Why situational method engineering is useful to information systems development

Effective methods and methodologies for building information systems (IS) remain crucial to building successful IS. This paper investigates the use of situational method engineering for IS development (ISD) projects in a professional bureaucracy. This specialist organization methodology (SOM) is built starting with the philosophy of ISD moving through to flexible, amethodical implementation methods, a proposed instance of situational method engineering that is targeted towards professional bureaucracies. An in‐depth philosophical discussion of the ontological, epistemological, research methodological and ethical underpinnings of SOM are outlined, in addition to its limitations, to develop the building blocks of a methodology to implement within a professional bureaucracy organization ISD scenario. Amethodical ISD will be introduced as the appropriate way to implement this developed methodology to build a successful IS. The contribution of this paper is to detail how to develop a philosophically consistent methodology for a specific organizational environment (in this case, using the specific organizational example of a professional bureaucracy) that, when combined with developers and tools, can create a method to be applied to build an IS that has a greater possibility of successful organizational adoption than an IS built using a method devised using more common IS method engineering approaches.     

Soft systems and systems engineering: on the use of conceptual models in information system development

Abstract. Many recent studies have shown that computer-based systems continue to ‘fail’ at a number of different levels (Romtec, 1988; KPMG, 1990) and it is increasingly apparent (Maclaren et al., 1991) that the most serious failures of information technology (IT) lie in the continuing inability to address those concerns which are central to the successful achievement of individual, organizational and social goals. It is the contention of this paper that this failing is precisely because these are the areas which are ignored or inadequately treated by conventional system development methods. There is, of course, a vast body of literature concerned with the understanding of complex human activity systems. This literature often reflects a mass of contradictions at the epistemological and the ontological level about the behaviour of such systems and has also spawned numerous methods (and methodologies) which seek to guide the individual in making successful interventions into organizational situations (Rosenhead, 1989). Despite this multiplicity of viewpoints many writers have posited a dichotomy between so-called 'soft and ‘hard’ approaches to problem situations and use this dichotomy to inform the choice of an appropriate problem-solving methodology (Checkland, 1985). In this paper we characterize these two approaches as being concerned with either the purpose(s) of the human activity system (i.e. ‘doing the right thing’) or with the design of the efficient means of achieving such purpose(s) (i.e. ‘doing the thing right’). It is our belief that much of the literature and work in either area has not concerned itself with the issues of the other. Writers on ‘hard’ engineering methods often assume the question of purpose to be either straightforward (e.g. given in the project brief) or, paradoxically, too difficult (e.g. it is not our concern as mere systems analysts). Writers on ‘soft’ methods on the other hand rarely have anything to say about the design and implementation of well-engineered computer-based systems, giving the impression that this is a somewhat mundane activity better left to technical experts. This paper, therefore, attempts to set out a rationale for the bringing together of principles from both ‘hard’ engineering and ‘soft’ inquiry methods without doing epistemological damage to either. To illustrate our argument we concentrate on JSD (Jackson system development) as an example of system engineering (Cameron, 1983) and SSM (soft systems methodology) as an example of system inquiry (Checkland, 1981; Checkland & Scholes, 1990). Our general thesis, however, does not depend upon either of these two approaches per se but applies to the overall issue of bringing together insights from two apparently opposed epistemological positions in an effort better to harness the power of IT in pursuit of purposeful human activity.     

Performance assessment of intelligent distributed systems through software performance ontology engineering (SPOE)

In the computer science community there is a growing interest in the field of Ambient Intelligent Systems. This systems surround their human users with computing and networking technology unobtrusively embedded in their environment. This technology is aimed to provide the users with useful information and to take action to make the environment more convenient for them. As the number of users increases the resources that make Ambient Intelligence possible can be easily saturated making the system unstable and projecting an image of poor QoS to the users. The main goal of this paper is to provide the means for the Ambient Intelligent Systems to monitor themselves and take corrective action automatically if performance starts to drop. Our approach uses a Performance Ontology that structures the knowledge about Software Performance Engineering, and a reasoning engine that acts like an expert system with the Performance Ontology as its foundation. The case study at the end shows the applicability of the developed techniques.     

Iterative development of information systems: A case study

This paper makes some observations about the applicability of iterative development for system implementation. After a general discussion of the software process, the types of projects suitable for this approach are identified. A system designed to support the iterative development method is then briefly examined, and a case study of its use is presented. Conclusions about the process are drawn, and some research issues regarding productivity are defined.     

Multi-metaphor method: organizational metaphors in information systems development

Abstract.  Conventional methods have been criticized for their positivist philosophy and for either ignoring the organizational context of information systems development (ISD) or using only a simplistic, machine-based conceptual model of organizations. We have developed an approach to enable systems developers to use a richer view of organizations and a more interpretive approach. Multi-Metaphor Method (MMM) supports developers via a range of metaphors as cognitive structuring devices to understand an organization so that developers can learn to move between different ways of 'reading' the social context in which ISD occurs. We explain the rationale and theoretical underpinnings of MMM and then discuss our action research to investigate the viability and relevance of MMM during ISD practice. We show how the developers' use of organizational metaphors via MMM did not just enable rich conceptualizations of the client organizations but also influenced the ISD process and final product. We review the learning outcomes and discuss the implications for systems development practice of our research.     

Effective organizational improvisation in information systems development: Insights from the Tencent messaging system development

Organizational improvisation has been increasingly observed in information systems development (ISD), which leads to both positive and negative results. Extant studies have examined how to conduct effective improvisation, but findings are mainly based on variance-based models; a process model is missing. Our study fills this gap by conducting an in-depth case study of the Tencent messaging system development. Our study identifies a four-phase process model featuring, a continuous iteration between improvisational search and build. Our findings make important contributions to organizational improvisation literature in ISD and general management and provide a step-by-step guide for ISD managers to conduct effective improvisation.     

Ontology‐based model‐driven development of a destination management portal: Experience and lessons learned

We present a case study in model‐driven development of an e‐tourism portal that we chose to develop through generation from a domain model encoded as an ontology. We present (1) the requirements of e‐tourism portal, which dictated its high‐level design; (2) the principles behind our implementation strategy, including the use of a domain ontology as a starting model within the context of a model‐driven transformational approach; (3) the ontology development process and the code generation strategy used; and (4) the lessons learned. In particular, we compare our experiences to those reported in the model‐driven engineering (MDE) literature along 3 dimensions, ie, (1) the impact of MDE on the development process, (2) the choice of the modeling approach, and (3) the impact of code generation on design and code quality and testing. Overall, our experiences corroborated some of the theoretical claims and many of the practical experiences with MDE. Key findings include (1) model‐driven development makes maintenance, not development, more efficient; (2) it does require a higher skill level than traditional development; (3) clients and managers need to be educated into what incrementality means in a generative approach; (4) UML is neither necessary nor sufficient to handle the required representational flexibility; (5) it is difficult to build models that are good for both human consumption and code generation; and (6) it is difficult to generate code that is, simultaneously, efficient, pretty, and easy to maintain. We conclude by summarizing the findings of the paper.     

Security Attack Testing (SAT)—testing the security of information systems at design time

For the last few years a considerable number of efforts have been devoted into integrating security issues into information systems development practices. This has led to a number of languages, methods, methodologies and techniques for considering security issues during the developmental stages of an information system. However, these approaches mainly focus on security requirements elicitation, analysis and design issues and neglect testing. This paper presents the Security Attack Testing (SAT) approach, a novel scenario-based approach that tests the security of an information system at the design time. The approach is illustrated with the aid of a real-life case study involving the development of a health and social care information system.     

The Brave New World of development in the internetwork computing architecture (InterNCA): or how distributed computing platforms will change systems development

This essay is a speculation of the impact of the next generation technological platform — the internetwork computing architecture (InterNCA) — on systems development. The impact will be deep and pervasive and more substantial than when computing migrated from closed computer rooms to ubiquitous personal computers and flexible client-server solutions. Initially, by drawing upon the notion of a technological frame, the InterNCA, and how it differs from earlier technological frames, is examined. Thereafter, a number of hypotheses are postulated with regard to how the architecture will affect systems development content, scope, organization and processes. Finally, some suggestions for where the information systems research community should focus its efforts (if the call for relevance is not to be taken lightly) are proposed.     

ICT-integrated education and national innovation systems in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries

The widespread use and availability of information and communication technologies (ICT) has greatly impacted how nations conceptualize innovation and the ways formal mass education can be used to advance socio-political and economic agendas. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have increasingly focused on the roles of science and technology in building research development and innovation (RDI) capacity to create national innovation systems (NIS). This paper uses evidence from the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the 2009 World Bank Institute Knowledge Economy Index (KEI) to investigate the spread of ICT in national education systems in the GCC countries and the impact of ICT-based learning as a catalyst for NIS and RDI capacity in the region. Previous research suggests that ICT-based instruction has the potential to build capacity in knowledge development, which is a key component in the establishment of national innovation systems. However, the analyses presented here suggest that the ways ICT is used in education in the GCC do not build capacity in knowledge development in youth. Although evidence shows that GCC countries do have institutional capacity in ICT, it is not used for knowledge development in part because of limitations imposed by the cultural contexts for education in the Gulf. The paper concludes with recommendations for ways that GCC teachers can use ICT to create national innovation systems and research capacity through reforms to teacher training and professional development.     

The effects of computer simulation and animation (CSA) on students' cognitive processes: A comparative case study in an undergraduate engineering course

This study focuses on the investigation of the effects of computer simulation and animation (CSA) on students' cognitive processes in an undergraduate engineering course. The revised Bloom's taxonomy, which consists of six categories in the cognitive process domain, was employed in this study. Five of the six categories were investigated, including remember, understand, apply, analyze, and evaluate. Data were collected via a think‐aloud protocol involving two groups of student participants: One group learned a worked example problem with a CSA module, and the other group learned the same problem with traditional textbook‐style instruction. A new concept called frequency index was proposed for use in qualitative research that involves the quantitative comparison of the overall popularity of a particular mental activity performed by two groups of students. The results show that as compared to traditional textbook‐style instruction, CSA significantly increases students' activities in the understand category of the revised Bloom's taxonomy during learning and significantly increases students' activities in the understand, apply, analyse, and evaluate categories during subsequent problem‐solving. That learning via CSA has a profound impact on subsequent problem‐solving is attributed to intensive human–computer interactions built in the CSA learning module.     

Professional development to enhance teachers' practices in using information and communication technologies (ICTs) as cognitive tools: Lessons learned from a design-based research study

Technology integration in K-12 classrooms is usually overly teacher-centered and has insufficient impact on students' learning, especially in enhancing students' higher-order cognitive skills. The purpose of this project is to facilitate science teachers' use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) as cognitive tools to shift their practices from traditional teacher-centered methods to constructivist, student-centered ones. This paper describes the outcomes and lessons learned from an application of design-based research (DBR) in the implementation and refinement of a teacher professional development (PD) program that is a key component of the overall project. This DBR study involved 25 middle-school science teachers from 24 schools whose implementation of cognitive tools with their students in science classrooms and virtually through a social networking site were observed over four years. A mixed-methodology was utilized to examine the impact of the cognitive tools intervention on teachers' classroom practices and students' development of new literacy skills. Identifying reusable design principles related to technology integration was another focus of the DBR study. The results revealed teachers' positive changes in their classroom practices by gradually allowing students to take control over the use of technology, and positive impact on students' ICT skills and science learning. Design principles for future professional development programs aimed at preparing teachers to adopt a cognitive tools approach are described.