Johanna Bragge

Using the focus group method in software engineering: obtaining practitioner and user experiences

This paper reflects on three cases where the focus group method was used to obtain feedback and experiences from software engineering practitioners and application users. The focus group method and its background are presented, the methods weaknesses and strengths are discussed, and guidelines are provided for how to use the method in the software engineering context. Furthermore, the results of the three studies conducted are highlighted and the paper concludes in a discussion on the applicability of the method for this type of research. In summary, the focus group method is a cost-effective and quick empirical research approach for obtaining qualitative insights and feedback from practitioners. It can be used in several phases and types of research. However, a major limitation of the method is that it is useful only in studying concepts that can be understood by participants in a limited time. We also recommend that in the software engineering context, the method should be used with sufficient empirical rigor.

What, Who and Where: Insights into Personalization

Personalization is a phenomenon that intrigues and confuses. Personalized offerings promise customer attention, loyalty and safe haven against commoditization. However, these promises do not materialize unless customers accept personalization as a means to enhance their consuming experience. Three points of views are offered to personalization in this paper. An analysis of various personalization concepts shows that the basic concept of personalization is reaching maturity even though fresh views are added to it, e.g. context-based personalization. Secondly, a text-mining based approach profiles the personalization research based on bibliometric data on nearly 800 articles, and indicates that the research field is fairly fragmented, and that mass customization and customization research clearly diverges from personalization research. Based on a selection of articles, a further analysis classifies the type of research and research contexts that are the most common. Finally, this research also suggests a conceptualization of personalization.

Gathering innovative end-user feedback for continuous development of information systems: a repeatable and transferable e-collaboration process

Receiving innovative end user feedback on an information system is essential for acquiring further development ideas. The feedback gathering method should encourage end users to freely bring out new ideas. The method should be repeatable and transferable to allow its use in various contexts. We employ the principles of collaboration engineering using so-callled thinkLets as building blocks to construct a feedback gathering process. We apply the principles for receiving new development ideas for a multi-university student information system in Finland. We reflect on the experiences and give insights on applying two alternative processes in a complex organizational context.

Enriching Literature Reviews with Computer-Assisted Research Mining. Case: Profiling Group Support Systems Research

In this paper we discuss and demonstrate how traditional literature reviews may be enriched by computer-assisted research profiling. Research profiling makes use of sophisticated text mining tools designed for structured science and technology information resources, such as the ISI Web of science, INSPEC or ABI/INFORM ProQuest. Besides aiding in summarizing and visualizing knowledge domains, these research mining tools act as interactive decision support systems for researchers. We illustrate research profiling with 2.000 publications on group support systems between years 1982-2005

Profiling 40 Years of Research in Simulation & Gaming

The authors apply the research profiling method to review all the research that has been published in Simulation & Gaming since the journal’s inauguration in 1970. The data include 2,096 articles, of which 1,046 are research articles. The authors identify the prolific authors and their institutional affiliations. They tally referenced articles, title phrases, and descriptors. They find that the most prolific authors neither engage in more work division nor author more conventional thinking articles than less prolific authors and that the 51 prolific authors fall into 7 to 11 clusters.

Developing Innovative Information Systems Services Together with Wide Audience End-Users

The environment where companies operate is radically changing. Information systems (IS) products and services must fulfill the needs of a variety of consumers. We believe that the successful creation of new services and products targeted to these wide audience end-users require new ways to incorporate them in the IS development. Literature reveals that the lead user approach, especially the finding and recruiting of the lead users, can be most burdensome for the firms to adopt. Hence, we propose a solution that encompasses the utilization of virtual communities to overcome these problems: we suggest lead users to be found from virtual communities. This paper provides a theoretical discussion on the area. We propose a novel approach, the Balloon Process Framework, to make use of the possibilities provided by the Internet - not only in recruiting the lead users - but also when collaborating with them utilizing distributed Group Support Systems.

Premediation Analysis of the Energy Taxation Dispute in Finland

Abstract This paper illustrates a real application of negotiation and decision analytic techniques to a long-continued dispute between industry and the environmentalists in Finland. Specifically, we applied the so-called premediation analysis to discover efficient compromise solutions for Finland’s future energy taxation problem. The author’s role was to act as a neutral mediator. The premediation included the elicitation of the fundamental objectives of the disputants as well as their preferences relating to the issues under negotiation. The quantitative analysis pointed out several efficient compromise solutions to the dispute, implying that it was worth negotiating rather than unilaterally seeking to influence the state authorities. This induced the participants to start unofficial face-to-face negotiations mediated by the author. The compromise achieved together with the contacts created during the post-analysis negotiations contributed immediately to the Finnish Government’s first move towards a real ecological tax reform. Later on, the Government implemented a refund scheme for the industry that resembled by and large the one outlined in the post-analysis negotiations. This study thus provides a clear indication of the usefulness of the premediation concept in an unsettled conflict situation, where the disputants have not earlier tried to resolve their disagreements by negotiating.

Aesthetics in the age of digital humanities

One of the most difficult but yet unavoidable tasks for every academic field is to define its own nature and demarcate its area. This article addresses the question of how current computational text-mining approaches can be used as tools for clarifying what aesthetics is when such approaches are combined with philosophical analyses of the field. We suggest that conjoining the two points of view leads to a fuller picture than excluding one or the other, and that such a picture is useful for the self-understanding of the discipline. Our analysis suggests that text-mining tools can find sources, relations, and trends in a new way, but it also reveals that the databases that such tools use are presently seriously limited. However, computational approaches that are still in their infancy in aesthetics will most likely gradually affect our understanding about the ontological status of the discipline and its instantiations.

A Systemic Framework for Accelerating Collaboration-Centered Knowledge Management Strategy

Knowledge is today more than ever the most critical resource of organizations. However, at the same time it is also the least-accessible resource that is difficult to share, imitate, buy, sell, store, or evaluate. Organizations should thus have an explicit strategy for the management of their knowledge resources. In this research the authors pay special attention to a knowledge management KM strategy called collaboration-centered strategy. This strategy builds on the assumption that a significant part of personal knowledge can be captured and transferred, and new knowledge created through deep collaboration between the organizations members. A critical element in the collaboration-centered KM strategy is the facilitation process that involves managing relationships between people, tasks and technology. The authors describe how the Collaboration Engineering approach with packaged facilitation techniques called ThinkLets is able to contribute to this endeavour.

Decision-Making in a Real-Time Business Simulation Game: Cultural and Demographic Aspects in Small Group Dynamics

Simulated virtual realities offer a promising but currently underutilized source of data in studying cultural and demographic aspects of dynamic decision-making (DDM) in small groups. This study focuses on one simulated reality, a clock-driven business simulation game, which is used to teach operations management. The purpose of our study is to analyze the characteristics of the decision-making groups, such as cultural orientation, education, gender and group size, and their relationship to group performance in a real-time processed simulation game. Our study examines decision-making in small groups of two or three employees from a global manufacturing and service operations company. We aim at shedding new light on how such groups with diverse background profiles perform as decision-making units. Our results reveal that the profile of the decision-making group influences the outcome of decision-making, the final business result of the simulation game. In particular, the cultural and gender diversity, as well as group size seem to have intertwined effects on team performance.