Beverley G. Hope

Coordination in co-located agile software development projects

Agile software development provides a way to organise the complex task of multi-participant software development while accommodating constant project change. Agile software development is well accepted in the practitioner community but there is little understanding of how such projects achieve effective coordination, which is known to be critical in successful software projects. A theoretical model of coordination in the agile software development context is presented based on empirical data from three cases of co-located agile software development. Many practices in these projects act as coordination mechanisms, which together form a coordination strategy. Coordination strategy in this context has three components: synchronisation, structure, and boundary spanning. Coordination effectiveness has two components: implicit and explicit. The theoretical model of coordination in agile software development projects proposes that an agile coordination strategy increases coordination effectiveness. This model has application for practitioners who want to select appropriate practices from agile methods to ensure they achieve coordination coverage in their project. For the field of information systems development, this theory contributes to knowledge of coordination and coordination effectiveness in the context of agile software development.

Measuring internet product purchase risk

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a scale to reliably capture the variance of perceived risk towards purchasing on the internet at the product level.Design/methodology/approach – A two‐dimensional scale to measure internet Product Purchase Risk (IPPR) was developed and tested in three studies. In the first study a preliminary pool of items was generated with evidence of content validity. In the second study the IPPR scale was purified using principal axis factor analysis. In the third study evidence of criterion‐related, known‐group, nomological, and discriminant validity was demonstrated.Findings – The IPPR scale was found to successfully capture the variance of evaluation judgement and internet security risk. IPPR was also found to have a quadratic relationship with experience purchasing a product category from the internet.Research limitations/implications – Although strong evidence to suggest construct validity was demonstrated, it is understood that efforts to establish t...

IT Projects: Conflict, Governance, and Systems Thinking

Triggered by several embarrassing (and costly) IT project collapses in New Zealand’s public sector, a government report found that effective project control required good governance measures to be in place. Escalating conflict amongst project stakeholders, particularly where the IT projects are large and complex, is often cited as a major contributor to project problems. Conflict, and its resolution, will be affected by factors that are difficult to control, including culture and politics. In this paper we apply the basic concepts of systems thinking to deliver a holistic research framework, focusing on the project-related conflict resolution process. Key constructs include: input (stakeholder conflict); output (e.g. resolution outcome, satisfaction with outcome); contextual factors (e.g. power, culture); and, most importantly, the control mechanism (governance). This framework was empirically tested using a single case study. Our research found strong support for the model.

Stakeholder Expectations of Service Quality in a University Web Portal

Online service quality is a much-studied concept. There is considerable evidence that user expectations and perceptions of self-service and online service quality differ in different business domains. In addition, the nature of online services is continually changing and universities have been at the forefront of this change, with university websites increasingly acting as a portal for a wide range of online transactions for a wide range of stakeholders . In this qualitative study, we conduct focus groups with a range of stakeholders in a university web portal . Our study offers a number of insights into the changing nature of the relationship between organisations and customers. New technologies are influencing customer expectations. Customers increasingly expect organisations to have integrated information systems, and to utilise new technologies such as SMS and web portals. Organisations can be slow to adopt a customer-centric viewpoint, and persist in providing interfaces that are inconsistent or require inside knowledge of organisational structures and processes. This has a negative effect on customer perceptions

ICT, Multi-Channels, and the Changing Line of Visibility: An Empirical Study

This paper argues that the advent of multi-channel environments, incorporating ICT-mediated channels, necessitates a reinterpretation of the ‘line of visibility’ found in the service quality literature. In a multi-channel environment, inconsistency or service breakdowns above the line of visibility gives a negative impression of organisational competence below the line. Many face-to-face contact points have been replaced by ICT-mediated contact points, and this gives a transparency to the line of visibility, allowing customers to see into the organisation’s back office systems. In this research, two propositions are empirically tested using mystery shoppers. We find that multi-channel customers using a mixture of face-to-face and ICT-mediated channels can gain insights into organisational systems, processes and values that were previously below the line of visibility. This suggests that organisations need to concentrate on consistent quality delivery throughout the organisation, including back-office processes, in order to maintain their customers’ confidence.

Moving to multi-channel E-commerce : Lessons learned from a case study of an apparel and home-ware catalogue company

ABSTRACT After the “dot-com bust” there is considerable evidence that multi-channel retailers are more successful than purely on-line retailers. We talked to the management team of one of the most successful multi-channel apparel and home-ware retailers in Australasia about the business and technology factors that enabled their growth. We found seven key business strategies enabled growth and expansion into new channels, including e-commerce: integrated operational functions, channel synergy, logistics management, presenting a consistent brand, effective customer management, learning from customers, and informed imitation. These strategies were supported by integrated information technology applications. At the time of our study, the recently added Internet channel was not fully integrated with the other core systems. This was being adequately managed through strong internal processes but had the potential to constrain future growth in this channel. We examine the factors that led to the firms success and some of the issues and constraints they are experiencing. We then extract from their experiences the lessons that can be learned by other organisations.