An enquiry into the temporal coordination of Groupware Calendar Systems (GCS): Conceptualizing the private and public perspectives

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Groupware Calendar Systems (GCS), asynchronous on-line meeting schedulers are designed to fulfil the increased need for coordination of work, by supporting time management of temporally and geographically dispersed individuals and groups. From a study of the literature on GCS adoption, a premise was constructed that temporal coordination of GCS requires a marriage of conflicting private and public perspectives. This is based on the fact that firstly, the system has to support both individual and group work, and secondly, generally considered `private' information has to be publicized by individuals. However, there is a lack of understanding of the dynamism of these perspectives especially in relation to the process of temporal coordination in GCS. The aim of this thesis is to understand and conceptualize temporal coordination of GCS. The research strategy of this thesis adopts a `grounded approach' together with a `progressive research approach' to investigate the GCS phenomenon. The actions and processes of GCS-in-use are examined using the case study method. The research design progressively refines and reflects upon the findings in two stages: stage-one, two pilot studies and stage-two, two case studies. A selection of data collection techniques were used in order to obtain a rich data set via semi-structured in-depth interviews, observations, questionnaires, documentation and photographs. The analysis employed a pattern-matching technique and the `SCOT' framework, modified to examine the process of temporal coordination and the dynamic relationships produced in GCS which led to the construction of a new conceptual model. This model of 'reflective temporal equilibrium' presents the state of temporal coordination, formed by the phenomenon of continuous conflict between the private and public perspectives. The outcomes of this thesis provide a clearer theoretical picture of GCS, consequently leading to implications for its future design and adoption for better coordination and collaboration of work

Prominent Attribute Modification using Attribute Dependent Generative Adversarial Network

Modifying the facial images with desired attributes is important, though challenging tasks in computer vision, where it aims to modify single or multiple attributes of the face image. Some of the existing methods are either based on attribute independent approaches where the modification is done in the latent representation or attribute dependent approaches. The attribute independent methods are limited in performance as they require the desired paired data for changing the desired attributes. Secondly, the attribute independent constraint may result in the loss of information and, hence, fail in generating the required attributes in the face image. In contrast, the attribute dependent approaches are effective as these approaches are capable of modifying the required features along with preserving the information in the given image. However, attribute dependent approaches are sensitive and require a careful model design in generating high-quality results. To address this problem, we propose an attribute dependent face modification approach. The proposed approach is based on two generators and two discriminators that utilize the binary as well as the real representation of the attributes and, in return, generate high-quality attribute modification results. Experiments on the CelebA dataset show that our method effectively performs the multiple attribute editing with preserving other facial details intactly

Case Study Report On A Project Management Approach Towards Transferring IS Ownership

This case study paper is about the changes made and the actions that were taken to mitigate a perceived likelihood of IT system rejection on a large IT project three months prior to delivery and handover, after encountering difficulties which included business disengagement, requirements ambiguities, problems of multiple software applications integration, and uncertainty over delivery and acceptance. Based on the analysis of the semi-structured interviews, documentation data and observation, the provisional analysis is reported upon in this paper. Our findings demonstrate that the changed project management approach was underpinned with the objective of transferring IS ownership, this being achieved through the depoliticalization of the business process, using user led workshops. In this on-going research, we begin to realise that ownership is a major factor in gaining user acceptance of the system

User Disengagement And The Turnaround Of A Failing Project

This paper reports on an in-depth case study of a large and strategic IT development project facing business user disengagement and potential system rejection. Somewhat belatedly senior management recognised the threat and appointed a new project manager with a brief to rescue the project whilst keeping to the original implementation deadline. Much to almost everyone\u27s surprise the new project manager, and his radical approach, produced the required significant results. The paper examines the changes instigated by the new project manager and a group of newly appointed Business Analysts (BAs). The approach, based on participation ideas, utilized an adapted state modelling technique, and was framed within the agile informed management approach, succeeded in achieving an emergence of business users’ belief and the feeling that they could not just influence the system but design it in a way that was needed by the business and that would support the current required workflows as well as for the future, which was somewhat uncertain. The detail of the approach is described and the way in which the disengagement and turnaround was achieved is provided. The paper concludes by outlining the contributions of the case and the approach and suggesting a relevance not only to the systems development and participation literature but potentially to the concept of systems ownership and Psychological Ownership (PO) which it could be argued were invoked in the case

Do Buyer's Supporting Efforts For Sub-Supplier Make Prime Supplier's Performance Better?

It is widely accepted that capable suppliers do important role for buyer's competitiveness in today's business environment. Moreover, not only the importance of supplier development but also the importance of sub-supplier development has been emphasized. This study examines how buyer's efforts of supporting sub-supplier development impacts on performance of prime supplier. The study results show that while buyer's effort of monitoring and information sharing to sub-suppliers improve the performance of prime supplier, buyer's effort of knowledge sharing do not improve prime supplier's performance.