Open generification

To what extent can software ‘travel’ to organizations and countries for which it was not designed for, and how important are local contexts for a successful design and implementation of generic software? Information systems researchers have differing views on this, some emphasizing the strengths of the generic and others the importance of contextual aspects. Contributing to this debate, Pollock and Williams have coined the term generification in order to describe how large vendors succeed in globalizing software packages through management by community, content and social authority. In this paper, we explore an approach that we call open generification, which extends Pollock and Williams' work in the sense that we acknowledge the need for and the feasibility of generic software, but propose an alternative model for the governance of it. Open generification is not about managing the community of users attached to a software package by homogenization or segmentation but aims at addressing the diverse needs of the community the software is expected to serve. Our empirical basis is a longitudinal study of the development of an open‐source health information system software (District Health Information software version 2), which is being used in more than 47 countries. Its success is attributed to a continuous interplay between generic and specific software and continuous cycles of embedding (implementing the global in the local context) and disembedding (taking local innovations into the global). We identify and discuss the contingent mechanisms of this interplay.     

Development of an energy-saving method of resistance projection welding of multilayer welded structures

A highly efficient energy-saving method of resistance projection welding of 3–4 components in a single cycle is described. The method is based on the automatically regulated gradual introduction of electric energy into the zone between the electrodes.     

Flexible generification: ICT standardization strategies and service innovation in health care

Standards have played an important but often unrecognized role in the development of modern organizations. This role is accentuated by today’s growth of large business and government infrastructures, in the turbulent processes of globalization. In this paper, we investigate the relationships – and tensions – between standardization strategies and service innovation in the health-care sector. Our empirical material is seven longitudinal case studies in the Norwegian health-care sector, collected and analysed over a period of 20 years. We identify three generic standardization strategies; anticipatory standardization, integrated solutions and flexible generification. We argue that the first two strategies do not support service innovation while the strategy of flexible generification does so. We consider our results important for the evolution of the future ICT-enabled service economy.     

Software development methods and usability: Perspectives from a survey in the software industry in Norway

This paper investigates the relationship between software development methodologies and usability. The point of departure is the assumption that two important disciplines in software development, one of software development methods (SDMs) and one of usability work, are not integrated in industrial software projects.

Building on previous research we investigate two questions; (1) Will software companies generally acknowledge the importance of usability, but not prioritise it in industrial projects? and (2) To what degree are software development methods and usability perceived by practitioners as being integrated? To this end a survey in the Norwegian IT industry was conducted. From a sample of 259 companies we received responses from 78 companies.

In response to our first research question, our findings show that although there is a positive bias towards usability, the importance of usability testing is perceived to be much less than that of usability requirements. Given the strong time and cost pressures associated with the software industry, we believe that these results highlight that there is a gap between intention and reality. Regarding our second research question our survey revealed that companies perceive usability and software development methods to be integrated. This is in contrast to earlier research, which, somewhat pessimistically, has argued for the existence of two different cultures, one of software development and one of usability. The findings give hope for the future, in particular because the general use of system development methods are pragmatic and adaptable.     

ICT infrastructure for innovation: A case study of the enterprise service bus approach

In this paper we investigate the relationship between ICT infrastructure and innovation. In recent years the concept of the enterprise service bus has been introduced as an ICT architecture that supports strong integration of distributed components and services, but at the same time allows for adding or subtracting business partners at short notice. What are the organizational issues and challenges of this approach? Building on a case study from Norway we investigated this topic in the context of innovation of ICT based services. Our findings were analyzed at three levels; the bus as technical infrastructure, the bus as innovation infrastructure and the bus as organizational structure. We find that the bus as technical infrastructure supports innovation within a business unit, while the bus as innovation infrastructure facilitates the innovation of new business services. Further, we propose that a shared topology of these three levels is important to support the overall innovation process. As illustrated in our case, this also raises new challenges for the innovative corporation.     

Effect of free convective heat transfer on the temperature state of superconductors

The article investigates the temperature state of a rigid-type coaxial superconductor when the space of the inner core is filled with stagnant helium.     

The social interaction of developers and IT operations staff in software development projects

This paper investigates how developers and IT operations staff interact in software development projects. We analyse data from 42 IT professionals from 18 Norwegian firms through the lens of social interaction and project management theory. Our analysis suggests that their social interactions are hampered by a variety of factors. The study contributes to the research by providing an analysis of the elements of social interaction and how they contribute to better outcomes. For practice, we offer an assessment instrument for improving the social interaction in software development projects.     

An experimental study of the cooldown of a short full size superconducting power cable section

The cooling time for a cable section can be determined from the expression valid for a long cable, provided a correction is made in the expression for the half-length of the heat transfer zone. The empirically obtained length of the heat transfer zone agrees well with the results of numerical calculations that are reported in the literature.