SOA-Driven Business-Software Alignment

The alignment of business processes and their supporting application software is a major concern during the initial software design phases. This paper proposes a design approach addressing this problem of business-software alignment. The approach takes an initial business model as a basis in deriving refined models that target a service-oriented software implementation. The approach explicitly identifies a software modeling level at which software modules are represented as services in a technology-platformindependent way. This model-driven service-oriented approach has the following properties: (i) there is a forced alignment (consistency) between business processes and supporting applications; (ii) changes in the business environment can be traced to the application and vice versa, via model relationships; (iii) the software modules modeled as services have a high degree of autonomy; (iv) migration to new technology platforms can be supported through the platform independent software model

Investigating Implemented Process Design: A Case Study on the Impact of Process-aware Information Systems on Core Job Dimensions

Adequate process design particularly means that a process fulfills its stakeholders’ expectations. However, when designing process-aware information systems (PAIS), one stakeholder and his expectations are often neglected: the end user. Frequently, this results in end user fears, which, in turn, lead to emotional resistance and a lack of user support during process and information system design. In order to overcome this vicious circle it becomes necessary to better understand the impact of operationalized process design on the end users’ work profile. This paper presents the results of a case study at two Dutch companies.We investigate in which way employees perceive the impact of a newly introduced PAIS based on workflow management technology with respect to five job dimensions: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback from the job

Autonomy in the AAL : between law and ethics

The growth of Silver Economy calls for a paradigm shift in senior care, where active and healthy ageing is a primary goal. It also coincides with the rapid development of new technologies – AAL being one of them. The AAL combines the advances in the emerging technologies with the need to promote healthy and active ageing experience. This master thesis focuses on the value of individual autonomy and its importance in the context of senior care. The main argument of this research is that individual autonomy is a crucial element in attaining the goal of active and healthy ageing. However, the impact of AAL technology on individual autonomy is uncertain. On one side, AAL's main goal is to enable independent and autonomous living for as long as possible, while on the other side, the AAL by its very design limits individual autonomy. Individual autonomy in the AAL is enabled through legal and ethical norms. The nature of the AAL technology and the contexts and norms under which it operates are dynamic and constantly changing. Therefore, legal regulation needs to be augmented by ethical norms that are fit to meet the ever-changing character of this emerging technology. In particular, ethical technology design principles have a great potential to address the novelty of the AAL and the challenges that European data protection legislation is failing to tackle

Technology, Power, and Leadership: Recommendations for Preserving Faculty Autonomy in the 21st Century

Today’s institutions of higher education dedicate significant time and effort to outfitting facilities with the latest technology equipment and packages and to providing faculty with training and support. Conversely, literature on technology implementation in higher educational settings typically focuses on procedures and timelines and makes little mention of how faculty perceive technology as a challenge or threat to their autonomy and professional identity. This literature review uses the terms “power”, “empowerment” and “technology” according to Foucault, Kanter, Rowlands, and others as the lens to examine connections between technology and faculty’s real or perceived loss of identity and autonomy. Instructional technology design experts have called for a return to the use of seminal learning theories to help bridge the learning gap for technology users. Findings in the literature drive the recommendation for using sociological and psychological Constructivist factors as the next step in identifying ways to implement technology that contribute to empowering 21st century higher education faculty and protecting their autonomy

Impact of External Technology Exploitation, Acquisition, and Employee Autonomy on Innovation Performance

Purpose– This study aims to evaluate the impact of external technology exploitation, acquisition, and employee autonomy on innovative performance toward organizational performance and was conducted in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Research design, data, and methods– Four organizations were chosen, and 500 questionnaires were distributed, yielding 483 responses. The data was examined using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Results– The findings revealed that external technology exploitation aims to improve organizational performance, whereas external technology acquisition and employee autonomy aim to enhance innovation performance. As a result, innovation performance is mediated by organizational performance. Implications– The modeling results suggest that external technology exploitation, acquisition, and employee autonomy on innovation performance play a vital role in enhancing the Government organization utilizing IT as an innovation model. Empirical evidence and descriptive part reveal that successful and above-average-performing government organizations have higher innovation levels. Conclusion– Finally, the study found that innovation performance based on ETE, ETA, and employee autonomy significantly affects organizational performance

Design and Technology Educators’ Experiences of Competence, Relatedness and Autonomy with Educational Research

This article reports on the results of a survey of Design and Technology educators, predominantly based in England that sought evidence of the extent to which the educators engaged with educational research more generally and also specifically within Design and Technology Education. The survey was sponsored by the professional Association of Design and Technology Education and was undertaken by its Design and Technology Research Steering Group. The survey collected demographic data on the roles and responsibilities of the survey respondents, the types and levels of education where they worked and length of experience in Design and Technology  education. Questions explored the types of research of interest, confidence levels in accessing, using and undertaking research, the nature of support for engaging research that educators would welcome, how research was currently accessed, what the challenges and barriers might be and what would motivate educators to become more engaged with research. This article resorts on analysis of the data, drawing on Self Determination Theory and specifically concepts of competence, relatedness and autonomy. Findings indicated that  respondents had a great deal of interest in principle, but that there were considerable barriers to engaging with research which impacted on competence, relatedness and autonomy. The insights provided will now be used as the basis for developing support for Design and Technology practitioners to engage with research at a variety of levels

"Ground control to moonbase" : communications technology in primary D&T

This paper reports on a case study of a four-year project undertaken by a Wiltshire primary school, with the aims of enhancing pupils’ use of information and communications technology (ICT) in their learning of design and technology, whilst increasing their confidence in speaking and listening. The work was supported by a grant of £36K from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) and took as its theme the topic of communication in space. Observations of pupils designing and prototyping geodesic structures in preparation for the moonbase construction have exemplified what Siraj Blatchford (1996) described as a ‘design collective’, in which children draw on earlier experiences and learned skills to design and make with autonomy alongside their peers. The school design and technology co-ordinator was observed to put in place elements of what Harrington (1990) described as a ‘creative ecosystem’, fostering a social or distributed creativity within the school by, for example, involving pupils in collaboratively prioritising design criteria. Observations of pupils working within the moonbase environment and its linked classroom interface have demonstrated methodical yet creative approaches to problem-solving, and a relatively high degree of autonomy, providing evidence of what Loveless (2003) refers to as the “conjectural paradigm” for learning experiences mediated by control technology

Assistive technology design and development for acceptable robotics companions for ageing years

© 2013 Farshid Amirabdollahian et al., licensee Versita Sp. z o. o. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license, which means that the text may be used for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author.A new stream of research and development responds to changes in life expectancy across the world. It includes technologies which enhance well-being of individuals, specifically for older people. The ACCOMPANY project focuses on home companion technologies and issues surrounding technology development for assistive purposes. The project responds to some overlooked aspects of technology design, divided into multiple areas such as empathic and social human-robot interaction, robot learning and memory visualisation, and monitoring persons’ activities at home. To bring these aspects together, a dedicated task is identified to ensure technological integration of these multiple approaches on an existing robotic platform, Care-O-Bot®3 in the context of a smart-home environment utilising a multitude of sensor arrays. Formative and summative evaluation cycles are then used to assess the emerging prototype towards identifying acceptable behaviours and roles for the robot, for example role as a butler or a trainer, while also comparing user requirements to achieved progress. In a novel approach, the project considers ethical concerns and by highlighting principles such as autonomy, independence, enablement, safety and privacy, it embarks on providing a discussion medium where user views on these principles and the existing tension between some of these principles, for example tension between privacy and autonomy over safety, can be captured and considered in design cycles and throughout project developmentsPeer reviewe

Evolution Oriented Monitoring oriented to Security Properties for Cloud Applications

Internet is changing from an information space to a dynamic computing space. Data distribution and remotely accessible software services, dynamism, and autonomy are prime attributes. Cloud technology offers a powerful and fast growing approach to the provision of infrastructure (platform and software services) avoiding the high costs of owning, operating, and maintaining the computational infrastructures required for this purpose. Nevertheless, cloud technology still raises concerns regarding security, privacy, governance, and compliance of data and software services offered through it. Concerns are due to the difficulty to verify security properties of the different types of applications and services available through cloud technology, the uncertainty of their owners and users about the security of their services, and the applications based on them, once they are deployed and offered through a cloud. This work presents an innovative and novel evolution-oriented, cloud-specific monitoring model (including an architecture and a language) that aim at helping cloud application developers to design and monitor the behavior and functionality of their applications in a cloud environment.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Psychological principles of successful aging technologies: A mini-review

Based on resource-oriented conceptions of successful life-span development, we propose three principles for evaluating assistive technology: (a) net resource release; (b) person specificity, and (c) proximal versus distal frames of evaluation. We discuss how these general principles can aid the design and evaluation of assistive technology in adulthood and old age, and propose two technological strategies, one targeting sensorimotor and the other cognitive functioning. The sensorimotor strategy aims at releasing cognitive resources such as attention and working memory by reducing the cognitive demands of sensory or sensorimotor aspects of performance. The cognitive strategy attempts to provide adaptive and individualized cuing structures orienting the individual in time and space by providing prompts that connect properties of the environment to the individual's action goals. We argue that intelligent assistive technology continuously adjusts the balance between `environmental support' and `self-initiated processing' in person-specific and aging-sensitive ways, leading to enhanced allocation of cognitive resources. Furthermore, intelligent assistive technology may foster the generation of formerly latent cognitive resources by activating developmental reserves (plasticity). We conclude that `lifespan technology', if co-constructed by behavioral scientists, engineers, and aging individuals, offers great promise for improving both the transition from middle adulthood to old age and the degree of autonomy in old age in present and future generations. Copyright (C) 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel