Stanislaw Wrycza

Advances in Information Systems Development

Information Systems Development (ISD) progresses rapidly, continually creating new challenges for the professionals involved. New concepts, approaches and techniques of systems development emerge constantly in this field. Progress in ISD comes from research as well as from practice. The aim of the Conference is to provide an international forum for the exchange of ideas and experiences between academia and industry, and to stimulate exploration of new solutions.

Information technology and entrepreneurship: three cases from Poland

Many Polish entrepreneurial companies have completed organizational restructuring which was typically accompanied by the implementation of information technology (IT). Our study explores how IT lends support to entrepreneurial activities and helps Polish companies compete in a market economy. First, we gathered data on the nature and extent of organizational IT use in three small Polish companies and on the intensity of entrepreneurial activity. After observing a positive association between the use of IT and the intensity of entrepreneurial activity our study shows how they both contribute to a companys success. Furthermore, our study finds support for the assertion that entrepreneurial intensity and the strategic use of IT arise from a complex of similar factors. The findings reported in this article should be of interest to academics as well as business practitioners.

The ISAC-driven transition between requirements analysis and ER conceptual modelling

Abstract The principles of transitions and consequently integration between requirements analysis and conceptual modelling accomplished by ISACs change analysis and entity-relationship (ER) approach, respectively are elaborated. The three essential ways of transitions between the above-mentioned phases based on natural language descriptions, forms analysis and information systems development methodologies (ISDMs) are described and evaluated. The framework and essential constituents of a combined ISAC-ER methodology are proprosed. The specific procedure of transition between the particular constructs of ISACs A-graphs and ER diagrams is worked out. The elaborated rules are verified based on the inventory control example.

The challenges and directions of MIS curriculum development in respect of transformation of business requirements

Effective use of information technology (IT), is becoming one of the prime determinants of success of business organization. However, rapid advances in IT cause that knowledge and skills required by IS professionals have to be changed continuously and profoundly. In this environment, IS/IT skills can become obsolete quite easily. The IS/IT jobs of tomorrow will require the flexible updating of knowledge, skills and abilities for effective performance of changing tasks and duties.

Information Systems Development Education: Assumptions and Practice

The aim of this paper is to present the theoretical background of information systems development education at the university and to generalize the experiences connected with teaching of this subject. the teaching process is directed at combining both “hard” and “soft” approaches to systems development. It is concentrated around case solutions. the extensive use of CASE tool SDW (System Development Workbench) eliminates the rudimentary work connected with students project accomplishement. in the didactic process students use the following methods in the first three phases in the system lifecycle: 1. Planning: Critical Succes Factors (CSF), Meta Plan Session, Consistency Model of Broekstra (CMB), Control Paradigma, Information Cross, SWOT, 2. Analysis: isAC, Data Flow Diagram (DFD), Entity Relationship Model (ERM), Decision Tables, Decision Trees, 3. Design: Data Flow Diagrams, Entity Relationship Model, Normalization, Bubble Charts, Structure Charts, Jackson Diagrams, Prototyping.

SysML Requirement Diagrams: Banking Transactional Platform Case Study

The aim of this paper is an investigation into the practicality of SysML Requirement Diagrams in requirement identification and specification for an Internet banking transactional platform. The research attempts to discover if SysML Requirement Diagrams can be applied not only for defining requirements in engineering domains, but also for conducting business cases. The paper is structured as follows: after the Introduction, the prerequisites of requirement specification in SysML are clarified in Section 2. Section 3 exemplifies the containment relationships in a banking transactional platform case study. A Requirement Diagram of a Money Transfer Service in both graphical and tabular form is developed and explained in Section 4, followed by Conclusions. The study has generated demand for more in-depth analysis of business requirements specification using other functionally related SysML/UML diagrams.

Information Technology as an Enabler of Business Processes Designing During Macroeconomic Transformation

The influence of information technology (IT) and market opportunities on business processes reengineering (BPR) and later designing in small firms in course of macroeconomic transformation is explored and reported in this paper. The exploratory, qualitative research method was used to analyse and clarify a data structure. Seven small Polish firms were selected for the survey as a convenience sample. The companies show the use of technology ranging from the standard to advanced one. In the result of research process, the model of new business processes design is proposed. It is based on the idea of the combined IT initiative/Market demand BPR enabler. The model was constructed and then verified by means of exploring, analysing and generalising data acquired in the interviewed companies, and synthesised in tabular form in the paper.

The Enriched UTAUT Model for the Acceptance of Software Engineering Tools in Academic Education

ABSTRACT This article provides an enriched technology acceptance model explaining the impact of both classic and additional variables on software engineering tools acceptance within Information Systems Development courses. Two novel, domain-specific variables were identified (i.e., Professional Training Diffusion and Model Interchange). Statistical verification of the proposed model and study regarding the influence of the variables on students’ intention to use specific tools were conducted—providing users with enhanced means of selecting optimal software for real-life projects.

SysML Parametric Diagrams in Business Applications

The Unified Modeling Language (UML) has been extensively used in the systems engineering domain. It has become a commonly accepted standard. However, not all expectations of system engineers have been met by UML. Therefore, a new language, based on UML but strongly supplemented by notions specific for the systems engineering field, has been proposed by the International Council on System Engineering (INCOSE) and Object Management Group (OMG). New types of diagrams specific for the technical spheres of systems engineering have been proposed and included in a standard set of 9 types of SysML diagrams. While they are successfully used in systems engineering, systems analysts have gone the opposite way—they have experimented with the appropriateness of SysML diagrams for applications in business and administration organizations. In this chapter, a case study of inventory control systems in industrial and commercial organizations, originating from business principles, theory of prognosis and operations research, is used to verify the usefulness of one of the leading and most characteristic SysML diagrams, i.e. the Parametric Diagram. Following the Introduction, the role of SysML in the development of inventory control systems is outlined. In Sect. 3, a Block Definition Diagram as a basis for parametric analysis is specified. Section 4 provides selected case study results. The chapter is finalized with Conclusions.

Determinants of Academic E-Learning Systems Acceptance.

From the beginning of the e-learning technology era, many concerns have been raised regarding the use of e-learning systems in everyday academic didactics. Thus, a number of relevant studies have been conducted in the field of e-learning acceptance, mostly with the help of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). This study investigates factors which influence the acceptance of academic e-learning technologies with the use of the modified UTAUT model. The basic UTAUT model was extended by new factors under examination: system interactivity (SIN) and the area of scientific expertise (ASE). In the survey, a total number of 242 academic teachers were asked to fill out the UTAUT-formatted questionnaire to determine their intention to use e-learning. Therefore, the paper contributes to technology acceptance theory, applied in e-learning, by extending the UTAUT model with two new variables—ASE and SIN—and by verifying the model validating their usefulness. Study results are also valuable for practitioners, such as e-learning systems designers and developers. Factors such as performance expectancy, system interactivity, and area of scientific expertise were crucial for e-learning system development, to ensure that such an information system is widely accepted by end users such as faculty.