Browsing by Author "Surakka, Sami"

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  • Pientalon aurinkoenergiajärjestelmien tietokoneavusteinen suunnittelu
    (1993) Surakka, Sami
     Helsinki University of Technology | Master's thesis
  • Needs assessment of software systems graduates
    (2005-12-09) Surakka, Sami
     Doctoral dissertation (monograph)
    The research problem of the present thesis was: What technical skills do graduates from specialization in Software Systems need? Triangulation; that is, several research methods and data sources were used to solve this problem. The largest part of the thesis consisted of three questionnaires where Finnish software developers (N = 11), professors and lecturers (N = 19), and Master's students (N = 24) evaluated the importance of 42 subjects and skills such as discrete mathematics and object-oriented programming. The second largest part of the thesis comprised two content analyses of job advertisements targeted at software developers. A trend analysis for the years 1990-2004 and a cross-sectional analysis of the year 2004 were conducted. In both analyses, the purpose was to find the most common technical skills sought in American job advertisements. In addition, four smaller content analyses were conducted. Documents for these content analyses were the degree requirements of 31 top-level American research universities, and the internship reports, course catalog, and Master's theses of the Helsinki University of Technology. A concept analysis of the concept "software systems" was also carried out. The main contributions of the present thesis are as follows: The thesis is so far the most versatile triangulation in the area in question. In particular, the content analysis of American degree requirements and the concept analysis of "software systems" were novel approaches. The thesis provided findings that the requirements for software developers have required greater versatility during the past 15 years. Todd, McKeen, and Gallupe reported similar change in 1995 for the 1970-1990 period. However, it was interesting to know if this trend had continued after 1990. According to the summarized results, the following technical subjects or skills were evaluated as being important: compilers, concurrent programming, data structures and algorithms, database management systems, distributed systems, object-oriented programming, operating systems, procedural programming, and software architectures. Most of these subjects or skills had already been reported as being important for software developers, for example, in the survey conducted by Lethbridge in 1998. The importance of physics and continuous mathematics was evaluated as being low. Previously, Lethbridge reported similar findings. In the job advertisement analyses of the present thesis, technical skills were analyzed in a more detailed manner than in the previous analyses on average. In particular, some results concerning distributed technology skills were new and more detailed than previously published.
  • The role of trust in multi-vendor collaboration - A case study in software development
    (2010) Toikka, Hanna
     School of Science | Master's thesis
    Companies are increasingly engaged in activities that require collaboration beyond organizational boundaries. Multi-vendor sourcing, a situation where there are multiple vendors serving one client, is one such activity. In multi-vendor environments the vendor companies as well as the client company need to establish relationships that enable effective collaboration. This thesis aims to address the role of trust in multi-vendor environment where the vendors are required to collaborate. Trust has been researched for decades but due to its multidimensional nature, it still provides new viewpoints. In this thesis the sources of trust in multi-vendor collaboration are identified and modelled in a construct. In addition, the possible techniques for developing trust are addressed. This research approach used in this thesis includes features of constructive approach and case study. The empirical part of the thesis is based on one case. The case comprises of a system developer company which is the client and the vendors providing services and software development projects for the system developer company. The findings from the case are used to refine the construct formed based on literature. The possible trust development techniques found in literature are also compared to the findings. The results of this thesis include the refined construct that presents the trust sources in multivendor collaboration and the techniques that can be used to develop trust so that it supports collaboration. The results show that in multi-vendor collaboration there are trust sources related to five categories which are behaviour, goodwill, self-reference, capability, and control. Several techniques for developing trust can also be identified that can be used in multi-vendor environment.