Addressing Enrollment Declines Through International Partnerhips

The enrollment declines in information systems (IS) related fields over the past several years has led to research that has examined the causes of it and a variety of possible approaches to reverse this trend. With the recent economic downturn resulting in cuts in education budgets, the need to increase enrollments in IS has become critical for many departments in this field. The objective of this research is to discuss how international partnerships can be utilized as an additional means to improve enrollments, which is an approach that has not been addressed before in the literature. The author illustrates the opportunities possible with international partnerships through a case involving an IS department located in the Southeastern United States and multiple universities in Asia. This research then highlights strategies to establish a successful international partnership followed by some concluding remarks

MINDFUL SOFTWARE IMPLEMENTATIONS: A CASE STUDY OF A UNIVERSITY PORTAL SYSTEM

Despite several high-profile examples of software implementation failures, it is common today for organizations to fall into the same mindless traps that have plagued those prominent failures. The goal of this research is to examine how organizations avoid these traps and what efforts, if any, are made to ensure that they do not fall victim to them again in the future. A case study approach involving a series of in-depth interviews was conducted to explore this phenomenon. The findings of this study reveal several rich insights that may be useful to both practitioners and researchers

Implementing a SOA Using Scrum: Achieving Improved Productivity using Service Trees

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is spreading widely today in a variety of development environments. Many organizations pursing a SOA, however, are unaware of the impact that this approach has on their development methodology and implementation strategies, which may be inappropriate and inefficient. Some issues caused by an inappropriately managed SOA implementation include dependency conflicts, inefficient time utilization, and ineffective utilization of resources resulting in a backlog of tasks. The individuality of services creates a gap that makes service implementation a relevant topic to pursue which can be addressed through the granular development of these services. Consequently, this research-in-progress examines SOA-based services development by focusing on service generation and proposing the concept of service trees whose branches serve as nodes of SOA-based services. Further, implementing the tree’s branches utilizing the scrum development methodology produces an approach where multiple services can be developed in parallel, offering a means to improve the productivity of a SOA implementation

LEAPing forward: A Case Study Employing High Impact Practices in Undergraduate Education

In support of a major curriculum association initiative adopted by a large Midwestern business college, faculty adopted a hands-on community service-based project in an undergraduate business project management course. The project was developed in order to incorporate the specific High-Impact Educational Practice (HIP) of service or community-based learning, as defined by the Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) initiative. This research describes (1) how the project management faculty revised the course to incorporate service and community-based learning, (2) related student activities, (3) preliminary results, and (4) next steps

The Impact of Culture on Global Information Security Regulations

The balance between individual privacy and information and security assurance (ISA) regulations is a fluid debate that has many different facets. The objective of this early research is to examine the impact that culture has on ISA regulations. In particular, we examine how internationally accepted ISA policies are adopted in disparate cultures. Multiple interviews were conducted in Thailand with individuals with requisite knowledge on how Internet security was applied in their country. A discussion of these findings is presented, categorized by national culture dimensions and illustrated with examples, followed by some concluding remarks

Panel: Service-Learning in Information Systems Education

This panel discussion will explore service-learning in Information Systems (IS) education. Service-learning or community-based learning is a High Impact Practice promoted through the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) initiative. Service-learning or community-based learning, as defined by LEAP, is a teaching approach that combines community service with formal classroom instruction, enabling students to apply course topics in a real-world environment and to reflect on their experiences within the classroom. Topics that will be addressed include reasons for introducing service learning experiences into the IS curriculum, challenges with implementing service-learning projects in IS courses, and critical success factors. Faculty belonging to institutions that have or are in the process of adopting the LEAP initiative as well as individuals that have an interest in incorporating real-world projects in the classroom are encouraged to attend

Open Source Backlash: Software Usage in a Mandatory Context

When management mandates the use of a particular technology, that decision may be met with resistance. Potential resistance may be mitigated by both understanding the process of change (e.g., Cotter, 1996; Lewin, 1951) as well as better managing changes through tactics such as enlisting support from top management, gaining greater stakeholder involvement, and establishing stern consequences for non-compliance. Despite these efforts, wholehearted acceptance of a mandated technology by management may never be realized. The objective of this research-in-progress is to examine whether mandates evolve over time and posit the factors that influence mandates as a way to identify additional means to address potential resistance. Evidence of possible influences is identified through interview results from Thailand and plans for future research are discussed