When a disaster occurs the main focus is on the loss of human lives. Here the environmental effects have been in the centre of attention. This work has had two main purposes. The first one was to formulate attributes, variables that together present a complete picture of the consequences that an event has had on the environment. The other main purpose was to investigate how people value the impact that a disaster can have on the environment.

This paper is about the use of task boards in agile system development projects. The main focus is on how digitalized versions of the task board can be of assistance during the development process. Our investigation is based on qualitative studies, with system developers of various backgrounds and professional roles, along with studies of relevant literature. The main results are that a digitized version of the task board can increase awareness for the team and be of major importance if it is accessible through the web. On the other hand negative effects of the digitalization can emerge as well.

In the gaming industry, it has long been popular to combine genres with the aim ofcreating games that bring together the best of several worlds. However, there are stillmany unexplored combinations with good potential.This report addresses the planning and development of a game prototype that combinestwo game genres, turn-based and real-time strategy. In addition to presenting the results,the report also discusses the di culties that were encountered and how they were handled.The prototype contains a working combat system and a basic AI. The prototype ismodular, which means that it is easy for an end user to extend the game with extra content.Most elements that were considered important from the two genres were implemented, butthere is still room for improvement and further development.The result is evaluated by means of quality assurance, a process that is commonly usedin the gaming industry. The response has been generally positive, which indicates thatthe combination has potential and should be explored further..

This Master thesis has been carried out at Scania CV AB in Södertälje, in collaboration withKTH, The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. The focus of this Master thesis isSetBased Concurrent Engineering(SBCE), with the purpose of answering the questions: what isSBCE, how does it work, and for what purposes is it applied.It was early established thatSBCE is often included as a part of Lean product development,which in its turn is often related to Toyota?s way of working. TheSBCE method includesworking with multiple solutions in parallel, eliminating weak alternatives throughout thewhole process. In opposite to a conventional product development process, where it iscommon one at an early stage tries to identify and choose the most promising alternative.Despite the appearance ofSBCE as a resource consuming method, figures from Toyotaindicates the opposite, thatSBCE is in fact a very effective way of working compared to othermore traditional methods.The process of this Master thesis was divided into three phases.

Deposits can be formed in the paper machine due to sticky materials from wood and recycled paper. These deposits get stuck on process equipment and cause the product quality to deteriorate and the efficiency of the paper machine is reduced. The purpose of this thesis is to increase the understanding about deposits among machine operators, and to suggest methods that can be used to reduce the amount of deposits formed in Bravikens paper machines.To fulfill the purpose of the thesis a pre-study, a literature review and interviews with machine operators and production staff, were carried out. These methods led to the planning and creation of an education about deposits for machine operators.The education about deposits for machine operators consisted of an interactive lecture to introduce the subject of deposits and a subsequent discussion. This approach was chosen to give the machine operators the opportunity to discuss their work situation on the paper machines related to their new knowledge about deposits.

AbstractEquality between donor and receiver, a study about equality in the Swedish aid politics 1960 ? 2000.Essay in political science, C-level, at Karlstads University, by Britt-Louise Orrmalm Karlsson. Spring 2006. Tutor: Hans Lödén.Sweden has a history as an official aid donor since 1950. The development cooperation has changed through the years in accordance to the Swedish policy and the politics.

AbstractIn this thesis we aim to extend the current theories about a concept called persona. A persona is a model of a user, mostly based on qualitative research and made with such accuracy that it to some extent can be used as a replacement of a real user in a development process and as a communicative tool. We will present a way of constructing this persona without meeting the actual users and follow up with interviews from the organization using them. This will lead to a model over the process of introducing personas as a concept in an organization,previously not familiar with the concept. The model is adapted to also work for projects and organizations where the concept is already known..

Swedish pre-school teachers are in the middle of a debate regarding a form of general school competence that today is criticized by mass media. The training and skill development that is used today is an important tool in the development of the organization as well as the people that work in them. This study aims to explain how this training actually is performed and the opinions of the pre-school teachers that actually finish the training. Previous research in this area has primarily been focused at the types of methods that exists from an executive standpoint. This study, instead, aims to shift that focus to the individual worker.

Nature is in many ways considered a source to both physical and mental health among people. Trends in today?s society reveal that children become more distanced to nature. Seen from the perspective of sustainable development this trend is considered crucial: it is of importance that children in their early ages experience nature positively in order to develop a dedication towards environmental issues as adults.The purpose of this study is to investigate how teachers use outdoor learning as an educational tool. Research data were collected through a series of interviews.

This study highlights the structures and networks thatexist among financial analysts on the Swedish financial market. The study isbased on nine semi-structured interviews with buy- and sell-side analysts, anindependent analyst and an Investor Relations Manager.The theoretical framework of the study is based on acombination of the research fields Behavioral Finance and Social Studies ofFinance. These two research fields have proven to be a good basis for thequalitative approach used in the analysis. The study is divided into four thematic areas: Fundamentals / Psychology, Independence and consensus, Ranking and Social network.The results show that there are a large number offactors, structures and interpersonal relationships that affect how analystsmake their decisions and conduct their analysis. Among other things, theinterdependence between analysts and their counterparts prohibits the movetowards a more clear system for compensation.

This paper aims to study the possibilities and challenges the car industry has to face with applying information technology in cars. The goal is to describe and analyse all the existing technology in the cars out on the market today as well as future possible technologies in cars. By interviewing people who has been working or are working with information technology in cars, we aim to clarify the obstacles and opportunities in the process of implementing informatics in cars. With this knowledge we want to learn more about Ubiquitous computing and how humans interact with Ubiquitous computers today and will be interacting in the future. Technology has a rapid development pace and we find it interesting to examine how the car industry can keep up with the rapid development pace of technology. .

In an ever more competitive environment Sandvik Materials Technology,SMT, runs a large-scale program to improve their processes for product development.The purpose with the program is to increase the company?s profitability by increasingthe number of new products in their product portfolio. The strategies SMT is usingfor reaching their goals are to change the way they work with product development byreducing lead time and learning how to prioritize products with the highestprofitability. In the R & D Department the work of improvement pursue by adaptingLean R & D to their way of working. Lean R & D encourages working withcontinuous improvements and eliminating waste.The main purpose for this Master?s Thesis is to develop didactic support to make iteasier to implement Lean in SMT R & D department.

Many professions, such as doctors and psychologists, have a long history of work practice which have resulted that these professions have created their own ethical guidelines. The IT profession, which can be viewed as a relative young and somewhat immature profession, have yet to accommodate any clear guidelines regarding ethics. It?s therefore imperative to create discussions regarding ethical actions to raise the ethical awareness and also create ethical guidelines. The development of the IT profession is moving forward at a quick pace and it?s important to understand that this rapid advancement is not only changing the profession but also changing the society and the environment.

The advancements in digital technology and its availability contribute to the transfer of companycentricproduct development and value creation to networks or communities. It also changes the basisfor creation of customer relationships as described in previous research on Customer relationshipmanagement (CRM). The purpose of this case study was to gain an understanding of how companieslike our case study object Memoto who developed a physical product which gets added-value fromdigital product-related services looks upon product-centered communities as a way of buildingcustomer relationships. How Memoto looks upon incentives for participation in product-centeredcommunities was also examined.Our research indicated that firms in the start-up phase (which Memoto was when this study wasconducted) initially want to have more control over the process of innovation and hence have directcontact with end-customers. The reason for this is because they see a need to define the basis forfurther innovation work.

This paper is about the importance of engagement, cohesion and clarity in offshore outsourcing projects. The focus is on how the communication is handled between co-workers in different countries. My research is based on qualitative studies of literature on the subject, along with interviews with leaders in various companies in Sweden that utilize offshoring to countries in Asia. This study shows that the companies interviewed who utilize offshoring are all taking care to create engagement, cohesion and clarity in their offshore offices. It also shows that companies can succeed with their offshore strategy without using agile development methods, contrary to what literature on the subject recommends.