Product: Measurement of Creativity of IS Products

While the literature on creativity/innovation in IS is sparse, the literature on measurement of creativity in IS products/services is non-existent. This paper provides a review of the literature on measurement of creativity, then concentrates on a discussion of the measurement of software products. Six software products are evaluated for their degree of creativity using a two-criterion approach: novelty and utility.     

Press: Measurement of the Climate for Creativity in IS Organizations

The Work Environment Inventory (WEI) instrument was used to measure the climate for creativity for a representative set of IS organizations. The results were compared to those for non-IS organizations, revealing significant differences. Specific areas of deficiency were identified. IS management can concentrate on those factors to leverage budget and effort to enhance the climate for creativity.     

Maintenance Quality Assurance

If a manufacturing company created products at the quality level required for irnost software, the company would quickly go out of business. This critiicism reflects the fact that software is playing an ever-increasiing role in critical business processes. Yet software quality has not received the attention needed for such an important attribute. This article explores the major quality challenges IS departments and their standard committees face in improving software quality.     

QUALITY CONCERNS IN SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

If a manufacturing company created products at the quality level required for irnost software, the company would quickly go out of business. This critiicism reflects the fact that software is playing an ever-increasiing role in critical business processes. Yet software quality has not received the attention needed for such an important attribute. This article explores the major quality challenges IS departments and their standard committees face in improving software quality.     

QUALITY CONCERNS IN SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

If a manufacturing company created products at the quality level required for most software, the company would quickly go out of business. This criticism reflects the fact that software is playing an ever-increasing role in critical business processes. Yet software quality has not received the attention needed for such an important attribute. This article explores the major quality challenges IS departments and their standard committees face in improving software quality.     

Packaged software: implications of the differences from custom approaches to software development

This paper contributes to the literature on software development in two ways. First, by discussing the packaged software domain relative to the more commonly studied custom information systems (IS) domain. Second, this paper presents our speculations on the implications of these differences between packaged and custom IS development. Regarding the first issue, while the two domains share many commonalities, the differences are also important to understand. To make this clear we discuss the differences at four levels: industry forces, approaches to software development, work culture and development team efforts. At each level, data from three case studies are used to illustrate the differences between the two domains. To develop our speculations, we contend that the differences between packaged software and the traditional, custom, approach to information systems development will be profound for five stakeholder groups: software development organizations, software development teams, software developers, software consumers and for researchers interested in software development.     

Information systems outsourcing decisions using a group decision-making approach

Outsourcing refers to a company that contracts with another company to provide services that might otherwise be performed by in-house employees. Information system (IS) outsourcing policies define the criteria that organizations utilize to decide upon the scope and degree of reliance of their IS capabilities upon external sources. IS outsourcing is an innovative organizational tool for IS management in both private and public sector organizations. In this paper, an interactive group decision-making methodology is proposed to select/rank IS providers under multiple criteria. A measure for the consensus level of the group preferences is developed to satisfy an acceptable level of group agreement and reliability. The Spearman coefficients for both the aggregated rank order and each DM's rank order have also been calculated. The group and the individual evaluations are gathered through a fuzzy TOPSIS approach. The proposed methodology is applied in the largest office furniture manufacturer in Konya-Turkey. Eight alternative IS providers are evaluated based on seven criteria by five decision makers. Sensitivity analyses are also provided to see the effects of parameter changes on the final decision.     

Taking Style On Board (or how to get used to the idea of creative adaptors and uncreative innovators)

The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential impact of Kirton's Adaption-Innovation Theory on our thinking about creativity, and consequently on the practices of researchers and trainers in this field. That people differ in their degree or level of creativity has long been established. Kirton's work asserts that people also differ in the manner in which they express their creativity—their style, and the KAI (the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory) measures a person's preferred style. In the literature, Style and Level of creativity are argued (and mostly shown) to be independent. It follows from this that Adaptors and Innovators are creative (and uncreative) in different ways. It is suggested that much of the work in the creativity field has focused on the Innovative style of creativity. This paper describes research identifying differences in how Adaptors and Innovators view their creative products, looks at some possible implications for training, explores differences in preferred organisational climate between Adaptors and Innovators, and suggests a style-neutral definition of creativity.     

Reconsidering deconstruction in information systems research

Deconstruction, a post-structuralist approach to examining language in texts, is most often associated with the philosophical works of Jacque Derrida. After a flurry of interest among management and information systems (IS) scholars, this qualitative approach to exploring organizational texts has received little attention in the IS literature. We suggest deconstruction could help our field explore how IS texts describe the social and technical past and also prescribe and circumscribe the future of IS practice. Thus, we suggest the IS field reconsider how deconstruction might contribute to language-based approaches in IS research and practice. In this paper, we discuss deconstruction in light of the linguistic turn in social science research and the support and criticism for its use in management research. We consider IS research publications that have employed deconstruction explicitly, examine a well-known IS publication as an example of the deconstruction of IS texts, and suggest ways in which deconstruction might be applied to various genres of IS texts to inspire insights and creativity. To conclude, we highlight considerations for researchers who might adopt this approach and for the editors and reviewers who would evaluate qualitative research papers that employ deconstruction.     

Crouching error, hidden markup [Microsoft Word]

Microsoft has such a pervasive commercial presence that people working professionally in computing must expect that the company's behavior will affect their own work and reputation in many ways. It's difficult to ignore Microsoft and only too easy to snipe at the company, but Microsoft's effect on the computing profession, as distinct from its effect on the industry, might be harmful to a degree that would justify severe criticism. Microsoft Word's lack of a versatile and visible markup language can make using the package a nightmare-and reflects poorly on our profession. In addition, one's struggle to get help from Microsoft technical support can often be fruitless and expensive     

Subject Positions and Power Relations in Creative Organizations: Taking a Discursive View on Organizational Creativity

In this paper we take a discursive view on organizational creativity and examine subject positions and power relations produced within a discourse on creativity in two different kinds of creative organizations, an opera house and a games company. In particular, we focus on the ways in which the discourse is practised in creative production processes. The two cases illustrate how the macro‐level discourse on creativity can be enacted in a more micro‐level construction of subjectivities. In the study we identified several subject positions that were shared by both organizations, and examined how they were embedded in the organizations' formal and informal hierarchies. By taking a discursive approach to creativity, we have also been able to explore some unwanted consequences of emphasizing creativity in organizations.     

Meeting the Software Challenge: A Model for is Transformation

As economic and technological trends create spiraling demand for software resources, IS managers must increasingly weigh the risks of new technology against the costs of falling behind. in this environment, successful management of the IS organization depends less on the transfer of technological implements than on adopting the characteristics of a learning organization: a mature process, a culture supportive of continuous change, and effective management.     

Have we Forgotten the Fundamental it Enabler: Ease of Use

“I asked for a glass of water and got a hose in the face.” That's how one IT customer explained to his IS manager the latest and greatest e-mail system that their company installed. the system simply overwhelmed users with its myriad of functions. It seems that as computers and software grow more powerful, they are also growing too complex for most IT customers to use. This article is a reminder that using information technology should help people accomplish tasks and not be a task itself.     

Determinants of software quality: A survey of information systems project managers

Software quality is important for the success of any information systems (IS). In this research, we find the determinants of software quality. We used five attributes for software quality: system reliability, maintainability, ease of use, usefulness, and relevance. By surveying 112 IS project managers, we collected data about their perceptions on the software quality attributes and their determinants. We arrived at six factors through exploratory factor analysis. We determined the individual factors that impacted the software quality attributes; for example, reliability is associated with responsiveness of IS department; ease of use is influenced by the capabilities of users and attitude of management; and usefulness is impacted by capabilities of IS department and responsiveness of IS department. We show that organizational factors are more important than technical factors in impacting software quality in IS projects. We provide implications of our research to practice and to future research.     

财经院校软件工程专业建设的探索

相对于我国的软件产业的快速发展,软件工程专业教育发展相对滞后。在许多软件专业学生找不到工作的同时,软件企业却找不到合适的人才。本文提出了在财经院校建设软件工程专业的一些探索,主要为解决学生动手实践能力,从而解决就业问题等提供一些思路。     

Important characteristics of software development team members: an empirical investigation using Repertory Grid

An information system is typically developed by a team of information systems (IS) professionals. Research shows that teams staffed with the right people are more likely to be effective and efficient. There is a paucity of study that examines the important traits of IS professionals in team contexts. The objective of this research is to identify and understand the important characteristics of good team members in software development projects. We applied an established psychological technique (Repertory Grid) to guide our interviews with 21 experienced IS professionals, who have had extensive experience in software development teams. The comprehensive list of important characteristics was analysed qualitatively using open coding method of grounded theory. Fifty‐nine unique characteristics were identified and classified into eight categories. Among them, attitude/motivation, knowledge, interpersonal/communication skills, and working/cognitive ability were perceived by research participants to be the most important categories. Our study provides a context‐specific (i.e. software development team) evaluation of important characteristics of IS professionals. The results have significant implications for IS recruiting, IS training, IS staffing, and IS human resource management. Our study also supplements the research on management of IS development teams.     

Organizational Variables for Developing Collective Creativity in Business: A Case from an Italian Fashion Design Company

The goal of this article is to propose a theoretical framework for collective creativity within an organizational design perspective and to help clarify this concept and how collective creativity can be purposefully managed. In particular, this study identifies relevant organizational variables for enhancing collective creativity and examines the relationship between collective creativity and organizational performance. The research draws upon a survey developed in the context of an in‐depth collaborative research study with an Italian fashion design company. As the theory on collective creativity is quite dispersed, the first part of the article attempts to define collective creativity and integrate different theoretical perspectives. Then, method and empirical findings are described. In the last part, the discussion illustrates why it is important for researchers and practitioners to be aware of the concept of collective creativity and its purposeful management.     

Individual Creativity and Team Climate in Software Development Projects: The Mediating Role of Team Decision Processes

This study investigates how individual creativity is related to the quality of team decision processes and team climate, and the mediating role of team decision processes between individual creativity and team climate. A multi‐level theoretical model was proposed and partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS‐SEM) was conducted on a sample of 139 software development projects. The results suggest that: (i) individual creativity improves the quality of team decision processes, (ii) team decision processes are positively associated with four dimensions of team climate (organizational support, innovation orientation, goal orientation and informal structure), and (iii) team decision processes partially mediate between individual creativity and team climate. In particular, the obtained results stress the role of individual creativity in the formation and evolution of a positive climate by means of team decision processes. The study implies that managers should recognize the value of creative individuals as the basic source of competitive advantage and success. It further discusses the managerial implications of the findings as well as limitations and constructive new directions for future studies to improve software development team performance.     

Do Intelligent Leaders Make a Difference? The Effect of a Leader's Emotional Intelligence on Followers' Creativity

This research investigates the connection between emotional intelligence (EI) and creativity. This was studied by exploring: (i) an association between leaders' EI and their followers' creative output; (ii) an association between six sub‐dimensions of EI and creativity; and (iii) a mediating role of climate in the link between EI and creativity. Two questionnaires (one for leaders and one for employees) were used to collect data in a hospital. Sixty‐six usable leader‐employee dyads were collected. The findings confirmed a positive relationship between leaders' EI and employees' creativity. At an EI's sub‐dimensions level, the current research showed an association between creativity, on one hand, and self‐encouragement and understanding of own emotions, on the other. Finally, no mediating effect of climate was observed. The absence of a mediating effect is interesting, since it suggests a direct link between leaders' EI and employees' creativity, regardless of the climate. This is important, since it calls attention to the paramount role of leaders in shaping individual and organizational behaviours as far as creativity is concerned. The paper also discusses implications for management and practice.