Mestrado terminado

Hoje terminei a ultima fase do mestrado, que e o Viva, a apresentacao do dito cujo. Diferente do Brasil, que a apresentacao e publica, aqui e basicamente uma discussao com os 2 orientadores que dura cerca de 1 hora.

Meu Viva foi bem amistoso e o meu segundo supervisor ficou fazendo perguntas enquanto meu orientador anotava tudo. Eu estava sem dormir direito preocupado em nao acordar no horario. Segundo meu supervisor, desperdicei varias oportunidades de melhorar minha nota e explicar melhor o meu projeto. Minha nota do Viva foi um P3 (pouco acima da media, que e P1).

Eles me disseram que passei, mas a nota final so vou saber no final do mes que vem. As ultimas semanas foram bem estressantes. Ao mesmo tempo que e um desafio escrever uma dissertacao de mestrado pois tudo precisa estar muito bem argumentado e detalhado e um pouco frustrante saber que esse quase 1 ano de trabalho nao vai ter uma aplicacao direta.

Agora estou aplicando pro visto escoces, que da direito a ficar 2 anos na Escocia, desde que voce tenha terminado estudos numa Universidade local. Vamos ver o que farei em seguida, continuar um PhD ou trabalhar por aqui.

Vou dormir uma semana inteira pra comemorar!!!

Igor

Mais dissertação

Ai pessoal, vou colocar o abstract da minha dissertação enquanto não atualizo o blog direito!

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The Brazilian economy is the largest in Latin America. There are over 2,000 purchasing units in the Federal Government and more than 30,000 employees regularly engaged in procurement activities on a regular basis (2004). Pregão Eletrônico is an e-Reverse Auction (e-RA) practice undertaken by Brazilian Government in all its levels (federal, state and municipality). This study investigates criticisms of its efficiency and accessibility of information and proposes a tool to support public procurement price comparison.

The design, development and evaluation of this public procurement search and comparison tool (Publicprices) are described in detail. Human-Centred Design (HCD) methodology was adopted for development of this tool. Complementary elements of Unified Modelling Language (UML) and Rational Unified Process (RUP) are used in system documentation both of which are used extensively in IT-related projects and widely employed by software development teams. This will assist in attracting the support of IT stakeholders and developers to any future commercial implementation of Publicprices.

The Literature suggests that e-P can foster regional development through SME participation. Reduction of public expenditure can be achieved through increased transparency in transactions and access to information by government or the public. However both the literature and exploratory interviews suggest that transparency is not always the main objective of public bodies. Rather, other factors such as addressing skills gaps and standardising procedures are priorities.

Existing e-P solutions in Brazil were analysed in detail for basic requirements. Scenarios, based on the literature and interviews, were then used to help specify additional functionality in the Publicprices prototype. These scenarios were validated with a small group from each of the four groups of stakeholders (government, supplier, media and tax-payer). These were then developed into use cases and implemented in a prototype based on PHP and MySQL, using a sample set of real data (708 typical public procurement records). The main use case (keyword search) was successfully carried out by almost all of the 54 evaluators, although a second more complicated use case (price comparison) was only successfully completed by a minority.

However, the evaluation suggests that a majority were sufficiently impressed by the additional functionality that they would be willing to pay a monthly fee. Further, at least 60% in each stakeholder group found the system easy to use. We believe that if Publicprices is adopted by the Brazilian Government for Pregão Eletrônico it will consequently realise massive savings in public expenditure for the benefit of the general public.

Suggestions for future work include developing the Publicprices prototype tool into a commercial solution and identifying strategies to improve the prospects of the system being accepted by decision makers.

Dissertacao Terminada

Agora nao vou ter mais desculpas para nao atualizar o blog. Finalmente terminei a dissertacao. Ao que tudo indica a apresentacao sera dia 26/1 (sexta) e dai serei mestre.

Ainda estou sob o efeito do cansaco mental e nao consegui pensar sobre o futuro. A unica coisa que sabemos e que eu e a loira ficaremos aqui na Escocia por enquanto.

Escrevo um post maior e coloco um link para baixarem a dissertacao tambem.

Beijos em todos
Igor