Enculturation of user involvement in software development organizations - an interpretive case study in the product development context

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Netta Iivari
Keyword(s):  
Software Development ◽  
Product Development ◽  
User Involvement ◽  
Development Organizations ◽  
Interpretive Case Study ◽  
Development Context

Agile Software Development

2012 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Torstein Nicolaysen ◽  
Richard Sassoon ◽  
Maria B. Line ◽  
Martin Gilje Jaatun
Keyword(s):  
Software Development ◽  
Agile Software Development ◽  
Agile Development ◽  
Implementation Team ◽  
Agile Methodologies ◽  
Development Organizations ◽  
Development Lifecycle ◽  
Software Development Lifecycle ◽  
Agile Software

In this article, the authors contrast the results of a series of interviews with agile software development organizations with a case study of a distributed agile development effort, focusing on how information security is taken care of in an agile context. The interviews indicate that small and medium-sized agile software development organizations do not use any particular methodology to achieve security goals, even when their software is web-facing and potential targets of attack. This case study confirms that even in cases where security is an articulated requirement, and where security design is fed as input to the implementation team, there is no guarantee that the end result meets the security objectives. The authors contend that security must be built as an intrinsic software property and emphasize the need for security awareness throughout the whole software development lifecycle. This paper suggests two extensions to agile methodologies that may contribute to ensuring focus on security during the complete lifecycle.

Evaluating Socio-Technical Coordination in Open-Source Communities: A Cluster-Based Approach

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inna Rytsareva ◽  
Qize Le ◽  
Emma Conner ◽  
Ananth Kalyanaraman ◽  
Jitesh H. Panchal
Keyword(s):  
Product Development ◽  
Organizational Structure ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Virtual Community ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
Joint Project ◽  
Communication Structures ◽  
Development Organizations ◽  
Open Source Communities

In complex product development, coordination is the act of managing dependencies between artifacts. Socio-technical coordination is the achievement of coordination through the alignment of organizational structures and product structures. Socio-technical coordination is achieved in hierarchical product development organizations by aligning the organizational structure with the system architecture. However, within virtual community-based product development such as open source development, the organizational structure is not designed by a central authority. In contrast, the community evolves as a result of participation of individuals and their communication with other individuals working on the project. Hence, understanding and quantifying socio-technical coordination is particularly important in open-source communities. Existing approaches to measuring socio-technical coordination are based on the congruence between ideal communication and the actual communication structures within communities. The primary limitation of existing approaches is that they only account for explicit communication between individuals. Existing measures do not account for the indirect communication between individuals and the shared knowledge that individuals working on a joint project possess. Due to these limitations, the socio-technical coordination values have been observed to be very low in the existing literature. We propose two alternate approaches to measuring socio-technical coordination based on clustering techniques. We illustrate the approaches using a case study from an open source software development community. The proposed approaches present a broader and more encompassing view of coordination within open source communities.

scholarly journals “Standard Bibles” and Mediators as a Way of Software Development Organizations to Cope with the Multiplicity and Plurality of Standards

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-77
Author(s):  
Ronny Gey ◽  
Andrea Fried
Keyword(s):  
Software Development ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Internal Standard ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Single Case Study ◽  
Environmental Challenges ◽  
Development Organizations ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Increasing Demand

This paper focuses on the appearance and implementation of process standards in software development organizations. In particular, it shows interest in the way organizations handle the plurality and multitude of process standards they are faced with in a modern working environment. The process how organizations respond to environmental challenges like the increasing demand for process standards we call metastructuring. Based on the metastructuring approach by Orlikowski et al. (1995) it explores the process of internal standard-use mediation by an in-depth single case study. The case company develops step by step a dedicated institutional entity reacting to standard complexity and customer pressure. As a result, mediators shape extensively the standard use of the employees in the case company. They develop a process library which integrates different standards. This work sheds light on how this metastructuring process is accomplished, which areas of metastructuring regarding process standards can be found and explore different types of metastructuring activities by the involved standard-use mediators.

‘Listening to the Voices of the Users’ in Product Based Software Development

2011 ◽  
pp. 157-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Netta Iivari ◽  
Tonja Molin-Juustila
Keyword(s):  
Software Development ◽  
Product Development ◽  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Development Context

(IT) development, but it is often challenging, especially in the product based software development context. This article critically examines the practice of ‘listening to the voices of the users’; how it is accomplished in product based software development. First literature addressing users’ role in the product development context is reviewed. Afterwards, empirical analysis in three IT companies involved in product business but with different degrees of productization is carried out. In the analysis, the focus is on: 1) Where do the uses’ voices come from? 2) When are the users’ voices listened to? 3) What happens to the users’ voices; whether and how do they affect the development? 4) What are the challenges and particularities of each case? The analysis reveals similarities but also clear differences between the cases. Implications both for theory and practice discussed.

Exploring the Rhetoric on Representing the User

2008 ◽  
pp. 2741-2770
Author(s):  
Netta Iivari
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Product Development ◽  
Human Computer Interaction ◽  
User Involvement ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Development Organizations ◽  
It Artifact ◽  
Academic Discourses ◽  
Computer Interaction

Users should be involved in information technology (IT) artifact development, but it is often difficult and rare, especially in the development of commercial IT artifacts for external use. This paper critically examines discursive construction of user involvement in academia and in the IT artifact product development industry. First, three academic discourses on user involvement are identified. Then, discursive construction of user involvement is explored in four IT artifact product development organizations, in which user involvement is indirect and labeled as usability work. Five discourses on usability work are identified. They are related to the academic discourses on user involvement, and some of them are criticized (Asaro, 2000) as“forms of technological colonialism,” merely “silencing the users” instead of “giving them a voice.” It is recommended that especially the human-computer interaction (HCI) community should carefully reflect on what kinds of discourses on user involvement it advocates and deems as legitimate.

Systematic sources of sub-optimal interface design in large product development organizations

1990 ◽  
Vol 19 (321) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Grudin
Keyword(s):  
Product Development ◽  
Interface Design ◽  
Systems Development ◽  
Interactive Systems ◽  
Computer Users ◽  
Design Decisions ◽  
Organizational Goals ◽  
Development Organizations ◽  
Development Context ◽  
Large Product

<p>The need for the developers of interactive systems to understand the eventual users and their work is well known. The first part of this paper explores the underlying problems in achieving an understanding of computer users and their work in one systems development context:</p><p>large product development organizations. The second part describes organizational goals that can conflict with good interface design. These goals often seem unrelated to interface considerations, but in the absence of knowledge of users and their work, they may be an unrecognized, subtle source of bad design decisions. While each organization is unique, the hope is that the forewarned reader will be better able to anticipate, recognize, and respond to these and similar challenges when they do appear.</p>

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT IN JAPANESE TV GAME SOFTWARE: THE CASE OF AN INNOVATIVE GAME

2001 ◽  
Vol 05 (04) ◽  
pp. 487-515 ◽  
Author(s):  
YASUNORI BABA ◽  
F. TED TSCHANG
Keyword(s):  
Software Development ◽  
Product Development ◽  
Software Industry ◽  
Music Industry ◽  
Creative Industries ◽  
Development Model ◽  
Development Processes ◽  
Software Development Model ◽  
Controlling Processes

This paper addresses the issue of developing innovative software with a case study of the emerging prototyping methods used in an innovative game in the Japanese game software industry. Software has traditionally been seen as an efficiency-driven process. But in innovative software, there are other important issues, such as the need to allow for radical redesign in development cycles, and the need to resolve tensions between creative and controlling processes. The paper addresses the broader design issue by documenting the emerging prototyping practices in design-driven and originality-oriented product development. We term this an "outward spiral" software development model, in which the completion of an initial prototyping cycle may lead to significant revisions in design and code, and the possible scrapping of large chunks of code. This model is compared with the development processes used for other types of software and in creative industries like the music industry.

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