6,675 research outputs found

    Seeing the big PICTURE: A framework for improving the communication of requirements within the Business-IT relationship

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    The relationship between the business and IT departments in the context of the organisation has been characterised as highly divisive. Contributing problems appear to revolve around the failure to adequately communicate and understand the required information for the alignment of business and IT strategies and infrastructures. This study takes a communication-based view on the concept of alignment, in terms of the relationship between the retail business and IT within a major high street UK bank. A research framework (PICTURE) is used to provide insight into this relationship and guide the analysis of interviews with 29 individuals on mid-high management level for their thematic content. The paper highlights the lessons that can be derived from the study of the BIT relationship and how possible improvements could be made

    User-centred interface design for cross-language information retrieval

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    This paper reports on the user-centered design methodology and techniques used for the elicitation of user requirements and how these requirements informed the first phase of the user interface design for a Cross-Language Information Retrieval System. We describe a set of factors involved in analysis of the data collected and, finally discuss the implications for user interface design based on the findings

    User requirement elicitation for cross-language information retrieval

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    Who are the users of a cross-language retrieval system? Under what circumstances do they need to perform such multi-language searches? How will the task and the context of use affect successful interaction with the system? Answers to these questions were explored in a user study performed as part of the design stages of Clarity, a EU founded project on cross-language information retrieval. The findings resulted in a rethink of the planned user interface and a consequent expansion of the set of services offered. This paper reports on the methodology and techniques used for the elicitation of user requirements as well as how these were in turn transformed into new design solutions

    Systematic evaluation of perceived spatial quality

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    The evaluation of perceived spatial quality calls for a method that is sensitive to changes in the constituent dimensions of that quality. In order to devise a method accounting for these changes, several processes have to be performed. This paper shows the development of scales by elicitation and structuring of verbal data, followed by validation of the resulting attribute scales

    A critical rationalist approach to organizational learning: testing the theories held by managers

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    The common wisdom is that Popper's critical rationalism, a method aimed at knowledge validation through falsification of theories, is inadequate for managers in organizations. This study falsifies this argument in three phases: first, it specifies the obstructers that prevent the method from being employed; second, the critical rationalist method is adapted for strategic management purposes; last, the method and the hypotheses are tested via action research. Conclusions are that once the obstructers are omitted the method is applicable and effective

    Current Challenges and Visions in Music Recommender Systems Research

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    Music recommender systems (MRS) have experienced a boom in recent years, thanks to the emergence and success of online streaming services, which nowadays make available almost all music in the world at the user's fingertip. While today's MRS considerably help users to find interesting music in these huge catalogs, MRS research is still facing substantial challenges. In particular when it comes to build, incorporate, and evaluate recommendation strategies that integrate information beyond simple user--item interactions or content-based descriptors, but dig deep into the very essence of listener needs, preferences, and intentions, MRS research becomes a big endeavor and related publications quite sparse. The purpose of this trends and survey article is twofold. We first identify and shed light on what we believe are the most pressing challenges MRS research is facing, from both academic and industry perspectives. We review the state of the art towards solving these challenges and discuss its limitations. Second, we detail possible future directions and visions we contemplate for the further evolution of the field. The article should therefore serve two purposes: giving the interested reader an overview of current challenges in MRS research and providing guidance for young researchers by identifying interesting, yet under-researched, directions in the field

    An Analysis of Mixed Initiative and Collaboration in Information-Seeking Dialogues

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    The ability to engage in mixed-initiative interaction is one of the core requirements for a conversational search system. How to achieve this is poorly understood. We propose a set of unsupervised metrics, termed ConversationShape, that highlights the role each of the conversation participants plays by comparing the distribution of vocabulary and utterance types. Using ConversationShape as a lens, we take a closer look at several conversational search datasets and compare them with other dialogue datasets to better understand the types of dialogue interaction they represent, either driven by the information seeker or the assistant. We discover that deviations from the ConversationShape of a human-human dialogue of the same type is predictive of the quality of a human-machine dialogue.Comment: SIGIR 2020 short conference pape

    Certificate of proficiency in English course evaluation and students’ preparation to writing in real-life situations – descriptive study

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    The aim of this article is to present results of a case study carried out as a partial fulfilment for a Master Thesis. The case study referred to one of the parts of Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English. The Paper 2 includes Part 1, where a learner is required to complete a compulsory task such as an article, essay or a letter, and Part 2, in which a candidate is free to choose from four questions with diversified text types. Moreover, in CPE Paper 2 one can find a reflection of the social approach and as in all questions role of the reader is specified. Thus, a candidate knows to what type of a discourse community they have to write. What is also determined is the role of the writer and the purpose of writing in a breadth of task types. A candidate and their linguistic competence at this level could be compared to the ones of an educated native speaker. Therefore, they should be able to adjust their language register to a variety of culturally appropriate ways required to fulfil every task. Thus, the aim of the study was to observe whether a Certificate of Proficiency in English course prepares students to real-life writing outside a classroom context. For the purpose of MA dissertation a case study was conducted on a small group of students participating in a course at a private school of foreign languages
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