Pragmatic Software Innovation

Part 2: Creating Value through Software DevelopmentInternational audienceWe understand software innovation as concerned with introducing innovation into the development of software intensive systems, i.e. systems in which software development and/or integration are dominant considerations. Innovation is key in almost any strategy for competitiveness in existing markets, for creating new markets, or for curbing rising public expenses, and software intensive systems are core elements in most such strategies. Software innovation therefore is vital for about every sector of the economy. Changes in software technologies over the last decades have opened up for experimentation, learning, and flexibility in ongoing software projects, but how can this change be used to facilitate software innovation? How can a team systematically identify and pursue opportunities to create added value in ongoing projects? In this paper, we describe Deweyan pragmatism as the philosophical foundation for Essence – a software innovation methodology – where unknown options and needs emerge as part of the development process itself. The foundation is illustrated via a simple example

Essential Element for Viability of IS Education: Improving our Creativity

The halcyon years of IS education are gone. IS educational units are now faced not only with issues of declining students and resources but with the question of survival. Entirely new approaches must be developed to ensure the viability of IS academia. A framework for improvement is the 4-Ps model of creativity (person, process, product and press). For aid in process, research has shown that the use of creativity enhancement techniques has produced substantive improvements in IS organizations. Those same techniques need to be applied to the field of IS education. A proven methodology is available: creative problem solving. Twenty creativity techniques have been transported over from other disciplines to the IS field. Five of the these techniques are illustrated on the problem of ensuring the viability of IS Education. The CPS methodology, taught within the framework of the 4-Ps model, should be provided to IS students as well, to enable them to meet the continuing challenges of the IS profession

MOTIVATION NORMS FOR SOFTWARE ENGINEERS VERSUS THOSE FOR PROGRAMMER ANALYSTS

This paper reports the results of a national survey of members of ACM\u27s SIGSOFT (Special Interest Group for Software Engineering) on key factors for motivation. The results are compared to the national norms for business application programmer/analysts, established through the same survey methodology

Occidental Versus Oriental I.S. Professionals\u27 Perceptions on Key Factors for Motivation

A comparison of perceptions of analysts and programmers in Singapore versus the United States identifies many more similarities than dissimilarities. The Singapore sample consisted of 1,179 persons (31% of the entire I. S. population). The U. S. data base is comprised of more than 8,000 persons. Similarities were statistically significant on 9 of 12 factors compared for system analysts and on five of 13 factors compared for programmers. On six of the eight factors where programmers are significantly different, changes underway have a strong likelihood of eliminating those differences. On the most important factor that distinguishes I.S. professionals in the U.S from other U.S. professionals, individual growth need strength (GNS), Singaporean I.S. professionals are not significantly different from their U.S. counterparts. This is the first of six studies comparing American I.S. professionals to I.S. professionals in Singapore, that they perceive motivational issues much like their American counterparts

The Effects of Maintenance Assignments On Goal Congruence For Programmers and Analysts

The effect of varying amounts of maintenance work on perceptions of role conflict, role clarity, and reward clarity was analyzed in ten organizations representative of widely varying computing environments. The organizations had one characteristic in common-productivity of maintenance personnel was satisfactory, consistent with that of personnel assigned to new development work. The research revealed significant differences in perceptions of congruency between high maintenance and low maintenance employees. High maintenance employees appear to attain much higher levels of role clarity and reward clarity and much lower role conflic