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O Riordan, Niamh
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O Riordan, Niamh
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O Riordan, Niamh
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Now showing 1 - 10 of 19
- PublicationDecision-Making In Agile Software Development Teams: Solving the Optimal Timing Problem(2012-06-13)
; ; ; Agile methods are a recent but widely diffused innovation in Information Systems development (ISD). Agile methods call for the creation of organic, flexible and empowered teams who work in active and close collaboration with customers over a series of rapid development iterations. Agile methods can deliver productivity and quality gains by improving task prioritisation, design flexibility, and communication and coordination within and across teams. However, teams must overcome a range of obstacles if these advantages are to be realised. In particular, decision-making in agile settings is challenging, decentralised and pluralistic, frequent and short-term, dynamically complex (decisions are highly interrelated), time and resource constrained, often unstructured, and minimally documented. As such, there have been repeated calls for research on decision making in agile settings.73 - PublicationInnovation Co-Creation In A Virtual World(Association for Information Systems (AIS), 2012-06-10)
; ; The emergence of web-based technologies has radically influenced the ways in which individuals around the world communicate, represent themselves, share ideas, and otherwise interact with one another (Ward and Sonneborn, 2009; Rogers, 2003). In particular, these technologies allow people to communicate directly with one another and to share and shape their own experiences; as a result, customers and other organisational stakeholders are increasingly involved in the design of products and services (Ramaswamy and Gouillart, 2010, p. 102). During innovation co-creation specifically, customers take an active and creative role in the intentional and successful adoption and application of ideas, processes, products or procedures that are new to the adopting organization. This study carries out six case studies of innovation co-creation in the virtual world of Second Life. Virtual worlds allow users to engage in highly active and participatory forms of co-creation that are difficult if not impossible to replicate in other environments. The study explores collaborative processes used for innovation co-creation in virtual worlds. In particular, the study presents an analysis of behaviours used to facilitate innovation co-creation in virtual world projects and the factors that affect it. The study leverages this analysis to derive practical recommendations for virtual world users and virtual world designers that can be used to stimulate and support innovation co-creation in virtual worlds.87 - PublicationAn investigation of innovation and knowledge creation in virtual worldsThe Internet and World Wide Web have had, and continue to have, an incredible impact on our civilization. These technologies have radically influenced the way that society is organised and the manner in which people around the world communicate and interact. The structure and function of individual, social, organisational, economic and political life begin to resemble the digital network architectures upon which they are increasingly reliant. It is increasingly difficult to imagine how our 'offline' world would look or function without the 'online' world; it is becoming less meaningful to distinguish between the 'actual' and the 'virtual'. Thus, the major architectural project of the twenty-first century is to 'imagine, build, and enhance an interactive and ever changing cyberspace' (Lévy, 1997, p. 10). Virtual worlds are at the forefront of this evolving digital landscape. Virtual worlds have 'critical implications for business, education, social sciences, and our society at large' (Messinger et al., 2009, p. 204). This study focuses on the possibilities of virtual worlds in terms of communication, collaboration, innovation and creativity. The concept of knowledge creation is at the core of this research. The study shows that scholars increasingly recognise that knowledge creation, as a socially enacted process, goes to the very heart of innovation. However, efforts to build upon these insights have struggled to escape the influence of the information processing paradigm of old and have failed to move beyond the persistent but problematic conceptualisation of knowledge creation in terms of tacit and explicit knowledge. Based on these insights, the study leverages extant research to develop the conceptual apparatus necessary to carry out an investigation of innovation and knowledge creation in virtual worlds. The study derives and articulates a set of definitions (of virtual worlds, innovation, knowledge and knowledge creation) to guide research. The study also leverages a number of extant theories in order to develop a preliminary framework to model knowledge creation in virtual worlds. Using a combination of participant observation and six case studies of innovative educational projects in Second Life, the study yields a range of insights into the process of knowledge creation in virtual worlds and into the factors that affect it. The study’s contributions to theory are expressed as a series of propositions and findings and are represented as a revised and empirically grounded theoretical framework of knowledge creation in virtual worlds. These findings highlight the importance of prior related knowledge and intrinsic motivation in terms of shaping and stimulating knowledge creation in virtual worlds. At the same time, they highlight the importance of meta-knowledge (knowledge about knowledge) in terms of guiding the knowledge creation process whilst revealing the diversity of behavioural approaches actually used to create knowledge in virtual worlds and. This theoretical framework is itself one of the chief contributions of the study and the analysis explores how it can be used to guide further research in virtual worlds and on knowledge creation. The study’s contributions to practice are presented as actionable guide to simulate knowledge creation in virtual worlds. This guide utilises a theoretically based classification of four knowledge-creator archetypes (the sage, the lore master, the artisan, and the apprentice) and derives an actionable set of behavioural prescriptions for each archetype. The study concludes with a discussion of the study’s implications in terms of future research.
650 - PublicationIn search of lost time: investigating the temporality of student engagement, the role of learning technologies, and implications for student performance(2014-12-10)Much has been written about the importance of engaging students in the learning process. However, studies have shown that students today spend significantly less time on their studies than their forebears. Given the limitations of the existing body of knowledge, this study reviews what is currently known about full-time college students' time use and its consequences in terms of exam performance and skill acquisition. In particular, the results of our initial investigation suggest the ubiquity of today’s technologies, especially the Internet, has significant and frequently overlooked consequences for student engagement in general and for their consumption of content for learning in particular. Further, future studies are needed to unravel the complex relationship that exists between learning technologies, students' time use and their academic performance. The paper concludes by highlighting a number of possible avenues for future research in this area.
110 - PublicationDesigning the Future Perfect: Reorganising is Research Around the Axis of IntentionAccording to Barbara Adam, 'time is such an obvious factor in social science that it is almost invisible'. Indeed, Information Systems (IS) researchers have relied upon taken-for-granted assumptions about the nature of time and have built theories that are frequently silent about the temporal nature of our being in the world. This paper addresses two key questions about time in IS research: (i) what formulations of time are available to us in our research and (ii) how can these formulations be used in a coherent way in our research? In addressing the first question, two meta-formulations of time are examined. The first relates time to the sense of passing time expressed in successive readings of the clock. The second relates time to the experience of purposive, intentional, goal-directed behaviour. Our proposal is that IS researchers should be encouraged to identify the formulations of time that underpin their research. Our goal is to provide a framework to allow IS researchers to evaluate the fit between the goals of research and the temporal assumptions being used to underpin it and ultimately to investigate the extent to theories that are based on different assumptions about time can be combined or integrated.
77 - PublicationIt's About Time: Investigating The Temporal Parameters Of Decision-Making In Agile Teams(2012-12-19)
; ; ; The emergence and widespread adoption of agile methodologies is often explained by the need to improve time management in Information Systems Development (ISD). Indeed, a growing body of evidence supports the view that agile methodologies are an effective means of delivering productivity gains through time savings. That is to say, agile methodologies can be used to increase speed and efficiency in ISD projects. In addition, lightweight agile methodologies are designed, by definition, to minimise wastes in the design and delivery of Information Systems and can therefore be used to support sustainability in IS projects (cf. Schmidt et al., 2009). However, the impact of agile methodologies on ISD project outcomes is less clear. In addressing this question, this research-inprogress paper uses a combination of existing literature and empirical data to construct a conceptual framework to explain how three different temporal aspects of agile methodologies (time pressure, polychronicity and periodicity) impact upon decision quality, thereby affecting ISD project outcomes. It is envisaged that this framework will be used to shed light on how agile methodologies impact upon project effectiveness or velocity, which is defined in this context as movement in the 'right' direction.99 - PublicationThe Road Less Travelled: A New Perspective On Sustained Competitive Advantage Through Knowledge CreationKnowledge and intellectual capital have become the primary bases upon which organisations construct their core competencies and are increasingly seen as the key to superior organisational performance (Lubit, 2001). At the same time, both the need to and difficulty associated with developing sustainable competitive advantages are rapidly increasing (ibid.). This paper argues that two roads lead to sustained competitive advantage in firms. The well-travelled road is largely based on conceptualising knowledge in terms of information and data and attempting to leverage organisational knowledge by focusing on the management and utilisation of information in organisations. The road less travelled is based on recognising the power of knowledge in general, and knowledge creation in particular, to stimulate creativity and innovation in organisations leading to sustained competitive advantage. On this road, it is recognised that truly innovative organisations 'do not simply process information… they actually create new knowledge and information, from the inside out, in order to redefine both problems and solutions and, in the process, to re-create the environment' (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995, p.56). Despite the promise of the road less travelled, existing perspectives on knowledge creation are beset with a variety of epistemological and methodological problems. This paper develops a new perspective on knowledge creation by delving into existing conceptualisations and classifications of knowledge in literature, exploring the philosophical assumptions upon which they are based, probing the conceptual and methodological issues that surround these views and articulating a new perspective on knowledge creation to guide future research efforts.
103 - PublicationMind the gaps: increasing the impact of IS research on ISD performance improvement(2014-12-10)
; ; Poor performance has pervaded the last forty years of software development, evident across industry sectors, project size, budget, geographic location, system quality and functionality, and exacerbated by increased criticality of IT in organisational mission and strategy. A significant body ofresearch has investigated the potential of emerging development methodologies to address these shortcomings but the effectiveness of these methods is largely supported by anecdotal evidence. At the same time, metrics and measurement are known to affect ISD performance but the existing literature on ISD metrics is misaligned with practitioners' needs, leading to a lack of clarity about ISD metrics in practice. This paper presents an interdisciplinary literature review on ISD metrics to identify the underlying reasons for this misalignment and evaluate the extent to which existing literature can be used to better understand the impact of emerging software development methodologies on ISD performance.167 - PublicationDesigning the Future Perfect: Developing a temporal understanding of the intentionality and generativity of organisational practices(2015-09-15)According to Barbara Adam, 'time is such an obvious factor in social science that it is almost invisible'. Indeed, organisational researchers have relied upon taken-for-granted assumptions about the nature of time and have built theories that are frequently silent about the temporal nature of our being in the world. This paper addresses two key questions about time: (i) which formulation(s) of time are most useful in our research, and (ii) how might we use such formulations to build better theory? In addressing the first question, two main formulations of time are examined. The first is frequently associated with research in the natural sciences and relates time to the sense of passing time expressed in successive readings of the clock. The second is typically associated with research in the social sciences and relates time to the experience of purposive, intentional, goal-directed behaviour. In order to build better theory, organisational scholars are encouraged to identify and classify the formulations of time that underpin their research, to evaluate the fit between those temporal assumptions and the goals of their research, and to investigate the extent to theories that are based on different assumptions about time can be combined or integrated.
90 - PublicationHarnessing the innovative potential of knowledge in the digital enterprise(2013-06-08)
; ; The open, flexible affordances of pervasive digital technologies have fundamentally altered the nature of organisational innovation. In the extreme, these technologies become platforms for digitally enacted organisational innovation. At its core, innovation is a process of creating and using new ideas and concepts. In the digital realm innovation becomes a process of enacted knowledge creation. This research contributes to a growing discourse on the relationship between innovation and knowledge creation by building and testing a hybrid model of organisational knowledge creation and innovation. Its findings illustrate the utility of using knowledge-based perspectives to investigate organisational innovation and have significant implications for fostering digital innovation in the firm.107