382,404 research outputs found
Towards a theory of conceptual design for software
Concepts are the building blocks of software systems. They are not just subjective mental constructs, but are objective features of a system's design: increments of functionality that were consciously introduced by a designer to serve particular purposes. This essay argues for viewing the design of software in terms of concepts, with their invention (or adoption) and refinement as the central activity of software design. A family of products can be characterized by arranging concepts in a dependence graph from which coherent concept subsets can be extracted. Just as bugs can be found in the code of a function prior to testing by reviewing the programmer's argument for its correctness, so flaws can be found in a software design by reviewing an argument by the designer. This argument consists of providing, for each concept, a single compelling purpose, and demonstrating how the concept fulfills the purpose with an archetypal scenario called an 'operational principle'. Some simple conditions (primarily in the relationship between concepts and their purposes) can then be applied to reveal flaws in the conceptual design.SUTD-MIT International Design Centre (IDC
Inciting Networks Effects Through Platform Authority: A Design Theory for Service Platforms
The provisioning of software has shifted towards a service model, where applications are hosted, metered, and billed through service platforms rather than being sold as on-premise software. These services can exhibit network effects, which are self-enforcing effects of value generation. They describe the interdependency of service or platform value, service consumption, and third party service provisioning. Service platforms need to be designed to incite these network effects. We propose a design theory which is based on the operator’s platform authority as the key factor for controlling and influencing stakeholders in and around the service platform in different control modes. As a design method, we propose a conceptual modeling language which supports service platform design with staged areas of authority, process flows as well as control methods. We present the rationale behind the language, discuss its application, and propose testable hypotheses for an empirical evaluation
Sports Business and Multisided Markets: Towards a New Analytical Framework? (Long Version)
Despite still being younger than a decade, the theory of multisided markets has offered numerous valuable insights for the analysis of industries in which a supplier serves two distinct customer groups that are indirectly interrelated through externalities. Examples include payment systems, matching agencies, commercial media, and software platforms. However, professional sports mar-kets have largely been neglected so far in this kind of research although they possess the characteristics of multisided markets. This conceptual paper con-tributes to filling this gap by describing the platform elements of professional suppliers of sports events and conceptually outlining issues where an applica-tion of this theoretical framework is likely to provide valuable insights and to add to the existing knowledge. Among these problems are integrative pricing strategies of sports clubs towards such different customer groups like attendees, broadcasters, sponsors, etc., including their welfare and antitrust implications, design decisions of sports associations in order to promote positive feedback loops among the customer groups as well as management strategies to reinforce positive externalities among customer groups and alleviate negative ones. The authors would like to thank Anna Lund Jepsen and Nadine Lindstädt for valuable comments on earlier versions of this paper as well as Barbara Güldenring and Liz Patti for editorial assistance. A substantially shorter version of this paper will be published in Sports, Business, Management: An International Journal in 2011.sports economics, sports management, two-sided markets, multisided platforms, professional sports business, pricing strategies, broadcasting rights
Towards a Theory of Software Development Expertise
Software development includes diverse tasks such as implementing new
features, analyzing requirements, and fixing bugs. Being an expert in those
tasks requires a certain set of skills, knowledge, and experience. Several
studies investigated individual aspects of software development expertise, but
what is missing is a comprehensive theory. We present a first conceptual theory
of software development expertise that is grounded in data from a mixed-methods
survey with 335 software developers and in literature on expertise and expert
performance. Our theory currently focuses on programming, but already provides
valuable insights for researchers, developers, and employers. The theory
describes important properties of software development expertise and which
factors foster or hinder its formation, including how developers' performance
may decline over time. Moreover, our quantitative results show that developers'
expertise self-assessments are context-dependent and that experience is not
necessarily related to expertise.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, 26th ACM Joint European Software Engineering
Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE
2018), ACM, 201
Online help-seeking in communities of practice
Interactive online help systems are considered to be a fruitful supplement to traditional IT helpdesks, which are often overloaded. They often comprise user-generated FAQ collections playing the role of technology-based conceptual artifacts. Two main questions arise: how the conceptual artifacts should be used, and which factors influence their acceptance in a community of practice (CoP). Firstly, this paper offers a theoretical frame and a usage scenario for technology-based conceptual artifacts against the theoretical background of the academic help-seeking and CoP approach. Each of the two approaches is extensively covered by psychological and educational research literature, however their combination is not yet sufficiently investigated. Secondly, the paper proposes a research model explaining the acceptance of conceptual artifacts. The model includes users’ expectations towards the artifact, perceived social influence and users’ roles in the CoP as predictors of artifact use intention and actual usage. A correlational study conducted in an academic software users’ CoP and involving structural equations modeling validates the model, suggesting thus a research line that is worth further pursuing. For educational practice, the study suggests three ways of supporting knowledge sharing in CoPs, i.e. use of technology-based conceptual artifacts, roles and division of labor, and purposeful communication in CoPs
Deferred Action: Theoretical model of process architecture design for emergent business processes
E-Business modelling and ebusiness systems development assumes fixed company resources,
structures, and business processes. Empirical and theoretical evidence suggests that company resources
and structures are emergent rather than fixed. Planning business activity in emergent contexts requires
flexible ebusiness models based on better management theories and models . This paper builds and
proposes a theoretical model of ebusiness systems capable of catering for emergent factors that affect
business processes. Drawing on development of theories of the ‘action and design’class the Theory of
Deferred Action is invoked as the base theory for the theoretical model. A theoretical model of flexible
process architecture is presented by identifying its core components and their relationships, and then
illustrated with exemplar flexible process architectures capable of responding to emergent factors.
Managerial implications of the model are considered and the model’s generic applicability is discussed
Mediating Cognitive Transformation with VR 3D Sketching during Conceptual Architectural Design Process
Communications for information synchronization during the conceptual design phase require designers to employ more intuitive digital design tools. This paper presents findings of a feasibility study for using VR 3D sketching interface in order to replace current non-intuitive CAD tools. We used a sequential mixed method research methodology including a qualitative case study and a cognitive-based quantitative protocol analysis experiment. Foremost, the case study research was conducted in order to understand how novice designers make intuitive decisions. The case study documented the failure of conventional sketching methods in articulating complicated design ideas and shortcomings of current CAD tools in intuitive ideation. The case study’s findings then became the theoretical foundations for testing the feasibility of using VR 3D sketching interface during design. The latter phase of study evaluated the designers’ spatial cognition and collaboration at six different levels: “physical-actions”, “perceptualac ons”, “functional-actions”, “conceptual-actions”, “cognitive synchronizations”, and “gestures”. The results and confirmed hypotheses showed that the utilized tangible 3D sketching interface improved novice designers’ cognitive and collaborative design activities. In summary this paper presents the influences of current external representation tools on designers’ cognition and collaboration as well as providing the necessary theoretical foundations for implementing VR 3D sketching interface. It contributes towards transforming conceptual architectural design phase from analogue to digital by proposing a new VR design interface. The paper proposes this transformation to fill in the existing gap between analogue conceptual architectural design process and remaining digital engineering parts of building design process hence expediting digital design process
Information Technology Platforms: Definition and Research Directions
The concept of an information technology (IT) related platform is broad and
covers phenomena ranging from the operating system Linux to the Internet. Such
platforms are of increasing importance to innovation and value creation across
many facets of industry and daily life. There is, however, a lack of common
understanding in both research and industry about what is mean by the term
platform when related to IT. This lack of consensus is detrimental to research
and knowledge development. Thus, the aims of this study are to: (i) provide a
sound definition of the IT-platform concept by identifying its distinguishing
dimensions; and (ii) identify important current research directions for the
IT-platform concept. To achieve these aims a systematic literature review was
undertaken with 133 relevant articles taken from major information systems
journals, conferences, and business publications. The study contributes by
providing a sound base for future research into IT-platforms.Comment: Research-in-progress ISBN# 978-0-646-95337-3 Presented at the
Australasian Conference on Information Systems 2015 (arXiv:1605.01032
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