A Process to Reuse Experiences via Narratives among Software Project Managements

Organizations have lost billions of dollars due to poor software project implementations. Software project management is a complex process requiring extensive planning, effective decision-making, and proper monitoring throughout the course of the project. The knowledge one gains during a project is rarely captured and reused on subsequent projects. In an effort to enable software project managers to repeat prior successes and avoid previous mistakes, this research seeks to improve the reuse of a specific type of knowledge among software project managers, experiences expressed via written narratives. This research proposes that software project managers can improve their management abilities by reusing their own and others’ past experiences using written narratives. This research leverages multiple methodologies – including tool evaluation, grounded theory, design science research, and experimentation – throughout the phases of a design science research framework to create a process to enable software project managers to reuse knowledge gained through experiences on software projects. Guided by the design science research framework, this work leverages both explanation research – to understand the phenomenon of knowledge reuse among software project managers – and design science research – to create a process to facilitate knowledge reuse among software project managers – in an attempt to improve upon the current practices of software project management

To Tell or Not to Tell: Examining Team Silence and Voice in Online Ad Hoc Teams

Team silence is the unwillingness of team members to express concerns regarding how another team member’s actions negatively impacts the team’s ability to accomplish their goals; team voice is the intentional expression of these concerns to the team and/or team member. This research explores team silence and team voice in the context of online ad hoc teams in which dispersed team members, focused on their own self-interest, work together using digital collaboration tools. We consider if team members in online ad hoc teams remain silent when a team member engages in self-interested behavior that can negatively impact the team’s ability to accomplish their goals. This research in progress describes a quasi-experiment that uses the context of a massively multiplayer online role playing game to explore factors that contribute toward team members’ willingness to break silence and use their voice when an online ad hoc team member engages in self-interested actions

“They Deserved It”: Using the Just World Hypothesis to Understand Blaming, Apathy, and Support on Social Media

Social media offers a forum for individuals to share experiences after being wronged by an individual, an organization, a group, or a government. While some individuals gain support through sharing experiences on social media, other victims become the subject of attacks or receive little to no response from others regarding their injustice. An individual’s response to a victim’s social media post may be explained by the just world hypothesis. In this article, we explain the just world hypothesis and how this theory applies to when individuals respond to victims on social media. The just world hypothesis offers a means to understand factors that encourage negative social media behaviors. In this conceptual article, we explain how future research may leverage the just world hypothesis as a theoretical lens to examine why individuals engage in victim blaming, victim apathy, or victim support using social media

The Poor Get Poorer and the Rich Get Fiber: Why Free/Low-Cost Internet Might Not Bridge the Digital Divide

Public policy holds that bridging the digital divide is a critical requirement for improving the life chances of socio-economically disadvantaged groups. Free or subsidized internet access from government and non-profits is a common approach, however, with the advent of Google Fiber, a new venture providing free/low-cost fast internet, the access landscape is changing. We will study the effects of Google Fiber in Kansas City, Missouri, one of the first cities to receive the service. We propose several hypotheses on the relationship between free/low-cost, fast internet service and improved educational outcomes. We plan to compare academic performance results from Kansas City Public Schools inside and outside of Google Fiberhoods. We hope to determine if access to internet services such as Google Fiber have an impact on K-12 educational outcomes and what moderators may influence its effects

Exploring Prior Work History within Software Project Teams

Software project management is challenging not only due to the technical requirements associated with creating software, but also in dealing with interpersonal issues that arise during the course of a project. One interpersonal dynamic within software project teams that is rarely discussed is the interaction among the team members themselves. Using social identity theory as a lens, this research explores how subgroups based on individuals’ prior work history could impact the project team. These prior working relationships could be a benefit to the team, or alternatively, could create favoritism among some members of the team. We explore the phenomenon of how prior work history affects the project team’s dynamic in the context of a massive multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG). Using the results, we offer suggestions for future research and practice to consider the impact of social identity within software project teams

The Role of Liminality in Transitioning and Learning from Project Failures

In the information technology project management literature, much has been written about the types of project failures and reasons for project failure. However, less research has focused on how project managers cope when a project in which they have been managing is considered a failure. In this study, we examine how project managers transition and learn from project failures that are due to termination of the project before it was completed, or due to a project that was completed but had a disappointing result. Specifically, we focus on the concept of liminality that occurs due to project failure, which is a state of ambiguity during a time of transition. The results of this study will be useful in understanding how project managers effectively (or ineffectively) transition to new projects and learn from failure

The Case of Clickers: Experiences from the Instructor Perspective

Clickers are a classroom technology that allows students to provide both categorical and numerical responses to questions during a lecture. The student responses can be tracked, totaled, and scored in various ways to provide feedback to both the students and professors. At a Midwestern University, in the Fall 2007 semester, clickers were integrated into a course titled “Managing in a Digital World.” As instructors of the course, we learned much about teaching and clickers through this effort and we highlight our experiences in this discussion