Critical role of measures in decision processes: Managerial and technical measures in the context of large software development organizations

ContextToday, many software development organizations struggle to establish measurement programs to monitor their projects, products and units. After overcoming the initial threshold of establishing the measurement program organizations stand before the questions of which measures should be collected in order to lead to actions or at least effectively trigger decision processes.ObjectiveThe objective of this paper is to investigate how to use measures in an effective way in decision processes. This dependency is examined through a case study – Ericsson in Sweden. Two models of these dependencies are recognized a priori – metrics-push and metric-pull – and in the study the models are used to describe how measures affect decisions and vice versa.MethodThe research method is a case study of the measurement program of one of the product development units of Ericsson in Sweden. The participants are carefully selected from the management teams at different levels of organizations. The objects are measures and decisions at these management levels. The instruments are interviews and observations. The results obtained at Ericsson are validated through interviews at another company – RUAG Space.ResultsThe results show that effective use of measures as evidence for decision processes does not require a large number of measures (ca. 20 at the top management level). It was found that there are four types of measures which are used in different ways in the context of decision formulation and implementation (which we call decision-measures dependency model). The critical aspects of effective measures in decision-making context are completeness, reliability and providing early warnings. It was also found that the time between the decision and when its results can be observed via measures (length of the feedback loop) is a crucial aspect determining at which organizational level a measure should be placed.ConclusionsAfter overcoming the initial threshold of establishing measurement programs the organizations demand non-functional properties from the measures. These non-functional properties like completeness, providing early-warning or trust determine whether decision processes are triggered by measures or not.     

Support for real-time decision making in mobile financial applications

Mobile users making real-time decisions based on current information need confidence that their context has been taken into consideration in producing the system’s recommendations. This chapter reviews current use of mobile technologies for context-aware real-time decision support. Specifically, it describes a framework for assessing the impact of mobility in decision making. The framework uses dynamic context model of data quality to represent uncertainties in the mobile decision-making environment. This framework can be used for developing visual interactive displays for communicating to the user relevant changes in data quality when working in mobile environments. As an illustration, this chapter proposes a real-time decision support procedure for on-the-spot assistance to the mobile consumer when choosing the best payment option to efficiently manage their budget. The proposed procedure is based on multi-attribute decision analysis, scenario reasoning, and a quality of data framework. The feasibility of the approach is demonstrated with a mobile decision-support system prototype implementation. This article is part of the “Handbook on Decision Support Systems” edited by Frada Burstein and Clyde W. Holsapple (2008) Springer.     

A paradoxical perspective on technology renewal in digital transformation

To realize their strategic goals and maintain a competitive advantage in the digital era, organizations must periodically renew their digital platforms and infrastructures. However, knowledge about such technology renewal is scattered across diverse research streams, so insights into the process are both limited and fragmented. In this article, we consolidate insights from previous research to conceptualize technology renewal as an inherently paradoxical digital transformation process that requires organizations to simultaneously remove their technological foundation and build on the practices that depend on it to implement a new technological foundation. Previous research suggests that technology renewal initiatives are driven by three paradoxical tensions: (a) established vs renewed technology usage, (b) deliberate vs emergent renewal practices and (c) inner vs outer renewal contexts. We apply this framing to a longitudinal case study in which we analyse and explain how an organization's responses to manifestations of these tensions eventually led to a vicious cycle of continued investments into two overlapping and largely incompatible digital platforms over a 9‐year period. Based on these conceptual and empirical insights, we theorize technology renewal as a paradoxical, and increasingly critical, digital transformation process that forces managers to make decisions in complex and ambiguous choice situations.     

A Lack of Insight: An Experimental Analysis of R&D Managers’ Decision Making in Innovation Portfolio Management

This study analyses the decision to exploit an innovation project and investigates differences in individuals’ evaluations of project attributes in the context of innovation project portfolio management. A conjoint field experiment was used to collect data on exploitation decisions made by 126 research and development (R&D) managers to test how managers evaluate specific project attributes in the context of innovation project portfolio management. I analyse the relative power and popularity of profitability, strategy, uncertainty and social dimensions of the portfolio while R&D managers exploit an innovation project. Moreover, using social judgement theory, I analyse actual exploitation processes (i.e., the innovation attributes an R&D manager considers while he or she is making an exploitation decision) and self‐reported decision‐making attributes (i.e., managers’ self‐reported data). The data underline that R&D managers value specific project attributes more and others less, and therefore find disparities in innovation project portfolio decision making. Based on this study's results, decision makers are better able to reflect and understand the influence of specific project attributes. Therefore, they should investigate established decision‐making processes which can help them to improve portfolio performance.     

Design matters for decision makers: Discovering IT investment alternatives

The literature has traditionally focused on how decision makers choose among alternatives based on rational behaviors, organizational politics, and organized anarchies. However, there is little research on decision making as a creative process where managers discover and evaluate alternatives. We address this gap by proposing a design approach to transform decisions in organizations. The approach views decision making as a creative and adaptive process in which managers recursively collect and interpret heterogeneous evidence, explore and test different ideas, and discover and evaluate alternatives. While the approach is rooted in the know-how of the involved stakeholders, its underpinning design attitude invites managers to better understand possible alternatives based on analyses of structured as well as unstructured data. To assess its utility, we applied the approach to IT investment evaluations through a Collaborative Practice Research project involving Swedish public organizations. Building on the project findings, we discuss the proposed approach and spell out its implications for transforming decision making in organizations.     

Making Decisions on Innovation: Meetings or Networks?

Within some streams of thinking in the management of innovation and product development, the crux is the manager's active engagement in the evaluation, selection and control of the various activities through gate and portfolio meetings in which information is presented and decisions are made that manage innovation projects at a distance. This traditional managerial perspective regards the meetings as (important) ‘obligatory passage points’ but cannot explain a number of observations that reveal few decisions being made at those meetings. A network process perspective on the management of innovation is derived as an alternative to the normative linear view. This alternative perspective makes it possible to explain how innovation projects actually consist of myriad actions, negotiations, and micro‐decisions in the effort to create strong networks, leaving few decisions for the official gate and portfolio meetings. Through the analysis of two cases, this paper demonstrates how project managers work to stabilize the network in order to involve numerous human and non‐human actors and to encourage more and more of them into joining the network. Successfully establishing stable networks and successfully filling the templates for their projects leaves little room – and requires little intervention – for decision makers at portfolio meetings, where approvals are sought rather than decisions made. This study explains how gate and portfolio management meetings are, in some instances, better viewed as checkpoints rather than as decision meetings, how decision making is displaced from the meetings, and how the use of gate and portfolio management systems have created a number of mandatory templates which must be dealt with by the project managers. These mandatory documents function as boundary objects between and among the different worlds of the actors involved and establish new obligatory passage points in the management process; thus boundary objects become transformed into obligatory passage points. Implications for managers and research are outlined, including methods of dealing with the management of product innovation projects when the focus shifts from planning, preparations and decision making toward the co‐creation of technology and markets and involves interessement of human and non‐human actors.     

Encouraging user management participation in systems design

Although the need for managers of user functions to be involved in the design of information or decision support systems (DSS) is broadly accepted as one of the essential principles of information systems development, we know little about why some firms have been able to achieve high levels of such managerial participation while others have been less successful. Though field interviews with MIS directors, it was possible to identify three widely held assumptions concerning the organizational level factors which might facilitate middle management participation from user organizations in systems design. To explore the relationship between these factors and user middle management participation, 152 user managers (functional area department heads) were studied from 55 firms. The results suggest that many firms may, unknowingly, manage their information system function in a manner which does not encourage user middle management involvement in the design of the systems they use.     

The impact of DSS on organizational communication

There is some controversy in the MIS literature concerning the potential impact of computer systems on interpersonal communication in organizations. Generally, MIS researchers have found that effective communication between users and designers is an important factor in determining user satisfaction and MIS success.Recently, however, Naylor [8] has argued that decision support systems (DSS) may isolate managers from interaction with others. This is in marked contrast to the contentions of Wagner [16] and Huber [6] that DSS may lead to more effective managerial communication.We would argue that DSS encourage communication for several reasons: adaptive DSS development requires continued manager-analyst interaction; DSS-based decisions often require groups of managers; and there is a greater need for human information processing in a DSS environment.This paper reports the results of a study of the relationships between DSS usage and organizational communications. It was found that users in three different categories (managers, financial or planning analysts (FPAs), and “others”) felt that DSS usage encouraged communication. Also, significant positive relationships were found between increased communication and overall satisfaction with the DSS for all three groups. Finally, for managers and FPAs, significant positive relationships were found between increased communication and satisfaction with the DSS in decision-making activities.     

Integrating carrier selection with supplier selection decisions to improve supply chain security

Supply chain security is a major concern for logistics managers who have responsibility for inbound and outbound shipments to and from both domestic and international locations. We propose here that logistics decisions concerning security in the supply chain will be made more effectively when made in concert with decisions in related supply chain processes, especially supplier and carrier selection. Indeed, managers may minimize cost, transit time, and security risk by integrating decision processes internally, as well as with their carrier's and supplier's operations. Thus, we account for both intra‐firm collaboration between logistics and purchasing managers, as well as inter‐firm collaboration among buyers, suppliers, and carriers in a supply chain. In this paper, we propose a decision process that features a set of security rules and a multi‐objective optimization model to accomplish this aim. We then provide an illustration to demonstrate the potential usefulness of these concepts in practice.     

IT Governance of Dutch Municipalities and Digital Information Management

Digitalization of information management has changed the archives sector in a short period of time and has significant implications for information processes within governmental organizations. In this article, the governance of such organizations is looked at from a business information technology (IT) alignment driven perspective, based on a case study conducted within two Dutch municipalities. The study shows that mature IT governance can have positive effects on digital document information management, because it leads to “desirable behavior in the use of IT.” Comparing the two municipalities, several findings become apparent. These concern effective management of input, for example through successful cooperation, and effective management of output of IT, for example by providing the needed digital services to citizens. Findings also are presented regarding the conjoint development of strategies by business and IT, mainly concerning the involvement of IT in decision making. Finally, findings surface concerning the positioning of decision-making authority, and whether that is clear to the personnel.     

From BPMN process models to DMN decision models

The interplay between process and decision models plays a crucial role in business process management, as decisions may be based on running processes and affect process outcomes. Often process models include decisions that are encoded through process control flow structures and data flow elements, thus reducing process model maintainability. The Decision Model and Notation (DMN) was proposed to achieve separation of concerns and to possibly complement the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) for designing decisions related to process models. Nevertheless, deriving decision models from process models remains challenging, especially when the same data underlie both process and decision models. In this paper, we explore how and to which extent the data modeled in BPMN processes and used for decision-making may be represented in the corresponding DMN decision models. To this end, we identify a set of patterns that capture possible representations of data in BPMN processes and that can be used to guide the derivation of decision models related to existing process models. Throughout the paper we refer to real-world healthcare processes to show the applicability of the proposed approach.     

How managers interpret scanning information

When scanning, managers acquire and collect information about their environment to keep informed of its evolution, make decisions, and sometimes to anticipate changes. We attempted to understand this process and assess how French managers interpret scanning information to evaluate its importance. Our effort resulted in: (1) sixteen factors used by managers to make sense of the signs and signals they perceived when scanning; (2) a heuristic model of the process; and (3) two instances of the model. Our results suggested that ad hoc training should be provided and IT use should be fully investigated to enhance managers’ scanning skills if organizations wish to develop an ability to detect weak signs/signals, anticipate plausible change, and increase strategic decision effectiveness.     

An exploration of enterprise technology selection and evaluation

The evaluation-and-selection of enterprise technologies by firms has been said to be largely rational and deterministic. This paper challenges this notion, and puts forward the argument that substantial ceremonial aspects also play an important role. An in-depth, exploratory longitudinal case study of a bank selecting a ubiquitous and pervasive e-mail system was conducted using grounded theory and a hermeneutic [pre] understanding of institutional and decision making theories. Intuition, symbols, rituals, and ceremony all figured prominently in the decision process. However, rather than being in conflict with the rational processes, we found them to be in tension, leading to a more holistic social construction of decision processes. For researchers, this suggests that a focus on process rationality, not outcomes, might lead to a fuller understanding of these critical decisions. For managers, it underscores the importance of understanding the past in order to create the future.     

Relative importance of evaluation criteria for enterprise systems: a conjoint study

Abstract.  While a large body of research exists on the development and implementation of software, organizations are increasingly acquiring enterprise software packages [e.g. enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems] instead of custom developing their own software applications. To be competitive in the marketplace, software package development firms must manage the three-pronged trade-off between cost, quality and functionality. Surprisingly, prior research has made little attempt to investigate the characteristics of packaged software that influence management information system (MIS) managers' likelihood of recommending purchase. As a result, both the criteria by which MIS managers evaluate prospective packaged systems and the attributes that lead to commercially competitive ERP software products are poorly understood. This paper examines this understudied issue through a conjoint study. We focus on ERP systems, which are among the largest and most complex packaged systems that are purchased by organizations. In a conjoint study, 1008 evaluation decisions based on hypothetical ERP software package profiles were completed by managers in 126 organizations. The study represents the first empirical investigation of the relative importance that managers ascribe to various factors that are believed to be important in evaluating packaged software. The results provide important insights for both organizations that acquire such systems and those that develop them. The results show that functionality, reliability, cost, ease of use and ease of customization are judged to be important criteria, while ease of implementation and vendor reputation were not found to be significant. Functionality and reliability were found to be the most heavily weighted factors. We conclude the paper with a detailed discussion of the results and their implications for software acquisition and development practice.     

Organizational Adaptation in Multi‐Stakeholder Crisis Response: An Experimental Study

Modern day crises demand organizations to collaborate and adapt to new roles, functions and structures. In such situations, lack of collaborative behaviour and openness between organizations can result in reduced adaptive ability. Therefore, it is important to facilitate collaboration between organizations. We have studied the extent to which crisis managers are prepared to work with personnel and resources from organizations other than their own when responding to crises. An experiment was designed with four different organizations in Sweden, which involved decision making concerning whether the participants systematically favoured their own organization over others. Findings indicate that increasing familiarity and expectation of future cooperation with other organizations increased the likelihood that decision makers would be prepared to work with other organizations in joint crisis management.     

Adapting funding processes for agile IT projects: an empirical investigation

Agile software development that provides software development organizations, the ability to respond to changes in turbulent business environments, has been gaining wide adoption. Agile software development projects are characterized by ‘just enough’ planning and lack of upfront commitment to scope, cost, and schedule. These characteristics pose conflicting demands on managers responsible for making funding decisions, because traditional approaches to funding IT projects are often based on well-defined scope, cost, and schedule. These conflicts demand the adaptation of traditional funding processes to suit to agile projects. We draw from Adaptive Structuration Theory to understand the nature of conflicts between traditional IT project funding processes and the dynamic nature of agile projects, and how these conflicts are addressed by practices that are appropriated in the process of social interaction between funding decision makers and development teams. On the basis of a multisite case study, we present a framework that explains how organizations adapt traditional IT funding approaches to accommodate the unique characteristics of agile IT projects.     

Blending bureaucratic and collaborative management styles to achieve control ambidexterity in IS projects

Managing information systems (IS) projects requires what we refer to as ‘control ambidexterity’, which is the use of different types of control to meet conflicting demands. This leads to the use of contrasting styles of IS project management and creates tensions in managerial practice, neither of which are well understood. We address this theoretical gap in our understanding based on an exploratory case study of an IS implementation project in the financial services industry. Adopting the lens of management styles as a meta-theoretical perspective, we sought to address two research questions: (1) Which management style(s) do IS project managers draw upon in practice and why? (2) What kinds of tensions result for IS project managers and team members from drawing upon contrasting management styles in combination – and how do IS project managers and team members deal with these tensions? Two contrasting styles of management emerged from our data – bureaucratic and collaborative – that are drawn upon by IS project managers to achieve control ambidexterity. Furthermore, drawing upon these two different styles in combination within the confines of a single project creates tensions. We explore these tensions and present an illustrative example of how IS project managers can deal with these tensions successfully in practice. Specifically, we find that they can be dealt with effectively by a tandem of two project managers who share responsibility for managing the IS project. The findings of this study have important implications for our understanding of control ambidexterity in IS projects.     

Is Formality in Knowledge Management Practices Related to the Size of Organizations? The Basque Case

This article's objectives are to analyze the trends related to knowledge management process in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) and to compare these findings with the conclusions of other research studies designed for SMEs and to examine the level of formality in knowledge management processes according to the size of enterprise. As well, to propose a model suited to the characteristics of the small business. The information is collected from 22 Basque Country SMEs grouped into industrial clusters, through a survey that is conducted to identify the use of practices related to knowledge management. Results show that informal practices figure prominently in the day to day of the SME and that the knowledge management process is not standardized but that is performed by the collaborative work between people, among others. Besides, the size of the SME acts as a factor in regard to the level of formality in knowledge management process. This study helps SME managers understand where the organizational knowledge is found within organizations and, consequently, to not neglect the importance of people in keeping competitiveness high. The article provides new information on how firms located in a particular region of Spain perform in relation to knowledge management, and it could be considered a sort of benchmarking practice on the behavior of SME in managing knowledge, which will be useful for the organization when taking management decisions.     

Deciding to upgrade packaged software: a comparative case study of motives,contingencies and dependencies

Packaged software is widely adopted and has become an integral part of most organizations’ IT portfolios. Once packaged software is adopted, upgrades to subsequent versions appear to be inevitable. To date, research on packaged software has not paid attention to the upgrade decision process. To explore this area, we studied cases of upgrades to two widely used packaged software products (SAP and Windows) in a multi-billion dollar division of a Fortune 500 company. From an analysis of the cases, we induced a theoretical model explaining the influences affecting the decisions to upgrade. Our model suggests that upgrade decisions are the outcome of interaction between motivating forces that can originate from internal and external environments, and contingency forces. Business need was found to be one of the key internal requirements, along with organizational risk mitigation policies. Organizational reliance on packaged software also creates dependence on vendors that gives them influence over the organization's upgrade decision. The decision to upgrade is also contingent on the availability of internal resources. Although scarcity of internal resources can postpone an upgrade when the need to upgrade is deferrable, organizations will prioritize internal resources when the upgrade is deemed necessary.