Using a Computer Business Simulation to Measure Effectiveness of Enterprise Resource Planning Education on Business Process Comprehension

Business Process Education is often aided by teaching Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP). ERP systems are large software programs which coordinate and/or control many aspects of a company, forming the backbone of most large organizations’ information systems, integrating all functional areas in an organization and promoting a business process perspective. Universities have been teaching ERP and using commercial ERP for experiential learning for at least 10 years now, yet little conclusive research exists that assesses the effectiveness of using ERP in the classroom to further comprehension of business processes. This paper reviews 9 studies that attempt to assess the educational effectiveness of ERP. The outcomes of that review are used to present research in progress that: (a) business simulation should be better used as a measure of students’ understanding of integrative business processes; and (b) the duration of assessment should cover an entire academic semester’s course outcomes

IS Alignment Factors: Dynamic Relationships At Strategic, Tactical and Operational Level

The dynamic nature of IS alignment has been recognised in literature, nevertheless most empirical studies still focus on the relationships between business and IS at strategic level. Building on previously identified IS alignment factors (IT governance, IT value, communication, partnership, scope and architecture, human resources skills) this study incorporates an empirical investigation in a large insurance organisation that examines the relationships between business and IS across different organisational levels. By measuring the level of IS alignment of five strategic projects the impact of the factors affecting IS alignment is analysed. As previously reported IT governance was found to be the most relevant factor when high levels of IS alignment are obtained. However, by examining the variations of IS alignment for each project common areas of low IS alignment were identified: understanding of IT by business, balance metrics, budgetary control and share goals, risk and rewards. Findings reveal organisational structure and the business perception of IT value as the root causes behind low levels of IS alignment within those areas. Additionally, results exhibit a bigger IS alignment gap between the perceptions across strategic, tactical and operational levels than the traditional gap between business and IS

Materializing design fictions for metaverse services

As the state-of-the-art stands, our knowledge of designing Metaverse platforms is limited. In this paper we propose that design fictions are the first form of prototyping and explore how ‘materializing’ a design fiction can help cement or refute assumptions that drive the development of a software-based system toward a first Minimum Viable Product. Our context is a platform for trading music memorabilia in the Metaverse, integrating content sitting across archives, record labels, publishers, and private collections in an immersive and accessible manner. The design fiction provided both a means of exploring the businessassumptions of our industry partner and co-creating an experience of value to its intended audience. As key outcomes, the approach was of value in shapingbusiness assumptions, developing an enhanced understanding of the audience and allowing them to cocreate, shaping technology needs and identifying partners necessary for the development

Conceptual Modelling and The Quality of Ontologies: Endurantism Vs. Perdurantism

Ontologies are key enablers for sharing precise and machine-understandable semantics among different applications and parties. Yet, for ontologies to meet these expectations, their quality must be of a good standard. The quality of an ontology is strongly based on the design method employed. This paper addresses the design problems related to the modelling of ontologies, with specific concentration on the issues related to the quality of the conceptualisations produced. The paper aims to demonstrate the impact of the modelling paradigm adopted on the quality of ontological models and, consequently, the potential impact that such a decision can have in relation to the development of software applications. To this aim, an ontology that is conceptualised based on the Object-Role Modelling (ORM) approach (a representative of endurantism) is re-engineered into a one modelled on the basis of the Object Paradigm (OP) (a representative of perdurantism). Next, the two ontologies are analytically compared using the specified criteria. The conducted comparison highlights that using the OP for ontology conceptualisation can provide more expressive, reusable, objective and temporal ontologies than those conceptualised on the basis of the ORM approach

Examining perceptions of agility in software development practice

This is the post-print version of the final published article that is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2010 ACM.Organizations undertaking software development are often reminded that successful practice depends on a number of non-technical issues that are managerial, cultural and organizational in nature. These issues cover aspects from appropriate corporate structure, through software process development and standardization to effective collaborative practice. Since the articulation of the 'software crisis' in the late-1960s, significant effort has been put into addressing problems related to the cost, time and quality of software development via the application of systematic processes and management practices for software engineering. Early efforts resulted in prescriptive structured methods, which have evolved and expanded over time to embrace consortia/ company-led initiatives such as the Unified Modeling Language and the Unified Process alongside formal process improvement frameworks such as the International Standards Organization's 9000 series, the Capability Maturity Model and SPICE. More recently, the philosophy behind traditional plan-based initiatives has been questioned by the agile movement, which seeks to emphasize the human and craft aspects of software development over and above the engineering aspects. Agile practice is strongly collaborative in its outlook, favoring individuals and interactions over processes and tools, working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, and responding to change over following a plan (see Sidebar 1). Early experience reports on the use of agile practice suggest some success in dealing with the problems of the software crisis, and suggest that plan-based and agile practice are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, flexibility may arise from this unlikely marriage in an aim to strike a balance between the rigor of traditional plan-based approaches and the need for adaptation of those to suit particular development situations. With this in mind, this article surveys the current practice in software engineering alongside perceptions of senior development managers in relation to agile practice in order to understand the principles of agility that may be practiced implicitly and their effects on plan-based approach