Jens Henrik Hosbond

Mobile Systems Development: A Literature Review

This article reviews 105 representative contributions to the literature on mobile systems development. The contributions are categorized according to a simple conceptual framework. The framework comprises four perspectives: the requirements perspective, the technology perspective, the application perspective, and the business perspective. Our literature review shows that mobile systems development is overlooked in the current debate. From the review, we extend the traditional view on systems development to encompass mobile systems and, based on the identified perspectives, we propose core characteristics for mobile systems. We also extend the traditional focus found in systems development on processes in a development project to encompass the whole of the development company as well as interorganizational linkage between development companies. Finally, we point at research directions emerging from the review that are relevant to the field of mobile systems development.

Indexing uncertainty of continuously moving objects

Advanced location based services will in the following years increasingly require database technologies capable of tracking the positions of large amounts of continuously moving objects. Such positions are inherently imprecise. Previous work addressed separately indexing of the positions of moving objects and modeling the uncertainty about these positions. This paper addresses the problem of handling uncertainty when indexing the current and anticipated near-future positions of continuously moving objects. Two approaches for handling the uncertainty are explored. The first approach incorporates uncertainty information into the index structure. The second approach handles uncertainty by expanding the query region. The TPR-tree is used as an indexing method. Performance experiments show that both methods show similar query performance, but the index-based approach is more flexible when other factors are considered.

Misfit or Misuse? Lessons from Implementation of Scrum in Radical Product Innovation

In this paper we report from a study of the implementation and early experiences of using Scrum for radical product innovation in a traditional, matrix-organized software company. The empirical data was collected in an interview-based case study. The case data show a company undergoing significant change due to a recent corporate take-over which has lead to a re-thinking of the roles and tasks of the organization at all levels. We draw on an already established framework for analyzing the organizational change process. The analysis results in a set of observations that we use subsequently in the discussion of practical lessons for organizations facing similar challenges.

Mobile Systems Development

This paper takes a systems development perspective on mobility, building on preliminary findings of an on-going multiple case study covering 7 companies. The questions driving this paper are: What are the challenges facing development practice in the mobile industry, how do they affect practice and how are they dealt with? Analysis of the empirical data is done following a structured and inductive approach. A framework showing the segmentation of the mobile industry into five layers is proposed and challenges are presented according to two dimensions, namely a business dimension and a development dimension. Finally, implications stemming from these challenges are discussed and issues inviting for future research are proposed.

Shaping Mobile Applications for the Future

In this paper we are concerned with innovation in the development of mobile applications. In particular, we address how we may come to think systematically about innovative aspects of mobile applications. We suggest that there is not enough support for this in the mobile systems literature and we hence suggest a framework that supports the thinking about the possible innovative features of a mobile application in a systemic and systematic way. The framework is inspired by the theory on scenario planning. In this framework we see mobile social arrangements of node, dyad, and group as fundamental units of analysis. We apply the framework to a case where the mobile users are truck drivers in a long-distance haulage business. Our use of the framework illustrates how we can arrive at a consistent and systemic view of a possible scenario for innovative mobile applications. We continue with a discussion of to what extent and in which ways the framework gives rise to innovative thinking by relating to a common theory of types of innovation and innovation processes.