Pentti Kerola

Towards deeper co-understanding of software quality

Abstract The major problem in understanding quality concepts has been explained by the characteristic that people see it quite differently from different perspectives. In the present paper we borrow this explanation for our starting point and broaden the consideration of software quality from the implementation-oriented in the individual and organization-oriented directions. Our main hypothesis is that these ‘soft’ aspects give us a deeper co-understanding of software quality. We proceed with three hermeneutic cycles such that after an introduction to five perspectives we analyse them through Kolbs experiential learning theory and finally deepen the analysis through the team and organization-oriented theory of Nonaka and Takeuchi.

Knowledge about human information processing and learning styles in the education of systems architects

As a result of their genetics, past life experiences and social environments, people develop, more or less consciously, their own information processing and learning styles. These emphasize certain human abilities and characteristics over others and include polylectic—multi-dimensionally dialectic: partially complementary and partially contradictory—structures. One way to observe and evaluate styles is to utilize self-assessment tools which refer to psychological inventories used in training processes as a means of determining individual differences. The work of systems architects includes dual tasks: to be a communicator who can understand, and respond to what is found with those who are commissioning an information system or who will be the end-users of it, and yet at the same time to know the technology, be able to prepare detailed specifications, design models of the systems and support implementation and use. This job requires deep understanding and high-level integration of different human styles. This paper gives: — a survey of the latest research results and controversies — outlines of a general introduction to styles and its relationships with systems development, and — empirical experiences during the last ten years in the special courses at the Universities of Florida International and Oulu, where some modern educational principles have been utilized in this modern and challenging field. Information systems practitioners, scientists—and trainers—do not generally utilize self-assessment tools in information systems development and use. Why?—perhaps, because of their over-dominant styles related to their jobs!

Development in the Growth Base of the ‘Oulu Phenomenon’

Oulu has been a place for business and export industry in Northern Finland. In the 1970s began a difficult period of recession. Then, declining and unemployment-ridden Oulu seemed unexpectedly to start to boom. High technology products were being produced in the city and these products were sold more and more in international market. The main contribution of the paper is to provide a more thorough view of the multi-scientific expertise apparent in the gradual building of the growth base of the’ Oulu phenomenon’. The analysis shows the crucial role of system-theoretical and software-oriented expertise and complements earlier views.

An organizational memory for quality-based software design and inspection: a collaborative multiview approach with hyperlinking capabilities

Addresses the problem of software quality information and the creation of an organizational memory founded on it. We focus on aspects such as how to organize the organizational memory, how to apply a collaborative multiview approach to it, and how to capture and use it in software design and inspection. The presented solution is based on the integrative theories of human knowledge creation and the GRCM (goal-rule-checklist-metric) model, which provides an appropriate structure for the acquisition of quality information, on which to hang the theoretical and practical items found in the literature or collected from software engineers and inspectors. We place emphasis on collaborative hypermedia functionality as a key solution for fluent use.

Information Systems and Software Engineering Research and Education in Oulu until the 1990s

This paper discusses the internationalization of software business in the Oulu region. Despite its small size, the region grew rapidly and very successfully into a global information and communication technology business center. The University of Oulu, which was the northern most university in the world at the time of its establishment (1958) had a strong emphasis on engineering since its very beginning. Research on electronics was carried out since the early 1960s. Later, when the Department of Information Processing Science was founded in 1969, research on information systems and later also on software engineering was carried out. This paper discusses the role of the information systems and software engineering research for the business growth of the region. Special emphasis is put on understanding the role of system-theoretical and software development expertise for transferring research knowledge into practice.

The Impact of Computer Science on the Development of Oulu ICT during 1985–1990

The region of Oulu has been emphasizing the importance of electronics industry for its business growth since the 1960s. After a pitch-dark recession, the region developed in the 1990s into a new, well-established hub of information and communication technology (ICT) in Finland. The city with its 100,000 inhabitants occupied nearly 10,000 ICT professionals in 1995. This article will contribute to the body of research knowledge through analyzing the role of computer science, in particular information systems and software engineering, for the development of the ICT industry in Oulu in the latter half of the 1980s. This analysis is based on a variety of both primary and secondary sources. This article suggests that the system-theoretical and software-oriented research expertise played a key role for the rapid and successful ICT business development of the Oulu region.

Comments on Defining quality aspects for conceptual models by J. Krogstie, O. I. Lindland and G. Sindre

The overall quality model is described as a mixture of semiformal and informal conceptual presentations. Those raise the following questions and comments: on pp. 6-7, how ‘individual social actor’, ‘social actor’, ‘individual actor’ and ‘organizational actor’ differ and why those are defined separately? ‘technical actor’ (SW) as a member of ‘audience’ reflects SW as ‘too human’ definition of domain D: “… denotes the ‘ideal’ knowledge and is used as a conceptual fixpoint to enhance terminology discussions…” should be clarified in the definition of I, the audience interpretation, how the technical actors ‘think’ and ‘understand’ i.e. on which interpretation scheme formal reasoning is based? in formula 3 (p. 9), the symbol E is in a different meaning compared to formula 5 what is the difference between the dotted and undotted lines in fig. 3? on p. 10 in the definition of ‘completeness’, what kind are ‘limited domains’? on p. 11, the other term for ‘drawback’ could be ‘loss’: in this context the more relevant content for ‘cost’ would be ‘measured by costs’ a table of symbols used with short descriptions would help readers

Comments on How should business professionals analyze information systems for themselves? by S. L. Alter

The hermeneutic and iterative development of the method is well and descriptively presented, but the reasoning of focus and constraints is lacking: why owners, other stakeholders, financial, raw material and other resources have been left out? (Jarvinen and Kerola, 1978) why these perspectives (Table 1); where the impacts of the information system into the contextual components? the ‘boxology’ of Fig. 1 is fuzzy: in which way ‘business process’ is a different component of the ‘system’ compared to three others? how the ‘system’ should be understood in Fig. 1?

A Reappraisal of Information Science

This chapter emphasizes the informaiionistic view of science, and especially of information science. The view accepts the scientifically based cumulative information base as the main goal for science, combining in a natural and balanced manner the theoretical aspiration for truth, the search for applied knowledge and emancipation from old, false conceptualizations. Its philosophical roots are in modified scientific realism and research empiricism (of information science) mainly in the context of a Nordic coeffort.