Brian Donnellan

A Capability Maturity Framework for Sustainable Information and Communication Technology

Researchers estimate that information and communication technology (ICT) is responsible for at least 2 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Furthermore, in any individual business, ICT is responsible for a much higher percentage of that businesss GHG footprint. Yet researchers also estimate that ICT can provide business solutions to reduce its GHG footprint fivefold. However, because the field is new and evolving, few guidelines and best practices are available. To address this issue, a consortium of leading organizations from industry, the nonprofit sector, and academia has developed and tested a framework for systematically assessing and improving SICT capabilities. The Innovation Value Institute (IVI; http://ivi.nuim.ie) consortium used an open-innovation model of collaboration, engaging academia and industry in scholarly work to create the SICT-Capability Maturity Framework (SICT-CMF), which is discussed in this paper.

How Internet technologies impact information flows in R&D: reconsidering the technological gatekeeper

Previous studies have firmly established the technological gatekeeper to be a key node in the innovation process – acquiring, translating, and disseminating external information throughout the R&D unit. However, the gatekeeper concept has received modest attention in recent times. We argue that the concept needs to be re-examined in light of the recent advances in Internet technologies that have dramatically altered how knowledge workers source and share their information. Drawing on social network analysis and interview evidence from a medical devices R&D group, we find that the gatekeeper role is still vital, but no longer needs to be performed by a single individual. Instead, the modern R&D group can keep abreast of the latest technological advances through a combination of Internet-enabled internal and external communication specialists. This study makes a number of important contributions. The gatekeeper theory is extended through the development of an updated conceptual framework. We also discuss the practical implications of our findings and advise R&D managers on how to organise resources to maximise optimal information flows.

Managing talent in knowledge-intensive settings

Purpose – This paper seeks to explore the processes and channels through which valuable knowledge from outside the firm reaches those employees who can exploit that knowledge for innovative purposes. It seeks to identify the specific talents exhibited by the key individuals involved in facilitating these important knowledge flows. It also aims to detail the interventions which management can adopt to harness knowledge flow talents. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology used was a single case study of a medical devices R&D group, incorporating social network analysis and semi-structured interviews. Findings – It was found that it is now rare for a single individual to possess all the talents necessary to effectively acquire and disseminate external knowledge. Owing to the prevalence of information and communication technologies, a small number of uniquely skilled individuals specialize in acquiring valuable external knowledge, while an altogether different set of individuals specialize in disseminating that knowledge internally. Originality/value – There is a dearth of literature in the knowledge management field directed towards understanding how the unique talents of those employees who are integral components of knowledge networks can be harnessed. Building on concepts of talent management and the technological gatekeeper, the specific talents exhibited by these individuals are explored. Then some organizational level interventions are pointed up, which can facilitate knowledge-intensive organizations in fully exploiting their resources to maximize innovative capabilities.

Digitising the R&D social network: revisiting the technological gatekeeper

This paper examines how the digitisation of the social network, and the resulting interplay between its online and offline components, has impacted the role of the technological gatekeeper in research and development (R&D) settings. Previous studies have firmly established the technological gatekeeper to be a key node in the innovation process – acquiring, translating and disseminating novel information throughout the R&D social network. Drawing on social network analysis and interview evidence from a software R&D group, we find that the gatekeeper role has undergone a division of labour. Theoretically, we contribute to the body of knowledge by developing an updated technological gatekeeper conceptual framework. For practitioners, we identify the competencies exhibited by the small number of communication specialists who are largely responsible for diffusing novel information. We then advise practitioners how to maximise the contribution of these ‘stars’ to the information flow network.

Practical Aspects of Design Science

This paper describes the design science process and iterative design cycles used to develop a new design pattern for Chief Information Officers (CIOs). The IT-CMF is a formal archetype of the levels and stages through which an organization traverses and evolves as it defines, implements, measures, controls and improves its IT capability in support of value creation for the organization. The paper draws upon the concept of emergence from complexity science to describe the process of emergence of the IT-CMF from seemingly unordered pieces of information and artifacts into order. The early iterative phases of rigor, relevance and design science cycles are discussed as well as the initial classification schema developed for the IT-CMF. Additionally the paper briefly discusses the role of the IT-CMF as an important design pattern for the CIO.

The Transfer and Diffusion of Information Technology for Organizational Resilience

Networks.- Complex Network-Based Information Systems (CNIS) Standards: Toward an Adoption Model.- Knowledge Exchange in Electronic Networks of Practice: Toward a Conceptual Framework.- The Impacts of Information Technology and Managerial Proactiveness in Building Net-Enabled Organizational Resilience.- IT Adoption and Diffusion.- The Role of Value Compatibility in Information Technology Adoption.- The Politics of Information and Communication Technology Diffusion: A Case Study in a UK Primary Health Care Trust.- Product Development Cases.- Leveraging Information Technology for Organizational Resilience in Design of Complex Products: A Case Study.- An Integral Approach to Information Technology Diffusion: Innovation in the Product Life Cycles of a Large Technology Company.- The Development of a Knowledge Framework Through Innovation Between an SME and a Multinational Corporation.- Strategic Perspectives.- Ten Strategies for Successful Distributed Development.- Improvisation as Strategy: Building an Information Technology Capability.- The challenge of Managing Knowledge in Innovative Organizations: Internal Versus External Knowledge Acquisition.- Resilience and Competitive Advantage.- Resilience as a Source of Competitive Advantage for Small Information Technology Companies.- Analysis of Outsourcing and the Impact on Business Resilience.- The Wizard of Oz: Instilling a Resilient Heart into Self-Service Business Applications.- Innovation Studies.- ConferenceXP: An Enabling Technology for Organizational Resilience.- Aspects on Information Systems Curriculum: A Study Program in Business Informatics.- The Rise of the Phoenix: Methodological Innovation as a Discourse of Renewal.- Organizational Impact of IS.- The Impact of Enterprise Systems on Organizational Resilience.- The Rise and Descent of Visions for E-Government.- The Role of Extreme Programming in a Plan-Driven Organization.- Innovation Cases.- UML: A Complex Technology Embedded in Complex Organizational Issues.- The Dialectics of Resilience: A Multilevel Analysis of a Telehealth Innovation.- Keynotes.- Strategizing for Agility: Confronting Information Systems Inflexibility in Dynamic Environments.- Business Resilience in a Global Economy.

Understanding the Maturity of Sustainable ICT

Sustainable ICT (SICT) can develop solutions that offer benefits both internally in IT and across the extended enterprise. However, because the field is new and evolving, few guidelines and best practices are available. There is a need to improve the SICT behaviours, practices and processes within organizations to deliver greater value from SICT. To address the issue, a consortium of leading organizations from industry, the nonprofits sector, and academia decided to develop a framework for systematically assessing and improving SICT capabilities. The SICT Capability Maturity Framework (SICT-CMF) gives organizations a vital tool to manage their sustainability capability. The framework provides a comprehensive value-based model for organizing, evaluating, planning, and managing SICT capabilities. Using the framework, organizations can assess the maturity of their SICT capability and systematically improve capabilities in a measurable way to meet the sustainability objectives including reducing environmental impacts and increasing profitability. The core of SICT-CMF is a maturity model for SICT which provides a management system with associated improvement roadmaps that guide senior IT and business management in selecting strategies to continuously improve, develop, and manage the sustainable IT capability. This chapter describes the SICT-CMF and the use of it to determine the maturity of sustainable IT capability within a number of leading organisations. The chapter highlights the challenges in managing SICT and motivates the benefit of maturity models. The development process for the SICT-CMF is discussed and the role of Design Science in the development cycle is explored. The application of the resulting model and its use to measure SICT maturity is discussed together with an analysis of the average results for organisations using the model. The chapter concludes with practical insights gained from the assessments.

The IT-CMF: a practical application of design science

The IT-Capability Maturity Model [IT-CMF] is a high-level process capability maturity framework for managing the IT function within an organization The purpose of this paper is to explore and explain the IT-CMF as a “ method meta-model” for IT management, emphasizing the novel approach to addressing the application of design processes and design artifacts by means of a very structured use of engaged scholarship and open innovation techniques to the ongoing challenge of managing organizations IT capability.

Exploring the Relationship between Design Science Research and Innovation: A Case Study of Innovation at Chevron

What is the relationship between design science research and innovation? Our industry-academic collaboration poses this intriguing question and suggests a context and an experimental design for its study. We wish to understand the synergies between the active research areas of DSR and innovation by exploring their overlapping concepts and identifying unique ideas in each that have the potential to inform the other. We present a case study of an actual innovation process in Chevron as a source of empirical data for the exploration and subsequent analysis of how the application of DSR guidelines might inform the practical implementation of innovation processes.

Implementing an open source knowledge base

The concept of knowledge bases originated in artificial intelligence as one side of expert systems-namely, the fundamental body of knowledge available to a domain. KBs are particularly appropriate in knowledge-intensive activities like software development. They offer context-based access to complex information, including informal documents and multimedia, as well as a centralized means of storing and preserving digital assets. KBs can help software engineers with many tasks-from project management and design rationale to version control, defect tracking, code reuse, and staff training and development. We recently implemented an open source KB to support the Consortium for Studying Open Source in Public Administrations. COSPA originated in a EU initiative to study the use of open source software to reduce public administrative software and system support costs. The KB project aimed to build a multilingual knowledge base for comparing and pooling knowledge and experience.