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Prof. Thomas Hanne
University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland

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0 Evolutionary Algorithms
0 Logistics
0 Operations Research
0 Optimization
0 Supply Chain Management

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Optimization
Evolutionary Algorithms
Logistics
Operations Research
Supply Chain Management
meta-heuristic algorithms
Nature-Inspired Algorithm

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Short Biography

Thomas Hanne received master's degrees in Economics and Computer Science, and a PhD in Economics. From 1999 to 2007 he worked at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics (ITWM) as senior scientist. Since then he is Professor for Information Systems at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland and Head of the Competence Center Systems Engineering since 2012. Thomas Hanne is author of more than 140 journal articles, conference papers, and other publications and editor of several journals and special issues. His current research interests include multicriteria decision analysis, evolutionary algorithms, metaheuristics, optimization, simulation, systems engineering, software development, logistics, and supply chain management.

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Conference paper
Published: 20 July 2021 in Software Engineering and Algorithms
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This exploratory case study was conducted with five IT startups in order to investigate how requirement engineering-related activities are performed and what is the state of maturity with the practices & tools used. Another objective was to study that how the startups managed their practices during Corona Virus (COVID19) pandemic time. The results indicate that flexibility and access to the online tools were the main strengths of the startups to cope up with the pandemic situation while fluctuating market demands affected them marginally. The startups do vary in domain, team size, practices and selection of the tools, with matured startups having more structured (but flexible) processes compared to younger startups. The young startups have the opportunity to learn from the practices of the matured startups, to adopt the learning in their working context. The previous software development experience of the startups and its founders does affect the maturity of the practices and selection of the tools. The flexibility and agility as evident in the working context of the startups helped them to turn pandemic situation into their business opportunities.

ACS Style

Varun Gupta; Thomas Hanne; Rainer Telesko. Requirements Engineering in Agile Software Startups - Insights from Multiple Case Studies. Software Engineering and Algorithms 2021, 564 -577.

AMA Style

Varun Gupta, Thomas Hanne, Rainer Telesko. Requirements Engineering in Agile Software Startups - Insights from Multiple Case Studies. Software Engineering and Algorithms. 2021; ():564-577.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Varun Gupta; Thomas Hanne; Rainer Telesko. 2021. "Requirements Engineering in Agile Software Startups - Insights from Multiple Case Studies." Software Engineering and Algorithms , no. : 564-577.

Conference paper
Published: 17 April 2021 in Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing
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Path planning is an important type of problem that occurs in various transportation related areas and has led to a several algorithms to solve it. In the current paper, we present a fast solution for path planning by optimizing the A* algorithm in grid-based maps with obstacles arranged to create rooms or as walls. We also optimize the behavior in narrow passages. Besides A* we use the Memory Efficient A* algorithm (MEA*) and improve it by changing the driving and searching behavior in narrow passages to find a faster way to the target location. The four considered variants of algorithms (original A* and MEA* algorithms and both with detection and special handling in narrow passages) are evaluated in computational experiments based on the number of steps (distance) required to reach the goal. These comparisons were performed on different types and sizes of maps.

ACS Style

Lukas Weber; Rolf Dornberger; Thomas Hanne. Improved Path Planning with Memory Efficient A* Algorithm and Optimization of Narrow Passages. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 2021, 73 -84.

AMA Style

Lukas Weber, Rolf Dornberger, Thomas Hanne. Improved Path Planning with Memory Efficient A* Algorithm and Optimization of Narrow Passages. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing. 2021; ():73-84.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Lukas Weber; Rolf Dornberger; Thomas Hanne. 2021. "Improved Path Planning with Memory Efficient A* Algorithm and Optimization of Narrow Passages." Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing , no. : 73-84.

Conference paper
Published: 17 April 2021 in Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing
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This research report introduces two new hybrid genetic algorithms and compares them to solve the traveling salesman problem (TSP). The new algorithms are a combination of a genetic algorithm (GA) with a nearest neighbor algorithm (NNA). The NNA is used to influence the population of the GA and the selection of the parents in the GA. The results of the conducted experiments, performed in MATLAB environment, have shown that the new algorithms can be successfully used to solve the TSP. Depending on the size of the TSP, the new algorithms achieve better results than the initial GA, which is also used. However, in terms of selecting the best algorithm, no conclusive results were obtained and the best choice depends on the particular TSP.

ACS Style

Dejan Trifunovic; Janic Mathias Istanto; Thomas Hanne; Rolf Dornberger. Hybrid Genetic Algorithms to Solve the Traveling Salesman Problem. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 2021, 223 -233.

AMA Style

Dejan Trifunovic, Janic Mathias Istanto, Thomas Hanne, Rolf Dornberger. Hybrid Genetic Algorithms to Solve the Traveling Salesman Problem. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing. 2021; ():223-233.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Dejan Trifunovic; Janic Mathias Istanto; Thomas Hanne; Rolf Dornberger. 2021. "Hybrid Genetic Algorithms to Solve the Traveling Salesman Problem." Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing , no. : 223-233.

Conference paper
Published: 17 April 2021 in Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing
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This paper describes the parameter setting for the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm to find optimal solutions for the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP). The TSP is a classical combinatorial optimization problem classified as NP-hard. The ACO algorithm, with the correct parameter setting, is known for good performance on NP-hard problems. According to the number of cities in the TSP the parameters of the ACO algorithms must be changed and the size of the ant colony adjusted. This paper analyzes parameter tuning in ACO and suggests specific parameter settings. The results are compared with already published recommendations. It is shown that the existing results can be significantly improved.

ACS Style

Philipp Kempter; Martin Peter Schmitz; Thomas Hanne; Rolf Dornberger. Parameter Selection for Ant Colony Optimization for Solving the Travelling Salesman Problem Based on the Problem Size. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 2021, 627 -637.

AMA Style

Philipp Kempter, Martin Peter Schmitz, Thomas Hanne, Rolf Dornberger. Parameter Selection for Ant Colony Optimization for Solving the Travelling Salesman Problem Based on the Problem Size. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing. 2021; ():627-637.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Philipp Kempter; Martin Peter Schmitz; Thomas Hanne; Rolf Dornberger. 2021. "Parameter Selection for Ant Colony Optimization for Solving the Travelling Salesman Problem Based on the Problem Size." Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing , no. : 627-637.

Journal article
Published: 18 March 2021 in Neural Computing and Applications
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Verifying the genuineness of official documents, such as bank checks, certificates, contract forms, bonds, etc., remains a challenging task when it comes to accuracy and robustness. Here, the genuineness is related to the degree of match of the signature contained in the documents relating to the original signatures of the authorized person. Signatures of authorized persons are considered known in advance. In this paper, a novel feature set is introduced based on quasi-straightness of boundary pixel runs for signature verification. We extract the quasi-straight line segments using elementary combinations of the directional codes from the signature boundary pixels and subsequently we obtain the feature set from various quasi-straight line classes. The quasi-straight line segments provide a blending of straightness and small curvatures resulting in a robust feature set for the verification of signatures. We have used Support Vector Machine (SVM) for classification and have shown results on standard signature datasets like CEDAR (Center of Excellence for Document Analysis and Recognition) and GPDS-100 (Grupo de Procesado Digital de la Senal). The results establish how the proposed method outperforms the existing state of the art.

ACS Style

Ajij; Sanjoy Pratihar; Soumya Ranjan Nayak; Thomas Hanne; Diptendu Sinha Roy. Off-line signature verification using elementary combinations of directional codes from boundary pixels. Neural Computing and Applications 2021, 1 -18.

AMA Style

Ajij, Sanjoy Pratihar, Soumya Ranjan Nayak, Thomas Hanne, Diptendu Sinha Roy. Off-line signature verification using elementary combinations of directional codes from boundary pixels. Neural Computing and Applications. 2021; ():1-18.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ajij; Sanjoy Pratihar; Soumya Ranjan Nayak; Thomas Hanne; Diptendu Sinha Roy. 2021. "Off-line signature verification using elementary combinations of directional codes from boundary pixels." Neural Computing and Applications , no. : 1-18.

Earlycite article
Published: 17 March 2021 in The TQM Journal
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Purpose The aim of this paper is to find and prioritise multiple critical success factors (CSFs) for the implementation of LSS in the oil and gas industry. Design/methodology/approach Based on a preselected list of possible CFSs, experts are involved in screening them with the Delphi method. As a result, 22 customised CSFs are selected. To prioritise these CSFs, the step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) method is applied to find weights corresponding to the decision-making preferences. Since the regular permutation-based weight assessment can be classified as NP-hard, the problem is solved by a metaheuristic method. For this purpose, a genetic algorithm (GA) is used. Findings The resulting prioritisation of CSFs helps companies find out which factors have a high priority in order to focus on them. The less important factors can be neglected and thus do not require limited resources. Research limitations/implications Only a specific set of methods have been considered. Practical implications The resulting prioritisation of CSFs helps companies find out which factors have a high priority in order to focus on them. Social implications The methodology supports respective evaluations in general. Originality/value The paper contributes to the very limited research on the implementation of LSS in the oil and gas industry, and, in addition, it suggests the usage of SWARA, a permutation method and a GA, which have not yet been researched, for the prioritisation of CSFs of LSS.

ACS Style

Amir Karbassi Yazdi; Thomas Hanne; Juan Carlos Osorio Gómez. A hybrid model for ranking critical successful factors of Lean Six Sigma in the oil and gas industry. The TQM Journal 2021, ahead-of-p, 1 .

AMA Style

Amir Karbassi Yazdi, Thomas Hanne, Juan Carlos Osorio Gómez. A hybrid model for ranking critical successful factors of Lean Six Sigma in the oil and gas industry. The TQM Journal. 2021; ahead-of-p (ahead-of-p):1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Amir Karbassi Yazdi; Thomas Hanne; Juan Carlos Osorio Gómez. 2021. "A hybrid model for ranking critical successful factors of Lean Six Sigma in the oil and gas industry." The TQM Journal ahead-of-p, no. ahead-of-p: 1.

Conference paper
Published: 07 February 2021 in Communications in Computer and Information Science
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The use of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to automate image segmentation is strived for improvement of microscopy imaging. Different networks have been proposed, with the U-Net currently the most popular in the field of medical image segmentation. This paper investigates different optimizers to a published long-short term memory (LSTM)-UNet to find the most efficient optimizer for this approach when applied to a dataset of simulated nuclei of HL30 cells stained with a particular fluorescent compound.

ACS Style

Heide Oller; Rolf Dornberger; Thomas Hanne. Improved Long-Short Term Memory U-Net for Image Segmentation. Communications in Computer and Information Science 2021, 144 -154.

AMA Style

Heide Oller, Rolf Dornberger, Thomas Hanne. Improved Long-Short Term Memory U-Net for Image Segmentation. Communications in Computer and Information Science. 2021; ():144-154.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Heide Oller; Rolf Dornberger; Thomas Hanne. 2021. "Improved Long-Short Term Memory U-Net for Image Segmentation." Communications in Computer and Information Science , no. : 144-154.

Case report
Published: 03 December 2020 in Sustainability
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Context: freelancers and startups could provide each other with promising opportunities that lead to mutual growth, by improving software development metrics, such as cost, time, and quality. Niche skills processed by freelancers could help startups reduce uncertainties associated with developments and markets, with the ability to quickly address market issues (and with higher quality). This requires the associations between freelancers and startup to be long-term, based on trust, and promising agreements driven by motivations (leading to the growth of both parties). Freelancers could help startups foster innovations and undertake software development tasks in better ways than conducted in-house, if they are selected using informed decision-making. Objectives: the paper has three objectives, (1) to explore the strategies of startups to outsource software development tasks to freelancers (termed as freelancing association strategies); (2) to identify challenges in such outsourcings; and (3) to identify the impacts of outsourcing tasks to freelancers on overall project metrics. The overall objective is to understand the strategies for involving freelancers in the software development process, throughout the startup lifecycle, and the associated challenges and the impacts that help to foster innovation (to maintain competitive advantages). Method: this paper performs empirical studies through case studies of three software startups located in Italy, France, and India, followed by a survey of 54 freelancers. The results are analyzed and compared in the identification of association models, issues, challenges, and reported results arising because of such associations. The case study results are validated using members checking with the research participants, which shows a higher level of result agreements. Results: the results indicate that the freelancer association strategy is task based, panel based, or a hybrid. The associations are constrained by issues such as deciding pricing, setting deadlines, difficulty in getting good freelancers, quality issues with software artefacts, and efforts to access freelancer work submissions for reward. The associations have a positive impact on software development if there is availability of good freelancers (which lasts long for various tasks). The paper finally provides a freelancing model framework and recommends activities that could result in making the situation beneficial to both parties, and streamline such associations. Fostering innovation in startups is, thus, a trade-off situation, which is limited and supported by many conflicting parameters.

ACS Style

Varun Gupta; Jose Fernandez-Crehuet; Chetna Gupta; Thomas Hanne. Freelancing Models for Fostering Innovation and Problem Solving in Software Startups: An Empirical Comparative Study. Sustainability 2020, 12, 10106 .

AMA Style

Varun Gupta, Jose Fernandez-Crehuet, Chetna Gupta, Thomas Hanne. Freelancing Models for Fostering Innovation and Problem Solving in Software Startups: An Empirical Comparative Study. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (23):10106.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Varun Gupta; Jose Fernandez-Crehuet; Chetna Gupta; Thomas Hanne. 2020. "Freelancing Models for Fostering Innovation and Problem Solving in Software Startups: An Empirical Comparative Study." Sustainability 12, no. 23: 10106.

Conference paper
Published: 04 November 2020 in Transactions on Petri Nets and Other Models of Concurrency XV
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A picture archiving and communication system (PACS) was originally designed for replacing physical films by digitizing medical images for storage and access convenience. With the maturity of communication infrastructures, e.g. 5G transmission, big data and distributed processing technologies, cloud-based PACS extends the storage and access efficiency of PACS across multiple imaging centers, hospitals and clinics without geographical bounds. In addition to the flexibility of accessing medical big data to physicians and radiologists to access medical records, fast data analytics is becoming an important part of cloud-based PACS solution. The machine learning that supports cloud-based PACS needs to provide highly accurate prediction and interpretable model, despite the model learning time should be kept as minimum as possible in the big data environment. In this paper, a framework called White Learning (WL) which hybridizes a deep learner and an incremental Bayesian network which offer the highest possible prediction accuracy and causality reasoning which are currently demanded by medical practitioners. To achieve this, several novel modifications for optimizing a WL model are proposed and studied. The efficacy of the optimized WL model is tested with empirical breast-cancer mammogram data from a local hospital.

ACS Style

Antonio J. Tallón-Ballesteros; Simon Fong; Tengyue Li; Lian-Sheng Liu; Thomas Hanne; Weiwei Lin. Hybridized White Learning in Cloud-Based Picture Archiving and Communication System for Predictability and Interpretability. Transactions on Petri Nets and Other Models of Concurrency XV 2020, 511 -521.

AMA Style

Antonio J. Tallón-Ballesteros, Simon Fong, Tengyue Li, Lian-Sheng Liu, Thomas Hanne, Weiwei Lin. Hybridized White Learning in Cloud-Based Picture Archiving and Communication System for Predictability and Interpretability. Transactions on Petri Nets and Other Models of Concurrency XV. 2020; ():511-521.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Antonio J. Tallón-Ballesteros; Simon Fong; Tengyue Li; Lian-Sheng Liu; Thomas Hanne; Weiwei Lin. 2020. "Hybridized White Learning in Cloud-Based Picture Archiving and Communication System for Predictability and Interpretability." Transactions on Petri Nets and Other Models of Concurrency XV , no. : 511-521.

Conference paper
Published: 01 November 2020 in Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing
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Information extraction (IE) from forms remains an unsolved problem, with some exceptions, like bills. Forms are complex and the templates are often unstable, due to the injection of advertising, extra conditions, or document merging. Our scenario deals with insurance forms used by brokers in Switzerland. Here, each combination of insurer, insurance type and language results in a new document layout, leading to a few hundred document types. To help brokers extract data from policies, we developed a new labeling method, called FLIE (form labeling for information extraction). FLIE first assigns a document to a cluster, grouping by language, insurer, and insurance type. It then labels the layout. To produce training data, the user annotates a sample document by hand, adding attribute names, i.e. provides a mapping. FLIE applies machine learning to propagate the mapping and extracts information. Our results are based on 24 Swiss policies in German: UVG (mandatory accident insurance), KTG (sick pay insurance), and UVGZ (optional accident insurance). Our solution has an accuracy of around 84–89%. It is currently being extended to other policy types and languages.

ACS Style

Ela Pustulka; Thomas Hanne; Phillip Gachnang; Pasquale Biafora. FLIE: Form Labeling for Information Extraction. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 2020, 550 -567.

AMA Style

Ela Pustulka, Thomas Hanne, Phillip Gachnang, Pasquale Biafora. FLIE: Form Labeling for Information Extraction. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing. 2020; ():550-567.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ela Pustulka; Thomas Hanne; Phillip Gachnang; Pasquale Biafora. 2020. "FLIE: Form Labeling for Information Extraction." Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing , no. : 550-567.

Journal article
Published: 27 October 2020 in Sustainability
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[Context] The software startups could continuously innovate business model value proposition by involving freelancers as a source of innovative ideas (that enhance customer perceived value) and as experts for implementing the innovative ideas (by undertaking software engineering tasks). Startups employ one of three strategies for associating with freelancers i.e., task based (association ends with completion of the outsourced task), panel based (outsourcing task to a panel of freelancers associated with startup), or hybrid. Uncertainties, terminology issues, high technical debt, lack of documentation, lack of systematic decision making processes, lack of resources, lack of brand values, need for the continuous involvement of the freelancer to incorporate continuous validated learnings, merging freelancer perspectives, and deciding the level of their involvement in individual requirement engineering (or value proposition innovation) activities, are the main inhibitors for associations with freelancers. The availability of good freelancers and their long term and continuous commitments are necessary requirements for value proposition innovation. The theory about freelancer association with the software startups is extended by studying the real practices of startups, which successfully involved freelancers for value proposition innovation by capturing innovative ideas and acquiring the freelancer’s skills to implement those ideas. [Objectives] The objective of this paper is to explain the strategies adopted by the software startups to foster value proposition innovation by continuously involving the freelancers and the way they overcome the challenges arising because of the associations. The findings are driven by the study of real practices of startups that proved to be successful in the market by involving freelancers and continuous innovations leading to increased market shares. [Method] This paper performs empirical studies through case studies of three software startups located in Italy, France, and India, which are at the verge of being transforming into big companies, with large market share. The current practices highlighting the successful way of executing freelancing association strategies for value proposition innovation and the way to overcome the arising challenges are reported. The findings are also compared with those of two young startups based in Switzerland and India, to bring useful lessons for the young startups. The case study results are validated by employees from the studied startups (both those who participated in data collection and those who did not). [Results] The results indicate that freelancer involvement during value proposition activities, which is the core business operation, is beneficial to the both freelancers and the startups. Startup teams could reduce the development costs, shorten time to market, and increase customer satisfaction (by providing features addressing real market needs) by correctly involving the freelancers uniformly across value proposition activities. The startups could manage innovation with small teams (compared to human resources in companies) if done jointly with the freelancers, that helps the team members to learn new skills, upgrade their skills, and learn new perspectives about their markets. Business impacts due to freelancer involvement are stronger if the level of freelancer involvement across various value proposition activities is higher compared to their involvement across few activities only. The studied startups are not completely dependent on the freelancers but the freelancer’s perspectives and skills are valued as a rich source of market success. Freelancer involvement is taken as an opportunity to gain access to global market perspectives, which otherwise would be effortful for in-house teams to collect. In addition, they resolve technical debt, are a source of upgrading skills for undertaking future innovation, and help reaching customers for marketing (promoting product and gaining access to the feedbacks). Overall, the value proposition innovation in the studied startups have different levels of involvement of the freelancers but these startups have reported positive impacts on the business in terms of development cost reductions, shorten time to market, and high customer satisfaction (measured on early attainment of product/market fit and fast growth thereafter). The case study results are validated by the startup employees (member checking). The responses collected are analysed using box plots, which shows a higher level of result agreements among the employees.

ACS Style

Varun Gupta; Jose Fernandez-Crehuet; Thomas Hanne. Fostering Continuous Value Proposition Innovation through Freelancer Involvement in Software Startups: Insights from Multiple Case Studies. Sustainability 2020, 12, 8922 .

AMA Style

Varun Gupta, Jose Fernandez-Crehuet, Thomas Hanne. Fostering Continuous Value Proposition Innovation through Freelancer Involvement in Software Startups: Insights from Multiple Case Studies. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (21):8922.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Varun Gupta; Jose Fernandez-Crehuet; Thomas Hanne. 2020. "Fostering Continuous Value Proposition Innovation through Freelancer Involvement in Software Startups: Insights from Multiple Case Studies." Sustainability 12, no. 21: 8922.

Micro article
Published: 15 October 2020 in Results in Engineering
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This research paper explores the involvement of freelancers in requirement engineering activities to continuously innovating the value propositions and utilizing their expertise in various requirement engineering tasks. This paper reports the case study conducted with the startups that involve freelancers for the requirement engineering activities. The findings are then compared with the literature to explore the freelancer supported requirement engineering domain. Results indicate that the freelancers could help innovate value proposition by providing different perspectives of the global segments and also expertise in executing requirement engineering activities. The freelancers have varying levels of involvement in requirement engineering activities depending on on startup contexts and is highly challenged by various inhibitors. The inhibitors include difficulty to select freelancers optimally, ensuring their long term association for continuous rework arising because of continuous learnings in the market, building trust, mechanism to integrate their perspective, establishing communication, negotiations and strategic pricings. However, there is a need to optimally establish the freelancer involvement from beginning of the startup life cycle with a promise for long term benefits in exchange for their trustworthy and accurate perspectives, which is harder to get by involving crowds of customers due to resource limitations. Further research is required to investigate how freelancers could represent the samples of globally distributed customer segments as input source of information on one side and on another side become startup team representatives to establish direct interactions with global customer segments.

ACS Style

Varun Gupta; Jose Maria Fernandez-Crehuet; Thomas Hanne; Rainer Telesko. Fostering product innovations in software startups through freelancer supported requirement engineering. Results in Engineering 2020, 8, 100175 .

AMA Style

Varun Gupta, Jose Maria Fernandez-Crehuet, Thomas Hanne, Rainer Telesko. Fostering product innovations in software startups through freelancer supported requirement engineering. Results in Engineering. 2020; 8 ():100175.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Varun Gupta; Jose Maria Fernandez-Crehuet; Thomas Hanne; Rainer Telesko. 2020. "Fostering product innovations in software startups through freelancer supported requirement engineering." Results in Engineering 8, no. : 100175.

Journal article
Published: 29 September 2020 in Journal of Business Economics and Management
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The aim of the study in this paper is to show how the performance of banks can be evaluated by ranking them based on Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and Multicriteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods. Nowadays, assessing the performance of companies is a vital work for finding their weaknesses and strengths. The banking sector is an important area in the service sector. Many people want to know which bank performs best when entrusting their money to them. For assessing the performance of banks, BSC can be used. This method helps to translate strategic issues to meaningful insights for the respective financial institutions. After that, the banks will be ranked based on performance indicators by the Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (WASPAS) method. Because this method is based on a decision matrix, weights are required. To find such weights, the Step-wise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) method is applied. The results show that the International Bank of Colombia has a much better performance than other Colombian banks. Besides, further insights regarding the evaluation process based on BSC, SWARA, and WASPAS are obtained.

ACS Style

Amir Karbassi Yazdi; Thomas Hanne; Juan Carlos Osorio Gómez. EVALUATING THE PERFORMANCE OF COLOMBIAN BANKS BY HYBRID MULTICRITERIA DECISION MAKING METHODS. Journal of Business Economics and Management 2020, 21, 1707 -1730.

AMA Style

Amir Karbassi Yazdi, Thomas Hanne, Juan Carlos Osorio Gómez. EVALUATING THE PERFORMANCE OF COLOMBIAN BANKS BY HYBRID MULTICRITERIA DECISION MAKING METHODS. Journal of Business Economics and Management. 2020; 21 (6):1707-1730.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Amir Karbassi Yazdi; Thomas Hanne; Juan Carlos Osorio Gómez. 2020. "EVALUATING THE PERFORMANCE OF COLOMBIAN BANKS BY HYBRID MULTICRITERIA DECISION MAKING METHODS." Journal of Business Economics and Management 21, no. 6: 1707-1730.

Journal article
Published: 27 September 2020 in Processes
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[Context] Freelancers could catalyze the software development process by providing their niche skills to generate high quality outputs. They could help companies (including startups) to foster innovations by suggesting creative ideas and providing their expertise in implementing them (for instance, designing solutions, coding solutions etc.). Freelancers could effectively and efficiently work as a virtual member of the software development team. The company must make informed decisions about which task to allot to the freelancer, which freelancer to select, pricing the task, and evaluating the submitted work. On the other hand, the freelancer should make an informed decision about evaluating the monetary value of the task to be charged, trusting the requester, analyzing the skills requirement of the task (finding matches between skill requirement and skills processed), selecting the best task, and maintaining the highest level of reputation. However, the literature does not provide freelancers and the companies the guidelines that support their decision making. However, if freelancers are selected carefully for the most suitable task, the companies will benefit a lot in terms of improved software development metrics. [Objectives] The objective of this paper is to provide the research community the research trends in freelancer-supported software development. This helps to understand that which software development areas have higher concentrations of research efforts, which area has the support of empirical evidence to support management decision makings, and which area requires the research attention. [Method] The systematic study is conducted by planning the mapping protocol, executing the protocol, and reporting the findings using various visualization tools like bar charts and pie charts. The search process was planned to be executed using set of inclusion and exclusion conditions on four bibliographic databases (IEEExplore, Springerlink, Sciencedirect, and ACM digital library). The relevant papers are selected by applying inclusion and exclusion conditions. The google citations of the relevant papers are subject to the inclusion and exclusion conditions again to include the more relevant papers. Finally, the systematic schema was created and populated after analyzing the studies abstracts. [Results] The results indicate the following (a) The research focus is on generic software development (78%) rather on individual life cycle activities. (b) The number of empirical studies is limited (25%). (c) A number of studies proposing solutions and evaluating on live cases in industrial settings are missing from the literature. This is in comparison to the validation approaches (72%) i.e., solutions tested in laboratory settings. (d) At present, the literature has limited ability to provide the software companies (including startups) with the guidelines (in the form of opinions and experience reports) for involving freelancers in the software development process. (e) The reported challenges include Collaboration and Coordination (33%), Developer Recommendation (or selection) (19%), Team Formulation (14%), Task Recommendation (allocation) (14%), Task Decomposition (11%), Privacy and Security (Confidentiality) (11%), Budget Estimation (8%), Recognition (8%), Trust Issues (8%), Market Dynamism (6%), Intellectual Property Issues (6%), Participation of Crowd Worker (6%), and Capacity Utilization (3%). These challenges are highly interactive, and each challenge impacts all other challenges. (e) Recent focus of the researchers (total 7 studies in 2019) is on generic software development handling the collaboration and coordination (3 studies out of 7), Developer recommendation (2 studies out of 7), and task recommendation (2 studies out of 7). [Conclusion] The freelancer-driven software engineering research area has got the attraction of the researchers, but it will take a long time to gain maturity. This puts an urgent call for more empirical studies and evaluation-based solution research that could help companies (including startups) to foster innovations. Further, the research focus should be well distributed among the various development phases to address the unique challenges associated with individual activities. The accurate management of the freelancer in the software development could help companies and startups to foster innovations and remain competitive in the marketplace.

ACS Style

Varun Gupta; Jose Maria Fernandez-Crehuet; Thomas Hanne. Freelancers in the Software Development Process: A Systematic Mapping Study. Processes 2020, 8, 1215 .

AMA Style

Varun Gupta, Jose Maria Fernandez-Crehuet, Thomas Hanne. Freelancers in the Software Development Process: A Systematic Mapping Study. Processes. 2020; 8 (10):1215.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Varun Gupta; Jose Maria Fernandez-Crehuet; Thomas Hanne. 2020. "Freelancers in the Software Development Process: A Systematic Mapping Study." Processes 8, no. 10: 1215.

Earlycite article
Published: 08 September 2020 in Journal of Enterprise Information Management
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Purpose This paper aims to assess and prioritize manufacturing companies in the healthcare industry based on critical success factors (CSFs) of their reverse logistics (RL). The research involves seven medical device companies located in the Tehran Province, Iran. Design/methodology/approach To identify and prioritize companies based on CSFs of RL, the study proposes a three-phase decision-making framework that integrates the Delphi method, the best-worst method (BWM) and the Additive Ratio Assessment (ARAS) method with Z-numbers. The weights required for this method are obtained by a variant of the BWM based on Z-numbers, denoted as Z-numbers Best-Worst Method, or ZBWM. Since decision-makers face an uncertain environment, Z-numbers, which are a kind of fuzzy numbers, are applied. Findings First, after customizing CSFs by the Delphi method and obtaining 15 CSFs of RL, these are ranked by the hybrid BWM-ARAS method with Z-numbers. Results reveal which company appears to perform best with respect to their RL implementations. Based on this result, healthcare device companies should choose the highest priority company based on the selected RL CSFs and results from using the BWM-ARAS method with Z-numbers. Originality/value The contribution of this paper is using a hybrid ARAS-BWM method based on Z-numbers. Each of these methods has some merits compared to other similar methods. The combination of these methods contributes a new approach for prioritizing companies based on RL CSFs with high accuracy and reliability.

ACS Style

Amir Karbassi Yazdi; Peter Fernandes Wanke; Thomas Hanne; Eleonora Bottani. A decision-support approach under uncertainty for evaluating reverse logistics capabilities of healthcare providers in Iran. Journal of Enterprise Information Management 2020, 33, 991 -1022.

AMA Style

Amir Karbassi Yazdi, Peter Fernandes Wanke, Thomas Hanne, Eleonora Bottani. A decision-support approach under uncertainty for evaluating reverse logistics capabilities of healthcare providers in Iran. Journal of Enterprise Information Management. 2020; 33 (5):991-1022.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Amir Karbassi Yazdi; Peter Fernandes Wanke; Thomas Hanne; Eleonora Bottani. 2020. "A decision-support approach under uncertainty for evaluating reverse logistics capabilities of healthcare providers in Iran." Journal of Enterprise Information Management 33, no. 5: 991-1022.

Journal article
Published: 03 September 2020 in Applied Sciences
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Startups have high failure rates due to their inability to attain a sufficient product/market fit, i.e., delivering a solution that best matches the user needs in the market. Requirement engineering is the activity that could help startup teams identify the value proposition that provides high value to the users and continuously innovate it. The objective of the study is to analyse the state of art of the requirement engineering research in the context of startups, as available in the literature. The analysis of the research area highlights the research trends to achieve two things i.e., (a) predict how much support the startups can get from the literature for enhancing their success rates and (b) identify the research gaps to motivate researchers to conduct future research that could be adoptable in startup contexts. Systematic mapping is conducted on studies extracted from the four bibliographic databases (IEEExplore, ACM, Springerlink and ScienceDirect) and studies extracted by using a forward snowballing approach. Individual studies are coded to yield the classification scheme. Formulated schemes and those already available in literature, were populated with information extracted from the abstracts of the studies. The research is mostly focused on generic requirement engineering and product validation activities. The research is conducted mostly as evaluations (empirical studies) with the outcome of providing theory to the research community. Major underlying motivation of the research is to attain the product/market fit. However, research studies focusing on requirement documentation, prioritization and elicitation are losing focus from 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively. The literature lacks the studies that reports research solutions which are validated in laboratory settings or in real contexts, experience reports, opinion papers and philosophical papers. The positive side of the finding is that the number of requirement engineering research studies in a startup context have increased in the past five years. At this instant, unfortunately the literature has limited ability to support startups by providing solutions (for instance, research solutions, evidence to support decision makings, best practices, experiences etc.) that are adoptable in their real context. Uniform focus of the researchers across all sub-activities of requirement engineering is required with effort distributed across different research types that supports startups, not only by providing validated solutions but experience reports, opinions, new conceptual frameworks and empirical evidence that can aid their decision making.

ACS Style

Varun Gupta; Jose Maria Fernandez-Crehuet; Thomas Hanne; Rainer Telesko. Requirements Engineering in Software Startups: A Systematic Mapping Study. Applied Sciences 2020, 10, 6125 .

AMA Style

Varun Gupta, Jose Maria Fernandez-Crehuet, Thomas Hanne, Rainer Telesko. Requirements Engineering in Software Startups: A Systematic Mapping Study. Applied Sciences. 2020; 10 (17):6125.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Varun Gupta; Jose Maria Fernandez-Crehuet; Thomas Hanne; Rainer Telesko. 2020. "Requirements Engineering in Software Startups: A Systematic Mapping Study." Applied Sciences 10, no. 17: 6125.

Chapter
Published: 08 July 2020 in Developments in Advanced Control and Intelligent Automation for Complex Systems
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This chapter reflects on the business innovation supported by developing text mining solutions to meet the business needs communicated by Swiss companies. Two related projects from different industries and with different challenges are discussed in order to identify common procedures and methodologies that can be used. One of the partners, in the gig work sector, offers a platform solution for employee recruitment for temporary work. The work assessment is performed using short reviews for which a method for sentiment assessment based on machine learning has been developed. The other partner, in the financial advice sector, operates an information extraction service for business documents, including insurance policies. This requires automation in the extraction of structured information from pdf-files. The common path to innovation in such projects includes business process modeling and the implementation of novel technological solutions, including text mining techniques.

ACS Style

Ela Pustulka; Thomas Hanne. Text Mining Innovation for Business. Developments in Advanced Control and Intelligent Automation for Complex Systems 2020, 49 -61.

AMA Style

Ela Pustulka, Thomas Hanne. Text Mining Innovation for Business. Developments in Advanced Control and Intelligent Automation for Complex Systems. 2020; ():49-61.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ela Pustulka; Thomas Hanne. 2020. "Text Mining Innovation for Business." Developments in Advanced Control and Intelligent Automation for Complex Systems , no. : 49-61.

Chapter
Published: 08 July 2020 in Developments in Advanced Control and Intelligent Automation for Complex Systems
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In the Master of Science program Business Information Systems at a Swiss university, the authors have been teaching artificial intelligence (AI) methods, in particularly computational intelligence (CI) methods, for about ten years. AI and CI require the ability and readiness of a deeper understanding of algorithms, which can hardly be achieved with classical didactic concepts. Therefore, the focus is on assignments that lead the students to develop new algorithms or modify existing ones, or make them suitable for new areas of applications. This article discusses certain teaching concepts, their changes over time and experiences that have been made with a focus on improving students’ learning outcomes in understanding and applying special AI/CI methods such as neural networks and evolutionary algorithms.

ACS Style

Thomas Hanne; Rolf Dornberger. Adapting the Teaching of Computational Intelligence Techniques to Improve Learning Outcomes. Developments in Advanced Control and Intelligent Automation for Complex Systems 2020, 113 -129.

AMA Style

Thomas Hanne, Rolf Dornberger. Adapting the Teaching of Computational Intelligence Techniques to Improve Learning Outcomes. Developments in Advanced Control and Intelligent Automation for Complex Systems. 2020; ():113-129.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Thomas Hanne; Rolf Dornberger. 2020. "Adapting the Teaching of Computational Intelligence Techniques to Improve Learning Outcomes." Developments in Advanced Control and Intelligent Automation for Complex Systems , no. : 113-129.

Methodologies and application
Published: 27 February 2020 in Soft Computing
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In the current highly competitive airline market, many companies have failed due to their low revenue rates. For this reason, many of them have to develop strategies to increase their revenue. In this study, we develop revenue management (RM) strategy for the Iranian airline industry. More specifically, we present a mathematical model that considers some conditions not studied in previous research in order to provide a more realistic RM modeling of airlines that fits well for the special characteristics of Iranian Airways. A binary differential evolution algorithm is employed to solve the model due to the stochastic nature of data and the NP-hardness of the considered problem. To generate maximum revenue among the six types of airplanes that fly the four capital cities of Iran, the airline under investigation is advised to operate only 21 flights to those cities and cancel the rest of the flights.

ACS Style

Amir Karbassi Yazdi; Mohamad Amin Kaviani; Thomas Hanne; Andres Ramos. A binary differential evolution algorithm for airline revenue management: a case study. Soft Computing 2020, 24, 14221 -14234.

AMA Style

Amir Karbassi Yazdi, Mohamad Amin Kaviani, Thomas Hanne, Andres Ramos. A binary differential evolution algorithm for airline revenue management: a case study. Soft Computing. 2020; 24 (18):14221-14234.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Amir Karbassi Yazdi; Mohamad Amin Kaviani; Thomas Hanne; Andres Ramos. 2020. "A binary differential evolution algorithm for airline revenue management: a case study." Soft Computing 24, no. 18: 14221-14234.

Journal article
Published: 09 July 2019 in Algorithms
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One of the most important functions of an export credit agency (ECA) is to act as an intermediary between national governments and exporters. These organizations provide financing to reduce the political and commercial risks in international trade. The agents assess the buyers based on financial and non-financial indicators to determine whether it is advisable to grant them credit. Because many of these indicators are qualitative and inherently linguistically ambiguous, the agents must make decisions in uncertain environments. Therefore, to make the most accurate decision possible, they often utilize fuzzy inference systems. The purpose of this research was to design a credit rating model in an uncertain environment using the fuzzy inference system (FIS). In this research, we used suitable variables of agency ratings from previous studies and then screened them via the Delphi method. Finally, we created a credit rating model using these variables and FIS including related IF-THEN rules which can be applied in a practical setting.

ACS Style

Amir Karbassi Yazdi; Thomas Hanne; Yong J. Wang; Hui-Ming Wee; Wang; Wee. A Credit Rating Model in a Fuzzy Inference System Environment. Algorithms 2019, 12, 139 .

AMA Style

Amir Karbassi Yazdi, Thomas Hanne, Yong J. Wang, Hui-Ming Wee, Wang, Wee. A Credit Rating Model in a Fuzzy Inference System Environment. Algorithms. 2019; 12 (7):139.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Amir Karbassi Yazdi; Thomas Hanne; Yong J. Wang; Hui-Ming Wee; Wang; Wee. 2019. "A Credit Rating Model in a Fuzzy Inference System Environment." Algorithms 12, no. 7: 139.