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

Crowd sourcing challenges assessment index for disaster management

Emergency agencies (EA) rely on inter-agency approaches to information management during disasters. EA have shown a significant interest in the use of cloud-based social media such as Twitter and Facebook for crowd-sourcing and distribution of disaster information. While the intentions are clear, the question of what are its major challenges are not. EA have a need to recognise the challenges in the use of social media under their local circumstances. This paper analysed the recent literature, 2010 Haiti earthquake and 2010-11 Queensland flood cases and developed a crowd sourcing challenges assessment index construct specific to EA areas of interest. We argue that, this assessment index, as a part of our large conceptual framework of context aware cloud adaptation (CACA), can be useful for the facilitation of citizens, NGOs and government agencies in a strategy for use of social media for crowd sourcing, in preventing, preparing for, responding to and recovering from disasters. © (2012) by the AIS/ICIS Administrative Office All rights reserved

Towards an assessment framework of reuse: A Knowledge Level Analysis Approach

The process of assessing the suitability of reuse of a software component is complex. Indeed, software systems are typically developed as an assembly of existing components. The complexity of the assessment process is due to lack of clarity on how to compare the cost of adaptation of an existing component versus the cost of developing it from scratch. Indeed, often pursuit of reuse can lead to excessive rework and adaptation, or developing suites of components that often get neglected. This paper is an important step towards modelling the complex reuse assessment process. To assess the success factors that can underpin reuse, we analyze the cognitive factors that belie developers\u27 behavior during their decision-making when attempting to reuse. This analysis is the first building block of a broader aim to synthesize a framework to institute activities during the software development lifecycle to support reuse

AGILE ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE: A CASE OF A CLOUD TECHNOLOGY-ENABLED GOVERNMENT ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATION

Australian government enterprises have shown a significant interest in the cloud technology-enabled enterprise transformation. Australian government suggests the whole-of-a-government strategy to cloud adoption. The challenge is how best to realise this cloud adoption strategy for the cloud technology-enabled enterprise transformation? The cloud adoption strategy realisation requires concrete guidelines and a comprehensive practical framework. This paper proposes the use of an agile enterprise architecture framework to developing and implementing the adaptive cloud technology-enabled enterprise architecture in the Australian government context. The results of this paper indicate that a holistic strategic agile enterprise architecture approach seems appropriate to support the strategic whole-of-a-government approach to cloud technology-enabled government enterprise transformation

Agile global software development communication challenges: A systematic review

Organizations have shown a significant interest in adopting human and communication-oriented agile practices for Global Software Development (GSD). Agile practices originated in the context of small and medium co-located project teams present a number of communication challenges when they are applied to the distributed GSD. There is a need to understand the underlying communication challenges of agile GSD environment. This paper adopts a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) approach and reports communication challenges in the agile GSD context. A customized literature search and selection criteria was first developed and then applied to initially identify a set of 449 papers. Finally, 22 of 449 papers, relevant to this research, were selected for this study. These final 22 papers were reviewed and 7 major categories of communication challenges were identified in the context of agile GSD. The review results of this paper are expected to help researchers and practitioners to understand communication challenges of agile GSD and develop tools, techniques and strategies to deal with these challenges. This paper is limited to the number of reviewed studies from selected databases

Research on information systems failures and successes: status update and future directions

Information systems success and failure are among the most prominent streams in IS research. Explanations of why some IS fulfill their expectations, whereas others fail, are complex and multi-factorial. Despite the efforts to understand the underlying factors, the IS failure rate remains stubbornly high. A Panel session was held at the IFIP Working Group 8.6 conference in Bangalore in 2013 which forms the subject of this Special Issue. Its aim was to reflect on the need for new perspectives and research directions, to provide insights and further guidance for managers on factors enabling IS success and avoiding IS failure. Several key issues emerged, such as the need to study problems from multiple perspectives, to move beyond narrow considerations of the IT artifact, and to venture into underexplored organizational contexts, such as the public sector. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

Moving forward: Emerging themes in financial services technologies’ adoption

© 2015 by the Association for Information Systems. Financial services technologies (FST) are core to the continuous transformation of financial services organizations (FSO). To date, however, there has been a lack of empirical research into FST adoption against the backdrop of the recent financial crisis. In this paper, we re-examine how FSO are currently positioned to take advantage of emerging FST. Note that, in this paper, we look forward rather than provide a commentary on the state of the art in technology adoption research. We conducted this research by applying an exploratory qualitative study method: we analyzed interview transcripts from thirty recent interviews of FSO technology executives and CIOs by using a thematic network analysis tool. This analysis uncovered nineteen basic, eight organizing, and two global FST adoption research themes along with their links to FST adoption objectives, challenges, customer centricity, human resources, outsourcing, and overall IT strategy maintenance. This research has both practical and theoretical research implications and serves as a resource base for FSO and researchers to set future research priorities and directions. We intend for the emerging themes that we present in this paper to facilitate research directions by shedding light on the areas of greatest value and potential return in FST adoption

The Comparative Intercultural Sensitivity of American Faculty Teaching Abroad and Domestically : A Mixed-Methods Investigation Employing Participant-Generated Visuals

This thesis aimed to identify and compare the intercultural sensitivity, or IS, of tertiary American instructors teaching mono-national, non-American student populations abroad in the UAE and that of American tertiary instructors in multinational, non-American student populations domestically in the US. The study investigated the use of reflexive photography and photo-elicitation interviews methods as both data collection approaches and possible cultivators of IS, as well as any variation in findings between the two participant groups. The study employed a mixed-methods approach involving surveys and semi-structured photo-elicitation interviews following a four-week reflexive photography project. Qualitative data were analyzed through the lens of a developmental framework and inductively through thematic analysis to capture fuller images of participants’ environments. Both groups of participants self-report fairly high IS, with the US-based group’s sensitivity averaging higher than the UAE-based group. Both groups, on average, showed slightly increased IS quantitatively following the reflexive photography project and photo-elicitation interviews, with the UAE-based group experiencing a slightly greater increase. This research involves a small number of participants; findings should be considered for indicative purposes only. Participants’ IS, when observed through the theoretical lens, indicate more progressive sensitivity among US-based participants. Thematic analysis of interview data reflects distinct teaching contexts faced by each participant group, with five and six themes emerging from the UAE- and US-based groups, respectively. This research is the first to the best of the author’s knowledge to investigate the IS of tertiary American faculty teaching internationally diverse student populations domestically and is also the first to compare differences in IS between this group and America