In the paper titled, "On the Capacity Analysis of Cellular CDMA Systems", the authors Alok Aggarwal, Rajendra Prasad, Mohan Lal and Sunita Devi, present an analysis based on the mathematical representations for the capacity of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems. The paper presents a brief background of the capacity of cellular CDMA systems. The capacity is calculated considering with and without power control. The authors have analyzed different factors that affect the capacity of cellular CDMA systems, such as path loss, voice activation factor and interference factor. In cellular mobile radio systems, the received power associated with interferences acts as a limiting factor for both performance and capacity. Hence, proper understanding of the carrier-to-interference ratio is essential. It was observed that while more number of users can be supported at a lower power level, a higher capacity is found for lower value of voice activity factor.

In the survey-article "Determinants of Effort, Cycle Time, Quality and Productivity in Software Development Projects: Gleanings from Prior Empirical Research", Aiyasami Ramachandran has presented various research findings reported in the literature on the factors that affect the project completion and the quality and productivity of software development. It was found that the average estimation errors vary widely while using the estimation models. Software professionals prefer an expert estimation compared to the formal estimation models such as the COnstructive COst MOdel (COCOMO), and the functional points approach. There are not many findings to confirm that software development methodology plays a role in estimating the efforts. The author attributes the reason for the dearth of reported research involving process characteristics and process measures, compared to product and project characteristics, to the ease with which the later can be measured. The need to standardize the terms such as software process model and software development life cycle model, which are used interchangeably, though they are not synonymous, is observed. It is also observed that there is no uniformity of scales when the variables like team size, effort, schedule, productivity, etc., are measured and while studying their impact on how they affect the outcome of the software projects and products.

Researchers have contributed to identify various characteristics of the component-based software system and studied the impact of interactions among the components on the development and maintenance processes. In the paper, "Effect of Dependencies on Change Impact in Component-Based System", the authors Nasib Singh Gill and Balkishan have studied the change impact analysis associated with the maintenance of the software. Initially they discuss dependency among the components in software and how a change in one of them creates a ripple effect on the other components. Further, the authors mathematically elucidate the concept of dependency among the components, the transition probability between the component edges, and the reachability matrix along with the associated algorithm to compute the reachability matrix from the transition matrix. The paper also discusses the major ways of making modifications in a system to meet the customer needs, namely, intra component change and architectural change. Based on the algorithm developed by the authors, the effect of dependencies on the change impact is analyzed for three cases. The paper concludes that higher dependencies cause higher change impact on the system and thereby demands more efforts on the maintenance and more occurrences of errors during software change.

Shyamal Tanna in his paper "The Role of ERP Systems in Production and Purchase Sector", attempts to discuss the role of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in the production and purchase functions of any organization. The key features of ERP systems have been highlighted in this paper along with the flow of activities involved in both production as well as purchasing function. The author concludes by bringing out the importance of ERP systems in optimally utilizing the resources of an organization and increasing the efficiency of production and purchasing functions.

Sumeet Gupta and Bharti Keswani in their article "Exploring the Factors That Influence User Resistance to the Implementation of ERP", have found that the perceived usefulness and self-efficacy are also the significant influencing factors while implementing ERP. The influence of self-efficacy is found to be greater than that of perceived usefulness on the users' attitude towards the implementation of ERP. Number of authors have conducted studies in the past and explored the factors which affect the user resistance to implement computer-based systems and technology. Technology Acceptance Models have revealed that perceived usefulness had a strong and direct effect on the usage of such systems.

- M Raja
Consulting Editor