Australian Computer Society: ACS Digital Library
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Enhancing the Linking of Soft Systems and Information Systems Models Through a Uniform and Formulised Representation
Get PDFThere are numerous works suggesting linking SSM models to information systems (IS) models for information systems development. In these works links between SSM and IS models are established at the conceptual level i.e. they provide ways to utilise SSM models to identify or to derive IS models. However, most of them have not provided a method for representing the links explicitly in the combined model. Consequently, the links become subtle and untraceable, looking at the combined model only at the representation level.
This paper proposes an approach based on meta modelling to achieve a uniform and formalised representation of models that combine SSM and IS models. The approach allows one to represent not only SSM and IS modelling concepts but also relationships between the concepts in a meta model using the conceptual modelling language Telos. Telos supports meta models to be flexibly specified and extended to meet specific modelling requirements of a particular project.
An exemplary application is presented to demonstrate the operationalisation of the proposed approach and to illustrate the uniform representation of combined models. The example also shows benefits of the formalised representation in terms of computer support for managing and retrieving a combined model's meta data
A Methodology for Evaluating User Perceptions of the Delivery of ICT Services: a comparative study of six UK local authorities
Get PDFEvaluating and managing the effective delivery of ICT services is an issue that has been brought into sharper relief recently. This has been particularly prevalent in the UK public sector where the growing emphasis on formalised client-contractor relationships, outsourcing and benchmarking (both between local authorities and between local authorities and private sector organisations) has meant that the definition of service standards and agreeing performance criteria has attracted considerable practitioner attention.
This research is based on 295 interviews conducted in six UK local authorities. The investigation used both gap analysis and perceptual mapping techniques to develop an understanding of the aspects of ICT service delivery that users' value most in conjunction with an assessment of how well they perceive their ICT department is performing on these criteria. The paper exposes considerable differences in the relative performance of the six local authorities from both the gap analysis and the perceptual mapping elements of the investigation. The methodology is shown to provide an effective way of identifying key performance issues from the user perspective and benchmarking service performance across organisations
The Ethics/ Skills Interface in Image Manipulation
Get PDFImage manipulation using computer technology has become a basic skill required in various graphics dependent industries such as advertising, and the print and electronic media, and for specialist use in institutions for in-house and on-line publishing and the creation of Web pages. The 'seamless' alteration of photographs and other visual images made possible by computer technology has allowed misrepresentation with intent to deceive, and difficulty in establishing copyright of original images. The dilemma in teaching techniques of image manipulation is to create a basis for ethical practice HCI in this paper refers to the ethics/skills interface in the education and work of multimedia practitioners
Tribes of Users and System Developers
Get PDFEffective communication is essential for information systems development crossing functional, organisational and national boundaries. As organisations attempt to overcome cultural barriers to communication across the world, communication with colleagues across the corridor remains problematic; cultural barriers between departments remain unchallenged. This paper introduces the concepts of 'culture' and 'tribe' into the discussion of the relationship between business users and information systems developers. Previous research has focused on identifying specific barriers to user-systems developer communication and on ways of eliminating these barriers. In contrast, this paper suggests that much can be learnt through the recognition of cultural differences inherent to the differing roles of user and systems developer. Maintenance of cultural identity is essential to the individual if he/she is to function effectively as a member of his/her tribe, whether it is the 'tribe' of developers or the 'tribe' of users. Communication problems within the systems development process may be addressed by a mutual understanding of cultural differences between the 'tribes' of users and systems developers. This degree of understanding cannot be achieved by attempting to change, persuade or convert the other tribe. The problems of user-systems developer communication need to be addressed through effective communication which acknowledges the differing cultures
Understanding Organisational Learning in Military Headquarters: findings from a pilot study
Get PDFThis paper reports on the findings of a Pilot Study for a longer term research project investigating organisational learning in command and control organisations in the Australian Defence Force. One of the long-term objectives of the research project is to facilitate the development of future information systems that will enable organisational learning. The aim of the Pilot Study was to determine the feasibility of observing and documenting social learning processes and to trial the use of ethnographic techniques for this purpose
Framework Architecture Enabling an Agent-Based Inter-Company Integration with XML
Get PDFMore and more cooperating companies utilize the World Wide Web (WWW) to federate and further integrate their heterogeneous business application systems. At the same time, innovative business strategies, like virtual organizations, supply chain management or one-to-one marketing as well as trendsetting competitive strategies, like mass customisation are realisable. Both, the necessary integration and the innovative concepts are demanding software supporting automation of communication as well as coordination across system boundaries. In this paper, we describe a framework architecture for intercompany integration of business processes based on commonly accepted and (partially) standardized concepts and techniques. Further on, it is shown how the framework architecture helps to automate procurement processes and how a cost-saving black-box re-use is achieved following a component oriented implementation paradigm
EFTPOS Impacts on Branch Banking: an extra organisational analysis
Get PDFPerceptions and experiences of bank branch managers and merchant who have installed EFTPOS are surveyed to investigate the impact of EFTPOS on branch banking activities using internal and extra-organisational perspectives.
Impacts are identified by reference to banking activities and interpreted as efficiency, effectiveness and competitiveness impacts. It appears that bank managers may have difficulty in isolating the impacts of EFTPOS on banking activities from concurrent changes in banking practices and might overestimate some beneficial impacts. Results indicate a much richer view can be obtained using an organisational perspective of a system's impacts
The Integrated Decision Model in Emergency Dispatch Management and It's Implications for Design
Get PDFThis paper reports on a review of a number of well-known naturalistic decision making. NDM, models (Zsambok & Klein, 1997). Key features of these models were identified and were found to represent different views of the same naturalistic decision making process. The key features of these different views were then integrated into a single model called the Integrated Decision Model. To validate the model, a study of emergency dispatch co-ordinators was conducted to determine the 'goodness of fit' of the model in a naturalistic domain. A Critical Decision Method-based study (Klein et al., 1989) was conducted and found enough evidence in the emergency dispatch management process to support the proposal of the Integrated Decision Model
Increased Availability for Networked Software Services
Get PDFThe availability of networked software services is an increasingly important quality of service issue. A service user gauges service availability in terms of initial access time and subsequent service delivery time. This paper develops - from a user perspective - a quality of service framework for the availability of networked software services. The paper utilises this quality of service framework to suggest the functional characteristics of a new transport layer software specification that would facilitate the increased availability of networked software services
Plugging Files in Database Federations
Get PDFIn order to use files in database federations, we propose to migrate file data into a relational database. Integrating the database in a federation is then well-understood. This procedure has the advantage that a "real" database is handled supporting transactions and SQL; files obtain a high-level interface for free. This paper presents a specification-based approach to support the process of migrating file data into a relational database, and vice versa. A specification language provides powerful concepts to describe the contents of files and directories. In contrast to similar work, directory structures are taken into account, because they contain useful semantics. Given some descriptive specification of file contents, an adapter is generated moving data from several files into the database, and the other way round