eCustoms Case Study: Mechanisms behind Co-operation Planning

Members of existing e-commerce trading networks constantly assess their network to identify opportunities for increased co-operation and integration of e-commerce IT systems. Failing to identify the mechanisms involved in co-operation compromises correct investment decisions. In this paper, we use Systems Thinking as a reasoning model that helps decision makers to uncover such mechanisms. We use Systems Thinking to analyse a real-world case called eCustoms, an inter-organisational network of customs organisations. The resulting model explains the mechanism of planning co-operation in terms of a feedback loop that comprises political support, operational potential, and information flow. This mechanism also explains why it is important to select potential partners for closer co-operation as early as possible, the importance of willingness to participate, and the gain or loss of decision power that joining a network implies

Designing Awareness Support for Distributed Cooperative Design Teams

Motivation – Awareness is an integral part of remote collaborative work and has been an important theme within the CSCW research. Our project aims at understanding and mediating non-verbal cues between remote participants involved in a design project. \ud Research approach – Within the AMIDA1 project we focus on distributed ‘cooperative design’ teams. We especially focus on the 'material' signals – signals in which people communicate through material artefacts, locations and their embodied actions. We apply an ethnographic approach to understand the role of physical artefacts in co-located naturalistic design setting. Based on the results we will generate important implications to support remote design work. We plan to develop a mixed-reality interface supported by a shared awareness display. This awareness display will provide information about the activities happening in the design room to remotely located participants.\ud Findings/Design – Our preliminary investigation with real-world design teams suggests that both the materiality of designers’ work settings and their social practices play an important role in understanding these material signals that are at play. \ud Originality/Value – Most research supporting computer mediated communication have focused on either face-to-face or linguistically oriented communication paradigms. Our research focuses on mediating the non-verbal, material cues for supporting collaborative activities without impoverishing what designers do in their day to day working lives.\ud Take away message – An ethnographic approach allows us to understand the naturalistic practices of design teams, which can lead to designing effective technologies to support group work. In that respect, the findings of our research will have a generic value beyond the application domain chosen (design teams).\u

Sustainability Debt: A Metaphor to Support Sustainability Design Decisions

Sustainability, the capacity to endure, is fundamental for the societies on our planet. Despite its increasing recognition in software engineering, it remains difficult to assess the delayed systemic effects of decisions taken in requirements engineering and systems design. To support this difficult task, this paper introduces the concept of sustainability debt. The metaphor helps in the discovery, documentation, and communication of sustainability issues in requirements engineering. We build on the existing metaphor of technical debt and extend it to four other dimensions of sustainability to help think about sustainability-aware software systems engineering. We highlight the meaning of debt in each dimension and the relationships between those dimensions. Finally, we discuss the use of the metaphor and explore how it can help us to design sustainability-aware software intensive systems

Discussion

This research aimed to investigate how architectural firms capture value in the projects in which they are involved, and how architectural firms might be supported in developing strategies for value capture. Section 7.1 provides a summary of the key findings of the research, first with respect to the understanding of architectural firms’ project-based value capture developed in the dissertation (§ 7.1.1) and second in relation to the toolkit for facilitating the development of project-specific value capture strategies (§ 7.1.2). Section 7.2 discusses the significance of the findings for research on organizational value capture, the management of architectural firms and business model design processes, before presenting suggestions on directions for future research. Then, Section 7.3 presents the practical implications of the research for collaborative work in creative projects, and for architectural firms and other firms that are involved in these projects. In Section 7.4, the implications for education are discussed. Finally, I will reflect on the research approach and the relevance of the results in Section 7.5

Buildings and users with visual impairment::uncovering factors for accessibility using BIT-Kit

In this paper, we report on the experiences of visually impaired users in navigating buildings. We focus on an investigation of the way-finding experiences by 10 participants with varying levels of visual ability, as they undertook a way-finding task in an unfamiliar public building. Through applying the BIT-Kit framework in this preliminary user study, we were able to uncover 54 enabling and disabling interactions within the case study building. While this building adhered to building legislation, our findings identified a number of accessibility problems including, issues associated with using doors, hazards caused by building finishes, and difficulty in knowing what to do in the case of an emergency evacuation. This user study has demonstrated a disparity between design guidance and the accessibility needs of building users. It has uncovered evidence to enable architects to begin to design for the real needs of users who have a range of visual impairment. Furthermore, it has instigated discussion of how BIT-Kit's evidence could be incorporated into digital modelling tools currently used in architectural practice

Locally-Sourced Architecture

Architectural projects contribute to economic development through many channels, including the specifying of materials and building systems. As specification systems become more standardized, relying on familiar manufacturers or product lines, architects inadvertently contribute to concentrations of opportunity - and potentially resulting wealth - along established supply chain channels. With increased globalization of product manufacturers and supply chains, those who benefit from this system are frequently distant from the community in which the project resides. This research identifies an interdisciplinary process to help refocus the economic benefits of material choices through repositioning the design professional within the ecosystem of those decisions. This process leverages architectural services to enhance local economies through social and material capital. Developed through a national research consortium connecting academia and architectural practice, the research is led by a HGA Architects & Engineers and the University of Minnesota who teamed to explore these questions beginning in 201S. Preliminary outcomes of the research identified ways architecture projects could embed data-driven processes within an effective economic development strategy, in turn opening possibilities for architects to impart positive change in a project's local economy and improve their agency in the systems of material and social currency that enable local economic growth. Through this research a ‘locally-sourced' design process was developed in which embedding the data of local economic experts within the process of material and systems selections could maximize targeted impact, and architects would be able to track the benefits of these selections for ultimate sustainment. This research not only offers architects an opportunity for expanded architectural services, it also posits an equitable design and construction process with the potential to enhance client relationships, increase supplier partnerships, and benefit local communities

Architectural mismatch tolerance

The integrity of complex software systems built from existing components is becoming more dependent on the integrity of the mechanisms used to interconnect these components and, in particular, on the ability of these mechanisms to cope with architectural mismatches that might exist between components. There is a need to detect and handle (i.e. to tolerate) architectural mismatches during runtime because in the majority of practical situations it is impossible to localize and correct all such mismatches during development time. When developing complex software systems, the problem is not only to identify the appropriate components, but also to make sure that these components are interconnected in a way that allows mismatches to be tolerated. The resulting architectural solution should be a system based on the existing components, which are independent in their nature, but are able to interact in well-understood ways. To find such a solution we apply general principles of fault tolerance to dealing with arch itectural mismatche