Capturing and Shaping Shifting Requirements using XML and XSLT: A Field Study

This paper explores Extensible Mark-up Language (XML) and Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) for authoring, presenting and managing system requirements. A field study is presented that explores the influence of XML schema and XSLT rendering and modeling templates on stakeholder communications. The study is of an e-commerce project where an evolving business model and changing partnerships forced the requirements team to continually adapt XML and XSLT tools to capture requirements. Coding procedures categorized resulting repositories of XML documents, XML schema, XSLT templates, stakeholder interviews, field notes, e-mails, and business documents. Qualitative techniques are applied to derive a model summarizing the influence of XML schema, and XSLT rendering and modeling templates. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed, including how XML tools support stakeholders by customizing presentations, assisting negotiations and enhancing traceability

The emergence of information systems: a communication-based theory

An information system is more than just the information technology; it is the system that emerges from the complex interactions and relationships between the information technology and the organization. However, what impact information technology has on an organization and how organizational structures and organizational change influence information technology remains an open question. We propose a theory to explain how communication structures emerge and adapt to environmental changes. We operationalize the interplay of information technology and organization as language communities whose members use and develop domain-specific languages for communication. Our theory is anchored in the philosophy of language. In developing it as an emergent perspective, we argue that information systems are self-organizing and that control of this ability is disseminated throughout the system itself, to the members of the language community. Information technology influences the dynamics of this adaptation process as a fundamental constraint leading to perturbations for the information system. We demonstrate how this view is separated from the entanglement in practice perspective and show that this understanding has far-reaching consequences for developing, managing, and examining information systems

Evaluating a communication technology assessment tool (CTAT): A case of a cloud based communication tool

A primary concern of distributed adaptive development environment (DADE) is that of human communication and knowledge sharing among geographically dispersed developers. Emerging cloudbased communication technologies claim to provide a support for communication and knowledge sharing among developers in a DADE. However, the challenge is how to enable developers to self assess and select appropriate cloud-based communication technologies for their DADE. Based on our recent empirical study, we have developed the construct of a practical communication technologies assessment tool (CTAT). We argue that, CTAT construct, as a part of our large conceptual framework of context aware cloud adaptation (CACA), can be useful to assist developers in the self assessment of appropriate cloud-based communication technologies for their DADE. This paper presents the evaluation of the CTAT by using it for the assessment of the Force.com cloud-based Chatter communication tool. The main objective of this evaluation is to determine to what extent CTAT construct is relevant, valuable and sufficient to achieve its purpose. The results of this evaluation indicate that CTAT seems useful when performing vendor independent assessment of communication technologies in order to make an informed decision about the selection of a communication tool for the DADE

A Proficiency Model for Design Science Research Education

Design science research (DSR) produces knowledge via the design and evaluation of innovative solutions to real-world problems. DSR provides an improved understanding of how and why the solutions work. While DSR is being widely embraced in many research disciplines, its educational pedagogy so far remains immature with little guidance on how best to inform and train various audiences on relevant and rigorous DSR skillsets. Grounded on the authors’ wide experience in designing and delivering DSR courses over the past decades, we develop a “DSR Proficiency Model” to highlight key skills required to succeed in planning, applying, and communicating DSR. We recognize the different educational environments and student backgrounds that DSR courses must accommodate and provide actionable guidance for mapping the proficiency model to academic, training, and executive audiences. Informative examples demonstrate how we have structured DSR curricula for different academic and executive education programs

User’s Perceived IS Slack Resources and their Effects on Innovating with IT

While adaptation research significantly extends our understanding of how users adapt in reacting to new technology, scant attention has been given to the phenomenon of second-wave, proactive innovations, following the implementation of a disruptive information technology (IT). A proactive user behavior with IT voluntarily steps out of the defined job requirements and creates a new application of IT in the work. This paper conceptualizes a concept called innovating with IT (IwIT) as a post-implementation behavior which refers to user innovations that are proactively conducted with IT in one’s work process or deliverables. The paper draws on proactivity literature and takes a novel “slack” respective to understand what could facilitate IwIT. An integrative model that explores the relationship between user’s perceived IS slack resources and IwIT has been developed. This project contributes to existing IS research by presenting a new and complementary approach to existing research on adaptive behaviors

A Conceptual Framework for Adapation

This paper presents a white-box conceptual framework for adaptation that promotes a neat separation of the adaptation logic from the application logic through a clear identification of control data and their role in the adaptation logic. The framework provides an original perspective from which we survey archetypal approaches to (self-)adaptation ranging from programming languages and paradigms, to computational models, to engineering solutions

A Conceptual Framework for Adapation

This paper presents a white-box conceptual framework for adaptation that promotes a neat separation of the adaptation logic from the application logic through a clear identification of control data and their role in the adaptation logic. The framework provides an original perspective from which we survey archetypal approaches to (self-)adaptation ranging from programming languages and paradigms, to computational models, to engineering solutions

A Conceptual Framework for Adapation

We present a white-box conceptual framework for adaptation. We called it CODA, for COntrol Data Adaptation, since it is based on the notion of control data. CODA promotes a neat separation between application and adaptation logic through a clear identification of the set of data that is relevant for the latter. The framework provides an original perspective from which we survey a representative set of approaches to adaptation ranging from programming languages and paradigms, to computational models and architectural solutions