Images of Information Systems in the Early 21st Century

As we enter the 21st Century, we are confronted by waves of new technology and pressured by competitive forces to find the most effective and efficient uses of information systems (IS)in organizations. Periodically, it is useful to stand back and take a look at the IS field from a variety of perspectives. These perspectives create images of IS that offer the potential of generating new insights into the field as it moves forward. These images are created through the lens of metaphors. Metaphors have been used in IS to help explain many of its central concepts from systems development methodologies to human-computer interaction. This paper describes five metaphors for the field of IS itself. From these metaphors a set of challenges for IS researchers and practitioners is proposed

Assessing an Information Systems Master\u27s Curriculum Program: Revisiting the ACM\u27s MSIS 2006 Model Curriculum

The field of Information systems continues to change dynamically with the painful impact for reacting to those changes felt by both undergraduate and masters’ level programs. The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a comparative selfstudy of one MSIS program as a measure to assess its competitiveness among a set of other comparable, competitive and aspirant masters’ programs. The focus of the study is determine the viability of one specific master’s curriculum used currently to prepare students for professional careers in information systems in order to meet the marketplace challenges created by the ever-evolving information systems business needs. The fundamental methodology used in this study is based on that which was employed in a previous study conducted to assess the ‘fit’ of 86 MSIS programs with the MSIS 2000 Model Curriculum (Vijayaraman, et.al.) Findings will be presented that reflect shared learning objectives, curriculum content, currency, and relevancy necessary to assess whether changes to the current curriculum are necessary to establish a more competitive position among the three categories of comparable, competitive and aspirant university MSIS programs. One benefit that resulted from this initiative is the recognition that there has been relatively little research directed at assessing the overall direction of current MSIS programs and the need to revisit the need for a new MSIS model curriculum. The last endorsed MSIS model curriculum was published in 2006 (Gorgone, et.al. 2006), almost 10 years ago. It is the hope of presenting the results of this study that a discussion can begin to address the challenge of maintaining a viable MSIS curriculum that meets the current and future demands of the business communit

Software architectures: Blueprint, Literature, Language or Decision

Abstract This study questions the traditional view of software architecture as a specification that needs only be understood by software architects and engineers. Based on an intensive study of three software-producing organizations, we identify multiple metaphors ('Blueprint,' 'Literature,' 'Language' and 'Decision') that stakeholders use to understand the term software architecture, which in turn, allows them to effectively participate in its creation and use. Our results point to new research directions that may better encompass a broader view of software architecture

Problèmes de santé des écosystèmes logiciels ouverts : une étude exploratoire auprès d'experts de la pratique

Aujourd’hui, les logiciels libres ou open source sont de plus en plus utilisés et peuvent servir dans certains cas de base de développement de logiciels « non libres » ou propriétaires. Le noyau Linux est utilisé par exemple pour aider dans le développement de plusieurs plateformes et logiciels comme Windows et iOS. Le succès des logiciels open source émane du fait que, contrairement aux logiciels propriétaires, les logiciels open source sont développés dans des projets qui s’appuient sur des communautés. Les projets et leurs communautés sont compris dans des environnements plus larges appelés écosystème logiciel ouvert (ECLOO). Toutefois, ces ECLOOs font face à de nombreuses difficultés pouvant nuire à leur santé ou leur bonne marche. Le projet SECOHealth a été initié dans le but de comprendre la santé des écosystèmes logiciels afin de proposer des catalogues de lignes directrices et des outils de recommandation pour pouvoir mesurer et contrôler cette santé. La recherche décrite dans ce document est une partie du projet SECOHealth. Cette recherche a pour objectif de mieux appréhender la santé des ECLOOs pour pouvoir mesurer et contrôler cette santé. Pour ce faire, nous répondrons aux trois questions de recherche suivantes : 1. Quels sont les principaux problèmes auxquels font face les ECLOOs? 2. Quelles sont les principales causes de ces problèmes? 3. Quels sont les principaux impacts de ces problèmes? Pour répondre à ces questions, nous avons mené des entrevues individuelles auprès de dix experts évoluant dans les ECLOOs. L’analyse des données recueillies nous a permis de construire les diagrammes d’analyse causale sur la base de chaque entrevue, ainsi que les chaînes causales des principaux problèmes observés. Les résultats montrent que les principaux problèmes de santé observés, leurs causes et impacts relèvent aussi bien du domaine technique que de domaines non-techniques tel la gestion.Nowadays, open source software are increasingly used and can become in some cases the basis to develop commercial or proprietary software. For example, the Linux kernel is used in developing several platforms and software like Windows and iOS. The success of open source software stems from the fact that, unlike proprietary software, open source software are developed in projects that rely on communities. Projects and their communities are included in broader environments called open source software ecosystems (OSSECOs). However, these OSSECOs face many difficulties that can affect their health or their proper functioning. The SECOHealth project was initiated with the aim of understanding the health of software ecosystems in order to propose catalogs of guidelines and recommendation tools for measuring and controlling this health. The research described in this document is part of the SECOHealth project. This research aims to better understand the health of open software ecosystems in order to be able to measure and control it. To do this, we will answer the following three research questions: 1. What are the main problems facing OSSECOs? 2. What are the main causes of these problems? 3. What are the main impacts of these problems? To answer these questions, we conducted one-on-one interviews with ten experts in OSSECOs. Analysis of the data collected allowed us to construct the causal analysis diagrams and the causal chains of the main problems observed. The results show that the main health problems, their causes and their impacts fall within the technical domain as well as non-technical domains such as the management