Ajay S. Vinze

Understanding the Philosophical Underpinnings of Software Engineering Research in Information Systems

The Information Systems (IS) discipline, and related research, focuses on the development, understanding, and use of technology to meet business needs. Technology, in particular “software,” is the basis for IS research, making software engineering a critical component of research in the IS domain. While the importance of software development is well accepted, what constitutes high quality software engineering research is not well defined. Perhaps this is because some software development clearly is not research and it is hard to distinguish between pure application development, and systems development that pushes the boundaries of knowledge. Sir Karl Popper argued that the scientific quality of research is not based on its empirical method, but on the nature of the questions asked. Our research suggests that software engineering can meet Poppers criteria for scientific research.Drawing on well-established research philosophies, we propose a software engineering research methodology (SERM) and discuss the utility of this methodology for contributing to and expanding the IS body of knowledge. We also describe the considerations that need to be addressed by SERM to enhance acceptability of software engineering research in IS. Our suggestions are corroborated with a review of current IS software engineering research reported in leading IS journals.

A business process context for Knowledge Management

Knowledge and management of it emphasize and expect interactions between aspects of business processes including workflow execution, information processing, decision making and motivational structure. As such production and consumption of knowledge occur within these aspects of business processes. Therefore, a business process context provides the justification and rationale for organizing Knowledge Management efforts that address knowledge storage and retrieval, knowledge sharing and knowledge synthesis. Exemplar projects are used to illustrate potential approaches and associated research challenges to addressing Knowledge Management efforts within a business process context.

Adoption Of Health Information Technology For Medication Safety In U.S. Hospitals, 2006

Health information technology (IT) is regarded as an essential tool to improve patient safety, and a range of initiatives to address patient safety are under way. Using data from a comprehensive, national survey from HIMSS Analytics, we analyzed the extent of health IT adoption for medication safety in U.S. hospitals in 2006. Our findings indicate wide variation in health IT adoption by type of technology and geographic location. Hospital size, ownership, teaching status, system membership, payer mix, and accreditation status are associated with health IT adoption, although these relationships differ by type of technology. Hospitals in states with patient safety initiatives have greater adoption rates.

Polarization and persuasive argumentation: a study of decision making in group settings

ization in a contemporary communication context. The proposed model focuses on commu~ nication medium, task characteristics, group composition, and their interaction as explanations for the outcome of group polarization and the process that precedes it..An experimental research method is used to test the relationships suggested by the model. In this study, group polarization is recorded by comparing decisions at the individual level, face-to-face group settings, and GSS mediated settings. The initial agreement index indicates the diversity of individual stances within the group. This index is used as a covariate to enhance understanding of the extent of group polarization. The group process is documented by protocol analyzing transcriptions of the FTF and GSS group sessions for persuasive content. A 2x2x2 factorial design was used to analyze the results. The analysis indicates that, for both process and outcomes, the medium of communication and task characteristics interact with one another to provide the dominant explanation. Surprisingly, group composition had no impact on either polarization or persuasive arguments. The findings reported in this study are of importance to organizations that increasingly rely on groups as units of decision making. The results also provide insight to researchers of group decision making and to future developers and users of group support systems.

Adopting ontology to facilitate knowledge sharing

Ontology-enabled knowledge management experiences derived from a domain ontology development project at Intel Corporation are described and assessed.

Technology, culture and persuasiveness

In this paper we examine the impact of technology and culture and their interaction on the process and outcomes of group decision making. The conceptual foundation for this research draws on three domains: GSS, cross-cultural and group polarization. This paper uses the theory of persuasive arguments for studying group behavior in a computer-mediated, cross-cultural setting. Our findings illustrate that group decisions are a function of the medium of communication and the cultural setting in which the decision is attempted. In addition, the protocol analysis conducted demonstrates that the process of decision making in groups varies in terms of persuasive arguments exchanged as a function of the interaction between the medium of communication and the cultural setting observed. These results have both theoretical and practical implications for GSS research.

Barriers to adoption of software reuse a qualitative study

With economic pressures to deliver software applications at a faster rate and at lower cost, software reuse is becoming a significant technology for software development. This paper focuses on deriving a descriptive and explanatory theory concerning the individual and organizational barriers associated with the adoption of reuse. A case-study research method was used. A series of five cases were selected on the basis of theoretical replication. The findings, which indicate that barriers occur at both the individual and organizational level, suggest that those at the individual level are actually a consequence of the interaction of barriers caused at the organizational level.

Resource allocation for demand surge mitigation during disaster response

Large-scale public health emergencies can result in an overwhelming demand for healthcare resources. Regional aid in the form of central stockpiles and resource redistribution can help mitigate the resulting demand surge. This paper discusses a resource allocation approach for optimizing regional aid during public health emergencies. We find that, optimal response involves delaying the distribution of resources from the central stockpile as much as possible. Also, smaller counties stand to benefit the most from mutual aid. And finally, policy level decisions that alter the objectives of pandemic relief efforts can significantly impact the allocations to affected regions.

Using process mining to identify coordination patterns in IT service management

We empirically analyze the database used in the help desk process between a national US public agency and its global outsourcing provider. We considered the question of whether the database might reveal a deeper level of knowledge than was apparent from direct inspection. Our results reveal that four constructs underlie this process. Three are confirmed through covariance-based structural equation modeling and a fourth is implied through existing data. Our results suggest refinement in service level agreements to create a different type of governance coordination to assist in aligning the outsourcing providers execution more closely with the clients needs.

Demand Heterogeneity in IT Infrastructure Services: Modeling and Evaluation of a Dynamic Approach to Defining Service Levels

A key feature of service-oriented models of information technology is the promise of prespecified quality levels enforceable via service level agreements (SLAs). This poses difficult management problems when considerable variability exists in user preferences and service demand within any organization. Because variance in expectations impact service levels, effective pricing and resource allocation mechanisms are needed to deliver services at the promised quality level. In this paper, we propose a mechanism for SLA formulation that is responsive to demand fluctuations and user preference variance, with the objective of maximizing organizational welfare of the participants. This formulation features a dynamic priority based price-penalty scheme targeted to individual users. An analytical model is presented and evaluated for effectiveness of a proposed dynamic priority-based pricing scheme vis-a-vis a baseline fixed-price single-quality level SLA. Simulations using data from an existing SLA is used to provide evidence that the proposed dynamic pricing scheme is likely to be more effective than a fixed-price approach from a system welfare perspective.