A model to assess customer alignment through customer experience concepts

Business and Information Technology Alignment (BITA) has been one of the main concerns of IT and Business executives and directors due to its importance to overall company performance, especially today in the age of digital transformation. For BITA has been developed several models which in general has focused in the implementation of alignment strategies for the internal operation of the organizations and in the measurement of this internal alignment, but, there is still a big gap in measurement models of the alignment with the external environment of the organizations. In this paper is presented the design and application of a maturity measurement model for BITA with the customers, where the customers are actors of the external environment of the companies. The proposed model involves evaluation criteria and business practices which the companies ideally do for improve the relationship with their customers.Comment: 12 pages, Preprint version, BIS 2019 International Workshops, Seville, Spain, June 26 to 28, 2019, Revised Paper

Non-Technical Individual Skills are Weakly Connected to the Maturity of Agile Practices

Context: Existing knowledge in agile software development suggests that individual competency (e.g. skills) is a critical success factor for agile projects. While assuming that technical skills are important for every kind of software development project, many researchers suggest that non-technical individual skills are especially important in agile software development. Objective: In this paper, we investigate whether non-technical individual skills can predict the use of agile practices. Method: Through creating a set of multiple linear regression models using a total of 113 participants from agile teams in six software development organizations from The Netherlands and Brazil, we analyzed the predictive power of non-technical individual skills in relation to agile practices. Results: The results show that there is surprisingly low power in using non-technical individual skills to predict (i.e. explain variance in) the mature use of agile practices in software development. Conclusions: Therefore, we conclude that looking at non-technical individual skills is not the optimal level of analysis when trying to understand, and explain, the mature use of agile practices in the software development context. We argue that it is more important to focus on the non-technical skills as a team-level capacity instead of assuring that all individuals possess such skills when understanding the use of the agile practices.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figur

Digital maturity variables and their impact on the enterprise architecture layers

This study examines the variables of digital maturity of companies. The framework for enterprise architectures Archimate 3.0 is used to compare the variables. The variables are assigned to the six layers of architecture: Strategy, Business Environment, Applications, Technology, Physical and Implementation and Migration. On the basis of a literature overview, 15 “digital maturity models” with a total of 147 variables are analyzed. The databases Scopus, EBSCO – Business Source Premier and ProQuest are used for this purpose

Does maturity level influence the use of agile UX methods by digital startups? Evaluating design thinking, lean startup, and lean user experience

Context: Agile UX methods such as Design Thinking, Lean Startup, and Lean User Experience have been employed to deliver customer value and improve organizational performance. However, there is a lack of studies that assess how these tools are used at different stages of maturity of digital startups. Objective: The present study aims to compare the knowledge of graduated, incubated, and pre-incubated digital startups at university incubators concerning the use of Agile UX methods so that weaknesses and opportunities can be identified to provide co founders and scholars with new strategic insights. Method: Six reduced focus groups were conducted with 14 members of the six selected startups via multiple case studies. Answers were registered by researchers and then analyzed using an inductive process and codification. Results: The results indicated that digital startups had contact with consumers through market research, viability analysis, and product discontinuity. However, except for one startup, deficiencies in co-founders’ participation throughout developing products and services projects were identified. As far as the multiple case studies are concerned, Design Thinking and Lean Startup were employed by four of the startups, while two of them used the Lean User Experience method due to its higher maturity level. Conclusion: Although all Agile UX methods were employed, all six digital startups reported having made adaptations to the methods or to have used them only partially. Finally, it was concluded that the maturity level influences the Agile UX methods of each digital startup according to its nature and its stage of development in the market.Campus Lima Centr

Rakennusprosessin Digitalisointi ja Teollistaminen - Tapaustutkimu

This thesis presents an overall description of industrialization and digitalization in construction industry and pipe repair sector and a framework to assess organization's industrial maturity. Industrialization in construction industry strives to make production effective by repeating work processes in factories, design offices and at building sites by the coordination of different activities. In the core of industrialization is the relocation of activities from on-site to specialized off-site factories (e.g. pre-assembly) and to remote digital units (e.g. designing). The two theoretical contributions of this study are i) the new framework for industrial maturity measurement in construction industry and pipe repair sector and ii) the detailed description of case company's current industrial maturity. The industrial maturity framework defines organization's current industrial maturity in six different process categories related to production. These contributions also have managerial relevance as they can be utilized to evaluate and plan a transformative process towards higher industrialization with digitalization as an enabler. The empirical evidence of this study proposes that the existing literature on industrialization might focus too strongly on industrialization as a concept and has not considered the potential of a framework to assess the level of industrialization. By having a framework to assess the current status, organizations can approach industrialization in a more strategic manner, focusing to enhance the weakest areas in the organization.Tämä tutkimus esittelee yleisen kuvauksen teollistumisesta ja digitalisoinnista rakennusalalla ja putkiremonttisektorilla, sekä viitekehyksen organisaation teollisen maturiteetin mittaamiseen. Teollistuminen rakennusalalla pyrkii tekemään tuotannosta tehokkaampaa luomalla toistettavia työsuoritteita tuotantolaitoksissa, suunnittelutoimistoissa ja rakennustyömaalla aktiviteetteja koordinoimalla. Teollistumisen ytimessä on työmaan aktiviteettien uudelleensijoittaminen erikoistuneisiin tuotantolaitoksiin (esivalmistus) ja digitaalisiin yksikköihin (suunnittelu). Tämän tutkmuksen kaksi pääasiallista teoreettista kontribuutiota ovat i) uusi viitekehys teollisen maturiteetin mittaamiseen rakennusalalla ja putkiremonttisektorilla, sekä ii) yksityiskohtainen kuvaus tapaustutkimuksen yrityksen nykyisestä teollisen maturiteetin tasosta. Teollisen maturiteetin viitekehys määrittelee organisaation teollisen maturiteetin nykytilan kuudella eri tuotannon osaalueella. Näillä kontribuutioilla on myös johtoryhmän relevanssia, sillä niiden hyödyntäminen mahdollistaa digitalisaation avulla korkeampaan teollistumiseen tähtäävän muutosprosessin arvioimisen ja suunnittelemisen. Tutkimuksen empiirinen näyttö osoittaa, että nykyinen teollistumista koskeva kirjallisuus on saattanut painottaa liiaksi teollistumista yleisen tason konseptina ja ei ole huomioinut teollisen maturiteetin mittaamiseen käytettävän viitekehyksen arvoa organisaation teollistumisen mittaamiseen. Tutkimuksessa rakennetun viitekehyksen avulla organisaatiot rakennusalalla pystyvät lähestymään teollistumista strategisemmin ja osoittamaan kehityskohteita saavuttaakseen korkeamman teollistumisen taso