The application development process: What role does it play in the success of an application for the user developer?

End user development of applications forms a significant part of organisational systems development. This study investigates the role that developing an application plays in the eventual success of the application for the user developer. The results of this study suggest that the process of developing an application not only predisposes an end user developer to be more satisfied with the application than they would be if it were developed by another end user, but also leads them to perform better with it. Thus the results of the study highlight the contribution of the process of application development to application success

Spreadsheet knowledge: An exploratory study

Spreadsheets are the most commonly used tool for end user development of applications, and organizations depend heavily upon them for decision making. This paper reports on a study to investigate the role of spreadsheet knowledge in the successful use of spreadsheet applications. It considers both the spreadsheet knowledge of the user developer and the spreadsheet knowledge of the user and tests a model of the effect of spreadsheet knowledge on the success of a user-developed spreadsheet application. Spreadsheet knowledge was shown to be important in two ways. It influences the quality of the system being developed, but it also acts directly upon the individual impact of the application. Successful use appears to require sufficient knowledge to understand and, if necessary, alter the application

The role of spreadsheet knowledge in user developed application success

Spreadsheets are the most commonly used tool for end user development of applications, and organizations depend heavily upon them for decision making. This paper reports on a study to investigate the role of spreadsheet knowledge in the successful use of spreadsheet applications. It considers both the spreadsheet knowledge of the user developer and the spreadsheet knowledge of the user and tests a model of the effect of spreadsheet knowledge on the success of a user-developed spreadsheet application. Spreadsheet knowledge was shown to be important in two ways. It influences the quality of the system being developed, but it also acts directly upon the individual impact of the application. Successful use appears to require sufficient knowledge to understand and, if necessary, alter the application

End user development: Satisfaction with tools and satisfaction with applications

This study explored the relationship between end user developers’ perceptions of their applications and their perceptions of the tools used to create them. Satisfaction with a user developed application was found to be significantly correlated with satisfaction with the tool used to create the application. The role of experience in this relationship was also explored, and possible implications of the findings are discussed

Spreadsheet knowledge: Measuring what user developers know

Spreadsheets are frequently used to conduct analyses using organizational data. Spreadsheets, however, frequently contain errors and these affect the quality of the analyses performed by the users who develop their own spreadsheets. This paper describes the development of a diagnostic test for spreadsheet knowledge. The test is designed to be used by individuals, teachers, trainers, and organizations to identify the spreadsheet development training needed by spreadsheet user developers and to examine the success of spreadsheet training programs. Reliability and validity of the test are reported

Understanding user behavior towards passwords through acceptance and use modelling

The security of computer systems that store our data is a major issue facing the world. This research project investigated the roles of ease of use, facilitating conditions, intention to use passwords securely, experience and age on usage of passwords, using a model based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of technology. Data was collected via an online survey of computer users, and analyzed using PLS. The results show there is a significant relationship between ease of use of passwords, intention to use them securely and the secure usage of passwords. Despite expectations, facilitating conditions only had a weak impact on intention to use passwords securely and did not influence actual secure usage. Computing experience was found to have an effect on intention to use passwords securely, but age did not. The results of this research lend themselves to assisting in policy design and better understanding user behavior

Incremental submission of programming code using object-oriented classes

Given increasing adoption of agile software development methodologies it is essential that information technology students are exposed to them. This paper describes and evaluates an attempt to introduce agile programming into a core second year programming course. The initiative appeared to be associated with improvements in both drop out and pass rate, and student perceptions of the innovation were largely positive

User developed applications and information systems success: A test of DeLone and McLean's model

DeLone and McLean’s (1992) model of information systems success has received much attention amongst researchers. This study provides the first empirical test of an adaptation of DeLone and McLean’s model in the user-developed application domain. The model tested was only partially supported by the data. Of the nine hypothesized relationships tested, four were found to be significant and the remainder not significant. The model provided strong support for the relationships between perceived system quality and user satisfaction, perceived information quality and user satisfaction, user satisfaction and intended use, and user satisfaction and perceived individual impact. This study indicates that user perceptions of information systems success play a significant role in the user-developed application domain. There was, however, no relationship between user developers’ perceptions of system quality and independent experts’ evaluations, and user ratings of individual impact were not associated with organizational impact measured as company performance in a business simulation. Further research is required to understand the relationship between user perceptions of IS success and objective measures of success, and to provide a model of IS success appropriate to end user development

Developing a self-paced interactive package for introductory computer programming

Teaching introductory programming can be a challenging task. Students can become too concerned with learning syntax at the expense of more general conceptual understanding. Distance education students in particular often have problems as the difficulty of the course content is compounded by the problems of isolation from other students and their tutor. Although instructional strategies for emphasising conceptual knowledge are well known for face-to-face instruction, there has been little attempt to apply them to the external situation. This paper describes the development of a supplementary package for external students designed to address some of these problems

From beliefs to success: Utilizing an expanded TAM to predict web page development success

The technology acceptance model (TAM) is a popular model for the prediction of information systems acceptance behaviors, defining a causal linkage between beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and the usage of information technologies. Since its inception, numerous studies have utilized the TAM, providing empirical support for the model in both traditional and Internet-based computing settings. This article describes a research study that utilizes an adaptation of the TAM to predict successful Web page development, as an introduction of the TAM to a new domain, and the testing of a new dependent variable within the model. The study found some evidence to support the use of the TAM as a starting point for the prediction of Web development success, finding causal linkages between the belief constructs and the attitude constructs, and the intent construct and the successful development of Web pages. However, additional research is required to further study the expanded model introduced within this article. Keywords: computer attitudes; internet attitudes; system development success; technology acceptance model (TAM