834 research outputs found
Managerial and Organizational Assumptions in the CMM's
No full textThinking about improving the management of software development in software firms is dominated by one approach: the capability maturity model devised and administered at the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Though CMM, and its replacement CMMI are widely known and used, there is little convincing research connecting widespread benefits in profitability or improved software products to CMMI improvement initiatives. There are also a number of well understood difficulties and limitations with the approach reported in the literature. This article examines, through the lens of modern management theory, the assumptions behind the CMMI approach. Taking a textual analysis approach focusing on the writings from Carnegie Mellon, it characterises eight interlocking management and organisational assumptions underpinning CMMI. These powerful interlocking assumptions are typical of management thinking about large production and manufacturing organisations (particularly in America) in the late industrial age. Many of the difficulties reported with CMMI can be attributed basing practice on these assumptions in organisations which have different cultures and management traditions, perhaps in different countries operating different economic and social models. Characterizing CMMI in this way opens the door to another question: are there other sets of organisational and management assumptions which would be better suited to other types of organisations operating in other cultural contexts?</em
A Business Case Method for IT Investments in Danish Municipalities
Full text linkEffective management of information technology (IT) investments is increasingly important for Danish municipalities. This is why they along with other both public and private sector organizations increasingly are using IT business cases. The business case is a document specifying the main rationale behind the expected value and cost of an IT investment for the adopting organization. However, experiences from Danish municipalities reveal difficulties in developing effective IT business cases for purposes beyond simple cost savings. Based on collaborative action research with Danish municipalities, we present insights on the challenges in contemporary IT business case practices. We applied these insights in conjunction with contemporary literature on business cases to develop a business case method for Danish municipalities. Based on the municipalities’ evaluation of the method we summarize its key contributions to IT business case practice in local government organizations
Engaged Problem Formulation of IT Management in Danish Municipalities
Full text linkMunicipalities’ effectiveness in managing information technology (IT) is increasingly important in adhering to their responsibilities for providing services to citizens. While the municipalities’ difficulty in managing IT has been well documented, it is more elusive what specific problems are most relevant in contemporary municipal IT management practice. On this basis, we present an engaged scholarship approach to formulate IT management problems together with municipalities - not for municipalities. We have come to understand such engaged problem formulation as joint researching and defining of a contemporary and complex problem by researchers and those who experience and know the problem. We present the formulated IT management problems and discuss the engaged problem formulation process in relation to engaged scholarship. Furthermore, we discuss how engaged problem formulation may contribute to action research when making sense of ill-structured problems by involving multiple stakeholders
To Make Academic Research Relevant, Researchers Should
No full texty gaining acceptance. Such approaches include grounded theory, ethnography, and case study. At the conference, Lynne Markus of Claremont Graduate University, who for years has advocated qualitative research methods, declared, "We have won the war, let us celebrate." She did not mean, however, that quantitative research, in the form of, say, mathematical modeling, statistical analysis, and laboratory experiments, represents an enemy Action Research David Avison, Francis Lau, Michael Myers, and Peter Axel Nielsen . The Tavistock School's sociotechnical design [7]; . Scandinavian research efforts intended to empower trade unions and strengthen the bargaining positions of users in systems development [4]; and . The Effective Technical and Human Implementation of Computer-based Systems (ETHICS) participative and ethical approach to information systems development [7]. These efforts all yield observable effects on practice. For example, action research encourages researchers to e
A study on how notes and lists integrates with a group calendar
No full textThis report documents the process of developing a functional prototype of an electronic calendar that is to be used as part of an experiment with human subjects.The basis for the electronic calendar prototype is work we have done in a previous semester, coupled with existing related research in the areas of electronic calendaring, notes and list, group coordination and sharing.Following the designing and creation of the electronic calendar prototype, an experiment is designed to investigate, how notes, lists and the sharing of these affects group calendaring in electronic calendars, where the experiment consist of: a questionnaire, a feature test and an interview.After designing the experiment, we describe how we conducted the experiments and present our findings from the experiment.Lastly, we have a discussion on the findings from the experiment and a conclusion on the findings presented in the report
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