At present, there are several factors that may influence an organization in needing to work with more than one reference model. The following can be highlighted: (i) market niches with specific models, (ii) improvement of practices from legacy process models, (iii) business positioning, (iv) leveraged or merger corporate (v) systematic search of the capability of the processes, (vi) business growth, among others. Currently, however, there is no detailed strategy to address the harmonization of reference models. So, the aim of this paper is to present a process that defines the elements necessary to support the harmonization of multiple reference models. This process allows us to guide the implementation of a harmonization project systematically. It also describes our experience of the application of the proposed process in one organization. These results show that the process and the harmonization techniques used to support the objectives of harmonization of ISO 27001 and ISO 20000 of the company involved were suitable.

Globalization, is pushing companies towards continuous improvement. Quality frameworks addressing SPI practices are classifiable in ones describing: "what" should be done (ISO9001,CMMI); "how" it should be done (Six Sigma, GQM). When organizations adopt improvement initiatives, many models may be implied, each leveraging best practices for addressing improvement challenges. This may generate confusion, extra effort and cost, as well as increase the risk of inefficiencies and redundancies. So, it is important to harmonize quality frameworks, i.e. identify intersections and overlapping parts and create a multi-model improvement solution. Our aim is to propose a Harmonization Process supporting organizations interested in introducing/improving SPI practices. We present: a what/what combination of ISO9001 and CMMI-DEVv.1.2 models in the direction from ISO-CMMI; and detail the what/how perspective by showing how GQM is used to define operational goals that address ISO9001 statements, reusable in CMMI appraisals. The harmonization process has been applied to a SME certified ISO9001:2000.

Cloud computing is becoming more and more adopted as infrastructure for providing service oriented solutions. Such a solution is especially critical when software and hardware resources are remotely distributed. In this paper we illustrate our experience in designing the architecture of a community cloud infrastructure in an industrial project related to integrated logistics (LOGIN) for made in Italy brand products. The cloud infrastructure has been designed with particular attention towards aspects such as virtualization, server consolidation and business continuity. Copyright © 2015 SCITEPRESS - Science and Technology Publications.

In today's knowledge-driven society, the increasing amount of heterogeneous information, available through a variety of information channels, has made it difficult for users to find the right information at the right time and at the right level of detail. This chapter presents the exploitation of context-awareness in order to reduce the plethora of information that,within the networked enterprise scenario, may confuse and overwhelm the users in need of high-quality information coming from the several available and heterogeneous information sources.

Information Technologies (IT) play a crucial role in the development of the business processes in organizations. Acquiring the best technologies is quickly becoming as important as understanding and improving the business model of organizations. As a result, many (inter)national standards and models for IT Management, IT Government and IT Security have been developed. This situation allows organizations to choose and improve their processes, selecting the models that best suit their needs. Since several relationships between these models can be found, carrying out the harmonization of their similarities and differences will make it possible to reduce the time and effort involved in implementing them. In this paper, we present a harmonization strategy which has been defined to harmonize COBIT 4.1, Basel II, VAL IT, RISK IT, ISO 27002 and ITIL V3. This work intends to support organizations which are interested in knowing how to carry out the harmonization of these models. Furthermore, as a result of the execution of the harmonization strategy we have defined, a unified model for Banking, called ITGSM, is presented. It resolves the conflicts between the models mentioned above and provides a useful reference model to organizations that are planning to adopt them.

If companies are to fulfil their business goals then they must implement more than one software process improvement or information technology management model. The heterogeneity of these models signifies that their harmonization in accordance with company goals has become a key initiative. It is therefore necessary to provide companies with suitable software tools which facilitate the implementation and management of the activities, methods, techniques and reference models involved in a harmonization project, thus allowing the harmonization to be properly carried out. This paper therefore presents the HProcessTOOL which guides harmonization projects by supporting specific techniques, and supports their management by controlling and monitoring the resulting harmonization projects. The tool has been applied in two case studies, and has allowed the work products, effort, time and roles involved in the harmonization projects, and the knowledge generated, to be correctly managed.

The CMMI-ACQ and the ISO/IEC 12207:2008 are process reference models that address issues related to the best practices for software product acquisition. With the aim of offering information on how the practices described in these two models are related, and considering that the mapping is one specific strategy for the harmonization of models, we have carried out a mapping of these two reference models for acquisition. We have taken into account the latest versions of the models. Furthermore, to carry out this mapping in a systematic way, we defined a process for this purpose. We consider that the mapping presented in this paper supports the understanding and leveraging of the properties of these reference models, which is the first step towards harmonization of improvement technologies. Furthermore, since a great number of organizations are currently acquiring products and services from suppliers and developing fewer and fewer of these products in-house, this work intends to support organizations which are interested in introducing or improving their practices for acquisition of products and services using these models.

Definition The word “Rapid e-Learning” appeared for the first time in “2004 in a research of Bersin and Associates with the title “Rapid E-Learning: What Works. Market Tools and Techniques and Best Practices for Building E-Learning Programs in Weeks” (Bersin and Associates 2004). Bersin and Associates in a later work defined rapid e-learning as follows: “It is Generally defined as Web-based training that can be created in weeks and is Typically authored by subject-matter experts (SMEs)” (Bersin 2005). A wider definition would be “the word rapid e-learning is a whole of methods, tools, and technologies to build e-learning courses and learning objects quickly.”

Context: The software engineering community is becoming more aware of the need for experimental replications. In spite of the importance of this topic, there is still much inconsistency in the terminology used to describe replications. Objective: Understand the perspectives of empirical researchers about various terms used to characterize replications and propose a consistent taxonomy of terms. Method: A survey followed by plenary discussion during the 2013 International Software Engineering Research Network meeting. Results: We propose a taxonomy which consolidates the disparate terminology. This taxonomy had a high level of agreement among workshop attendees. Conclusion: Consistent terminology is important for any field to progress. This work is the first step in that direction. Additional study and discussion is still necessary.

According to the Project Management Institute (PMI) project management consists of planning, organizing, motivating and controlling resources such as time and cost in order to produce products with acceptable quality levels. As so, project managers must monitor and control project execution, i.e. verify actual progress and performance of a project with respect to the project plan and timely identify where changes must be made on both process and product. Earned Value Management (EVM) is a valuable technique for determining and monitoring the progress of a project as it indicates performance variances based on measures related to work progress, schedule and cost information. This technique requires that a set of metrics be systematically collected throughout the entire project. A consequence is that, for large and long projects, managers may encounter difficulties in interpreting all the information collected and using it for decision-making. To assist managers in this tedious task, in this paper we classify the EVM metrics distinguishing them into five conceptual classes and present an interpretation model that managers can adopt as checklist for monitoring EVM values and tracking the project's progress. At this point of our research the decision model has been applied during an industrial project to monitor project progress and guide project manager decisions. Copyright © 2015 SCITEPRESS - Science and Technology Publications.