317,819 research outputs found
Risky business: when a CRM vendor masqueraded as an ERP specialist
Taking a social shaping perspective we unpack the development trajectory of a packaged software
product to show, that contrary to mainstream accounts, design is not completely specified a-priori and
that the process continues throughout implementation, and use. We show how developers, in this case
third party vendors, can continue to engage in shaping packages during implementation and also how
users contribute to the development effort. In particular, we illustrate how a customer relationship
management package application targeted at a particular organisational function was configured to
make an enterprise wide system and the key role of the vendor in this effort. To do this we refer to a 3-
year qualitative field study of an expanding United Kingdom based consultancy company undergoing
extreme ICT related change. This empirical research is used to explore an often ignored phenomenon,
that of the role of vendors in appropriating ICTs and the potential risks they bring. Through this, we
highlight the plight and responsibilities of low-level organisational actors in this process in
cognisance of the fact they usually have a minor role in ICT selection but become a major player in
dealing with vendors at the implementation stage when the devil is truly in the detail. The risks we
identify relate to: vendor sales pitches of products as specifically related to their capabilities and the
products they put forward; the calling upon of organisational resources by vendors; vendor
knowledge of the application are and the actual ‘social’, ‘technical’ and ‘organisational’ capabilities
of vendors to deliver a working product. We also point to the risks managers in vendor and consumer
organisations create by placing their staff in difficult conditions within appropriation processes. The
implications of our work centre on the need for further research related to: vendor/developer risks of
packaged software, custom and open source projects; notions of professionalism and ethics in the
software industry and project working conditions
Rationale Management Challenges in Requirements Engineering
Rationale and rationale management have been playing an increasingly prominent role in software system development mainly due to the knowledge demand during system evaluation, maintenance, and evolution, especially for large and complex systems. The rationale management for requirements engineering, as a commencing and critical phase in software development life cycle, is still under-exploited. In this paper, we first survey briefly the state-of-the-art on rationale employment and applications in requirements engineering. Secondly, we identify the challenges in integrating rationale management in requirements engineering activities in order to promote further investigations and define a research agenda on rationale management in requirements engineering.
Administrative Management Capacity in Out-of-School Time Organizations: An Exploratory Study
Based on interviews with sixteen high-quality out-of-school time (OST) program providers, identifies the managerial and administrative needs of OST nonprofits such as financial and human resources management and information technology. Suggests solutions
Mapping Big Data into Knowledge Space with Cognitive Cyber-Infrastructure
Big data research has attracted great attention in science, technology,
industry and society. It is developing with the evolving scientific paradigm,
the fourth industrial revolution, and the transformational innovation of
technologies. However, its nature and fundamental challenge have not been
recognized, and its own methodology has not been formed. This paper explores
and answers the following questions: What is big data? What are the basic
methods for representing, managing and analyzing big data? What is the
relationship between big data and knowledge? Can we find a mapping from big
data into knowledge space? What kind of infrastructure is required to support
not only big data management and analysis but also knowledge discovery, sharing
and management? What is the relationship between big data and science paradigm?
What is the nature and fundamental challenge of big data computing? A
multi-dimensional perspective is presented toward a methodology of big data
computing.Comment: 59 page
Boundary Objects and their Use in Agile Systems Engineering
Agile methods are increasingly introduced in automotive companies in the
attempt to become more efficient and flexible in the system development. The
adoption of agile practices influences communication between stakeholders, but
also makes companies rethink the management of artifacts and documentation like
requirements, safety compliance documents, and architecture models.
Practitioners aim to reduce irrelevant documentation, but face a lack of
guidance to determine what artifacts are needed and how they should be managed.
This paper presents artifacts, challenges, guidelines, and practices for the
continuous management of systems engineering artifacts in automotive based on a
theoretical and empirical understanding of the topic. In collaboration with 53
practitioners from six automotive companies, we conducted a design-science
study involving interviews, a questionnaire, focus groups, and practical data
analysis of a systems engineering tool. The guidelines suggest the distinction
between artifacts that are shared among different actors in a company (boundary
objects) and those that are used within a team (locally relevant artifacts). We
propose an analysis approach to identify boundary objects and three practices
to manage systems engineering artifacts in industry
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Framing purposeful evaluation through critical systems thinking
Two traditions of practice – evaluation and systems – share three significant concerns regarding development intervention: (i) making sense of complex interrelationships and the continual change brought about by such relationships; (ii) engaging with multiple (including exogenous and endogenous), often conflicting, perspectives on situations; and (iii) challenging vicious cycles of practice and understanding by cultivating a more radical learning culture. These challenges might be described successively in terms of cultivating a shift from (i) summative to formative evaluation (ii) positional bargaining to interest based negotiation, and (iii) purposive to purposeful action. Some ideas from traditions of social learning and critical systems thinking are presented to support a re-framing of intervention and evaluation from one serving the 'project state' towards one serving more radical transformative practice
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Web 2.0 and knowledge management for local government in England – A model for the public sector?
PURPOSE
Delivering success in the public and private sector requires staff to have access to the best knowledge possible about how to do their jobs well so a major challenge for employers is how to ensure their staff are making decisions based on the latest knowledge of best practice.
21st century professionals and policy makers are increasingly being required to demonstrate that their practice and decision making is evidence based.
This paper examines a new public sector knowledge management initiative across local government in England and Wales which aims to improve knowledge sharing across local government.
In response to a number of drivers for improvement, the Improvement and development Agency for local government in England (IDeA) has harnessed web 2.0 tools to support knowledge creation and sharing, and just in time learning to create a professional networking online environment - a ‘Facebook’ type environment for local government. The result is an pnline Communities of Practice for local government initiative .
DESIGN
This initiative was launched across local government in England and Wales in January 2008 and an arrangement with the local government improvement services in Scotland provides similar access to local government officers there. At the time of writing the initiative has over 30,000 members in over 700 online communities with new members joining every day.
The knowledge management strategy discussed in this paper was developed following a review of knowledge management literature and an analysis of the specific needs of the local government sector by the Improvement and Development Agency for local government in England. The data reported come from a number of sources including web statistics which are collected automatically and interviews carried out to identify ways in which the initiative is having impact.
RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS
The impact of knowledge management initiatives can be hard to quantify but the paper outlines some proxy measures which give some indication of the value for money of this knowledge management strategy.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
The argument is made that online communities of practice can very quickly provide advantages and significant cost benefits to the public sector in spite of the limitations of the software and the fact that working practices will take many years to change.
It is argued that the approach set out in this article provides a model for other public sector organisations.
ORIGINALITY/VALUE
Knowledge transfer and research impact are areas in England of concern to both government and academics who in the REF 2013 will be judged on the impact of their research
This online communities of practice initiative is a new way of knowledge sharing and working across a whole public sector. It has the potential to revolutionise the ways professionals learn and carry on learning as well as the relationships between academics and potential users of research However, the establishing and managing of such an initiative requires national leadership on behalf of a sector
Designing for e-Social Action An Application Taxonomy
In this paper, we present a taxonomy for understanding designs and designing of Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) in the field of ‘Social Action’. We use the term ‘Social Action’ to refer to activities of individuals and organisations in civil society, which are oriented towards social (rather than primarily economic) goals. We then apply the term e-Social Action to refer to the application of ICT in these activities. This definition incorporates a wide range of initiatives, varying from: trade-unions logging safety inspections on ships, Age Concern York organising volunteers to place on-line supermarket orders on behalf of housebound elderly people; the International Red Cross using logistics software to deliver emergency aid; and Martus.org providing technology to enable victims of human-rights abuse to report their experience whilst protecting their anonymity and thus avoiding reprisals.
To study designing in this broad space, it is necessary to understand key dimensions of the settings where designing takes place. The aim of this paper is to examine how information and communication technologies in social action can be understood, classified and distinguished, to allow for more refined explorations of designing in this space.
Keywords:
e-SocialAction, Taxonomy, design and society</p
MORPH: A Reference Architecture for Configuration and Behaviour Self-Adaptation
An architectural approach to self-adaptive systems involves runtime change of
system configuration (i.e., the system's components, their bindings and
operational parameters) and behaviour update (i.e., component orchestration).
Thus, dynamic reconfiguration and discrete event control theory are at the
heart of architectural adaptation. Although controlling configuration and
behaviour at runtime has been discussed and applied to architectural
adaptation, architectures for self-adaptive systems often compound these two
aspects reducing the potential for adaptability. In this paper we propose a
reference architecture that allows for coordinated yet transparent and
independent adaptation of system configuration and behaviour
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