https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/10957 Mon, 20 Apr 2026 04:05:30 GMT 2026-04-20T04:05:30Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/123340 Title: Open source activities social network Abstract: Through this Final Year Project, we wanted to study whether using a software engineering approach and intelligent techniques, we could implement a system that would help committees and organising teams in their daily running. Through the various requirement gathering techniques used and the background literature review that were carried out, we were able to come out and implement a system which aims to specifically do so. In the evaluation of the system we see that by the use of the Agile software development life cycle we were able to build prototypes which then made up a very robust system, with very few little bugs being reported during the beta testing. We were also able to implement the system in a way to be as easy to use as possible, which was depicted by our users themselves. By the use of the recommendation engine, we were able to give personalised recommendations to the users in order to tempt them to contribute to other similar events. During the focus group interview that was carried out, we were able to conclude that it served as a great addition to our social networking site. Even more, having gathered the users Facebook likes, the engine was able to compute better recommendations. Last but not least, in order to help committees we had to evaluate the three main features that were introduced in CALBUD: the Document Management System, Meeting Management System and the Group Chat. All of these were rated with a high rating from the beta testers, and during the focus group interview we were able to depict that by the use of the meeting management system and the document management system, committees will lose less time during the meetings themselves. This is since the system allows them to prepare and approve the agenda and minutes collaboratively and also allows them to annotate on media files. Description: B.SC.(HONS)ICT Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/123340 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/100892 Title: Detecting and managing knowledge risk in software development processes Abstract: Software engineering is a knowledge-intensive activity. In the case of software organisations, the most valuable assets are no longer buildings and machines but the knowledge held by their employees. Software engineers are not merely vessels of technical knowledge but are fully fledged knowledge workers. They are expected to form a deep enough understanding of whatever domain they happen to be working in such that they are able to apply their technical knowledge to build solutions which solve problems in the domain. In an industry with high staff turnover rates, this can be worrying. Organisations need to ensure that as employees flow in and out of the their employ, the intellectual capital they create and work with is somehow retained and leveraged to increase their competitive edge. Studies have shown that projects do not tend to fail because of developers' lack of technical knowledge, but rather for reasons such as requirements failures, communication failures and estimation failures. These failures can be traced back to inadequate knowledge management practices as a root cause. Software development processes tend to address knowledge management issues by prescribing documentation, a strategy known to knowledge management practitioners as codification. However, codification is but one of the techniques in the knowledge worker's arsenal. This work seeks to make a contribution to software engineering by carrying out research into the fields of software development processes and knowledge management with the goal of designing and evaluating a new software development life cycle that makes knowledge management an integral part of software development. Although work has been done to evaluate the effects of various knowledge management initiatives (e.g. introducing wikis or mentoring programmes) on software development, the concept of a development process built around knowledge management has not been found in the literature. Such a life cycle should not only aim to produce a quality product within reasonable timeframes, but also seek to achieve a healthy organisational knowledge landscape. The approach being proposed here involves the design and evaluation of a software development life cycle which is based on a knowledge management strategy that is tailored to software engineering. The strategy in question is biased towards personalisation and makes use of techniques from the engineering and cartographic schools of thought in knowledge management. The overarching goal is to make knowledge management part of the focus of employees' day to day job such that they can identify and expose knowledge assets, and expose and monitor knowledge risks so as to allow mitigating action to be taken when necessary. Description: PH.D. Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/100892 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/95821 Title: A generic generic algorithm using phenotype building functions Abstract: The problem with genetic algorithms is that their use is made difficult by the fact that they are not very reusable because the chromosome representation, genetic operators and fitness function need to be redefined for many problems. In order to use a genetic algorithm you have to think in terms of evolution which might not be easy for a programmer. In this project, we aim to solve these problems by creating a generic chromosome representation which always uses the same genetic algorithm regardless of the problem being solved. The user then directs the genetic algorithm by writing a function, called the 'phenotype building function' or the 'builder function', which maps the generic chromosome into candidate solutions. The fitness function will still have to be provided in order to measure the fitness of a candidate solution. Description: B.Sc. IT (Hons)(Melit.) Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/95821 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/95521 Title: Reliable file backup system over p2p architecture Abstract: Decentralized storage systems rely on redundancy schemes and repair policies to construct a reliable solution. Various applications make use of erasure codes to provide the required redundancy level due to the fact that simple replication of objects suffers from storage inefficiency. However, one drawback of erasure codes is the large amount of bandwidth required for repairs incurred due to data loss. To counter this effect various designs have been proposed, one of them being Hierarchical Codes which we believe has got the highest potential to achieve its goals. The only drawback of this coding scheme is the complex algorithm used to determine the probability of failure. This project objective is to understand better the parameters involved in this coding scheme with the final result being a new way of structuring Hierarchical Codes which eliminate the use of such algorithm. This is achieved by anticipating the number of losses and building the Hierarchical coding schemes accordingly to completely mask temporary failures. Description: B.Sc. IT (Hons)(Melit.) Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/95521 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z