

Build systems faster and more effectively with Mob Programming. Mob Programming is an approach to developing software that radically reduces defects and key-person dependencies by having a group of people work together at a single machine. See how to avoid the most common pitfalls that teams make when first starting out. Discover what it takes to create and support a successful mob. Now you can take collaborative programming to the next level with Mob Programming. Mob Programming is a natural extension of the popular Pair Programming concept, and is not restricted to a specific programming language or technology. It can be used by anyone who develops software, including dev leads, software developers, and agile coaches. The more people working on a bug or feature results in fewer dependencies on individuals, and overall increased learning for everyone involved. With more eyes on the code, you'll find you develop better solutions with fewer defects. Set up your team for success by introducing Mob Programming in a way that benefits them. Create a good first Mobbing experience for your team with a template that avoids the common traps beginners may fall into. Master a collaborative and empathic mindset to help optimize the Mobbing experience. Learn how to make adjustments when things go wrong. Adapt your mobbing to different types of development tasks. Get management buy-in for your Mobbing experiment by demonstrating the benefits. Discover the equipment and resources you need, and how to adjust your workspace for an effective mob. Get important features to market sooner, squish bugs faster, and collaborate better today with Mob Programming. What You Need: All you need is three or more programmers, a meeting workspace that's large enough to accommodate your mob, and a computer on which to work.

The book is directly relevant for students on HND, degree and professional courses. This market-leading text covers the whole range of activities necessary for the analysis, design and implementation of computer-based information and data processing systems. The authors emphasize the role of people, management and quality issues, and consider practical and business realities.

This introductory user's guide to systems analysis and systems design focuses on building sustainable information systems to meet tomorrow's needs. It shows how practitioners can apply multiple participatory perspectives in development, so as to avoid future problems. As a practical guide, it is presented to be readily comprehensible and is organized to enable users to concentrate on their goals efficiently, and with minimum theoretical elaboration. The chapters follow the sequence involved in planning an information system, explaining key words, the time involved in each step, ending with a tutorial or exercises.

The measurement of dependability attributes on real systems is a very time-consuming and costly affair, making analytical or simulation modeling the only viable solutions. Dependability of Networked Computer-based Systems explores reliability, availability and safety modeling of networked computer-based systems used in life-critical applications such as avionics, nuclear power plants, automobiles and chemical process industries. Dependability of Networked Computer-based Systems gives an overview of basic dependability modeling concepts and addresses new challenges in dependability modeling of networked computer-based systems, as well as new trends, their capabilities and limitations. It covers a variety of dependability modeling methods: stochastic processes, Markov and semi-Markov models, response-time distribution, stochastic Petri-net-based modeling formalisms, and Monte Carlo simulation models. Dependability of Networked Computer-based Systems provides students and researchers with a detailed overview of dependability models and analysis techniques. Practicing engineers will also find this text a useful guide to decision-making based on system dependability at the design, operation and maintenance stages.

This introductory user's guide to systems analysis and systems design focuses on building sustainable information systems to meet tomorrow's needs. It shows how practitioners can apply multiple participatory perspectives in development, so as to avoid future problems. As a practical guide, it is presented to be readily comprehensible and is organized to enable users to concentrate on their goals efficiently, and with minimum theoretical elaboration. The chapters follow the sequence involved in planning an information system, explaining key words, the time involved in each step, ending with a tutorial or exercises.

This book will teach you how to take advantage of the JavaScript language to process data provided on the Internet. Much attention is given to the main JavaScript backbone: prototype based objects, and functional capabilities, while common features (loops, etc.) are summarized in a few cheat-sheets. Only operational features are detailed through the coding of several applications -the second and largest part of the book-, on free-access datasets (e.g. World Bank). It includes: cartography (SVG or API's based), data-sheets access (via Ajax or Jsonp), video data and post-synchronization, and animation examples.

"Details the most recent advances in Laboratory Information Management Systems. Offers contemporary approaches to system development, design, and installation; system customization; software and hardware compatibility; quality assurance and regulatory requirements; and resource utilization."

K.C. Chang presents an integrated approach to digital design principles, processes, and implementations to help the reader design increasingly complex systems within shorter design cycles. Chang introduces digital design concepts, VHDL coding, VHDL simulation, synthesis commands, and strategies together.

"Digital Systems Design with VHDL and Synthesis" focuses on the ultimate product of the design cycle: the implementation of a digital design. Many of the design techniques and considerations illustrated in the text are examples of actual real-world designs.

Unique features of the book include the following:

• VHDL code explained line by line to capture the logic behind the design concepts
• Simulation waveforms, synthesized schematics, and results are shown, verified, and analyzed
• VHDL code is synthesized and commands and strategies are discussed
• Variations on the design techniques and common mistakes are addressed
• Demonstrated standard cell, gate array, and FPGA three design processes, each with a complete design case study
• Test bench, post-layout verification, and test vector generation processes are illustrated