User-centredness in Large-scale Information Systems Implementation

Information systems (IS) implementation often aims to ensuring user satisfaction. However, achieving such user-centredness has remained ambiguous and challenging, and the results are not always those that were promised. This may result from several views and fluctuating and implicitly defined concepts. While some premises have been identified, they seem to mostly concern easily manageable settings where the number of users is limited, or where the possibility to tailor the system is significant. Especially in a large-scale system\u27s implementation user-centredness seems to be fuzzy. In this paper we illustrate how user-centredness unfolds in a large scale IS implementation. We conduct a qualitative case study to see what occurs when the efforts are declared user-centred. By interviewing 13 central actors from a local developer organization, we learnt that user-centredness in such context is essentially the result of joint efforts thus necessitating that each party carries out their responsibility for user-centredness and engages in collaboration with others. The paper contributes to research by sharing empirically grounded findings to be used to extend the discussion on user-centredness

Human choice and computers : an ever more intimate relationship

Since 1974, the Human Choice and Computers (HCC) conference series has firmly remained at the cutting edge of innovative thinking about the interface between the social and technology. This introductory chapter to the proceedings of the 12th Human Choice and Computers conference points out that what has set HCC conferences apart is the critical perspective that is its hallmark. HCC12 continues this tradition

Deviations of Governance In IT Multi-Sourcing: A Case Study

IT outsourcing (ITO) refers to the shift of IT/IS activities from internal to external of an organization. In prior research, the governance of ITO is recognized with persistent strategic importance for practice, because it is tightly related to ITO success. Under the rapid transformation of global market, the evolving practice of ITO requires updated knowledge on effective governance. However, research on ITO governance is still under developed due to the lack of integrated theoretical frameworks and the variety of empirical settings besides dyadic client-vendor relationships. Especially, as multi-sourcing has become an increasingly common practice in ITO, its new governance challenges must be attended by both ITO researchers and practitioners. To address this research gap, this study aims to understand multi-sourcing governance with an integrated theoretical framework incorporating both governance structure and governance mechanisms. The focus is on the emerging deviations among formal, perceived and practiced governance. With an interpretive perspective, a single case study is conducted with mixed methods of Social Network Analysis (SNA) and qualitative inquiries. The empirical setting embraces one client firm and its two IT suppliers for IT infrastructure services. The empirical material is analyzed at three levels: within one supplier firm, between the client and one supplier, and among all three firms. Empirical evidences, at all levels, illustrate various deviations in governance mechanisms, with which emerging governance structures are shaped. This dissertation contributes to the understanding of ITO governance in three domains: the governance of ITO in general, the governance of multi-sourcing in particular, and research methodology. For ITO governance in general, this study has identified two research strands of governance structure and governance mechanisms, and integrated both concepts under a unified framework. The composition of four research papers contributes to multi-sourcing research by illustrating the benefits of zooming in and out across the multilateral relationships with different aspects and scopes. Methodologically, the viability and benefit of mixed-method is illustrated and confirmed for both researchers and practitioners.IT-palveluiden ulkoistamisen tarkoituksena on hankkia organisaation tarvitsemat IT-palvelut toiselta organisaatiolta. Hankittavien palveluiden laatu on aiemman tutkimuksen mukaan riippunut siitä, miten palveluiden ulkoistusta on hallittu. Aihepiiristä ei kuitenkaan ole olemassa integroitua tieteellistä viitekehystä. Lisäksi aiempi IT-palveluiden hallintaa käsittelevä empiirinen tutkimus on perehtynyt vain kahdenvälisiin asiakas–tuottaja suhteisiin. Tämän johdosta on tärkeää tutkia lisää IT-palveluiden ulkoistamisen hallintaa yleensä ja erityisesti niissä tilanteissa, joissa IT-palvelut on ulkoistettu useille toimijoille eli kyse on IT-palveluiden moniulkoistamisesta. Tässä tutkimuksessa kehitettiin IT-palveluiden moniulkoistamisen hallintaan soveltuva integroitu, tieteellinen viitekehys, joka sisältää sekä hallinnan rakenteet että hallinnan mekanismit. Työn empiirisessä osassa erityisenä kiinnostuksen kohteena oli se, mitä palvelun hallinnasta oli virallisesti sovittu, kuinka eri osapuolet olettivat hallinnan tapahtuvan, ja miten hallinta käytännössä toteutui. Aihetta tutkittiin tulkitsevan tapaustutkimuksen keinoin yhdistäen puolistrukturoitua haastattelututkimusta ja sosiaalisten verkostojen analyysiä. Tutkimusaineisto kerättiin yhdestä asiakasyrityksestä ja sen kahdesta IT-palveluiden toimittajasta. Aineiston analysointi tehtiin kolmella tasolla: yksittäisen toimittajayrityksen, asiakkaan ja toimittajan välisen suhteen sekä kaikkien toimijoiden välisten suhteiden tasolla. Tutkimuksessa osoitetaan, että aiempi IT-palveluiden ulkoistamisen hallintaa käsittelevä tutkimus on jakautunut kahteen tutkimusalueeseen, joista toinen keskittyy hallinnan mekanismeihin ja toinen hallinnan rakenteisiin. Tutkimuksessa kehitetty IT-palveluiden ulkoistamisen hallinnan uusi viitekehys hyödyntää sekä hallinnan mekanismeihin että hallinnan rakenteisiin liittyviä käsitteitä. Tutkielma osoittaa, että moniulkoistamiseen liittyviä toimijoita kannattaa analysoida sekä itsenäisinä toimijoina että verkoston jäseninä. Tutkimus nostaa myös esille hyötyjä laadullisten ja määrällisten tutkimusmenetelmien yhdistämisestä sekä tieteellisen tutkimuksen tekemisessä että yritysten käytännön kehitystyössä.Siirretty Doriast

A Client-Vendor Relationship Perspective of Cultural Differences on Cross-Border Information Technology Outsourcing

Cross-border information technology (IT) outsourcing continues to rise due to the demand for business process outsourcing. Issues such as miscommunication and management problems have emerged because of cross-cultural disparities between clients and vendors across national borders. The theoretical framework of this study was based on the organizational culture model studies of Meek, Spradley, Smith, and Draft for examining and understanding complex organizational practices. The purpose of this mixed-methods explanatory sequential case study was to qualitatively identify and quantitatively determine the management approaches that are effective in managing cross-cultural differences and the constitution of the elements of global adjustment, motivation, mindset, and communication patterns involving outsourcing business leaders in the United States. Ten IT leaders participated in-depth face-to-face interviews, while 120 IT outsourced service providers from the United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore, and India completed the survey. Pearson\u27s correlation analysis was performed on quantitative survey data. Qualitative data from interviews were organized, coded, and the results generated 6 themes. The themes included no management issues in the current processes, a lack of formal management approaches to resolve cross-cultural issues, an intent to provide a strong management partnership platform, and a positive relationship between approaches. Quantitative results showed that formal management approaches positively correlated with global adjustment, motivation, mindset, and communication pattern. Results could be socially significant to IT business leaders, as these results will equip them with knowledge of effective practices and management approaches to address cultural diversity issues, programs, and policies in the industry

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

The role and value of ethical frameworks in software development

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Software development is notorious for failure, typically defined as over budget, late delivery and/or poor quality of new information systems (IS) on project completion. The consequences of such failure can be enormous, particularly financially. As such, there is consensus by practitioners and academics alike that this practice is unacceptable. Yet with a variety of accepted development methods and tools available for use by software developers and project managers, there is still no significant reduction in the size or frequency of failure reported. In an attempt to understand the conflicts which arise in the development environment in which developers and project managers must operate, the research area is the role and value of ethics in the development of managed software projects. A definition of ethics in this context was provided by the IEEE/ACM Code of Ethics. Research was additionally conducted to understand how other professions and business areas define and enforce ethics in their respective working environments. These were (UK) Law, Finance, Retail and, law practice in the European Union. Interpretive research was then conducted to enable software development practices to be understood from the view of developers and project managers in industry. Unethical practices were then identified in a large IT company based in west London via a single, six month in-depth case study, with the data collected analysed via a series of repertory grids. Analysis and triangulation of the data collected via interviews, document analysis and observations led to an improved understanding of the causes of the unethical practices found. Conclusions and recommendations are then provided relating to implications for (a) the company participating in the research, (b) the application of the IEEE/ACM Code in industry (c) theory for ethicists

A Sociotechnical Systems Analysis of Building Information Modelling (STSaBIM) Implementation in Construction Organisations

The concept of BIM is nascent but evolving rapidly, thus, its deployment has become the latest shibboleth amongst both academics and practitioners in the construction sector in the recent couple of years. Due to construction clients buy-in of the BIM concept, the entire industry is encouraged to pursue a vision of changing work practices in line with the BIM ideas. Also, existing research recognises that the implementation of BIM affects all areas of the construction process from design of the building, through the organisation of projects, to the way in which the construction process is executed and how the finished product is maintained. The problem however is that, existing research in technology utilisation in general, and BIM literature in particular, has offered limited help to practitioners trying to implement BIM, for focusing predominantly, on technology-centric views. Not surprisingly therefore, the current BIM literature emphasises on topics such as capability maturity models and anticipated outcomes of BIM rollouts. Rarely does the extant literature offer practitioners a cohesive approach to BIM implementation. Such technology-centric views inevitably represent a serious barrier to utilising the inscribed capabilities of BIM. This research therefore is predicated on the need to strengthen BIM implementation theory through monitoring and analysing its implementation in practice. Thus, the focus of this thesis is to carry out a sociotechnical systems (STS) analysis of BIM implementation in construction organisations. The concept of STS accommodates the dualism of the inscribed functions of BIM technologies and the contextual issues in the organisations and allows for the analysis of their interactive combination in producing the anticipated effect from BIM appropriation. An interpretive research methodology is adopted to study practitioners through a change process, involving the implementation of BIM in their work contexts. The study is based on constructivist ontological interpretations of participants. The study adopts an abductive research approach which ensures a back-and-forth movement between research sites and the theoretical phenomenon, effectively comparing the empirical findings with the existing theories and to eventually generate a new theoretical understanding and knowledge regarding the phenomenon under investigation. A two-stage process is also formulated for the empirical data collection - comprising: 1) initial exploratory study to help establish the framework for analysing BIM implementation in the construction context; and 2) case studies approach to provide a context for formulating novel understanding and validation of theory regarding BIM implementation in construction organisations. The analysis and interpretation of the empirical work follows the qualitative content analysis technique to observe and reflect on the results. The findings have shown that BIM implementation demands a complete breakaway from the status quo. Contrary to the prevailing understanding of a top-down approach to BIM utilisation, the study revealed that different organisations with plethora of visions, expectations and skills combine with artefacts to form or transform BIM practices. The rollout and appropriation of BIM occurs when organisations shape sociotechnical systems of institutions, processes and technologies to support certain practices over others. The study also showed that BIM implementation endures in a causal chain of influences as different project organisations with their localised BIM ambitions and expectations combine to develop holistic BIM-enabled project visions. Thus, distributed responsibilities on holistic BIM protocols among the different levels of influences are instituted and enforced under binding contractual obligations. The study has illuminated the centrality of both the technical challenges and sociological factors in shaping BIM deployment in construction. It is also one of the few studies that have produced accounts of BIM deployment that is strongly mediated by the institutional contexts of construction organisations. However, it is acknowledged that the focus of the research on qualitative interpretive enquiry does not have the hard and fast view of generalising from specific cases to broader population/contexts. Thus, it is suggested that further quantitative studies, using much larger data sample of BIM-enabled construction organisations could provide an interesting point of comparison to the conclusions derived from the research findings

Traversing Invitational Spaces: The Beautiful Iraqi Women Project

The Beautiful Iraqi Women project was a short-term participatory research project co-designed and co-facilitated with Iraqi refugee women. Pragmatic project goals were to learn about Iraqi refugees\u27 resettlement experiences and create accessible and welcoming entries into the different spaces that govern refugee resettlement processes. Theoretical goals were concerned with learning how invitational rhetoric concepts of safety, immanent value, self-determination, and sharing perspectives contribute to achieving the pragmatic goals. Research questions framing this project were: RQ1: How is invitational rhetoric constructed in a short-term project with Iraqi refugee women? RQ2: In this invitational space, what do Iraqi participants\u27 shared perspectives reveal about their lived experience as resettled refugees? The project was conducted through a series of weekly research and reflexive sessions over a six-week period with two groups of participants: seventeen Iraqi refugee participants and six Access participants. Access participants were individuals invited by Iraqi refugee participants due to their positions in and access to institutions that regulate policies and practices that influence refugee resettlement. I collected data through audio recordings of select research sessions, and my field notes. Audio recordings were transcribed verbatim and uploaded into Dedoose software. Arabic conversations were not translated. I applied provisional, focus, and affective first cycle coding processes; and one two-stage pattern-coding scheme to organize the data, then used hermeneutic and rhizoanalytic approaches to analyze the data. In response to RQ1, my analyses produced two strains of safety, procedural and psychic; located a distinct form of immanent value based in trustworthiness of an individual perspective; and identified observable expressions of self-determination through Iraqi identified self-regulation procedures, and decision making authority. Sharing perspectives served two key functions. First, the process of sharing perspectives allowed participants to get to know each other better, thereby revealing different positionalities among participants. Second, Iraqi refugee-shared perspectives challenged perspectives held by others in ways that precipitated multiple meaning-making spaces in which to explore specific perspectives emerging from particular Iraqi participant-identified issues. My second analytic pass responded to RQ2. My analyses suggest that Iraqi refugee lived experience occurred within distressing and regulated contexts; contexts relieved through Iraqi togetherness. Iraqi-refugee distress was noticed in three dimensions: psychic pain, obligations to help other Iraqi refugees navigate and comprehend resettlement processes, and discrimination unique to the New Mexico context. Iraqi refugee distress was intensified through thwarted attempts of Iraqi participants to engage in the governing structures of resettlement due to regulatory constraints that appeared unintelligible; lacked clear accountability processes; and were non-responsive to the particularities of being an Iraqi refugee in New Mexico. Iraqi togetherness was expressed through spending time with other Iraqi refugee women, and recognized as a political organizing strategy. In a final analytic move, I synthesized the analyses produced during the project cycle and identified two ways the invitational research produced in this project can be translated as praxis in transformative and rhizomatic research. I conclude by offering invitational strategies of inquiry that could be applied in future participatory research projects

Proceedings of the Fifth Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems: Professional Development Consortium

Collection of position statements of doctoral students and junior faculty in the Professional Development Consortium at the the Fifth Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems, Tel Aviv - Yafo