Running a dedicated instance of a software application can be burdensome to a customer if it involves a large amount of memory and processing overhead or a licensing fee or if the customer is a small company. Multitenancy (MT) architectures (MTAs) allow for multiple customers (i.e., tenants) to be consolidated into the same operational system, hence reducing the overhead via amortization over several customers. Lately, MTAs are drawing increasing attention because MT is regarded as an essential attribute of cloud computing and its new software delivery model, Software as a Service. In a moment of debate about the coexistence between architecture and agility, we introduce in this chapter a multitenancy, multitarget architecture (MT2A). MT2As are an evolution of traditional MTAs that reduce the various overhead by providing multiple services instead of a single service. In MT2As, there are new components added to the corresponding MTAs to manage the (now possibly) multiple services. MT2A is intended to support traditional agile development, as well as rapid deployment, by enabling the reuse of common components of the architecture. In this chapter, we also present an implementation of the architecture through an MT2 system called Globalgest.
Non-Functional Requirements in Software Engineering presents a systematic and pragmatic approach to `building quality into' software systems. Systems must exhibit software quality attributes, such as accuracy, performance, security and modifiability. However, such non-functional requirements (NFRs) are difficult to address in many projects, even though there are many techniques to meet functional requirements in order to provide desired functionality. This is particularly true since the NFRs for each system typically interact with each other, have a broad impact on the system and may be subjective. To enable developers to systematically deal with a system's diverse NFRs, this book presents the NFR Framework. Structured graphical facilities are offered for stating NFRs and managing them by refining and inter-relating NFRs, justifying decisions, and determining their impact. Since NFRs might not be absolutely achieved, they may simply be satisfied sufficiently (`satisficed'). To reflect this, NFRs are represented as `softgoals', whose interdependencies, such as tradeoffs and synergy, are captured in graphs. The impact of decisions is qualitatively propagated through the graph to determine how well a chosen target system satisfices its NFRs. Throughout development, developers direct the process, using their expertise while being aided by catalogues of knowledge about NFRs, development techniques and tradeoffs, which can all be explored, reused and customized. Non-Functional Requirements in Software Engineering demonstrates the applicability of the NFR Framework to a variety of NFRs, domains, system characteristics and application areas. This will help readers apply the Framework to NFRs and domains of particular interest to them. Detailed treatments of particular NFRs - accuracy, security and performance requirements - along with treatments of NFRs for information systems are presented as specializations of the NFR Framework. Case studies of NFRs for a variety of information systems include credit card and administrative systems. The use of the Framework for particular application areas is illustrated for software architecture as well as enterprise modelling. Feedback from domain experts in industry and government provides an initial evaluation of the Framework and some case studies. Drawing on research results from several theses and refereed papers, this book's presentation, terminology and graphical notation have been integrated and illustrated with many figures. Non-Functional Requirements in Software Engineering is an excellent resource for software engineering practitioners, researchers and students.
This is an important book. The authors in effect offer a positive theory of planning and urbanisation. As such, Webster and Lai''s model, based on institutional economics, is a vast improvement on some equally ambitious predecessors. The book''s insights and clarity make it a must reading for anyone seeking better understanding of how cities evolve as they do, and why planning is an integral part of their evolution.'' - Ernest Alexander, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, US ''A truly remarkable achievement.'' - Mark Pennington, University of London, UK ''Chris Webster and Lawrence Lai have created a coherent and insightful integration of concepts such as property rights, organizations, competition, incentives, transaction costs, public goods, and externalities, which will help theorists and urban practitioners analyze and manage city goods and services. An important insight of the authors is the recognition of the interdependencies of people in a neighborhood, which can be efficiently handled with shares in the property value of the neighborhood. There is a constant question of how much markets and how much government should be involved in urban matters, and the authors provide a reasoned, balanced approach which recognizes the vital role of government while appreciating the effectiveness of markets and decentralized decision making, including private institutions or" clubs" such as homeowners'' associations. Their position that governments and markets co-evolve and complement one another is sound, and their conclusions regarding the need to provide clear property rights and efficient rules provide us with theoretical tools to better understand how cities can be improved while being wary of the "allure of utopia".'' - Fred Foldvary, Santa Clara University, California, US ''This is a really important contribution to the planning literature. Beautifully written and clearly structured, it explains the complex relationship between" planning" and "markets" using the economic perspective of transaction cost theory and the" new-institutionalism". This provides a robust way of addressing the old "economic and planning" agenda, which the authors illustrate with references to cases and situations from across the world. Informative and stimulating, this should be included in every planning theory course, and will be helpful to all trying to re-think old debates about planning and markets.'' - Patsy Healey, Newcastle University, UK ''Professors Webster and Lai have written a masterly work that applies the principles of Hayek and of institutional economics to understanding cities. This is a refreshing and more convincing alternative to the standard politically correct views.'' - Harry W. Richardson, University of Southern California, US ''Property Rights, Planning and Markets covers an original and intriguing issue, viz. the existence and development of cities at the interface of market forces and planned or controlled policies ...the book offers new horizons and contains refreshing reading material.'' - Peter Nijkamp, Free University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands This book represents a major innovation in the institutional analysis of cities and their planning, management and governance. Using concepts of transaction costs and property rights, the work shows systematically how urban order evolves as individuals co-operate in cities for mutual gain. Five kinds of urban order are examined, arising as co-operating individuals seek to reduce the costs of transacting with each other. These are organisational order (combinations of property rights), institutional order (rules and sanctions), proprietary order (fragmentation of property rights), spatial order and public domain order. Property Rights, Planning and Markets also offers an institutional interpretation of urban planning and management that challenges both the view that planning inevitably conflicts with freedom of contract and the view that its function is a means of correcting market failures. Real life examples from countries and regions around the world are used to illustrate the universal relevance of theoretical generalisations, which will be welcomed by a new generation of policymakers and students who take on a world view that goes beyond national boundaries.
The author combines the unique multidisciplinary backgrounds of an academic, a political scientist, a lawyer and an urban planner to provide the reader with a novel and challenging discussion about the economic nature of land use zoning. Besides establishing a coherent framework for zoning based on the Coasian property rights paradigm, the book offers the reader several up-to-date case studies, including the government role in assigning exclusive property rights via marine fish culture zoning in Hong Kong. The observations provided in the case studies make a valuable contribution to the reader's knowledge of both the effects of zoning systems and the value of the property rights framework for analysis. They also have important implications for future town planning exercises. Lawrence Lai has been a Lecturer in economics in the Department of Surveying at the University of Hong Kong since 1989. His research interests are property rights analyses in respect of politics, urban planning and environment. This book will be of value to students working in a wide range of subjects, including the building environment and economics, as well as property professionals and environmental planners.
This book is the first systematic attempt to document statutory building control in Hong Kong. It examines 40 cases decided by the Building Appeal Board with reference to the overlapping jurisdictions of the Buildings, Lands and Planning authorities in controlling building development. The cases are categorized under nine major themes, namely 'procedures and principles', 'immediate neighbourhood', 'widths of streets', 'lanes', 'access and parking', 'stepped streets', 'means of escape', 'illegal structures and enforcement orders' and 'demolition'. Each case is examined in detail, cross-referenced and illustrated by drawings and photographs where appropriate. For each category, a list of relevant law cases and a summary of the decision criteria identified are also provided. This work should be of great value to Authorized Persons, surveyors, lawyers and town planners who practise in Hong Kong, as well as those who are interested in the policies and issues concerning building control in a high-rise and high density living environment. It should also help professional practitioners prepare for the relevant APC examinations for the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors and other professional organizations.
In contrast to many economics texts, which are often abstract and mathematical, this book uses simple language and graphs to demonstrate the general applicability of basic economic concepts, informed by ideas of the transaction cost paradigm, to a wide range of social, physical and legal phenomena. The case studies and applications collected here should enable students and practitioners, especially those in the management of the built and natural environment, to appreciate the power of economic theory in expressing, interpreting, and reviewing policies and practices.
Change in Use of Land: A Practical Guide to Development in Hong Kong is a guide for professionals in real estate development in Hong Kong. This third edition provides an account of the concepts of the use and change in use of land, followed by an outline of the procedures for lease modifications and waivers, planning applications, reviews and appeals, and building applications and appeals. It also includes an overview of government enforcement against contravention of lease conditions, provisions of statutory town plans prepared under the Town Planning Ordinance, and provisions of the Buildings Ordinance. For practitioners and policy analysts, the detailed appendices in the book offer vital statistical information on both aggregate and non-aggregate development applications. In this new edition, the list of Town Planning Board guidelines has been updated to 2016, and the tables on success rates of planning applications and reviews for key zones have been updated to December 2015. Additional information on planning applications has been included. Two new appendices have also been added: one on the planning history of all 380 developmental projects under Comprehensive Development Area Zoning from 1990 to 2015 and another on the “Practice Notes for Authorized Persons, Registered Structural Engineers and Registered Geotechnical Engineers” (PNAPs).
In the beginning of this new century, when able people in science across the world are working on scientific methods of providing sustainable development, specific to their own countries or general to the world, it is also timely to remind ourselves that technology may not be the answer to everything. Technology, by itself, produces only summary statements on how physical entities in the world are related. It does not provide methods of how human inputs are to be used in combining the technology in generating outputs. It also does not address to issues on how the outputs of the combination of technology and human resources ought to be valued. Lastly, it does not address to how existing technologies can be combined, further modified, and the institutional environment for continuous experiments and improvements. This book brings together a collection of essays attempting to capture these interactions for the purpose of promoting sustainable development. By theoretical discussions and by case studies, the essays describe how environmental concerns can be (or have been) addressed to in the process of development in different institutional settings. The knowledge coming out of this research suggested a proposition loud and clear to researchers now working on the concept of sustainable development. The authors describe how the concept of sustainable development can be implemented. The quest for sustainable development is not the monopoly of secular or positivist inquiry. The authors offer insights into the material means and framework by which sustainability as a normative concept can be rendered operational for those who accept voluntary transactions as the basis of social interactions.
This book is the first work dedicated to the key ideas of Nobel Laureate Ronald Coase on pollution and public goods with sustainable development in mind from the perspective of an economist-town planner. The seminal contributions of Ronald Coase, foretold in the form of the Coase Theorem by another Nobel laureate, George Stigler, have been much analyzed and often misinterpreted by friends and foes alike. In this book, Lawrence Lai attempts to revisit Coase's seminal works and bring to the fore their importance in economic and urban planning policy analysis. Coase's comparative institutional approach offers an important vehicle for the analysis of pressing social issues such as sustainable development, and all those interested in the creation of new platforms for performing policy analysis will welcome this important work.
This book is the first systematic attempt to introduce the current practice and statistics of town planning in Hong Kong. Part I gives an analytical account of the practical and ideological context, discusses design principles and describes procedures of town planning with particular reference to change in use. The emphasis is on skills of plan interpretation and an appreciation of the intellectual disposition of planners and various objective constraints confronting them. Part II is the first of its kind in presenting and analysing the statistics of planning applications for 11 zones from 1978 to 1998. The success rates of planning applications as well as the main reasons used by the Town Planning Board for rejecting planning applications are elucidated.
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