Exploring Multidimensional Modularity: Strategies to Reduce Complexity in Design Activities

Modularity is an approach to simplify systems and reduce complexity. However, existing research suggests that a mono-dimensional modularity strategy, focusing solely on one dimension, such as product, process, or organization, might not fully achieve these goals in design activities. This research investigates how combining strategies from...

Developing conceptual and methodological foundations for a cross-cultural, multi-institutional study of ethical reasoning and moral dispositions of engineering students

This full research paper develops a framework for using comparative case studies to triangulate with quantitative survey data in engineering ethics education research.Ethics has long been recognized as crucial to responsible engineering, but the increasingly globalized environments of contemporary engineering present challenges to effective...

The effectiveness of an activity to practise communication competencies: A case study across five European engineering universities

Although accreditation bodies emphasise communication competencies development in engineering curricula due to its importance for future engineers, the focus is often mainly on oral presentation and written reports. A communication activity was created to practice and reflect on students’ communication competencies including describing...

Using C Language Extensions for Developing Embedded Software: A Case Study

We report on an industrial case study on developing the embedded software for a smart meter using the C programming language and domain-specific extensions of C such as components, physical units, state machines, registers and interrupts. We find that the extensions help significantly with managing the complexity of the software. They improve...

Exploring Normalized Systems Potential for Dutch MoD’s Agility: A Proof of Concept on Flexibility, Time-to-market, Productivity and Quality

Both the Command and Control Support Centre (C2SC) of the Dutch Ministry of Defense, and Capgemini are constantly exploring better ways of building and maintaining information systems which ef- fectively support strategy and operations of an enterprise. In a Proof of Concept conducted in March and April 2011, together with University of Antwerp,...

Realizing Service Migration in Industry - Lessons Learned

In this paper, we present two descriptive case studies covering the re-engineering and further evolution of adopting service oriented architecture (SOA) in industry. The first case was carried out for a company in the transport sector with an application portfolio of over 700 systems. The second case study was conducted for an organization in...

Adopting and Evaluating Service Oriented Architecture in Industry

In this paper, we present a descriptive case study covering the re-engineering and furhter evolution of adopting service oriented architecture (SOA) in industry. The goal of this case study is to identify the possible benefits and bottlenecks of adopting SOA, as well as to come up with best practices and research directions based on real-life...