Process Models and Distribution of Work in Offshoring Application Software Development

Common process models for the development of application software (AS) are examined as to how well they are suited for offshoring projects. The need for communication and interaction among onsite and offshore project stakeholders is identified as a critical success factor. Process models used by organizations providing offshoring services are discussed, and a generalized offshoring life cycle model is developed. A specific focus is set on the distribution of work between the organization that outsources AS development and the offshore organization that carries out the major share of the development work. Problems and challenges that have to be faced, making offshoring a difficult task, are discussed. --

A Completely Virtual Distance Education Program Based on the Internet - Case and Agenda of the International MBI Program

The Internet as a medium for communication and information distribution has opened up new opportunities for distance education programs. Not only is the scope of a program, in terms of potential target groups, by default a global one because the Internet is global. Moreover, commonly available multimedia technologies for the World Wide Web provide effective means for bringing courses to students all over the world and to interact with them by electronic means. The newly available Internet technologies are infrastructural components of a distance education program described in this paper. The program leads to the degree of an International Master of Business Informatics (MBI) . The rationale underlying the program is virtuality . All courses are Internet based, making use of various online and offline network and multimedia features. Students study at home, in their home countries and they communicate via Internet. The courses are held in a virtual School of Business Informatics. The faculty is a network of professors from many European universities

CA-Techniken und CIM

Der Arbeitsbericht gibt zunächst einen Überblick über die technisch orientierten rechnergestützten Komponenten im Rahmen des Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM), die sogenannten "CAx-Systeme" oder "CA-Systeme": CAD (Computer Aided Design), CAP (Computer Aided Planning), CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing), CAQ (Computer Aided Quality Assurance), CAI (Computer Aided Instruction). Er geht dann auf Schnittstellen der Teilsysteme untereinander und auf Schnittstellen zu anderen, insbesondere zu betriebswirtschaftlich orientierten Anwendungssystemen ein. Ansätze und Probleme der Integration unterschiedlicher Softwaresysteme sowie die neuen Herausforderungen an die Betriebswirtschaftslehre und an den Betriebswirt beschließen den Beitrag

How to Prevent before You Must Cure – A Comprehensive Literature Review on Conflict Management Strategies in Global Project Teams

Global project teams are frequently confronted with diverse conflicts. As these teams involve people from different cultures, who work at different locations, they are more prone to conflicts than collocated teams. Geographical dispersion and dependency on information and communication technology entail more challenges for conflict management. In this study, we examine prior literature on cross-cultural conflicts and conflict prevention, management and resolution. We found that previous research on conflict prevention in global project teams is scarce. Therefore, we discuss effective conflict prevention methods and develop a model of a conflict prevention process. This paper contributes to the field in two ways: first, it structures existing literature on conflicts in global project teams, and secondly, it can be used by practitioners to improve conflict prevention in their global project teams

Service Level Agreement as an Instrument to Enhance Trust in Cloud Computing – An Analysis of Infrastructure-as-a-Service Providers

We analyze service level agreements (SLAs) for cloud computing services, in particular SLAs published by infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) providers on their websites. The rationale is to investigate the potential and actual roles of SLAs as trust-enhancing instruments. Cloud computing is still not as widespread as it could be, because many decision makers do not sufficiently trust the technology or the providers, and hence are skeptical about adopting it. Enhancing trust could significantly advance cloud computing. We discuss the main aspects of trust as well as typical characteristics described in SLAs. Following this, a study of actual service level agreements offered by IaaS providers and published on their websites is presented. One of the findings is that at present only a few providers exploit the full potential of SLAs as trust-enhancing instruments

Integration issues of information ingineering based I-CASE tools

Problems and requirements regarding integration of methods and tools across phases of the software-development life cycle are discussed. Information engineering (IE) methodology and I-CASE (integrated CASE) tools supporting IE claim to have an integrated view across major stages of enterprise-wide information-system development: information strategy planning, business area analysis, system design, and construction. In the main part of this paper, two comprehensive I-CASE tools, ADW (Application Development Workbench) and IEF (Information Engineering Facility), are analyzed and compared with regard to integration issues.<br/

Das technologische Umfeld der Informationsverarbeitung:ein subjektiver "State of the Art"-Report über Hardware, Software und Paradigmen

Der Arbeitsbericht ist als Orientierungshilfe gedacht. Er beschreibt den Stand der Entwicklung im Hardware- und Softwarebereich der Großrechner-, Workstation- und PC-Welt. Neben der Rechnerhardware werden vor allem Betriebssysteme, Benutzerschnittstellen, Netze und Datenbanksysteme unter die Lupe genommen. Darüber hinaus werden zukunftsweisende Entwicklungen im Software Engineering und in der Künstlichen Intelligenz aufgezeigt.<br/

Influence of Media Formats on Student Perception and Performance in Web-based Teaching

The goal of this research is to examine the impact of media formats used in web-based courses on the way students perceive these courses and on their performance in the courses (in terms of grades). Factors influencing the evaluation of web-based courses by the students are analyzed, based on courses of an online distance-learning graduate program. In particular, we studied conventional hypertext-based courses, video-based courses and audio-based courses, seeking to find out whether the media format has an effect on how students assess courses and how good or bad their grades are. Statistical analyses were performed to answer several research questions related to the topic and to properly evaluate the factors influencing student evaluation

BEURTEILUNGSKRITERIEN INTERNATIONALER FACHZEITSCHRIFTEN IM UMFELD DER WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK

Veröffentlichungen in internationalen Fachzeitschriften tragen dazu bei, die Sichtbarkeit der Wirtschaftsinformatik außerhalb des deutschen Sprachraums zu verbessern. Sie erfolgen meist in Organen benachbarter Disziplinen wie „Information Systems“ und „Computer Science“. Die Diskussion in der WI-Community über die Kriterien, nach denen internationale Fachzeitschriften wissenschaftliche Beiträge beurteilen, und die Erfolgswahrscheinlichkeit bei Einreichungen gab den Anstoß zu einer empirischen Untersuchung. Gegenstand der Untersuchung sind die von 175 Zeitschriften angegebenen Beurteilungskriterien. Die über die Homepages der Zeitschriften kommunizierten Anforderungen an einzureichende Beiträge wurden inhaltsanalytisch ausgewertet