Web information systems: A study of maintenance, change and flexibility

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Information Systems (IS’s) have provided organisations with huge efficiency gains and benefits over the years; however an outstanding problem that is yet to be successfully tackled is that of the troublesome maintenance phase. Consuming vast resources and thwarting business progression in a competitive global market place, system maintenance has been recognised as one of the key areas where IS is failing organisations. Organisations are too often faced with the dilemma of either replacement or the continual upkeep of an unwieldy system. The ability for IS’s to be able to adapt to exogenous influences is even more acute today than at any time in the past. This is due to IS’s namely, Web Information Systems (WIS’s) increasingly and continually having to accommodate the needs of organisations to interconnect with a plethora of additional systems as well as supporting evolving business models. The richness of the interconnectivity, functionalities and services WIS’s now offer are shaping social, cultural and economic behaviour on a truly global scale, making the maintenance of such systems and evermore pertinent issue. The growth and proliferation of WIS’s shows no sign of abating which leads to the conclusion that what some have termed as the ‘maintenance iceberg’ should not be ignored. The quandary that commercial organisations face is typically driven by two key aspects; firstly, systems are built on the cultural premise of using fixed requirements, with not enough thought or attention being paid to systems abilities to deviate from these requirements. Secondly, systems do not generally cope well with adapting to unpredictable change arising from outside of the organisations environment. Over the recent past, different paradigms, approaches and methods have attempted to make software development more predictable, controllable and adaptable, however, the benefits of such measures in relation to the maintenance dilemma have been limited. The concept of flexible systems that are able to cope with such change in an efficient manner is currently an objective that few can claim to have realised successfully. The primary focus of the thesis was to examine WIS post-development change in order to empirically substantiate and understand the nature of the maintenance phase. This was done with the intention to determine exactly ‘where’ and ‘how’ flexibility could be targeted to address these changes. This study uses an emergent analytical approach to identify and catalogue the nature of change occurring within WIS maintenance. However, the research framework design underwent a significant revision as the initial results indicated that a greater emphasis and refocus was required to achieve the research objective. To study WIS’s in an appropriate and detailed context, a single case study was conducted in a web development software house. In total the case study approach was used to collect empirical evidence from four projects that investigated post-development change requests in order to identify areas of the system susceptible to change. The maintenance phases of three WIS projects were considered in-depth, resulting in the collection of over four hundred change requests. The fourth project served as a validation case. The results are presented and the findings are used to identify key trends and characteristics that depict WIS maintenance change. The analytical information derived from the change requests is consolidated and shown diagrammatically for the key areas of change using profile models developed in this thesis. Based on the results, the thesis concludes and contributes to the ongoing debate that there is a discernable difference when considering WIS maintenance change compared to that of traditional IS maintenance. The detailed characteristics displayed in the profile models are then used to map specific flexibility criteria that ultimately are required to facilitate change. This is achieved using the Flexibility Matrix of Change (FMoC) tool which was developed within the remit of this research. This tool is a qualitative measurement scheme that aligns WIS maintenance changes to a reciprocal flexibility attribute. Thus, the wider aim of this thesis is to also expand the awareness of flexibility and its importance as a key component of the WIS lifecycle

Rad ne sadrži naslov na drugom jeziku.

In recent years, several national and European strategic documents have recognized the need for closer cooperation among education, businesses and other stakeholders in order to ensure better graduate employability. In this context, it is important to consider not only the quality of study programmes, but also an integrated system for providing support to students within higher education institutions (HEIs). The main goal of this research was to explore how different elements of student support systems are currently organized at European universities and to develop a strategic framework for supporting higher education graduates’ early careers within HEIs, as well as to propose a maturity model focused on study programmes in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT). The research was carried out in several steps involving predominantly qualitative and, to a lesser extent, quantitative research methods, following a five-step methodology for maturity model development based on the design science research paradigm. The final scientific contribution of this thesis is a comprehensive and reliable maturity model for supporting graduates’ early careers within HEIs, based on the strategic framework which fulfils the requirements for both relevance and rigor in design science research. This final maturity model was tested at four HEIs in Croatia and demonstrates significant social contributions in the form of guidelines and recommendations for enhancing the maturity of the HEIs in Croatia for study programmes in the field of ICT. In a broad sense, the results of this research affect relevant stakeholders, including students, alumni, employers and HEIs, which can use the research results not only as tools for the problem-solving of issues related to graduates’ employment, but also as guidelines for creating stimulating policies on the individual, institutional and national levels.Posljednjih godina nekoliko europskih i nacionalnih strateških dokumenata ističe potrebu za boljim povezivanjem obrazovnog sustava s gospodarskim sektorom i ostalim interesnim dionicima, kako bi se osigurala bolja zapošljivost diplomanata. U tom kontekstu važno je uzeti u obzir, ne samo kvalitetu studijskih programa, već cjelokupan integrirani sustav pružanja podrške studentima u okviru visokih učilišta (VU). Glavni cilj ovog istraživanja bio je istražiti način na koji su različiti elementi sustava pružanja podrške studentima u ranom razvoju karijera organizirani na europskim sveučilištima te razviti strateški okvir za pružanje podrške diplomantima u ranom razvoju karijera u okviru VU, uz prijedlog pripadajućeg model zrelosti usmjerenog na studijske programe u području informacijsko-komunikacijskih tehnologija (IKT). Istraživanje je provedeno kroz nekoliko koraka koji uključuju prvenstveno kvalitativne istraživačke metode te u manjoj mjeri kvantitativne metode, a slijede metodologiju za izgradnju modela zrelosti u pet koraka temeljenu na principima istraživačke paradigme znanosti o dizajniranju. Konačan znanstveni doprinos ove disertacije je sveobuhvatan i pouzdan model zrelosti za pružanje podrške diplomantima u ranom razvoju karijera u okviru VU temeljen na strateškom okviru koji zadovoljava zahtjeve relevantnosti i rigoroznosti znanosti o dizajniranju. Konačan model zrelosti testiran na četiri VU u Republici Hrvatskoj (RH) te pokazuje značajan društveni doprinos u obliku smjernica i preporuka za povećanje razine zrelosti VU u RH, za studijske programe u području IKT-a. U širem kontekstu ovo istraživanje ima utjecaj na relevantne dionike, uključujući studente, alumnije, poslodavce i VU koji mogu koristiti rezultate istraživanja kao alat za djelomično rješavanje problema zapošljivosti diplomanata, ali također i kao smjernice za kreiranje poticajnih politika na individualnoj, institucionalnoj i nacionalnoj razini

Urban Informatics

This open access book is the first to systematically introduce the principles of urban informatics and its application to every aspect of the city that involves its functioning, control, management, and future planning. It introduces new models and tools being developed to understand and implement these technologies that enable cities to function more efficiently – to become ‘smart’ and ‘sustainable’. The smart city has quickly emerged as computers have become ever smaller to the point where they can be embedded into the very fabric of the city, as well as being central to new ways in which the population can communicate and act. When cities are wired in this way, they have the potential to become sentient and responsive, generating massive streams of ‘big’ data in real time as well as providing immense opportunities for extracting new forms of urban data through crowdsourcing. This book offers a comprehensive review of the methods that form the core of urban informatics from various kinds of urban remote sensing to new approaches to machine learning and statistical modelling. It provides a detailed technical introduction to the wide array of tools information scientists need to develop the key urban analytics that are fundamental to learning about the smart city, and it outlines ways in which these tools can be used to inform design and policy so that cities can become more efficient with a greater concern for environment and equity

Web information systems : a study of maintenance, change and flexibility

Information Systems (IS’s) have provided organisations with huge efficiency gains and benefits over the years; however an outstanding problem that is yet to be successfully tackled is that of the troublesome maintenance phase. Consuming vast resources and thwarting business progression in a competitive global market place, system maintenance has been recognised as one of the key areas where IS is failing organisations. Organisations are too often faced with the dilemma of either replacement or the continual upkeep of an unwieldy system. The ability for IS’s to be able to adapt to exogenous influences is even more acute today than at any time in the past. This is due to IS’s namely, Web Information Systems (WIS’s) increasingly and continually having to accommodate the needs of organisations to interconnect with a plethora of additional systems as well as supporting evolving business models. The richness of the interconnectivity, functionalities and services WIS’s now offer are shaping social, cultural and economic behaviour on a truly global scale, making the maintenance of such systems and evermore pertinent issue. The growth and proliferation of WIS’s shows no sign of abating which leads to the conclusion that what some have termed as the ‘maintenance iceberg’ should not be ignored. The quandary that commercial organisations face is typically driven by two key aspects; firstly, systems are built on the cultural premise of using fixed requirements, with not enough thought or attention being paid to systems abilities to deviate from these requirements. Secondly, systems do not generally cope well with adapting to unpredictable change arising from outside of the organisations environment. Over the recent past, different paradigms, approaches and methods have attempted to make software development more predictable, controllable and adaptable, however, the benefits of such measures in relation to the maintenance dilemma have been limited. The concept of flexible systems that are able to cope with such change in an efficient manner is currently an objective that few can claim to have realised successfully. The primary focus of the thesis was to examine WIS post-development change in order to empirically substantiate and understand the nature of the maintenance phase. This was done with the intention to determine exactly ‘where’ and ‘how’ flexibility could be targeted to address these changes. This study uses an emergent analytical approach to identify and catalogue the nature of change occurring within WIS maintenance. However, the research framework design underwent a significant revision as the initial results indicated that a greater emphasis and refocus was required to achieve the research objective. To study WIS’s in an appropriate and detailed context, a single case study was conducted in a web development software house. In total the case study approach was used to collect empirical evidence from four projects that investigated post-development change requests in order to identify areas of the system susceptible to change. The maintenance phases of three WIS projects were considered in-depth, resulting in the collection of over four hundred change requests. The fourth project served as a validation case. The results are presented and the findings are used to identify key trends and characteristics that depict WIS maintenance change. The analytical information derived from the change requests is consolidated and shown diagrammatically for the key areas of change using profile models developed in this thesis. Based on the results, the thesis concludes and contributes to the ongoing debate that there is a discernable difference when considering WIS maintenance change compared to that of traditional IS maintenance. The detailed characteristics displayed in the profile models are then used to map specific flexibility criteria that ultimately are required to facilitate change. This is achieved using the Flexibility Matrix of Change (FMoC) tool which was developed within the remit of this research. This tool is a qualitative measurement scheme that aligns WIS maintenance changes to a reciprocal flexibility attribute. Thus, the wider aim of this thesis is to also expand the awareness of flexibility and its importance as a key component of the WIS lifecycle.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Urban Informatics

This open access book is the first to systematically introduce the principles of urban informatics and its application to every aspect of the city that involves its functioning, control, management, and future planning. It introduces new models and tools being developed to understand and implement these technologies that enable cities to function more efficiently – to become ‘smart’ and ‘sustainable’. The smart city has quickly emerged as computers have become ever smaller to the point where they can be embedded into the very fabric of the city, as well as being central to new ways in which the population can communicate and act. When cities are wired in this way, they have the potential to become sentient and responsive, generating massive streams of ‘big’ data in real time as well as providing immense opportunities for extracting new forms of urban data through crowdsourcing. This book offers a comprehensive review of the methods that form the core of urban informatics from various kinds of urban remote sensing to new approaches to machine learning and statistical modelling. It provides a detailed technical introduction to the wide array of tools information scientists need to develop the key urban analytics that are fundamental to learning about the smart city, and it outlines ways in which these tools can be used to inform design and policy so that cities can become more efficient with a greater concern for environment and equity

Digital marketing, elements of the public sector competition value chain in Barranquilla, (Colombia)

La organización en la actualidad están obligadas a generar mayores beneficios a sus consumidores para lograr mayor posicionamiento en el mercado, eso depende del manejo de factores de competitividad internos y externos que predominan en las organizaciones medianas en el sector de la publicidad digital en Barranquilla. El objetivo de esta investigación fue describir el marketing digital del sector publicitario. La investigación es descriptiva con diseño no experimental y transversal. La muestra estuvo conformada por 15 empresas, cumpliendo los criterios: Empresa mediana, con departamento de Marketing digital, domiciliada en Barranquilla. Los resultados fueron descripción el marketing digital del sector publicitario, de acuerdo a los factores internos y externos en estas empresas presentan donde existe una consistencia moderada en la dinámica de respuesta de la empresa ante factores externos y viceversa. Se concluyó que las empresas de este sector requieren de estrategias que promuevan el desarrollo de los indicadores internos de competitividad que respondan a los factores cambiantes externo.The organization is currently forced to generate greater benefits to its consumers to achieve greater market positioning, that depends on the management of internal and external competitiveness factors that predominates in medium-sized organizations in the digital advertising sector in Barranquilla. The objective of this research was to describe the digital marketing of the advertising sector. The research is descriptive with non-experimental and transversal design. The sample was composed by 15 companies, fulfilling the criteria: Medium company, with department of Digital Marketing, placed in Barranquilla. The results were a description digital marketing of the advertising sector, according of the internal and external factors in these companies present where there is a moderate consistency in the dynamics of the company’s response to external factors and vice versa. It was concluded that companies in this sector have difficulties in strategies that promote the development of internal competitiveness indicators that respond to changing external factors