Organizational Designs for Software Maintenance

Organization design theory is applied to issues in information systems (IS) management of application software maintenance. Following the suggestion of Galbraith (1973, 1977), it is argued that inceased uncertainty in the maintenance task requires organizational adaptation to reduce the IS need for information processing in support of this task, or, alternatively, to increase the capacity for the same. Sources of uncertainty in the maintenance task are identified, and a number of related propositions are developed and enumerated. A corresponding set of design alternatives for maintenance management is also presented and given theoretical interpretation

Why Do Firms Have Information Systems?

Abstract In this essay, it is suggested that a multi-level interaction perspective offers insight in answering the fundamental question, "Why do firms have IS?" The role of humancomputer interaction (HCI) in firms is recast in this context and seen to be basic to the modern firm's interactions more broadly, with implications for firm capabilities and organizational learning

Organizational Information in the Cloud of Interaction

Responding to renewed interest in the concept of information among IS scholars, I reconsider a concept of organizational information, a particular form of information more broadly, articulated decades ago, and elaborate on it in the light of newer developments. I argue that the basic concept, centered in human communication, remains viable, but should be extended such that machines, not just humans, are included as participants in what may be portrayed on the whole as an open interaction network in which organizational information is generated, maintained, and propagated to guide actions. I apply the extended concept to the illustrative example of university admissions

Information Systems as Buzz

Many scholars view the admittedly common tendency toward the coinage and use of “buzzwords” as regrettable and problematic for the information systems (IS) field. Here I suggest instead that the continuing “buzz” associated with IS signals not the field’s muddle- headedness, but rather its vitality and force as reflected in an ongoing cascade of technology-driven organizational innovations. Some buzzwords represent what has been termed organizing visions for information systems. Organizing visions arise to facilitate the development and diffusion of IS innovations across firms and industries. While their buzz is therefore important, their history nevertheless also presents us with a history of fuzzy IS types, with implications for research and practice alike

The Rise of Information Systems at the Graduate School of Management, UCLA

Among U.S. business schools, the Graduate School of Management (GSM) at the University of California, Los Angeles, was one of the pioneers in the information systems field. In this paper, I chronicle IS’s rise at GSM from its early years (1950s and 1960s) through its formative (1970s) and leadership years (1980s) and identify factors contributing to this rise and success

Adopting SAP at Siemens Power Corporation

Students will 1. be introduced to a particular ERP (enterprise resource package) software, SAP R/3, to learn about the pros and cons of ERP packages in general, and R/31 in particular. 2. learn how an organization’s reengineering efforts may drive the adoption of an ERP system and later influence the implementation of the system: Students will identify what problems (outdated legacy systems, Y2K, lack of customer responsiveness) lead to the implementation of a package. Furthermore, they will be sensitized to the type of implications reengineering-related decisions may have (e.g., downsizing) on the feasibility of the implementation project. 3. be exposed to different aspects of the decision making process related to an ERP implementation: choice of package, hardware, consultants, implementation approach. They should (1) gain an improved understanding of the issues involved in implementing an enterprise package (as opposed to conventional IS development) and (2) be sensitized to potential implications of their decision-making for later project stages such as implementation and maintenance

THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT

Organizational demographics is proposed as a promising analytic technique for understanding a central problem of information systems (IS) management, the problem of the maintenance of the application system portfolio. This problem is viewed as occurring in significant part as a consequence of the effects and interaction among distributions of individual characteristics of both the application systems and the members of the IS staff. To examine this proposition, a sample of eighteen\u27IS organizations is described in demographic terms, and regression equations are developed to explain variance in maintenance problems associated with the installed portfolios. The results provide support for the proposition, with implications for management and for further research

Research Directions in Information Systems: Toward an Institutional Ecology

This essay identifies three characteristic problems in how the Information Systems field sets its research directions. First is the propensity of our field to create research agendas modeled after the transitory infatuations that industry has with certain popular topics in IT-related innovation. The second problem is our field\u27s inclination to develop insular sub-communities that consume resources on behalf of research programs that are of limited theoretical and practical interest. A third problem is noted from time to time by our partners in industry: We sometimes neglect topics that are of practical interest to them. This paper argues that these seemingly diverse phenomena can be brought under a common umbrella by examining how the shaping of research agendas depends on forces in our field\u27s larger institutional milieu. Specifically, we suggest that the field\u27s research directions constitute responses to institutionally constituted market forces that arise both within academia and in the larger economy and society. Furthermore, we propose that the substance of the discourse associated with any particular research stream is dictated by the workings of these forces, in ways our community has yet to fully understand. We make four proposals for reflexive inquiry that we believe will advance this understanding and ultimately help to foster research that better serves both theory and practice, while being less subject to the whims of industry fashion

Panel 7 Target Journals for Information Systems Research: Current Practices and Controversies

This panel examines the practice of identifying target journals for IS research. As participants in a scholarly community, individual researchers and their institutions may benefit from guidance on the choice of journals for submission of scholarly work. Official “target journal” lists have begun to appear within departments, where they play a role in evaluating the contributions of individual faculty. The panel examines this practice from three distinct angles. First, research that evaluates the relative standing of scholarly journals in the IS field will be described. The results of a 1998 survey and two earlier surveys (Hardgrave and Walstrom 1997; Walstrom Hardgrave, and Wilson 1995) will be presented. Second, the current practices of two leading IS departments in North American business schools will be described. The actual lists, the controversies surrounding their development and maintenance, and their use and consequences will be described. Third, the practice of identifying target journals will be challenged, and the controversies surrounding the use of such lists will be examined