What is this thing called IRIS – and what shall we do about it ?

Abstract not available

Assessing Software Processes: Low Maturity or Sensible Practice

Software Process Improvement efforts rely heavily on the use of software capability maturity models. These models are used to identify problems in an organization’s software processes and point to, and prioritize, necessary improvements. Using models for this purpose will, however, automatically turn our attention to certain problems and issues and ignore others. In this paper we argue that the maturity models provide only one perspective on software processes and software process problems. We demonstrate how we, by looking at the organizational context of and the conflicts and uncertainties facing software projects may uncover alternative interpretations of software practices, and identify other problems. The implications for SPI and for the use of maturity models are discussed

NOVICE PROGRAMMING STRATEGIES

This paper identifies novice programmer activities and their implications for the programming outcome. We investigate strategies, cognitive processes and behavior within interacting phases of programming: 1) understanding and design, 2) coding, and 3) debugging and testing. We envision that stronger novice programmers behave differently from weaker novice programmers during the programming process. We develop a questionnaire-based tool, the programming strategy questionnaire (PSQ), which we use to identify the activities novices employ during their development of a program, and we link the strategies to learning outcomes. Finally, we discuss how educators can use our findings to improve the education of novice programmers

Foreword - Designing Human Technologies

The Information Systems Research Seminar in Scandinavia (IRIS) is of an annual meeting of Information Systems (IS) researchers. The IRIS seminar distinguishes itself as the oldest IS seminar in the world, as it has been established in 1978. IRIS is organised by the IRIS Association, the Scandinavian Chapter of the Association for Information Systems (AIS). The articles of this fifth issue of the IRIS Selected Papers of the Information Systems Research Seminar in Scandinavia were originally proposed by the working group chairs (senior IS researchers). The selected papers have an acceptance rate of 25% of the original submissions. All of the papers of the IRIS seminar have gone through a peer review process

Dynamic Capabilities and Project Management in Small Software Companies

A small software company depends on its capability to adapt to rapid technological and other changes in its environment—its dynamic capabilities. In this paper, we argue that to evolve and maintain its dynamic capabilities a small software company must pay attention to the interaction between dynamic capabilities at different levels of the company—particularly between the project management and the company levels. We present a case study of a small software company and show how successful dynamic capabilities at the company level can affect project management in small software companies in ways which may have an adverse impact on the company’s overall dynamic capabilities. This study contributes to our understanding of the managerial challenges of small software companies by demonstrating the need to manage the interaction between adaptability and flexibility at different levels of the company

IMPROVING ISD AGILITY IN FAST-MOVING SOFTWARE ORGANIZATIONS

Fast-moving software organizations must respond quickly to changing technological options and mar-ket trends while delivering high-quality services at competitive prices. Improving agility of infor-mation systems development (ISD) may reconcile these inherent tensions, but previous research of agility predominantly focused separately on managing either the individual project or the organiza-tion. Limited research has investigated the management that ties the agility of individual projects with the company agility characterizing fast-moving organizations. This paper reports an action research study on how to improve ISD agility in a fast-moving software organization. The study maps central problems in the ISD management to direct improvements of agility. Our following intervention ad-dressed method improvements in defining types of ISD by customer relations and integrating the method with the task management tool used by the organization. The paper discusses how the action research contributes to our understanding of ISD agility in fast-moving software organizations with a framework for mapping and evaluating improvements of agility. The action research specifically points out that project managers need to attend to the company’s agility in relating to customers, that company agility links to project agility, and that this requires light method and tool support

Project Management Challenges in Small Software Shops in Pakistan

Most software development companies are very small with only 1-10 employees. In developing countries such companies play an important role both locally and as providers of software and services to customers in other parts of the world. Understanding and improving their project management (PM) practices are, therefore, important not only in the local context, but also in the context of globalized software development. This paper explores actual PM practices in Pakistani Small Software development Shops (SSDS). We find PM challenges in addition to challenges reported by software engineering literature, and we have described the implications of those challenges on quality and productivity of Pakistani SSDSs. We also find that some Pakistani SSDS practices are similar to what is reported from SSDSs in other parts of the world, but other practices are related to the companies' position in the global software development chain