Ali Ahsan

• PhD
• Senior Academic at Torrens University Australia

In Software Engineering Regression Testing is a mandatory activity. Whenever, a change in existing system occurs and new version appears, the unchanged portions need to be regression tested for any resulting undesirable effects. During process of Regression Testing, same test cases are executed repeatedly for un-modified portion of software. This a...

Human Resource Management is an important area of project management. The concept of Human Resource Allocation is not new and it can also be used for resource allocation to software projects. Software projects are more critical as compared to projects of other disciplines because success of software projects dependents on human resources. In softwa...

A project manager balances the resource allocation using resource leveling algorithms after assigning resources to project activities. However, resource leveling does not ensure optimized allocation of resources. Furthermore, the duration and cost of a project may increase after leveling resources. The objectives of resource allocation optimization...

There is a pressing need for public administration leaders to exhibit expertise-based intuitive leadership traits for developing countries to respond to sustainability challenges. While the importance of explicit and tacit knowledge to underpin expertise-based intuitive decision-making is known, public service leaders of developing countries can la...

Human factors play an important role in the optimization of industrial processes. Human performance varies from worker to worker. Factors such as a worker's skill, effort, condition, and consistency have a significant impact on his performance. In manual manufacturing operations, this performance gap becomes quite crucial. The objective of this pap...

IoT, big data, system integration, cybersecurity, cloud computing, augmented and virtual reality, robotics, artificial intelligence, and much more are some of the big hi-tech Industry 4.0 components that are and will keep, revolutionizing industry and modern business. Unfortunately, the higher education industry in developing countries is not ready...

This research is focused on knowledge-based performance drivers, which are often intertwined with intellectual capital (IC); specifically, the value-added intellectual coefficient (VAIC) and its profound influence on labor productivity (LP), with the pivotal inputs of training and research and development (R&D) as moderating, in the realm of small-...

Maintaining the content quality on social media Q&A platforms is pivotal for user attraction and retention. Automating post quality assessment offers benefits such as reduced moderator workload, amplified community impact, enhanced expert user recognition, and importance to expert feedback. While existing approaches for post quality mainly employ b...

Contemporary research of employee social network analysis has grown far beyond the conventional wisdom of network and turnover theory; however, what is missing is a comprehensive review highlighting new perspectives and network constructs from a retention viewpoint. Since turnover is a concurrent component of retention, the analysis of the factors...

Big data analytics uncovers hidden patterns through classification, prediction and reinforcement of big datasets. In these datasets, some features have a negligible connection with other features and some may be insignificant as their presence does not impact the results of big data analytics. The algorithms of big data analytics generate better cl...

This study introduces a new approach for the competence development of the socio-technical aspect. The curriculum of the Project Management (PM) course taught in degree programs concentrates largely on imparting technical knowledge. Current research seeks to direct the attention of the PM curriculum towards Personal Competencies as well. PM studies...

In the current century, organizations face ever increasing dynamic ecosystems and are constantly devising strategies to meet their challenges. These include the implementation of the right organizational structure and avoid project schedule delays to achieve projects’ success. Unfortunately, the classification of significant project success dimensi...

While there are several Scientometrics that can be used to assess the quality of the scientific work published in journals and conferences, yet; their validity and suitability is a great concern for stakeholders from both academia and industry. Different organizations have a different set of criteria for assessing the journals publishing scientific...

Social network analysis (SNA) has emerged as a significant paradigm for research in data mining community for measuring and analyzing human dynamic network structure. At organizational level, SNA can enhance our understanding of work place social interactions and unveil the hidden stars embedded in informal networks by investigating nodes and edges...

Global software development, an emerging software development methodology within a technology-enabled environment has recently received increased attention from scholars and practitioners. Despite the fact that the lack of effective communication is a major challenge of globally distributed teams, communication research related to the scale develop...

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There is a pressing need for public administration leaders to exhibit expertise-based intuitive leadership traits for developing countries to respond to sustainability challenges. While the importance of explicit and tacit knowledge to underpin expertise-based intuitive decision-making is known, public service leaders of developing countries can la...

This study takes on a course of “Phenomenon before theory” approach. For that purpose, firstly, the phenomenon regarding knowledge transfer barriers is developed, and then it is confirmed through expert’s suggestions. Knowledge transfer theories from project management literature are then applied and systematically reviewed against observed phenome...

This study takes on a course of “phenomenon before theory” approach. For that purpose, firstly, the phenomenon regarding knowledge transfer barriers is developed, and then it is confirmed through expert suggestions. Knowledge transfer theories from project management literature are then applied and systematically reviewed against observed phenomeno...

This is a qualitative research using action research approach. The study discussed and reviewed the Knowledge transfer theories and project knowledge transfer models and find gaps regarding correspondence of learning behaviors and training methodologies, in case of project management training. Considering the gap, the study proposed a customized st...

This is a qualitative research using action research approach. The study discussed and reviewed the Knowledge transfer theories and project knowledge transfer models and find gaps regarding correspondence of learning behaviors and training methodologies, in case of project management training. Considering the gap, the study proposed a customized st...

Change Acceleration Process model (CAP) emerged in early 90's as a set of principles for accelerating change management efforts in organizations. Business Process Improvement (BPI) projects open avenues of opportunity and success for organizations in this highly competitive era. However, most of these projects fail due to lack of commitment, commun...

Business Process Improvement (BPI) projects open avenues of opportunity and success for organizations in this highly competitive era. However, research has shown that most of these projects are not completed successfully. This paper identifies the “industry relevant” factors that are most critical to success of a BPI Project in the Telecom sector u...

Organizational structure of any software development organization is comprised of various job roles. Among these roles Software Project Manager and Software Quality Managers are key position holders because both of these play very important role for the success of software project. A project manager plans monitor the pace of work whereas quality ma...

It is the responsibility of the core government to collect, store and manage information about its population. However the recent increase in the volume, velocity, veracity, and variety of data available has seen what we now call ‘Big Data’ emerge, making it hard for governments to manage, store and use that data for informed decision making with t...

To attain project success in R&D (Research & Development) public sector environment, the aspects of an OS (Organizational Structure) play a vital role in the successful implementation of R&D projects. Nevertheless, not meeting proposed timelines and inadequatem management of schedules of R&D projects is the intrinsic hurdle in R&D projects. However...

Now a day’s telecom industry is facing real problem of improving IT processes. PI projects are widely used to overcome these challenges but unfortunately these projects do not have long lasting success results. In this tech savvy era, IT projects are crucial for survival in Telecom industry. Therefore, there is a need for reengineering of PI projec...

Software Maintenance is a time taking activity in the real world. Execution time of software maintenance process may get increased due to interdepartmental communication, thus increasing the cost and decreasing the performance of the process. We suggested performance evaluation of software maintenance process through the transformation of activity...

The Market-driven requirements engineering (RE) is different from traditional requirements engineering and poses a number of challenges. Due to rapidly changing technology; demands for improvements in market driven requirements management process has increased. This paper is an effort to carry out the analysis of the existing practices and cha...

This paper examines the problems faced by disaster management and relief organizations during handling different disaster-related projects. It focuses on the causes, and control and techniques adopted by different countries to effectively manage the disasters. Four different cases have been studied and analyzed to develop an understanding of issue...

Self-adaptive and self-managing software systems have become a burning topic in recent years. Self-adaptability is being suggested as an effective and innovative approach to adapt and manage software systems to the changing operational environment. In this paper, we attempt to investigate and explore the adaptation approaches, types, and need for n...

Self-adaptive and self-managing software systems have become a burning topic in recent years. Self-adaptability is being suggested as an effective and innovative approach to adapt and manage software systems to the changing operational environment. In this paper, we attempt to investigate and explore the adaptation approaches, types, and need for n...

This paper examines the problems faced by disaster management and relief organizations during handling different disaster-related projects. It focuses on the causes, and control and techniques adopted by different countries to effectively manage the disasters. Four different cases have been studied and analyzed to develop an understanding of issue...

Global software development, an emerging software development methodology within a technology enabled environment has recently received increased attention from scholars and practitioners. Despite the fact that the lack of effective communication is a major challenge of globally distributed teams, communication research related to the scale develop...

There are many object oriented design patterns and frameworks; to make the Information System robust, scalable and extensible. The objected oriented patterns are classified in the category of creational, structural, behavioral, security, concurrency, and user interface, relational, social and distributed. All the above classified design pattern doe...

Global software development (GSD), a fundamentally different paradigm from traditional software engineering, has observed continuous growth and lot of acceptance in the last few years. Organizations gain many advantages of GSD, but face additional challenges not observed in collocated teams’ environment. Literature reveals that existing process imp...

Telecom industry in Pakistan has evolved significantly specially after the induction of GSM operators and so has the supplier evaluation criteria employed by these companies to shortlist and select outsourcing of projects and products. This piece of research is focused on the exploration of changing trends in supplier evaluation criteria that Pakis...

This exploratory study investigates the ISO standards for quality management in perspective of software industry. The objective is to examine the applicability of ISO standards generic quality guidelines on software process, product and organization. The frameworks of ISO are studied and understood. Different comparisons are developed and refined t...

Regression testing is a type of testing activity, which ensures that source code changes do not affect the unmodified portions of the software adversely. This testing activity may be very expensive in, some cases, due to the required time to execute the test suite. In order to execute the regression tests in a cost-effective manner, the optimizatio...

The globalization of software development industry continues to experience a significant growth. The increased trend of globalization brings new challenges, increases the scope of the core functions of human resource management and impacts the dynamics of process improvement. The aim of this study is to explore the challenges of globalization and i...

The Result Based Monitoring(RBM) and use of KPIs has been the buzzword in Project Management these days. In order to improve governance & management in the development projects of public sector of Pakistan, the contribution of monitoring & evaluation is inevitable because, “What gets measured gets managed, What gets managed can be improved”. The re...

The Result Based Monitoring(RBM) and use of KPIs has been the buzzword in Project Management these days. In order to improve governance & management in the development projects of public sector of Pakistan, the contribution of monitoring & evaluation is inevitable because, " What gets measured gets managed, What gets managed can be improved ". The...

The escalation of productivity is a key issue in IT based organizations, where the major drivers are lower cost and shorter time-to-market. In this paper we investigate possible usage of agile games and their possible usage which can impact productivity of Project teams. This research defines a set of greatly interactive games and actions that insp...

In today's competitive world, the investor of software product must rely on shorter development periods where product is developed in small features that result in early market delivery and revenue generation. The selection of specific feature for the current development period has remained a great challenge in the history of software development....

Telecom industry in Pakistan has evolved significantly specially after the induction of GSM operators and so has the supplier evaluation criteria employed by these companies to shortlist and select outsourcing of projects and products. This piece of research is focused on the exploration of changing trends in supplier evaluation criteria that Pakis...

Configuration Management (CM) is an important activity throughout the software development life cycle (SDLC). CM becomes essential if any of the artifacts is to be changed during the life cycle. There are many practices which can be adopted in configuration management to stream line the work and bring the quality to the software development process...

Software Engineering (SE) is a new field compared to other sciences. The term Software Engineering first appeared in late 1950s. SE from its beginning has been continuously in the process of evolution. New approaches, methods, tools and techniques are introduced frequently. The future of Software Engineering is a hot topic and every year many publi...

Regression Test Suite Optimization (RTO) is an active research area. A Regression Test Suite is always growing due to changes in software, which increases testing time. To save time and resources optimization of regression test suites is mandatory. Researchers have optimized test suites using conventional and Computational Intelligence based approa...

Problem Statement: Knowledge management (KM) entails the production, processing and consumption of knowledge and information that has been gathered over a period of time for the purpose of improving and escalating the resourcefulness of the company resources. Role of KM in effective software project management (SPM) has turned out to be of supreme...

Regression Testing is performed on already tested programs to ensure that modifications have not revealed defects into the unmodified portions of programs. Regression Test Suites are always growing due to addition of Test Cases. Many broken and redundant test cases are also part of regression test suites. Running the all regression test suite is al...

Concept of “Skill Management” is not new in context of human resource management. This concept can also be utilized for project management but unfortunately there is no well defined ** idea or model that software organizations can follow, and make effective use of the human skills for effective project resource allocation. Software professionals po...

The recent trend of software industry in Pakistan is a shift to adopt agile methodologies for software development. Keeping in view the challenges of methodology migration the current research provides a comprehensive analysis of structural requirements for project based organization to become agile with recommended cultural and business practices...

The study presents framework (T-QAAT) for quality attribute analysis. The proposed validated framework draws inspiration from Malcom Baldrige Award (A U.S. Quality Award). The study investigates differences in quality practices of two leading telecom organizations of Pakistan using T-QAAT. The proposed framework uses Malcolm Baldrige self evaluatio...

This study has been done to understand the current usage pattern of formal methods in the software industry of Pakistan. The objectives of the study was to ascertain if organizations are using formal methods, what kinds of organizations are using them and what are the challenges associated with their usage. The study is exploratory as very limited...

This research identifies procurement concerns of software acquirers in local software industry in Pakistan and points out issues that are not directly addressed by CMMI Version 1.3 for Acquisition. The paper presents an exploratory and descriptive study of acquisition concerns based on direct interviews. The results of research mark various social...

Pakistan’s IT industry is currently one of the top performers as compared to other industrial sectors within Pakistan. As per the findings of Ahsan (2008), despite the fact that Pakistan’s IT industry is competitive (with respect to other industries within Pakistan!), its true potential is yet to be unfolded. Ahsan (2008); states that Pakistanâ...

This paper discusses, examines, explores, explains and analyzes the causes (reasons) and consequences (benefits and dis-benefits) of rise and fall of `Quality Management Department' of R & D Center of a major Chinese based ICT vendor operating in Pakistan. The paper presents finding of 5 years of qualitative research that required study of the subj...

Pakistan's software industry is comparatively young as compared to the global software industry. This aspect makes this young industry flexible to adopt new project management and software development methodologies because the existing methodologies are not mature enough therefore any new change does not impose serious threats and / or risks to exi...

This research paper presents major barriers to implement quality in IT sector of Pakistan. The paper not only explores (exploration w.r.t quality management covering discussion like what is done, what is not done, what are the loopholes, what must be done and / or what must not be done), but also presents detailed explanation of the main highlights...

Purpose - This research addresses the factors concerning 'Employee Satisfaction' that impact quality of work done and productivity in software organization in Pakistan. The research reveals employee satisfaction as an integral factor for organizations in Pakistan for obtaining competitive advantages in terms of both quality and productivity. Employ...

Employee motivation is one of the key drivers of success in today's competitive environment. Relevant literature generally explains that motivated employees can perform their tasks much better than de-motivated workers. It is due to this reason that there is always a requirement of a comprehensive framework that should be able to provide complete g...

Pakistan's IT industry is currently one of the top performers as compared to other industrial sectors within Pakistan. As per the findings of Ahsan (2008), despite the fact that Pakistan's IT industry is competitive, its true potential is yet to be unfolded. Ahsan (2008); states that Pakistan's so called competitive IT industry has to be in lined w...