Based on the problems mentioned in the sections above, a problem statement can be defined. To be able to investigate something that has not been looked in to before, a common problem domain must be found, from the problem domain, a problem statement can be defined and create a foundation from where the work in this thesis will outgrow from.
The problem statement defined for this study is:
Design and develop a scalable framework that provides relevant QoS data, which may give better insight into value-driven operations.
The goal is to develop a framework that can help users configure and de-velop tests made specially for their IT-service. The framework should have
the ability to return relevant quality of service data to the tester, which may give an insight into how the service operates.
Several benchmarking tools have already been made today that can measure all kinds of performance on a service. This study will focus more on the value-driven aspect of testing a service. The thesis will look into different mechanisms that can measure performance, and how the results from these tests can give a valuable answer to the end user.
The main challenge with this thesis is to figure out what value in the IT industry actually is, and how it is possible to implement this into something useful. A framework will be developed focusing on these aspects. This thesis will outline the educational value one gets by testing a service. The output from the tests should give a student more knowledge about how a service operates, and suggestions that can help improve the test results. A teacher can use the results as a guide to see how the students improve their skills during a course.
1.2.1 Case
The project aims to be optimised and used in a course at NTNU Gjøvik.
A prototype with ability to automate assessment of student projects will be developed. A series of tests will be implemented and used during the course to give students instant continuous feedback on the progress.
The finished prototype will be optimised for usage in educational related courses, but should have the ability to be used in other scenarios.
1.2.2 Thesis structure
The thesis will consist of eight chapters outlining different periods of the project. The thesis will follow a standard structure where each chapter describes an aspect of the project. Below a detailed description of the structure is provided.
Introduction
This chapter introduces the problem-area and problem-domain that will be the base for the thesis-work. The introduction presents a problem statement that will be used as reference point when research is conducted.
Background
The background-chapter investigates existing literature on the field, and describes other research-projects relevant for the thesis. The background-chapter will provide the reader with information needed to be able to understand the problem-domain, and the work that lies ahead.
Approach
The approach-chapter will describe the research methodologies that will be used to conduct the research. The approach will describe each project
period into detail, and define areas to investigate. The approach will raise some problems that must be answered in the analysis-chapter.
Design
The design-chapter will describe the model that will be used for the implementation-period. The design-chapter will outline workflows for the applications developed and describe technical requirements for the prototype.
Implementation
The implementation-chapter will describe the implementation of the prototype and outline technologies used during development. The implementation-chapter will provide the reader with relevant code-examples and describe technical modules into detail.
Analysis
The analysis-chapter will investigate the problems presented in the ap-proach. The analysis will consist of graphs and statistics gathered from using the prototype, and will be the main foundation for the discussion-chapter structure.
Discussion
The discussion chapter will evaluate the entire project period and discuss different aspects of the product and the prototype. The discussion will evaluate the project and look into if the final result reflects the expected result.
Conclusion
The conclusion will summarize the project and shortly conclude the thesis.
The conclusion will in short tell the reader about the project outcome and evaluate the process.
Chapter 2
Background
2.1 Computer History
Over the last 50 years, the world has developed from being an industrial-ized world, where people relied on manual labor for all kinds of tasks, to a digitized world where people can use machines to replace several man-labor years in their corporations. In the early years, computers were ex-pensive to buy and maintain, and were only used for one specific purpose.
The first computers were mainly used to solve mathematical equations. In 1944 Harvard University invested a lot of money into building a computer called MARK 1. [43] MARK 1 was designed to do complex calculations, and had the ability to store 72 numbers, each with a 23 decimal digit length.
During World War II, the US Navy Bureau of Ships used MARK 1 for com-plex calculations, and later it was given back to Harvard. MARK 1 is a symbol for one of the first computers, and opened the door to a new di-gitized world. The students and US Navy both got operational value from MARK 1. They both relied on the computational service MARK 1 provided.
In 1959 the PLATO project was launched, a project that aimed to use com-puters in education. PLATO was launched in the undergraduate system and was the first educational program for computer science.
During the 1960’s and 1970’s, computers started to become smaller, and more available to the public. Wealthy families could in the late 70’s invest in computers that could help them at home. Housewives used computers in the 70’s, to store food recipes in text-files. One of the first text editors ever developed was O26, written in 1967. The editor was known a "line editor". A line editor had the purpose to look like a typewriter. Every time a line was written. The screen flushed the contents, and an empty line appeared. Computers would replace the necessity for typewriters in the following decades. Computers were still expensive and were not available to everyone. When the Internet came in the early 90’s, the world changed drastically. People could now communicate over long distances, and it was not longer necessary to travel across the world to do business. A new glob-alised world infrastructure was built with help from the Internet. It was easier to access information and people could easily share their knowledge with the rest of the world. Country infrastructures relied more on
techno-logy, when offering people valuable services that could help solve prob-lems. In medicine, doctors could use the Internet to find information about illnesses, in economy it became easier to do business across the borders through the Internet and bank transactions became digitized. Different dis-ciplines achieved different values from the technology they used. People could now solve a lot of their problems from home using Internet services.