Jill Palzkill Woelfer

A value sensitive action-reflection model: evolving a co-design space with stakeholder and designer prompts

We introduce a design method for evolving a co-design space to support stakeholders untrained in design. Specifically, the purpose of the method is to expand and shape a co-design space so that stakeholders, acting as designers, focus not only on the form and function of a tool being envisioned but also on the social context of its use and values that lie with individuals, groups, and societies. The method introduces value sensitive stakeholder prompts and designer prompts into a co-design process, creating a particular kind of reflection-on-action cycle. The prompts provide a means for bringing empirical data on values and theoretical perspective into the co-design process. We present the method in terms of a general model, the Value Sensitive Action-Reflection Model; place the model within discourse on co-design spaces; and illustrate the model with a discussion of its application in a lo-fi prototyping activity around safety for homeless young people. We conclude with reflections on the model and method.

Improving the safety of homeless young people with mobile phones: values, form and function

By their pervasiveness and by being worn on our bodies, mobile phones seem to have become intrinsic to safety. To examine this proposition, 43 participants, from four stakeholder groups (homeless young people, service providers, police officers, and community members), were asked to consider how homeless young people could use mobile phones to keep safe. Participants were asked to express their knowledge for place-based safety and to envision how mobile phones might be used to improve safety. Detailed analysis of the resulting data, which included value sketches, written value scenarios, and semi-structured discussion, led to specific design opportunities, related to values (e.g., supporting trust and desire to help others), function (e.g., documenting harms for future purposes), and form (e.g., leveraging social expectations for how mobile phones can be used to influence behavior). Together, these findings bound a design space for how mobile phones can be used to manage unsafe situations.

Information technology project risk management: bridging the gap between research and practice

The gap between research and practice is strikingly evident in the area of information technology (IT) project risk management. In spite of extensive research for over 30 years into IT project risk factors resulting in normative guidance on IT project risk management, adoption of these risk management methods in practice is inconsistent. Managing risk in IT projects remains a key challenge for many organizations. We discuss barriers to the application of normative prescriptions, such as assessments of probability and impact of risk, and suggest a contingency approach, which addresses the uncertainties, complexities, and ambiguities of IT projects and enables early identification of high-risk projects. Specifically, in a case study, we examine how the project management office (PMO) at one organization has bridged the gap between research and practice, developing a contingency-based risk assessment process well founded on research knowledge of project dimensions related to project performance, while also being practical in its implementation. The PMOs risk assessment process, and the risk spider chart that is the primary tool in this assessment, has proven to be effective for surfacing inherent risk at the early stages of IT projects, thereby enabling the recommendation of appropriate management strategies. The PMOs project risk assessment process is a model for other organizations striving to engage in effective and collaborative practices in order to improve project outcomes. The case illustrates the importance of considering the practical constraints of the context of application in order to transform research findings into practices that promote attainment of desired outcomes.

Designing ubiquitous information systems for a community of homeless young people: precaution and a way forward

Drawing upon and distinguishing themselves from domestic, public, work, and natural settings, homeless communities offer new cultural frontiers into which ubiquitous computing could diffuse. We report on one such frontier, a community of homeless young people, located in Seattle, WA, seeking both to foresee the consequences of pervasive access to digital media and communications and to prepare for its seemingly inevitable uptake. The community consists of hundreds of young people living without stable housing, often in the public, and an alliance of nine service agencies that seek to stabilize youth and equip them to escape homelessness. We examine the opportunities for ubiquitous computing in this community by, in part, developing a precautionary stance on intervention. This stance is then used to critically examine a scenario in which information about the service agencies is made public. From this scenario, and a description of the social and material constraints of this community, we argue that “precaution” offers productive counsel on decisions on whether and how to intervene with ubiquitous computing. A precautionary point of view is especially important as ubiquitous computing diffuses into communities that, by their social and material conditions, are vulnerable. In such communities, the active avoidance of harms and plans for their mitigation is particularly important.

Homeless young people and living with personal digital artifacts

This paper reports on an investigation of how homeless young people hold themselves in relation to personal digital artifacts. Twelve participants, aged 19-29, took part in semi-structured interviews. Participants answered questions about the acquisition and disposition of personal artifacts, digital and non-digital, including mobile phones, music players, and wallets. The analysis of the interview transcripts reveals that young people often part with their digital artifacts in order to meet immediate needs, including the need to create and reciprocate goodwill. This contingent holding of personal artifacts illuminates both the ordinary and extraordinary circumstances of homelessness. The paper concludes with a discussion of constraints and implications for the design of information systems for improving the welfare of homeless young people.

Critical Behavioral Competencies for IT Project Managers: What Are They? How Are They Learned?

What behavioral competencies do experienced IT project managers apply when facing critical situations in their projects, and how have they developed those competencies? In this paper, the authors answer these questions. The authors interviewed 23 experienced IT project managers from 11 organizations, focusing on critical situations that they now managed differently from their earlier, novice, practices, and on how they had learned to develop these different approaches. The authors discuss a variety of management development and training interventions. They use a thematic analysis to identify the key competencies being applied and learning methods experienced by this set of managers. Results suggest that IT project managers are drawing on a different set of competencies from those required for project management in other industries. Additionally, this paper reveals the importance of informal learning channels, often involving project experiences, for the development of IT project management competencies.

Critical skills for IT project management and how they are learned

What do IT project managers consider to be the critical skills necessary for project success, and how have they developed those skills? The aim of this research has been to answer these questions. We interviewed thirteen experienced IT project managers from five organizations, focusing first on what the managers perceived as their most critical project management skills, and then on how they had developed those skills. We also discussed their exposure to a wide variety of organizational development interventions. By focusing on how project managers actually learned critical skills, we have been able to uncover the importance of informal learning channels, often involving project experiences, for the development of IT project management skills.

Homeless young people on social network sites

This paper reports on the use of social network sites (MySpace and Facebook) by homeless young people, an extraordinary user population, made so in part by its vulnerability. Twenty-three participants of diverse ethnicities, 11 women and 12 men (mean age, 21.7 years), were interviewed in same-sex discussion groups of four participants each. The interviews consisted of questions about the uses, benefits, and harms of social network sites and how people present themselves online. Qualitative analysis of the discussion group transcripts shows how young people explore their identities, cultivate and exploit social ties, experience interpersonal tensions, manage incompatible audiences, and respond to shifting affiliations and transitions. From this analysis, implications for social intervention and technical design are presented, focused on maintaining ties with pro-social family and friends and with maintaining separation between communication spheres of incompatible audiences. This work contributes to the growing literature on vital, deeply human experiences that have become associated with social network sites.

Homeless young people and technology: ordinary interactions, extraordinary circumstances

In this forum we will celebrate research that helps to successfully bring the benefits of computing technologies to children, older adults, people with disabilities, and other populations that are often ignored in the design of mass-marketed products. Juan Pablo Hourcade, Editor

Value considerations in an information ecology: Printed materials, service providers and homeless young people

We demonstrate how value considerations can be used to analyze an information ecology that has emerged to help homeless young people. We studied the information ecology of service agencies that assist homeless young people, age 13 to 25. We focused on printed materials used at the agencies and employed surveys and semi-structured interviews to gather data. Of the printed materials considered, a flier with a map of all programs was reported to be most important and distributed most frequently. Future work would further investigate distribution and usability of these portable information sources and the values they embody.