The construction of work realities assisted by the adoption of computer-based systems

Computer-based systems (CBS) are usually adopted to support structural aspects of the organization, such as mission, strategy, objectives, tasks, processes, responsibilities, coordination and control of the activities, resources allocation, authority, decision making, etc. These are assumed as objectively identifiable aspects of work and, therefore, they can be analyzed and measured. For this reason, they are object of preferential study when the goal is to adopt tools to solve organizational problems. However, the complexity of the organizational processes, and the importance of individual experiences and human interaction in shaping perceptions has come to enhance the necessity to consider a wider diversity of organizational aspects as well as the process of adoption of a CBS, in order to facilitate the proper dynamics of the organizational transformation processes. In this paper, we present and analyze two cases of work reality transformation. Each transformation process was supported by the adoption of a specific CBS. In one of the cases, this adoption was implemented explicitly and was sanctioned by senior management. In the other, the transformation was implemented without the formal support of senior management. The paper ends by emphasizing the importance of considering the multi-dimensionality of the work realities when defining CBSs to assist work practices. It is also emphasized that work realities are continually being reshaped by the combined action of social processes that lead to transformation. Often these processes occur at an implicit level and without the actors that sustain them having full awareness of the effects of their own action

A Rubric to Evaluate and Enhance Requirements Elicitation Interviewing Skills

Eliciting effective requirements is vital for successful Information Systems development and implementation. Interviews with stakeholders and users are an important part of the requirements elicitation process. Thus, teaching students how to better perform requirements elicitation interviews is a critical task for information systems faculty. However, prior to this research, a common tool or rubric to evaluate the effectiveness of requirements elicitation interviews was not found in the literature. The purpose of this research was to develop a rubric that can be used to both evaluate (provide summative measures) and enhance (via formative training techniques) the requirements elicitation interviewing skills of information systems students. The results of this research provide both quantitative and qualitative evidence that the rubric developed and described in this paper substantially improved the ability of our students to conduct requirements elicitation interviews. Along with detailing the various methodologies we used, this paper provides practical pedagogical suggestions and lessons learned along with covering possible future avenues of research in this area

Empirical modelling for participative business process reengineering

The purpose of this thesis is to introduce a new broad approach to computing - Empirical Modelling (EM) - and to propose a way of applying this approach for system development so as to avoid the limitations of conventional approaches and integrate system development with business process reengineering (BPR). Based on the concepts of agency, observable and dependency, EM is an experiencebased approach to modelling with computers in which the modeller interacts with an artefact through continuous observations and experiments. It is a natural way of working for business process modelling because the modeller is involved in, and takes account of, the real world context. It is also adaptable to a rapidly changing environment as the computer-based models serve as creative artefacts with which the modeller can interact in a situated and open-ended manner. This thesis motivates and illustrates the EM approach to new concepts of participative BPR and participative process modelling. That is, different groups of people, with different perceptions, competencies and requirements, can be involved during the process of system development and BPR, rather than just being involved at an early stage. This concept aims to address the well-known high failure rate of BPR. A framework SPORE (situated process of requirements engineering), which has been proposed to guide the process of cultivating requirements in a situated manner, is extended to participative BPR (i.e. to support many users in a distributed environment). Two levels of modelling are proposed for the integration of contextual understanding and system development. A comparison between EM and object-orientation is also provided to give insight into how EM differs from current methodologies and to point out the potential of EM in system development and BPR. The ISMs (interactive situation models), built using the principles and tools of EM, are used to form artefacts during the modelling process. A warehouse and logistics management system is taken as an illustrative case study for applying this framework

Procedure For Hybrid Process Analysis And Design

Performing business processes are a critical asset for manufacturing companies operating on highly competitive markets. Conventional approaches to business process improvement, however, are vulnerable to subjectivity and high manual efforts in their execution. These challenges can be overcome with recent databased approaches that semi-automate process analysis and design. Those approaches formalize methodical knowledge on weakness detection, measure derivation and performance evaluation for business processes into a performance-related decision support. By enabling the databased automation of these tasks this formalization helps to reduce efforts and subjectivity in process analysis and design. However, practice lacks a procedure for applying this decision support in operative business process improvement. Moreover, this decision support only formalises methodological knowledge. Operative business process improvement in practice additionally requires the consideration of experts' contextual knowledge about the company and the business process itself. This paper presents a hybrid approach for the analysis and design of business processes using a databased decision support. First, existing phase models for business process improvement are consolidated into a reference model. Second, an expert-based assessment is conducted on how decision support extends, modifies or eliminates the conventional tasks of process analysis and design. In the third step, a hybrid phase model for process analysis and design is developed that integrates the formalised methodological knowledge of the decision support and contextual knowledge of experts

A SECI-Based Knowledge Conversion Model of Business Process Capture

Security questions are one of the mechanisms used to recover passwords. Strong answers to security questions (i.e. high entropy) are hard for attackers to guess or obtain using social engineering techniques (e.g. monitoring of social networking profiles), but at the same time are difficult to remember. Instead, weak answers to security questions (i.e. low entropy) are easy to remember, which makes them more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Convenience leads users to use the same answers to security questions on multiple accounts, which exposes these accounts to numerous cyber-threats. Hence, current security questions implementations rarely achieve the required security and memorability requirements. This research study is the first step in the development of a model which investigates the determinants that influence users’ behavioural intentions through motivation to select strong and memorable answers to security questions. This research also provides design recommendations for novel security questions mechanisms

System Dynamics in Transition Management : Participative modeling for transitioning towards a circular construction material industry

Climate change and biodiversity degradation are only two of humanity's major social and environmental issues. Scientists, global policy experts, and the general public are increasingly concluding that traditional interventions to reduce un-sustainability are inadequate and that change in all sectors of society is needed. Change processes of societal innovations are complex, non-linear, and dynamic transitions, for which scientific research increased in recent years. However, the concept of transitions and the proper role of science in promoting change is still debated. In this dissertation, I am especially interested in using scientific methods to understand drivers and barriers of societal innovation, engaging with societal actors, and increasing the effectiveness of interventions. To test the adequacy of System Dynamics modeling as a tool to support transition management, I conduct a case study in the construction material industry in Switzerland. The construction material industry is a traditional industry sector that faces public pressure to change dominant practices towards more sustainability. Yet recycling activities stagnate, and the potential of secondary resources is not utilized. I use six participative modeling workshops with public policy experts and seven interviews with extraction, disposal, recycling companies to develop a quantitative simulation model. This simulation model allows for virtual experiments to accelerate the transition of Switzerland's mineral construction material industry towards a circular economy. In this simulation model, I explain how the dynamic interaction between public policy and industry actors complicates the management of natural resource stocks. The co-production of extraction and disposal policies emerges as the central structure that forms a barrier to a circular economy. These spatial planning policies increase the incentive for companies to extract resources to generate volume for waste disposal. The resulting oversupply of primary resources locks out the use of secondary resources. I suggest experimenting with cooperative spatial planning between urban resource consumers and the hinterlands as a resource supplier to overcome this barrier. This cooperative spatial planning format is a leverage point for the local utilization of secondary resources without increasing material transports between regions. Based on this case study, I discuss integrating system dynamics in applied research for sustainability transitions, providing an empirical perspective on the intersection of System Dynamics (SD) and Transition Management (TM). Beyond the empirical findings for the governance of the transition of the industry sector in the case study, I focus on the methodological contribution of SD for TM. The findings are twofold. Firstly, by documenting participants' mental models during the participative modeling workshops, I gain insights into their learning process. These insights are essential to understand common misperceptions about the governance of the industry sector. For example, identifying the informal policy of extending gravel licenses rather than foreclosing after the expiration of the licensed duration was a critical insight. Furthermore, the discussion surrounding this policy clarified the role of adaptive expectations for the uptake of secondary resources. If new licensing processes do not consider the potential of secondary resources, a structural oversupply of primary resources results. Secondly, SD modeling adds operational guidance to the identification of fields for governance experimentation. These fields for governance experimentation are presented as more than just policy recommendations. They intend to induce more systemic changes, e.g., move from local spatial planning towards interregional spatial planning concepts. The insight that such systemic changes are necessary results from a formal model that clarified the scale of the problem (e.g., interregional arbitrage inhibits local recycling initiatives) and scope for required solutions (interregional spatial planning instead of local policy adjustments). I conclude that SD adds to the orientation phase of TM processes by providing an operational toolbox to engage with policy-relevant actors in a learning process and point at fields for experimentation. However, I also identify that the formal SD perspective in parts inhibited more daring and radical propositions for experimentation. While some might argue this is a weakness, I respond that SD modeling provides feasible recommendations based on identifying leverage points for long-term change.Doktorgradsavhandlin

Users' voice and service selection: An empirical study

© 2014 IEEE. Service Oriented software development saves time by reusing existing services and integrates them to create a new system. But selecting a service that satisfies the requirements of all concerned stakeholders is a challenging task. The situation has been exacerbated within the past few years with huge number of services available that offer similar functionalities where the analysts require additional information for making better decision for service selection. User feedback analysis has recently gained a lot of attention for its potential benefits in various areas of requirements engineering. The aim of this research is to evaluate the impact of feedback provided by the end users of the services, on the decision making process for the service selection. In this paper we present an empirical study that utilizes user feedback analysis for selection of a service among 92 available services with similar functionalities. The results show that in scenarios with significant number of services, it is helpful for analysts to consider additional information to select optimally best matched service to the requirements