GTTA3: An Extension of the General Theory of Technology Adoption

The value perspective to technology adoption has many advantages. They include identifying user benefits beyond perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment and user costs beyond effort expectancy (inverse of ease of use). However, although traditionally benefits and sacrifices (costs) are considered to be the two dimensions of value, we suggest that a third dimension of user needs is missing in these conceptualizations. The value perception of users depends not only on the benefits provided versus costs incurred but also on the needs profile of the users. This tripartite conceptual of value is useful in providing deeper insights into technology adoption

What more can software development learn from Agile manufacturing? A roadmap on the 20th anniversary of the Agile manifesto

The concept of agility originated in manufacturing and was later adopted by the software development discipline. In this article we argue that in the process some important aspects of the agility theory have been either ignored or misinterpreted. A historical review of the evolving paradigms and practices in software development and manufacturing on the 20th anniversary of the Agile Manifesto (2001) suggests that if the ideas and principles underlying agility are faithfully implemented it would lead to significant improvement in the software development process

Insights into the Importance-Performance Paradox of Software Product Attributes

The importance-performance analysis (IPA) is widely used for identifying which quality attributes should be improved for maximizing user satisfaction. The two dimensional grid of IPA are based on user-perceived attribute importance and performance. If the user-perceived attribute importance is high but its performance low then enhancing the performance of this attribute is likely to result in higher user satisfaction. But some studies have found that user importance may depend on attribute performance. This confounds the IPA analysis. Yet there is no study which has investigated whether this phenomenon is applicable for IS (Information Systems) products. This study conducted with an ERP system users show that user importance of an attribute is indeed dependent on its performance. For some attributes users overestimate their importance when the performance is low and underestimate them when the performance is high while for others the reverse is the case. Implications of this phenomenon for practice are discussed

Have the Agile Values endured? An empirical investigation on the 20th anniversary of the Agile Manifesto (2001)

This study investigates whether the Agile Values introduced in the Agile Manifesto (2001) have endured today two decades later and whether they are still relevant to software developers. Further, are they positively correlated with work and affective outcomes of software development projects? We find out by conducting a survey with team members of 58 software development project in one of the largest global IT firms. To our surprise we find all the four Agile values have endured. The agile values still resonated with software developers. Additionally, overall, the values were positively correlated with team motivation, project effectiveness and project innovation. However, they were negative correlated with project efficiency and had no correlation with work exhaustion of team members. As expected, projects using Agile and plan-driven methodologies showed differential findings

What is the Psychological Needs Profile of Users of Facebook?

Extant Information Systems literature has demonstrated that there are 3 types of software products – Utilitarian, Hedonic and Social. A stream of motivation literature has also shown that there are three salient human psychological needs – the need for autonomy, competence and relationship. In this study we suggest that the user preference for a particular type of software product will vary with the psychological need profile of the user. To test this proposition, we conducted a study with actual users of three types of software products identified in literature – Google Keep (utilitarian), Critical Ops (hedonic) and Facebook (social). The findings of the study confirm that users driven by predominant need for competence preferred utilitarian software products while those driven by need for autonomy preferred hedonic software products and those driven by the need for relationship preferred social software products. These findings highlight the relevance of software product/ projects managers considering users’ psychological needs while developing/ upgrading software to maximize usage of their software products

A Brief History of Software Development and Manufacturing

In this article we discover the roots and maturation of software development methods and practices through a comparative study. We notice that the evolution of software development methods has mirrored the evolution in manufacturing paradigms. Further, investigations reveal that the change software development methods have lagged the change in manufacturing paradigms indicating the source of inspiration for software development and practices is manufacturing and not the other way around. This investigation is useful and timely, especially in the context of plan-driven versus agile methods conundrum. It helps us acquire an in-depth understanding of how software development methods originated, why some of them have prevailed while others have not. Further, these insights help us assess the relevance of current practices and methods of software development and predict their future trajectory

A Theory of Agile Software Development

The Agile Software Development Method (ASDM), in its present form, is guided by the Agile manifesto which consists of an Agile philosophy and a set of 12 principles. Despite the apparent effect of Agile philosophy and principles on the practice of software development around the world, neither its theoretical contribution nor its theoretical base has yet been articulated. In response to calls in literature, in this study we propose and articulate a theory of ASDM to describe and explain its effects. The theory is based on a synthesis of the key concepts underlying Agile principles and is expressed as a model of relationships. The article describes the theory formulation process and elaborates its key propositions. The limitations of the proposed theory and areas of future research are discussed

How Do Users Choose Between Technologies? Insights from a User Value Perspective

TAM (Technology Acceptance Model) is concerned with why workers reject or accept technological tools that have been provided to support the work they are doing. TAM assumes the worker does not get a choice in the tools they use. Their only choice is to use or not use the tool. However, in today’s changing work environment employees often use different technologies to accomplish the same work. In this context, we examine how users choose the tools they use at the workplace. A correct understanding of this will not only enable organizations deploying these technologies to influence the choice of tools they want their employees to use at the workplace but will also help providers of these technological tools to design them for maximum adoption among users

What more can Software Development learn from Agile Manufacturing? Some pointers on the 20th anniversary of the Agile Manifesto

The concept of agility originated in manufacturing and was later adopted by the software development discipline. In this article we argue that in the process some important aspects of the agility theory have been either ignored or misinterpreted. A historical review of the evolving paradigms and practices in software development and manufacturing on the 20th anniversary of the Agile Manifesto (2001) suggests that if the ideas and principles underlying agility are faithfully implemented it would lead to significant improvement in the software development process

How Do Individual Social Agile Practices Influence the Development Success? An Exploratory Study

Although agile software development (ASD) is widespread, thecontributions of individual agile practices to development success are still largelyunclear. In this paper, we explore the hidden cause-effect relationships betweenthe application of social agile practices, the realization of social agile principles,and the resulting contribution(s) to ASD success. To capture ASD success, weconsider both the effects on developer acceptance and economic business values.Based on an initial ASD success model and data from a survey of 197 developers,we found that social agile practices such as reflection, business IT alignment, andself-organization seem to particularly promote ASD success. We also foundindications that the realization of these principles is primarily driven by practicessuch as retrospective meetings and shared leadership, whereas prominentpractices like daily meetings and pair programming seem to have no effect. Ourresults thus call for reassessment of agile practices and their use in practice