Evolution of e-commerce Web sites: A conceptual framework and a longitudinal study

Before the 1990s, the digital exchange of information between companies was achieved using electronic data interchange (EDI) and needed agreement between the organizations. The early 1990s saw the commercialization of the Internet and the advent of open computer technology and connectivity became affordable for individuals as well as businesses. The consequence was the World Wide Web. As e-commerce activities extended across businesses, enterprises, and industries, a genre of Web sites emerged allowing the integrative management of business operations. Here, we provide an evolutionary perspective of e-commerce Web sites. We posited that there have been four eras. To chart the evolution of e-commerce Web sites, a conceptual framework was developed to characterize such sites. Based on the framework, we conducted a longitudinal study between 1993 and 2001. The result showed that the proposed four eras were clearly discernible.     

The methodological soundness of requirements engineering papers: a conceptual framework and two case studies

This paper was triggered by concerns about the methodological soundness of many RE papers. We present a conceptual framework that distinguishes design papers from research papers, and show that in this framework, what is called a research paper in RE is often a design paper. We then present and motivate two lists of evaluation criteria, one for research papers and one for design papers. We apply both of these lists to two samples drawn from the set of all submissions to the RE’03 conference. Analysis of these two samples shows that most submissions of the RE’03 conference are design papers, not research papers, and that most design papers present a solution to a problem but neither validate this solution nor investigate the problems that can be solved by this solution. We conclude with a discussion of the soundness of our results and of the possible impact on RE research and practice.     

STP technology: An overview and a conceptual framework

Today's capital market and security industry are rapidly changing. With the rising of trading volume in stock markets and the US security industry moving to compress the settlement time from T + 3 (3 days settlement) to T + 1 (same day settlement), a fully automated global approach, based on straight through processing (STP) technology seems the only choice. STP involves moving electronically through a trading process from initiation through post-execution and final settlement without manual intervention. Despite the benefits that have been materialized by early adopters of STP, there are problems and risks involved in implementing STP, one of which being the confusion about the concept of STP itself. The objective of this short research note is to clarify the concept and characteristics of STP and propose an integrated conceptual and theoretical STP framework. Such a framework can facilitate a widespread understanding of STP and provide useful guidance to STP implementations.     

Visual requirements analytics: a framework and case study

For many software projects, keeping requirements on track needs an effective and efficient path from data to decision. Visual analytics creates such a path that enables the human to extract insights by interacting with the relevant information. While various requirements visualization techniques exist, few have produced end-to-end value to practitioners. In this paper, we advance the literature on visual requirements analytics by characterizing its key components and relationships in a framework. We follow the goal–question–metric paradigm to define the framework by teasing out five conceptual goals (user, data, model, visualization, and knowledge), their specific operationalizations, and their interconnections. The framework allows us to not only assess existing approaches, but also create tool enhancements in a principled manner. We evaluate our enhanced tool support through a case study where massive, heterogeneous, and dynamic requirements are processed, visualized, and analyzed. Working together with practitioners on a contemporary software project within its real-life context leads to the main finding that visual analytics can help tackle both open-ended visual exploration tasks and well-structured visual exploitation tasks in requirements engineering. In addition, the study helps the practitioners to reach actionable decisions in a wide range of areas relating to their project, ranging from theme and outlier identification, over requirements tracing, to risk assessment. Overall, our work illuminates how the data-to-decision analytical capabilities could be improved by the increased interactivity of requirements visualization.     

Collaborative conceptual design: A large software project case study

During software development, the activities of requirements analysis, functional specification, and architectural design all require a team of developers to converge on a common vision of what they are developing. There have been remarkably few studies of conceptual design during real projects. In this paper, we describe a detailed field study of a large industrial software project. We observed the development team's conceptual design activities for three months with follow-up observations and discussions over the following eight months. In this paper, we emphasize the organization of the project and how patterns of collaboration affected the team's convergence on a common vision. Three observations stand out: First, convergence on a common vision was not only painfully slow but was punctuated by several reorientations of direction; second, the design process seemed to be inherently forgetful, involving repeated resurfacing of previously discussed issues; finally, a conflict of values persisted between team members responsible for system development and those responsible for overseeing the development process. These findings have clear implications for collaborative support tools and process interventions.     

Distributed environment: A conceptual framework using objects

We present a conceptual framework for a distributed office system using concepts inherent to object-oriented formalism. The functions of the active object and the procedure servers are described. So are the attributes of the objects stored in these two servers. In order to endow the individual workstations with as much autonomy as possible, we develop a coarse-grained algorithm for active and procedural object distribution. An office model should have a high level of evolvability. To accommodate this phenomenon we devise a mechanism to enable the model to transit one state to another with a minimum level of perturbation.     

Adaptation in virtual environments: conceptual framework and user models

When interacting in a virtual environment, users are confronted with a number of interaction techniques. These interaction techniques may complement each other, but in some circumstances can be used interchangeably. Because of this situation, it is difficult for the user to determine which interaction technique to use. Furthermore, the use of multimodal feedback, such as haptics and sound, has proven beneficial for some, but not all, users. This complicates the development of such a virtual environment, as designers are not sure about the implications of the addition of interaction techniques and multimodal feedback. A promising approach for solving this problem lies in the use of adaptation and personalization. By incorporating knowledge of a user’s preferences and habits, the user interface should adapt to the current context of use. This could mean that only a subset of all possible interaction techniques is presented to the user. Alternatively, the interaction techniques themselves could be adapted, e.g. by changing the sensitivity or the nature of the feedback. In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework for realizing adaptive personalized interaction in virtual environments. We also discuss how to establish, verify and apply a user model, which forms the first and important step in implementing the proposed conceptual framework. This study results in general and individual user models, which are then verified to benefit users interacting in virtual environments. Furthermore, we conduct an investigation to examine how users react to a specific type of adaptation in virtual environments (i.e. switching between interaction techniques). When an adaptation is integrated in a virtual environment, users positively respond to this adaptation as their performance significantly improve and their level of frustration decrease.     

Integrating expert systems and operations research: A conceptual framework

Expert System technologies can provide significant benefits if integrated with operations research (OR) applications, either by using free-standing systems or by integrating them into existing OR tools. This paper first distinguishes between physical and functional integration, and then focuses on aspects of the latter. Process and technique-oriented functional integration are defined, and several conceptual issues reviewed. These include the need for and resources necessary for such integration, difficulties associated with achieving successful integrated ES-OR applications, and the integration's impact on operations researchers and their organizations.     

Towards an adaptive human-centric computing resource management framework based on resource prediction and multi-objective genetic algorithm

The complexity, scale and dynamic of data source in the human-centric computing bring great challenges to maintainers. It is problem to be solved that how to reduce manual intervention in large scale human-centric computing, such as cloud computing resource management so that system can automatically manage according to configuration strategies. To address the problem, a resource management framework based on resource prediction and multi-objective optimization genetic algorithm resource allocation (RPMGA-RMF) was proposed. It searches for optimal load cluster as training sample based on load similarity. The neural network (NN) algorithm was used to predict resource load. Meanwhile, the model also built virtual machine migration request in accordance with obtained predicted load value. The multi-objective genetic algorithm (GA) based on hybrid group encoding algorithm was introduced for virtual machine (VM) resource management, so as to provide optimal VM migration strategy, thus achieving adaptive optimization configuration management of resource. Experimental resource based on CloudSim platform shows that the RPMGA-RMF can decrease VM migration times while reduce physical node simultaneously. The system energy consumption can be reduced and load balancing can be achieved either.     

Some thoughts on systems integration: A conceptual framework

This article presents a conceptual framework for systems integration in the area of computing systems. The framework identifies a hierarchical structure of concepts and methods that allows us to discuss the different elements of systems integration. The kernel of this approach is the concept of an integration architecture, specifying the general layout of the integration framework. Such an integration architecture is based on enabling technologies, like networking, and forms the basis for global integration activities. These global integration activities are targeted to preserve a common universe of discourse for the user of the integrated architecture and to agree upon a conceptual model of the application domain. Based on these prerequisites, two models for managing the process of systems integration, the post factor approach and the phased top-down approach, are discussed.     

Movement-based interaction in camera spaces: a conceptual framework

In this paper we present three concepts that address movement-based interaction using camera tracking. Based on our work with several movement-based projects we present four selected applications, and use these applications to leverage our discussion, and to describe our three main concepts space, relations, and feedback. We see these as central for describing and analysing movement-based systems using camera tracking and we show how these three concepts can be used to analyse other camera tracking applications.     

Flexibility in component manufacturing systems: evaluation framework and case study

Traditional component manufacturing systems have been optimized for either small scale craft production or for mass production of a small variety of high volume parts. Trends towards intermediate volumes and larger variety of parts have exposed the need for intelligently embedding flexibility in manufacturing systems and processes. The literature offers only few attempts to value component fabrication flexibility in a systematic way. In this article a 5-step framework for valuing flexibility and ranking of manufacturing processes under uncertainty is developed. A discrete time simulation is used to predict profit, remaining tool value and machine utilization as a function of three probabilistic demand and specification scenarios. A case study demonstrates the simulation and contrasts both a high volume (automotive) and a low volume (aerospace) market situation across six different processes ranging from punching to laser cutting. It is found that for intermediate, uncertain production volumes alternative manufacturing processes that embed flexibility carefully in one or more dimensions can outperform traditional processes that are either completely non-flexible (e.g., stamping) or completely flexible (e.g., laser cutting). It is also shown that flexibility in parts manufacturing is a complex topic because flexibility can be embedded in the parts themselves, in tooling or in the process parameters.     

Acceptance of agile methodologies: A critical review and conceptual framework

It is widely believed that systems development methodologies (SDMs) can help improve the software development process. Nevertheless, their deployment often encounters resistance from systems developers. Agile methodologies, the latest batch of SDMs that are most suitable in dealing with volatile business requirements, are likely to face the same challenge as they require developers to drastically change their work habits and acquire new skills. This paper addresses what can be done to overcome the challenge to agile methodologies acceptance. We provide a critical review of the extant literature on the acceptance of traditional SDMs and agile methodologies, and develop a conceptual framework for agile methodologies acceptance based on a knowledge management perspective. This framework can provide guidance for future research into acceptance of agile methodologies, and has implications for practitioners concerned with the effective deployment of agile methodologies.     

An empirical study of Web browsing behaviour: Towards an effective Website design

Prior studies have suggested that a good Website design which facilitates a user’s Web browsing behaviour would generally lead to better user performance. In this research, we examine user Website behaviour as a way to understand Website design using a “think aloud” protocol analysis. Main theoretical contributions of this research are the illustration of the flow of cognitive processes during the Website browsing and the establishment of Website design dimensions – the meaning and content implied by Website content, its outward form, and the structure and navigation – in relation to user performance.     

The accessibility of Saudi Arabia government Web sites: an exploratory study

This study is intended to provide an exploratory evaluation of Saudi Arabia government Web sites based on the Web Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 provided by the W3C. The results indicate that the Saudi government Web sites have made many of the accessibility mistakes as predicted. In the light of the study findings, this paper will present some recommendations for improving Saudi government Web sites, as well as discuss future implications.     

Problematic internet use among older adolescents: A conceptual framework

Problematic internet use (PIU) is of growing significance to adolescent health, but lacks a strong conceptual framework to guide ongoing work. We used Concept Mapping methodology to construct a theoretical framework describing PIU. This validated approach includes five steps: preparation, generation (brainstorming), structuring (sort and rank), representation (statistical analysis) and interpretation (focus groups). Analysis included hierarchical cluster analysis over the overall square similarity matrix to determine a cluster map. A total of 193 college students participated in one or more phases of the study. Students were from 13 universities across 10 states, had an average age of 19.4 years (SD = 1.8), were 67% female and 77% Caucasian. A total of 20 health professionals participated. The seven clusters depicted on the PIU Concept Map include: psychosocial risk factors, physical impairment, emotional impairment, social/functional impairment, risky internet use, impulsive internet use and internet use dependence. The stress value for the fit of the multidimensional solution to the structuring data was 0.28, indicating adequate fit. The concept map may be used towards development of a future comprehensive model of PIU as well as scale development efforts.