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area);
RE
4
[
TF
1
]-Good administrative scalability
(capacity to increase easy and fast the number of
terminals for sharing a single distributed system).
The degrees of importance for these requirements
are determined with the AHP method and have
the following values:
U
[
TF
1
] = {32%, 32%, 18%,
18%}. The related performance characteristics
are:
PC
1
[
TF
1
]-Time required adding new files;
PC
2
[
TF
1
]-Number of file formats allowed;
PC
3
[
TF
1
]-Time required modifying informa-
tion;
PC
4
[
TF
1
]-Time required integrating new
tools;
PC
5
[
TF
1
]-Cost required integrating new
tools;
PC
6
[
TF
1
]-Number of remote terminals;
PC
7
[
TF
1
]-Time required integrating/removing
new terminals;
PC
8
[
TF
1
]-Cost required integrat-
ing/removing new terminals.
For the target-function
TF
2
(design for cost
affordability), the related requirements are as
follow:
RE
1
[
TF
2
]-Affordable life-cycle costs
(operating costs, maintenance costs, replacement
costs, scalability costs, disposal costs, support
costs, administrative costs, etc.);
RE
2
[
TF
2
] -Af-
fordable level of the initial investment (system's
price, installation and testing costs, training costs,
etc.);
RE
3
[
TF
2
]-Attractive financial indicators.
The degrees of importance for these requirements
are determined with the AHP method and have the
following values:
U
[
TF
2
] = {40%, 30%, 30%}.
The main performance characteristics related
to the target-function
TF
2
are the followings:
PC
1
[
TF
2
]-Return on investment;
PC
2
[
TF
2
]-Net
present value;
PC
3
[
TF
2
]-Benefit/cost ratio;
PC
4
[
TF
2
]-Payback period;
PC
5
[
TF
2
]-Percentage
of the annual operational costs from the initial
investment.
In this case study, in relation with the target-
function
TF
3
(design for fast development
and implementation) the key requirements for
web-based course planning are the followings:
RE
1
[
TF
3
]-Easy and fast adaptation of a classical
course to a web-based course;
RE
2
[
TF
3
]-Short time
required to train students and lecturers in using
the system;
RE
3
[
TF
3
]-Short time for setting up the
system;
RE
4
[
TF
3
]-Short time for initiating work-
ing sessions (lectures, project work, consultancy,
etc.). The AHP method is also applied to calculate
the degrees of importance for
TF
3
-related require-
ments. They have the following values:
U
[
TF
3
]
= {20%, 35%, 15%, 30%}. The performance
characteristics associated to the target-function
TF
3
are the followings:
PC
1
[
TF
3
]-Time required
to adapt a classical course to a web-based course;
PC
2
[
TF
3
]-Costs required to adapt a classical
course to a web-based course;
PC
3
[
TF
3
]-Time
required to train students/lecturers to use the
system;
PC
4
[
TF
3
]-Time required to set up the
system (hardware and software);
PC
5
[
TF
3
]-Time
required to initiate the working session.
For the target-function
TF
4
(design for reli-
ability) the selected requirements for system's
planning are:
RE
1
[
TF
4
]-High quality of signal
transmission (signal continuity, sound quality,
image quality, etc.);
RE
2
[
TF
4
]-High capacity of
interaction student-teacher (speaking, seeing,
writing, drawing, cooperation);
RE
3
[
TF
4
]-Easy
testing of the system;
RE
4
[
TF
4
]-Easy error track-
ing and fast problem fixing;
RE
5
[
TF
4
]-Low in-
ternet resources required;
RE
6
[
TF
4
]-Good course
management (session record, file management,
student work management, etc.). In the case of the
target-function
TF
4
the degrees of importance of
the related requirements are:
U
[
TF
4
] = {25%, 25%,
10%, 15%, 15%, 10%}. The main performance
characteristics taken into account for the target-
function
TF
4
are the followings:
PC
1
[
TF
4
]-Mean
time between failures;
PC
2
[
TF
4
]-Average band-
width required;
PC
3
[
TF
4
]-Delay;
PC
4
[
TF
4
]-Reso-
lution;
PC
5
[
TF
4
] -Level of interaction relative to
a face-to-face meeting;
PC
6
[
TF
4
]-Time required
to identify the problem;
PC
7
[
TF
4
]-Time required
to fix the most complex problem and restart the
system;
PC
8
[
TF
4
]-Monitoring level of students
with respect to a face-to-face meeting.
Figure 2 illustrates the deployment of
TF
1
-
related requirements into
TF
1
-related performance
characteristics. The set of matrices from figure 2
is called “house of scalability.” According to the
results in Figure 2, the most relevant performance
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