J. Antão B. Moura

Bio: J. Antão B. Moura is an academic researcher from Federal University of Campina Grande. The author has contributed to research in topics: Decision support system & Service provider. The author has an hindex of 4, co-authored 13 publications receiving 64 citations.

A Consensus-Based Multicriteria Group Decision Model for Information Technology Management Committees

Abstract: Reaching consensus on decisions—especially when they involve multiple criteria, uncertainty and risk—is a major challenge that Information Technology (IT) Management Committees routinely face. Multicriteria decision-making models could offer support, but may be cumbersome to use when uncertainty and risk are also to be factored in, as it is common in IT service management contexts, for more comprehensive and realistic decisions. Difficulties arise when committee members, who need not be familiar with estimating uncertainty and describing their own or the organization's risk appetite, have to input such estimates to a decision support model. This paper presents a consensus-seeking, IT decision support model that internally blends interval algebra, utility theory and an extended analytic hierarchy process method to account for uncertainty, risk and multiple criteria, respectively. Consensus seeking is supported by the Delphi technique. The model was implemented in two software tools, designed to require little knowledge by users about the model's internals. Three case studies were undertaken in real companies to validate the model. Face validity results offer evidence the model/tools are useful to IT committee members by dispensing with direct, explicit users’ provision of information on uncertainty and risk and by facilitating their consensual decision making.

On the risk exposure and priority determination of changes in IT service management

Abstract: This paper deals with the Change Management process within IT Service Management. Change Management includes several activities, some of which need to evaluate the risk exposure associated with changes to be made to the infrastructure and services. We present a method by which risk exposure associated with a change can be evaluated and the risk exposure metric is applied to the problem of automatically assigning priorities to changes. A formal model is developed to this end; the model captures the business perspective by using financial metrics in the evaluation of risk. A case study, performed in conjunction with a large IT service provider, is reported and provides good results when compared to decisions made by human managers.

SLA Design and Service Provisioning for Outsourced Services

Abstract: In this work, a business-driven approach to designing Service Level Agreements in an e-commerce environment is proposed. In contrast to conventional SLA design approaches, the one proposed better captures the relationship between service provider and service client by considering the negative business impact (business loss) originated from IT infrastructure failures and performance degradation and introduces such knowledge into the SLA itself. A complete example scenario shows the value of the proposed approach. A main conclusion is that the SLA established using the business-driven perspective is superior to the one based on a conventional approach since both service provider and client can simultaneously obtain higher profit.

ReadAct - Alternate Reality, Serious Games for Reading-Acting to Engage Population and Schools on Social Challenges

Abstract: This paper presents a gamified empowerment approach to train future teachers. The approach aims to innovate teaching strategies and to provide a system which motivates players to read and to apply acquired knowledge towards actions to address social challenges within their community. The approach is supported by an alternate reality serious game called “ReadAct” which blends reading instruction with opportunities to act on social responsibility in the real world. Validation results are offered for experiments with the ReadAct approach in different but related contexts of drama reading, environmental education and introduction to computing. Results provide evidence that ReadAct motivates players (young readers) to engage themselves and to attract their schools’ and families’ communities to act on social challenges. The underlying challenges in the experiments are water conservation, urban violence and bullying at school. The paper contributes to the literature on computer-based educat ion by indicating how a ReadAct game may turn the school community, where it is played out, into a community school with an integrated view of academics and social services.

Software test maturity assessment and test process improvement

Abstract: ContextSoftware testing practices and processes in many companies are far from being mature and are usually conducted in ad-hoc fashions. Such immature practices lead to various negative outcomes, e.g., ineffectiveness of testing practices in detecting all the defects, and cost and schedule overruns of testing activities. To conduct test maturity assessment (TMA) and test process improvement (TPI) in a systematic manner, various TMA/TPI models and approaches have been proposed. ObjectiveIt is important to identify the state-of-the-art and the practice in this area to consolidate the list of all various test maturity models proposed by practitioners and researchers, the drivers of TMA/TPI, the associated challenges and the benefits and results of TMA/TPI. Our article aims to benefit the readers (both practitioners and researchers) by providing the most comprehensive survey of the area, to this date, in assessing and improving the maturity of test processes. MethodTo achieve the above objective, we have performed a Multivocal Literature Review (MLR) study to find out what we know about TMA/TPI. A MLR is a form of a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) which includes the grey literature (e.g., blog posts and white papers) in addition to the published (formal) literature (e.g., journal and conference papers). We searched the academic literature using the Google Scholar and the grey literature using the regular Google search engine. ResultsOur MLR and its results are based on 181 sources, 51 (29%) of which were grey literature and 130 (71%) were formally published sources. By summarizing what we know about TMA/TPI, our review identified 58 different test maturity models and a large number of sources with varying degrees of empirical evidence on this topic. We also conducted qualitative analysis (coding) to synthesize the drivers, challenges and benefits of TMA/TPI from the primary sources. ConclusionWe show that current maturity models and techniques in TMA/TPI provides reasonable advice for industry and the research community. We suggest directions for follow-up work, e.g., using the findings of this MLR in industry-academia collaborative projects and empirical evaluation of models and techniques in the area of TMA/TPI as reported in this article.

Data-driven group decision making for diagnosis of thyroid nodule

Abstract: Emerging information technologies integration into various fields has enhanced the development of these fields. Large volumes of data have been accumulated in this process. The accumulated data offer opportunities and challenges for people facing practical problems. On the one hand, it is essential to depend on a groups capabilities rather than an individuals capabilities to handle practical problems because the individual may lack sufficient expertise and experience to use data. In this situation, the practical problems can be considered as group decision making (GDM) problems. On the other hand, the accumulated data can help generate quality solutions to GDM problems. To obtain such solutions under the assumption that the accumulated data regarding a specific decision problem are available, this paper proposes a data-driven GDM method. In the method, decision makers weights are learned from historical overall assessments and the corresponding gold standards, while criterion weights are learned from historical overall assessments and the corresponding decision matrices. The learned expert weights and criterion weights are used to produce the aggregated assessments, from which alternatives are compared or the overall conclusion is made. In a tertiary hospital located in Hefei, Anhui Province, China, the proposed method is applied to aid radiologists in diagnosing thyroid nodules.