Sharif Digital Repository

Roadmapping, a tool of strategic planning, visualize where and how an organization will be in the future. Visualization of strategic programs assists people in the organization to understand the strategy which is a key for implementing strategy successfully. A generic roadmap is included of three main layers such as; market, product and technology. Decision making in each layer are done separately because of the nature of each layer. Therefore, decisions in roadmapping can be done with different tools. Whiles, decisions in each layer of the roadmap cannot be done without considering the upper or lower layer decisions. In this study we propose Fuzzy PROMETHEE method for integrating decisions... 

Today, managing an organization is concerned with many problems. Adopting proper strategies can promote an organization's survival. This study aimed at developing an appropriate HSSE Strategy for regional operation associated companies of Iran National Gas Company (INGS) using SWOT analysis. The analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of HSSE was carried out and according to the results suitable strategies were recommended. In this regard, senior and junior managers, supervisors, and experts active in regional operation associated companies of Iran National Gas Company participated in SWOT analysis from HSSE angle. Then, they selected the most applicable SWOT... 

This article concerns the notion of methodology in strategic management of R&D/technology. Though development of new tools and methods has received much attention during the recent decades, attention to understanding methodologies has remained disproportionally low. In this study we distinguish two methodologies that are used in strategic management of R&D/technology: planning methodology and evolutionary learning methodology. We mainly focus on defining and describing the origins, nature, and characteristics of the latter. We propose a framework for methodology selection by investigating context, content, and process factors. Using this framework, we provide supportive evidence for... 

Strategic health, safety, and environmental management system (HSE-MS) involves systematic and cooperative planning in each phase of the lifecycle of a project to ensure that interaction among the industry group, client, contractor, stakeholder, and host community exists with the highest level of health, safety, and environmental standard performances. Therefore, it seems necessary to assess the HSE-MS performance of contractor(s) by a comparative strategic management model with the aim of continuous improvement. The present Strategic Management Model (SMM) has been illustrated by a case study and the results show that the model is a suitable management tool for decision making in a contract... 

Free Trade Zones (FTZs) around the world offer special advantages to investors and facilitate import/export of goods in order to boost the regional economy. Integrated coastal management in these areas faces special challenges in addition to what ordinary ICZMs usually encounter. For a successful ICZM plan, the very strong business orientation in FTZs has to be taken into account, while other important aspects such as environmental, social, and cultural issues should not be overlooked. The problem becomes more difficult where the free zone is situated in sensitive and valuable environmental circumstances.Kish Island, a free trade zone in the Persian Gulf region, has recently been the focus... 

Technology Identification involves developing a list of technologies which are, or may be, incorporated into products or processes. After reviewing Technology Assessment, Technology Strategy, Management of Technology and New Product Development in literature, four methods of Technology Identification are investigated: Value Chain of Technologies, Process-based Approach, Quality Function Deployment and Technology Mapping. A model facilitating decision making process is then proposed by which the most appropriate method to be employed is identified. The proposed model is examined in specific case of fuel cell technologies while preparing the Fuel cell Development Strategic Plan of Iran. 1... 

In this paper an efficient method is proposed for blind detection of multiuser spread spectrum signal and pseudo noise (PN) length estimation in downlink scenario. This method is based on fluctuating observation of second order statistic (SOS) estimator of received signal; estimating length of spreading code with no need to primary information based on observing second order peaks of correlation estimator is presented. In low SNR, the fading multipath phenomenon especially in length of small codes leads to problem in detecting place of correlation estimator peaks. In this paper besides expanding blind estimation to multiuser environment, by using searching method in updating the length of... 

IN this paper the effect of different channel estimation approaches in OFDMA uplink system which are based on Basis Expansion Model (BEM) and widely used to consider time varying channels are discussed. It has been shown in previous works that modeling error will be reduced by applying oversampled BEM with cost of increasing sensitivity to noise. This problem will be solved by combining oversampled BEM and MMSE channel estimator with cost of increasing computational complexity. In this paper a novel channel estimation approach is represented in which by combining oversampled BEM and low rank MMSE in frequency domain, almost the same performance as the full rank MMSE has been achieved while... 

The Model Driven Architecture (MDA) is meant to facilitate system development by using models for representing both the "problem" and its "solution". In its ideal form, software development based on MDA would follow a development process that begins by producing models of the problem domain at a high level of abstraction, and then proceeds by gradually and automatically transforming them into executable code with the help of tools. However, MDA-based development has encountered several setbacks, the mitigation of which requires detailed scrutiny and analysis. In this research, MDA-based development is analyzed through applying SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis... 

The challenges of water resources sustainable development are enormous. Around the globe, the increasing use of water coupled with environmental deterioration calls for sustainable development of the limited water resources. As a significant part of the world's population still lacks access to safe water and adequate sanitation, and as global urbanization continues to increase, continuous, comprehensive, coordinated and cooperative water resources management is required for the sustainable future of urban areas. The objective of this study was to assess water resources sustainable development for selected urban areas around the world. Using centralized databases of international agencies for... 

This paper presents an ITS pilot project in a developing country, Iran, as a way to foster to the development of ITS national strategic plan. The pilot project concerns a high trafficked road corridor, linking the capital Tehran to the largest city in the suburb: Karaj, This corridor was selected among others, by the end of 2002 as a good candidate, due in particular to the variety of problems encountered [1] In order to launch the pilot project a co-operation was set up in 2004 between ISIS, Groupe EGIS, France and Metra Consulting Engineers Co, Iran and several ITS experts were sent to Iran for two missions in June and July 2004. The mission consisted of detailed on-site visits, interviews... 

Dynamic hydrosalinity models are available, but are not used extensively on a large scale soil which receives wastewater from industrial areas, partly because adequate database are expensive to be obtained. Thus, for this reason, there is an urgent need to assess the salt and other pollutant loads collected in wastewater flows into the soil and/ or ground water systems. A conceptual hydrosalinity model was used on two major underlying principals of mass balance and steady state. This model was initially tested on the 4,117 km2 plains west of the Yazd-Ardakan district in the central part of Iran. This model was used at a time when the soil and ground water salinity problem was serious due to... 

In this paper a strategic planning framework for selecting the best configuration and capacity of different power generating technologies including renewable energy resources in stand-alone micro-power systems is proposed. The proposed framework is composed of three decision making techniques to identify the most feasible and efficient plans according to attributes and uncertain parameters in the planning environment. The framework considers the robustness and risk analysis of different plans exposed to uncertainties in the planning environment and selects the configurations that meet the objectives with the least risk exposure. The proposed methodology is implemented as a case study of a... 

Agile software development methodologies have been greeted with enthusiasm by many software developers, yet their widespread adoption has also resulted in closer examination of their strengths and weaknesses. While analyses and evaluations abound, the need still remains for an objective and systematic appraisal of Agile processes specifically aimed at defining strategies for their improvement. We provide a review of the strengths and weaknesses identified in Agile processes, based on which a Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) analysis of the processes is performed. We suggest this type of analysis as a useful tool for highlighting and addressing the problem issues in Agile... 

Purpose: This research attempts to formulate an analytical model for the studying and assessment of necessary factors that have strong effects on the level of Iranian Technology Park competitiveness. The result of this model leads to increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of Technology Parks planning stage. Methodology/Approach: The main framework of this research is based on studying the projects and research, which in their methods use the Porter's diamond model or SWOT analytical method. On the other hand, this framework is customized for the future needs of Technology Parks and clarifies the kind of information that must be gathered. Finding: Identification of the core competencies... 

One of the most important issues in planning the "reservoir" type of hydro-power plants (HPP) is to determine the installation capacity of the HPPs and estimate its annual energy value. In this paper, a method is presented. A computer program has been developed to analyze energy calculation and estimation of the most important economic indices of an HPP using the sensitivity analysis method. Another program, developed by Matlab software, calculates the reliability indices for a number of units of an HPP with a specified load duration curve using the Monte Carlo method. Ultimately, comparing the technical, economic and reliability indices will determine the installation capacity of an HPP. By... 

In the restructured power systems, generating companies (Genco) are responsible for selling their product in the energy market. In this condition, the question is how much and for what price must each Genco generate to maximize its profit. Therefore, this paper intends to propose a rational method to answer this question. In the proposed methodology, the hourly forecasted market clearing price (FMCP) is used as a reference to model the possible and probable price strategies of Gencos. The forecasted price is the basis of the bidding strategies of each Genco, which can be achieved by solving a bi-level optimization problem using GAMS (general algebraic modeling system) language. The first... 

In the restructured power systems, they are typically scheduled based on the offers and bids to buy and sell energy and ancillary services (AS) subject to operational and security constraints. Generally, no account is taken of unit reliability when scheduling it. Therefore generating units have no incentive to improve their reliability. This paper proposes a new method to obtain the equilibrium points for reliability and price bidding strategy of units when the unit reliability is considered in the scheduling problem. The proposed methodology employs the supply function equilibrium (SFE) for modeling a unit's bidding strategy. Units change their bidding strategies and improve their... 

In this paper a strategic planning framework is proposed for generation expansion planning of grid-connected micro-power systems. The proposed framework is composed of two different decision making techniques that results a robust planning approach compared to previous techniques to identify the feasible and efficient plans according to attributes and uncertain parameters considered in planning environment. The framework considers the robustness and risk exposure of different configurations according to uncertain parameters in the planning environment to select the plans which meet the objectives more efficiently with least risk exposure. The proposed methodology is implemented for... 

The design and development of natural gas transmission pipeline networks are multidisciplinary problems that require various engineering knowledge. In this problem, the type, location, and installation schedule of major physical components of a network including pipelines and compressor stations are decided upon over a planning horizon with least cost goal and subject to network constraints. Practically, this problem has been viewed as a conceptual design case and not as an optimization problem that tries to select the best design option among a set of possible solutions. Consequently, conceptual design approaches are usually suboptimal and work only for short-run development planning. We...