Product Owner Research Articles

The Right Angle: Visual Portrayal of Products Affects Observers’ Impressions of Owners

ABSTRACTConsumer products have long been known to influence observers’ impressions of product owners. The angle at which products are visually portrayed in advertisements, however, may be an overlooked factor in these effects. We hypothesize and find that portrayals of the same product from different viewpoints can prime different associations that color impressions of product and owner in parallel ways. In Study 1, automobiles were rated higher on status‐ and power‐related traits (e.g., dominant, powerful) when portrayed head‐on versus in side profile, an effect found for sport utility vehicles (SUVs)—a category with a reputation for dominance—but not sedans. In Study 2, these portrayal‐based associations influenced the impressions formed about the product's owner: a target person was rated higher on status‐ and power‐related traits when his SUV was portrayed head‐on versus in side profile. These results suggest that the influence of visual portrayal extends beyond general evaluations of products to affect more specific impressions of products and owners alike, and highlight that primed traits are likely to influence impressions when compatible with other knowledge about the target.

Experiences in development and maintenance of Silence-GIS

Silence is a GIS (Geographical Information System) build on ArgGIS 9.3.1. This large scale noise management system has been designed for the Dutch Highway Authorities. The aim of the system is to support decisions on Dutch and European noise policy and to predict the effect of future measures on the noise exposure of the population in The Netherlands. The information needed to perform noise calculations was divided over different departments. There was a great need for standardization and integration of the different data sets. This was maybe the largest challenge of the Silence project. For the development an agile development method was chosen that involved the product owner during all the stages of the development. Terms were introduced like sprints, scrum meetings, back log, burn down charts, pigs and chickens. To keep the system up to date contracts were made between the product owner and the departments that supplied the data. This paper gives insight in the challenges and benefits of Silence, the a...

A Capstone Course on Agile Software Development Using Scrum

In this paper, an undergraduate capstone course in software engineering is described that not only exposes students to agile software development, but also makes it possible to observe the behavior of developers using Scrum for the first time. The course requires students to work as Scrum Teams, responsible for the implementation of a set of user stories defined by a project domain expert playing the role of the Product Owner. During the course, data on project management activities are collected in order to analyze the amount of work completed, compliance with the release and iteration plans, productivity, ability in effort estimation, and the like. The paper discusses the achievement of teaching goals and provides empirical evaluation of students' progress in estimation and planning skills. A summary of lessons learned and recommendations is given, reflecting the issues to be considered when teaching courses in agile software development. Surveys of students have shown that they were overwhelmingly positive about the course, indicating that the course fully met or even exceeded their expectations.

Policy options for private forest owners in Western Balkans: a qualitative study

Private forest owners start to play an important role in Western Balkans’ forestry and they are essential to the successful implementation of environmental policies. Little is known about how forest policy can support private forest owners in these countries and therefore this study was conducted though a qualitative method, based on personal interviews with representatives of 54 stakeholders that include state forest authorities and administration, private forest owners associations, forest science and research and private sector in Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia. The results show significant homogeneity across the region towards creation of independent interest forest owners associations based on financial support. Regression analysis identified stakeholder attitudes as significant predictors of policy preferences and also identified owners of production forest as more supportive of such policies.

Calculation of lifetime net income per year (LTNI/year) of Australian Holstein cows to validate the Australian profit ranking of their sires. 2. Validation of the Australian profit ranking of sires and test for genotype by environment interaction based on LTNI/year

In Australia, the Australian Dairy Herd Improvement Scheme publishes the Australian profit ranking (APR), which is an economic index combining all economic traits. The APR is used to select sires that will breed the most profitable daughters. The objectives of this study were to test the predictive power of the APR by looking at the relationship between the APR of sires and lifetime net income per year (LTNI/year) of their future daughters and to test if this prediction was accurate in different types of herds. The importance of re-ranking was also tested by considering LTNI/year of cows in different herds as different traits and estimating the genetic correlation between LTNI/year in different herd types (herds differing in calving systems, region or production level). An additional objective was to test the value of individual trait Australian breeding values (ABV) of sires to predict LTNI/year of their future daughters. The results show that overall the relationship between the APR of bulls and the LTNI/year of their daughters was as expected. That is, the regression of daughter’s LTNI/year on sire’s APR equals 0.5 as expected because cows inherit half their genes from their sire. When LTNI/year of cows was regressed on sire’s APR separately for different herd types, the regression coefficients varied from 0.36 (low production herds) to 0.62 (high production herds). The genetic correlation for LTNI/year between herd types was always high indicating little re-ranking of sires. The lowest was 0.89 between LTNI/year of cows in seasonal and year-round calving systems as well as between Regions 3 (Gippsland and Tasmania) and Region 1 (New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia) herds. Thus, an APR calculated across all herd types will give a good ranking of bulls in any herd type. When LTNI/year of cows was regressed on individual sire ABV the regression coefficients were approximately half the economic weight for each trait as expected. Within seasonal calving and low production herds the regression on sire’s fertility ABV was higher than expected and the regression in year-round and high production herds was less than expected. In conclusion, over all herds the sire’s APR predicts LTNI/year of future daughters as expected. Owners of low production, seasonal calving herds will get slightly less benefit from 1 unit increase in APR than owners of high production, year-round calving herds and could perhaps benefit from placing additional emphasis on the fertility ABV when selecting sires.

User-Centered Agile Methods

With the introduction and popularization of Agile methods of software development, existing relationships and working agreements between user experience groups and developers are being disrupted. Agile methods introduce new concepts: the Product Owner, the Customer (but not the user), short iterations, User Stories. Where do UX professionals fit in this new world? Agile methods also bring a new mindset -- no big design, no specifications, minimal planning -- which conflict with the needs of UX design. This lecture discusses the key elements of Agile for the UX community and describes strategies UX people can use to contribute effectively in an Agile team, overcome key weaknesses in Agile methods as typically implemented, and produce a more robust process and more successful designs. We present a process combining the best practices of Contextual Design, a leading approach to user-centered design, with those of Agile development. Table of Contents: Introduction / Common Agile Methods / Agile Culture / Best Practices for Integrating UX with Agile / Structure of a User-Centered Agile Process / Structuring Projects / Conclusion

Applying economic guidelines for responsible tourism in a World Heritage Site

This article proposes an integrated sustainable tourism development strategy for the Vredefort Dome as a World Heritage Site. In particular, it analyses the integration of the South African guidelines for responsible tourism applied to a local community. All tourism product owners in the Dome area formed part of this research that was conducted by means of a survey. The strategy that was formulated for the area aims to ensure that future generations will be able to utilise the resources in the same manner as the present generation. It is indicated that this intra-generational equity will only be possible through an integrated approach. The value of this research is its contribution to responsible tourism and, concurrently, its emphasis on the fact that tourism destinations in South Africa need to be developed in an integrated and sustainable manner.In order for the Vredefort Dome to be a World Heritage Site, and to exist as a protected area, it is imperative that the tourism product owners in the area realise their roles as custodians of this precious site. This proposition leads to the main aim of this study, namely to develop an integrated tourism development strategy for the Vredefort Dome as a World Heritage site.The results of the empirical study indicated that tourism stakeholders are prepared to improve the present situation in the Vredefort Dome and are willing to adjust their business practices in the future. Such changes in practice involve some strategic issues, and the economic, social and environmental strategies will give direction to this World Heritage Site to become more sustainable.

Supplier Integration and Communication Strategies in Collaborative Platform Development

Following the introduction of platform-based products, especially considering that platforms are used for multiple brands, there is certainly a growing need for system engineering processes and techniques. This is further emphasized by the fact that companies faced with collaborative platform development frequently need to harmonize often opposing claims from stakeholders with different backgrounds, beliefs, desires and intentions. A core strategy for using resources (e.g., work-hours, knowledge, and production systems) better and more flexibly is to involve suppliers earlier in the development cycle. From this perspective, well-designed and efficiently managed supplier integration is a huge competitive advantage. Supplier integration may range from component design and manufacture to full responsibility for the design of complex distributed systems. The starting point for this work is the results from a previous study, made by the authors, in which a Swedish automotive company and one of its sub-suppliers were examined in order to identify communication barriers. This revealed several problems regarding supplier interaction and information management in projects where both suppliers and product owners contribute their unique knowledge. Following the previous study, the questions to answer include: How can platforms be represented to suit suppliers as well as orginal equipment manufacturers? How does one guarantee efficient, accurate and secure information exchange between the parties involved? Consequently, this article pinpoints some of the problems that companies involved with collaborative product platform development, together with their suppliers, must face today. To answer these questions, interviews, and document studies were conducted for a Swedish truck manufacturer. The results are oriented to the interfaces between product owners and their suppliers.

Maximising the Local Pro-Poor Impacts of Dive Tourism: Sodwana Bay, South Africa

This article examines the local impacts of dive tourism in a South African case study, namely Sodwana Bay in Maputaland, KwaZulu-Natal province. Using extensive primary research interviews with key tourism stakeholders and local product owners, dive tourism at Sodwana Bay is considered an example of niche tourism in small-town South Africa. It is argued that opportunities exist for extending local pro-poor impacts if several challenges are addressed concerning improved skill levels, the institutional environment and extending local small business opportunities.

Information architecture: IA and RIAs — You know more than you think you do

Information architecture: IA and RIAs — You know more than you think you do

On the Reading of Product Owner's Manuals: Perceptions and Product Complexity

This research focuses on the self-reported use of owner's manuals for automotive vehicles. The results indicate that owner's manuals are frequently not read. Nevertheless, people prefer owner's manuals to electronic presentations of the same product information. Implications for facilitating reader use of product documentation are discussed.

Development of a generic capability model for extended enterprise design for manufacture

Design for manufacture aims to design products for minimum manufacturing cost and time, without compromising the functionality or the quality of the product. The aim is to move the identification of potential manufacturing problems further up in the design process rather than making costly and time consuming changes in the production stage. In the extended enterprise, this transfer of information is not only between functions but also between organisations. The interorganisational barrier makes the transfer of information between design and manufacturing more difficult as it is rare for two organisations to have a formal means for transferring the information required by the product owner especially early in the supply relationship. It is also rare for the information to be stored in a format that is easily accessible to all the potential end user groups. This research develops a generic definition of supplier capability for machining suppliers in the aerospace industry. Through working with the design, manufacturing and procurement functions of an aerospace manufacturer, information requirements are captured. These requirements are verified with suppliers to match the "desire to access" to the "willingness to provide". This model presents a mechanism for the structured transfer of manufacturing information to design. The implementation of the model is in a database that can be filled with information using internet technology.

Global Corporations in the Greenhouse: Developing Equitable Accounting Measures

The declining role of the state in world economic affairs and the increasing reach of transnational corporations to various parts of the world pose a serious challenge to the effectiveness and success of international environmental treaties. With the further integration of the global economy and the rise of economic actors that operate and conduct their business without regard to national boundaries, cost-benefit analyses of economic development and environmental impact become problematic. For instance, are national states responsible for the pool of carbon emissions within their borders or do the foreign owners of carbon-emitting infrastructure and production or the consumers of goods manufactured by transnational corporations in Third World countries hold a share of the responsibility for the emissions created? These and other related issues, such as the promotion of equity and justice, are the main themes of this article.

Achieving quality through supportability

In the current drive to improve product quality through its reliability, maintainability and supportability characteristics, supportability has emerged as the key area in which customers can have an impact, the other two aspects being increasingly integrated into the product design phase. Previous work on supportability has indicated that product or system owners can be most influential in the areas of spares estimation and shared capital investment equipment provision. The effect of spares provisioning has previously been considered at some length. Presents the development of a mathematical model for estimating the impact of the level of shared capital investment equipment provided on the supportability. Such a model would then allow engineering practitioners to assess the implications of their decisions regarding resource allocation, in terms of the overall system availability.

Achieving quality through supportability ‐ part I: concepts and principles

Attempts to improve the quality of the products or systems which customers purchase have focused traditionally on improving the availability of the product through its reliability or maintainability characteristics. However, a growing awareness of the importance of integrating reliability and maintainability considerations into the design phase of a product has led to customers being unable to affect these characteristics to any great extent. As a result, supportability has emerged as a crucial concept to be considered if customers wish to enhance the quality of the products they purchase. Reviews some of the previous work on supportability, particularly in the areas where it is generally recognized that product owners can be most influential, namely spares estimation and shared capital investment equipment provision, and reflects on the associated impact on product quality.

The Structure Conundrum in Supply Chain Management

Supply Chain Management leading to concepts such as lean enterprise is much in vogue today fuelled by the adoption of strategies and partnership practices used so successfully by the Japanese companies. As part of this change, product owners are outsourcing more value through both components and systems which has effectively meant redistributing competencies. This change is concurrent with the initiative to reduce the number of suppliers. The Japanese perfected their SCM strategies and practices within their compatible supply chain structure or keiretsus. The structures emerging in the western automotive supply chains (the paper is based on research on European automotive industry) are different in many key characteristics from the keiretsus. Secondly, they appear to be emerging in an ad‐hoc rather than a planned manner. This poses a critical question for western buyers ‐ is supply chain structure critical for superior performance and if yes, then which type of structure(s) provides the most benefits while maintaining or enhancing product uniqueness?

Product Owner Manuals: An Exploratory Study of Nonreaders Versus Readers1

Empirical literature relating to the use of product owner manual information is sparse, despite the fact that the topic holds important marketplace safety implications. This study employed a survey methodology to explore manual‐specific psychographic as well as demographic variables. Discriminant analysis found prior experience and time considerations to be among the most important variables in differentiating between nonreaders and readers of manuals. Results are discussed within the context of Russo's (1988) cost‐benefit framework related to information usage. Following this perspective, we offer some initial ideas for programs aimed at increasing nonreaders' utilization of manuals.

The use of product owner manuals: A comparison of older versus younger consumers

The present study addresses a relatively unexplored area by examining older consumers' interface with product owner manuals. Specifically, compared to younger consumers, seniors evidenced significantly greater usage of manuals and readership of specific sections. Overall, regression analyses utilizing context, product characteristic, product familiarity, general perceptions of manuals and demographic variables as predictors of manual use found prior knowledge and the perception that manuals are helpful to be among the most significant variables explaining readership. In general, these same variables reflect the extent of overlap between factors explaining manual usage for both older and younger consumers. Relevant literature from related domains provides the context for a discussion of findings and areas for future research.