M. K. Raja

Application of QFD to the software development process

Explores the issue of software development process improvement. Total quality management (TQM) tools have been studied as possible means to improve the quality of the software that is becoming an important part of organizational processes. The TQM philosophy that has been so successfully applied in manufacturing holds that quality must be built into the production process and not inspected into the product. Given the complexity of modern software applications, the ability to move away from using testing and inspection as quality control methods is very attractive. Examines the current literature on software development process improvement. Particular attention is paid to how customer requirements are gathered and translated into system requirements. Finds that current methods for requirements definition do not provide a formal means to deploy the “voice of the customer” into system specifications. Further, finds after a review, that current software quality function deployment (QFD) methods suffer from a ...

Knowledge acquisition skills and traits: a self-assessment of knowledge engineers

Abstract The academic and practitioner literature has suggested that knowledge engineers are critical members of the expert systems development process, which includes knowledge acquisition. In fact, knowledge acquisition has often been cited as being the bottleneck to successful development efforts. Unfortunately, other than normative viewpoints, little attention has been paid to the behavioral and interpersonal skill set and related training of knowledge engineers, especially as pertains to the knowledge acquisition process. This study surveyed 101 persons who are, or have been, actively engaged in knowledge acquisition activities; the intent was to determine their interpersonal skills training, to ascertain their perceptions of how important many behavioral and interpersonal skills are for knowledge acquisition, and to determine how proficient knowledge engineers believe they are in terms of these skills and traits. Results indicate only minimal training in most interpersonal skills. In addition, the results showed that knowledge engineers generally feel less qualified in many of the more important skills, possibly as a result of the lack of effective education and training.

An Empirical Investigation on Customer’s Privacy Perceptions, Trust and Security Awareness in E-commerce Environment

Abstract Privacy concerns of the users have been listed as one of the hindrances in the growth of e-commerce. Understanding the consequences of privacy and its relationship with risk perceptions may help in finding solutions to this problem. Internet users may use different strategies to protect their privacy so that they can become confident in taking part in e-commerce. In this study, we investigate how users can lower their risk perceptions in the context of e-commerce. The relationships among privacy, risk, trust and internet security measures are empirically investigated to predict the behavioral intention to take part in e-commerce. Theoretical contributions and implications are discussed.

Online privacy and security concerns of consumers

Purpose Privacy and security concerns of consumers have been touted as one of the hindrances to the growth of e-commerce. These concerns increase the risk perception of consumers. Understanding the consequences of privacy and security concerns and their relationship to risk perceptions may provide a solution. The relationship between privacy and security is investigated using the theory of planned behavior. The study aims to examine the relationship of trust, privacy and security concerns to the risk perception adoption of e-commerce. The results from a survey validate the model. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected using survey from undergraduate business students. The respondents were requested to select a specific product that they plan to purchase in the next six months. After selecting a product, the respondents were requested to report an online company that they have recently visited which offers the selected product. The respondents were requested to fill out the survey with regard to their selected online company. Time given was approximately 20 min. Findings The results suggest that privacy and security concerns and trust beliefs had effects on risk perception. Among these effects, trust had the largest effect followed by privacy and security concerns. Furthermore, risk perception and trust beliefs had effects on attitude. The effect of trust beliefs on attitude was larger than the effect of risk perception on attitude. Similarly, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and attitude had a positive and direct effect on intention to be involved in e-commerce. Research limitations/implications The first limitation of this study is the use of student subjects. Because this study took place in an educational setting, its generalizability to the general population of consumers lacks to some degree. The second limitation of this study is mono-method bias. Practical implications The effect of privacy concerns on risk perception was larger than that of security concerns. Because the consumers get more experienced and sophisticated using the Web, the security concerns that they may have had at the beginning are not reflected in their risk perceptions. It is likely that they have adopted protective measures on their own to defend their privacy online. An example of such a measure would be providing false information to online companies when asked to submit personal information. Originality/value The major contributions of this study are developing and validating an integrative framework of e-commerce adoption at the individual level. The model includes privacy and security concerns, risk perception and trust beliefs. This study also highlighted the distinction of constructs of privacy and security concerns and showed their differential effects on other related constructs in the research model.

The use of relational database management systems (DBMS) for information retrieval in a group technology (GT) environment

Abstract This paper investigates the use of the tools available in a Relational DBMS for the purpose of developing a Group Technology (GT) application. Specifically, we will concentrate on Structured Query Language (SQL) but the possibilities of using other features such as Host Language programming and Report Generators will also be examined. The paper demonstrates the use of Relational DBMS technology as a tool for implementing a GT project in an advanced manufacturing environment.

Toward an organizational DSS: A process-oriented approach

Dr. R.K. Iyer is Assistant Professor, Dept. of Information Systems and Management Science at the University of Texas at Arlington, and obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Prior to joining UTA, Dr. Iyer was with Onan Corpoation for over 10 years and served in various managerial positions, including Director of Corporate Planning. Dr. Iyer has presented several papers at various national meetings and has published in several national proceedings. Dr. Iyer was the recipient of the 1985 Outstanding Contributed Paper Award at the National Meeting of the IFPS Users Association. He is an active member of the Decision Sciences Institute and is a Certified Systems Professional (CSP). His current research interests include decision support systems and their applications to global business operations and strategies, expert systems and their implementation in organizational decision making, and applications of information teclmology to competitive and strategic decision processes.