VETSNET: A Case Study of Escalation and De-Escalation

Information systems development projects are more likely to fail than to succeed. One reason for this failure is a manager’s tendency to maintain commitment to projects despite receiving negative feedback. This phenomenon is known as escalation of commitment to a failing course of action, or simply escalation. This paper examines the case of escalation and de-escalation of commitment in the development of the Veteran’s Service Network (VETSNET) system for the United States Veteran’s Administration (VA). An exploratory content analysis of secondary data sources is performed to identify factors promoting escalation. Consistent with prior literature, support was found for project, organizational, and contextual determinants of escalation. The three relevant project factors were a perceived lock-in effect due to few alternatives, the long-term nature of the project, and ambiguity in the project’s requirements and schedule. Three organizational factors that contributed to escalation were poor software capability of VA, lack of dedicated leadership, and pervasiveness of an institutionalized “One VA” vision. Contextual factors in the form of congressional laws and oversight also impacted the VETSNET case. De-escalation was triggered by publicly committing to a deadline and changing top leadership

Assessing Blended Learning: Student Outcomes and Perceptions

This paper describes the conversion of an introductory computing course to the blended learning model at a small, public liberal arts college. Blended learning significantly reduces face-to-face instruction by incorporating rich, online learning experiences. We provide the motivation for the change and report initial results from a pilot study. More specifically, we compare student learning outcomes in the traditional and blended learning sections of the course and assess student satisfaction with blended learning. We found that student performance in the traditional and blended learning sections of the course were comparable. Students reported high levels of interaction with their instructor, and student satisfaction with the course increased by the end of the semester. We conclude by offering lessons learned for others interested in adopting blended learning

Appreciative Inquiry Into IT Projet Management: Understanding Win-Win Contracts

Traditional systems development research largely adopts a negative view and focuses on failures. In contrast, this study adopts a positive approach to improve current practices. We report from an action research project at a small software firm, TelSoft, in which we applied appreciative inquiry to develop information technology (IT) project management skills. The inquiry process offers two contributions. First, we demonstrate how appreciative principles and the four steps of initiating, inquiring, imagining, and innovating were used to learn about existing strengths and share visions of possible futures. Acknowledging that humans under these circumstances respond constructively to change, this led to a new development program for IT project managers. Second, we adapt \u27win-win contracts\u27 to develop generative metaphors for the core knowledge areas: scope, time, cost, and quality management. The resulting metaphors are grounded in the particular context at TelSoft and informed by Theory W. The paper presents the appreciative inquiry process in detail and discusses the results in relation to the IT project management literature

From Dichotomy to Ambidexterity: Transcending Traditions in Software Management

Despite documented best practices and specialized tools, managers continue to face major challenges in software development. While managers are traditionally advised to choose between plan-driven and agile principles, software organizations increasingly face situations in which they need to take advantage of both. There is, however, limited actionable advice on how managers can shape the organizational context to develop such capability. We therefore combine theory on ambidexterity and contextualist inquiry to report from a two-year action research study at TelSoft. As a result, we propose a model for how software organizations can become ambidextrous through the processes of diagnosing, visioning, intervening, and practicing and discuss the implications for research and practice into software management

Using Active Learning, Group Formation, and Discussion to Increase Student Learning: A Business Intelligence Skills Analysis

This paper describes the process used to integrate active learning, group formation, and classroom discussion in a college-level business intelligence class. To assess the impact of active learning and discussion on learning outcomes, we captured student performance on their final data challenge term project across increasingly collaborative and discussion-based sections. To stimulate reflective discussion and to promote cooperative and collaborative teamwork during in-class assignments, we established small groups based on an incoming business intelligence-related skills self-assessment. Our regression results indicate that a skills-based group formation approach enabled an enhanced level of in-class assignment completion and promoted reflective discussion in the classroom. We also find that active learning and discussion increased appropriation of business intelligence concepts and analytical tools. The inherent nuances of business intelligence education, as well as the implications and strategies for improved classroom discussion in a technology class setting, are reviewed

Abstract VETSNET: A CASE STUDY OF ESCALATION AND DE-ESCALATION

Information systems development projects are more likely to fail than to succeed. One reason for this failure is a manager’s tendency to maintain commitment to projects despite receiving negative feedback. This phenomenon is known as escalation of commitment to a failing course of action, or simply escalation. This paper examines the case of escalation and de-escalation of commitment in the development of the Veteran’s Service Network (VETSNET) system for the United States Veteran’s Administration (VA). An exploratory content analysis of secondary data sources is performed to identify factors promoting escalation. Consistent with prior literature, support was found for project, organizational, and contextual determinants of escalation. The three relevant project factors were a perceived lock-in effect due to few alternatives, the long-term nature of the project, and ambiguity in the project’s requirements and schedule. Three organizational factors that contributed to escalation were poor software capability of VA, lack of dedicated leadership, and pervasiveness of an institutionalized “One VA ” vision. Contextual factors in the form of congressional laws and oversight also impacted the VETSNET case. De-escalation was triggered by publicly committing to a deadline and changing top leadership

Combining perceptions and prescriptions in requirements engineering process assessment : an industrial case study

Requirements engineering (RE) is a key discipline in software development and several methods are available to help assess and improve RE processes. However, these methods rely on prescriptive models of RE; they do not, like other disciplines within software engineering, draw directly on stakeholder perceptions and subjective judgments. Given this backdrop, we present an empirical study in RE process assessment. Our aim was to investigate how stakeholder perceptions and process prescriptions can be combined during assessments to effectively inform RE process improvement. We first describe existing methods for RE process assessment and the role played by stakeholder perceptions and subjective judgments in the software engineering and management literature. We then present a method that combines perceptions and prescriptions in RE assessments together with an industrial case study in which the method was applied and evaluated over a three-year period at TelSoft. The data suggest that the combined method led to a comprehensive and rich assessment and it helped TelSoft consider RE as an important and integral part of the broader engineering context. This, in turn, led to improvements that combined plan-driven and adaptive principles for RE. Overall, the combined method helped TelSoft move from Level 1 to Level 2 in RE maturity, and the employees perceived the resulting engineering practices to be improved. Based on these results, we suggest that software managers and researchers combine stakeholder perceptions and process prescriptions as one way to effectively balance the specificity, comparability, and accuracy of software process assessments