EDOS: Effective Digitalization of Public Sector

EDOS conducts surveys and analyzes information on digitalization in the public sector. The research center will contribute to new knowledge on effective digitalization of the public sector, input on how to improve processes and methods for the development of digital solutions, as well as research-based assistance to the Ministry of Local Government and Modernization and other parts of the public sector.
Key focus areas of the research center:
- Benefits management in the development of IT systems and in digital transformations
- Flexible work processes and flexible organization of software development
- Management and leadership of projects and product development
- Competence evaluation and resource management
- Cooperation and forms of agreement between actors
The center is funded by the Ministry of Local Government and Modernization and was created in 2020.
More information about the center is found on their website.
People at EDOS: Effective Digitalization of Public Sector
Who we are?
Simula Metropolitan employees are researchers, postdoctoral fellows, PhD students, engineers and administrative people. We are from all over the world, ranging from newly educated to experienced researchers, all working on making research in digital engineering at the highest international level possible.
Publications at EDOS: Effective Digitalization of Public Sector
Book Chapter
Eliciting and Prioritizing Services for Accessible Information - for Residential Real Estate Transactions
In Recent Developments in Universal Accessibility. Springer International Publishing,, 2022.Status: Accepted
Eliciting and Prioritizing Services for Accessible Information - for Residential Real Estate Transactions
A number of initiatives are underway for digitalizing real estate transaction processes. Public and private sector bodies are working to automate information retrieval and processing of the financial, ordinance and fiscal aspects of such transactions. Other initiatives, such as ours, are targeted toward helping stakeholders directly involved in selling and buying real estate. We present the results from a set of group sessions, where the focus was on improving the presentation of salient information to sellers and buyers of property. Based on an earlier conceptualization of perceived information difficulties, we elicited user stories for facilitating a better generation, provision and consumption of relevant information for the residential real estate transaction process. A total of ten services were aggregated from the user stories. We then asked a set of stakeholders to rate the effect of the services on functional objectives; i.e., on how they will affect the transaction process. We asked stakeholders at the managerial level to rate the functional objectives on strategic objectives. Combining the two sets of ratings, one obtains a rating of perceived benefit for the services, which can help in prioritzing which services to start developing first. In the outset, real estate transactions involve stakeholders with opposing interests. We conclude that multi-stakeholder group sessions can help generate services that serve these conflicting interests on a common ground.
Afilliation | Software Engineering |
Project(s) | EDOS: Effective Digitalization of Public Sector |
Publication Type | Book Chapter |
Year of Publication | 2022 |
Book Title | Recent Developments in Universal Accessibility |
Publisher | Springer International Publishing, |
Scenario Design for Healthcare Collaboration Training under Suboptimal Conditions
In Digital Human Modeling and Applications in Health, Safety, Ergonomics and Risk Management. Health, Operations Management, and Design, 197-214. Vol. 19. Springer International Publishing, 2022.Status: Published
Scenario Design for Healthcare Collaboration Training under Suboptimal Conditions
Health care today usually consists of various services covering various parts of the total health care of a region or country. These services are required to coordinate and collaborate, often using procedures and IT collaboration tools that may not be designed for interoperating across the evolving wider landscape of health care services. We posit that it is necessary to train personnel in collaboration skills using whatever infrastructure is in place. To this end, we present design principles for simulation-based collaboration training scenarios that emphasizes the inclusion of suboptimal infrastructure elements. We applied the principles in a co-creational workshop with healthcare stakeholders from a hospital and surrounding municipalities in Norway where we discussed cases where collaboration training is perceived as critical. We elicited five training vignettes concerning the general case of detecting, and following up on, clinical deterioration in a patient at home or in a nursing home. We found that the design principles spurred highly relevant discussions among participants and that novel ideas for collaboration training were brought forth on the basis of these principles. We conclude that there is a potential in using these principles for eliciting training vignettes that address the actual situation more accurately.
Afilliation | Software Engineering |
Project(s) | EDOS: Effective Digitalization of Public Sector |
Publication Type | Book Chapter |
Year of Publication | 2022 |
Book Title | Digital Human Modeling and Applications in Health, Safety, Ergonomics and Risk Management. Health, Operations Management, and Design |
Volume | 19 |
Series Volume | LNCS 13320 |
Pagination | 197-214 |
Publisher | Springer International Publishing |
Keywords | Healthcare Collaboration, IT Services, Procedures, Scenario Design, Simulation-based training, Stakeholder Journey Analysis |
Stakeholder Perceptions on Requirements for Accessible Technical Condition Information in Residential Real Estate Transactions
In Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Novel Design Approaches and Technologies , 242-259. Vol. 7. Springer International Publishing, 2022.Status: Published
Stakeholder Perceptions on Requirements for Accessible Technical Condition Information in Residential Real Estate Transactions
Buyers of residential real estate frequently experience dissatisfaction with the property they have purchased. Recent findings suggest that insufficient knowledge about the property is a key trigger to ensuing disappointment and claims for compensation. Further, a good technical condition report reduces the probability of dissatisfaction and insurance claims. For the purpose of designing services for improving technical condition information and its flow, we elicited stakeholder perceptions on the suitability of residential real estate technical condition reports. Specifically, we conducted multiple surveys which we content analyzed and used as the basis for a conceptual model of information products and dependencies needed to deliver better information to stakeholders in a real estate transaction process. The conceptual model, in turn, forms the basis for specific service design in future work.
Afilliation | Software Engineering |
Project(s) | EDOS: Effective Digitalization of Public Sector |
Publication Type | Book Chapter |
Year of Publication | 2022 |
Book Title | Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Novel Design Approaches and Technologies |
Volume | 7 |
Chapter | 16 |
Series Volume | LNCS 13308 |
Pagination | 242-259 |
Publisher | Springer International Publishing |
ISBN Number | 978-3-031-05027-5 |
Keywords | Conflict Reduction, Information Services, Residential Real Estate Transactions, Technical Condition Information |
Journal Article
Quantifying means-end reasoning skills in simulation-based training: a logic-based approach
SIMULATION (2022): 1-26.Status: Published
Quantifying means-end reasoning skills in simulation-based training: a logic-based approach
We develop a logic-based approach for designing simulation-based training scenarios. Our methodology embodies a concise definition of the scenario concept and integrates the notions of training goals, acceptable versus unacceptable actions and performance scoring. The approach applies classical artificial intelligence (AI) planning to extract coherent plays from a causal description of the training domain. The domain- and task-specific parts are defined in a high-level action description language AL. Generic causal and temporal logic is added when the causal theory is compiled into the underlying Answer Set Programming (ASP) language. The ASP representation is used to derive a scoring function that reflects the quality of a play or training session, based on a distinction of states and actions into green (acceptable) and red (unacceptable) ones. To that end, we add to the casual theory a set of norms that specify an initial assignment of colors. The ASP engine uses these norms as axioms and propagates colors by consulting the causal theory. We prove that any set of such norms constitutes a conservative extension of the underlying causal theory. With this work, we hope to lay the foundation for the development of design and analysis tools for exercise managers. We envision a software system that lets an exercise manager view all plays of a tentative scenario design, with expediency information and scores for each possible play. Our approach is applicable to any domain in which means-ends reasoning is pertinent. We illustrate the approach in the domain of crisis response and management.
Afilliation | Software Engineering |
Project(s) | EDOS: Effective Digitalization of Public Sector |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2022 |
Journal | SIMULATION |
Pagination | 1--26 |
Date Published | 05/2022 |
Publisher | SAGE journals |
Keywords | Answer Set Programming, automated scoring, deontic logic, means-end reasoning, Simulation-based training |
URL | https://doi.org/10.1177/00375497221095070 |
DOI | 10.1177/00375497221095070 |
Realizing benefits in public IT projects: A multiple case study
a journal (2022).Status: Submitted
Realizing benefits in public IT projects: A multiple case study
IT investments in the public sector are large, and it is essential that they lead to benefits for the organizations themselves and for the wider society. While there is evidence suggesting a positive connection between the existence of benefits management practices and benefits realization, less is known about how to implement such practices effectively. The paper aims to provide insights into when benefits are most likely to be realized, and how benefits management practices and roles should be implemented in order to have a positive effect on the projects’ success in terms of realizing benefits. The authors collected data relating to ten Norwegian public IT projects. For each project, they collected data on benefits management from project documents, by interviewing the project owners and benefits owners, and follow-up surveys. The benefits internal to the organization were those with the highest degree of realization, while the societal benefits were those with the lowest degree. Projects assessed to have more specific, measurable, accountable, and realistically planned benefits were more successful in realizing benefits. Benefits owners were most effective when they were able to attract attention towards the benefits to be realized, had a strong mandate, and had domain expertise.
Afilliation | Software Engineering |
Project(s) | EDOS: Effective Digitalization of Public Sector |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2022 |
Journal | a journal |
Publisher | x |
When should we (not) use the mean magnitude of relative error (MMRE) as an error measure in software development effort estimation?
Information and Software Technology 143 (2022).Status: Accepted
When should we (not) use the mean magnitude of relative error (MMRE) as an error measure in software development effort estimation?
Context: The mean magnitude of relative error (MMRE) is an error measure frequently used to evaluate and compare the estimation performance of prediction models and software professionals.
Objective: This paper examines conditions for proper use of MMRE in effort estimation contexts.
Method: We apply research on scoring functions to identify the type of estimates that minimizes the expected value of the MMRE.
Results: We show that the MMRE is a proper error measure for estimates of the most likely (mode) effort, but not for estimates of the median or mean effort, provided that the effort usage is approximately log-normally distributed, which we argue is a reasonable assumption in many software development contexts. The relevance of the findings is demonstrated on real-world software development data.
Conclusion: MMRE is not a proper measure of the accuracy of estimates of the median or mean effort, but may be used for the accuracy evaluation of estimates of most likely effort.
Afilliation | Software Engineering |
Project(s) | Department of IT Management, EDOS: Effective Digitalization of Public Sector |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2022 |
Journal | Information and Software Technology |
Volume | 143 |
Date Published | 03/2022 |
Publisher | Elsevier |
Proceedings, refereed
Perceived Challenges in Benefits Management - A Study of Public Sector Information Systems Engineering Projects
In 24th IEEE International Conference on Business Informatics. IEEE Computer Society , 2022.Status: Published
Perceived Challenges in Benefits Management - A Study of Public Sector Information Systems Engineering Projects
The field of benefits management gives guidelines on how to plan and realize benefits throughout the life-cycle of a system. However, realizing benefits from information systems projects has proven to be challenging in practice. In this paper, we investigate specific benefits management challenges as perceived by practitioners involved in information systems engineering projects. We conducted 22 interviews with respondents representing nine public sector projects, where challenges in managing benefits were elicited and identified. We elicited six specific benefits management challenges: A - Identifying and describing benefits, B - Alignment of work with planned benefits, C - Reception and acceptance of the planned benefits, D - Organizational issues, E - Alternative or competing solutions, F - Measuring and evaluating benefits. Overlaying these challenges with current normative models on benefits management, we find that: 1. Normative models on benefits management lack sufficient guidance on operative work on how to create information systems fit for realizing benefits and how to introduce these solutions to ensure benefits realization, and 2. Normative models on benefits management do not explicitly leverage the rapid project learning promoted by modern engineering methods. We conclude that more specific benefits management models should be elaborated, which are integrated into modern information systems engineering practices. This will enable best practices on the continuous adjustments of cost and scope according to evolving knowledge in projects to also be adapted to the management of benefits.
Afilliation | Software Engineering |
Project(s) | Department of IT Management, EDOS: Effective Digitalization of Public Sector |
Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
Year of Publication | 2022 |
Conference Name | 24th IEEE International Conference on Business Informatics |
Pagination | 156-165 |
Publisher | IEEE Computer Society |
ISBN Number | 978-1-6654-6016-3 |
Keywords | Benefits management challenges, Benefits management models, Information systems engineering, Public sector |
DOI | 10.1109/CBI54897.2022.00024 |
Book Chapter
Toward AI-Based Scenario Management for Cyber Range Training
In HCI International 2021 - Late Breaking Papers: Multimodality, eXtended Reality, and Artificial Intelligence, 423-436. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2021.Status: Published
Toward AI-Based Scenario Management for Cyber Range Training
There is an immediate need for a greater number of highly skilled cybersecurity personnel to meet intensified cyber attacks. We propose a cyber range exercise management architecture that employs machine reasoning to structure the design, execution and analysis of cyber range training scenarios. The scenarios are then used in simulation-based training in an emulated IT infrastructure environment. The machine reasoning is obtained by combining four AI methods: attack-defence trees, formal argumentation theory, answer set programming and multiagent systems. We argue that this type of advanced functionality that supports exercise managers in their design and analysis of scenarios is strictly necessary to improve current exercise management systems and build the required cybersecurity expertise.
Afilliation | Software Engineering |
Project(s) | EDOS: Effective Digitalization of Public Sector |
Publication Type | Book Chapter |
Year of Publication | 2021 |
Book Title | HCI International 2021 - Late Breaking Papers: Multimodality, eXtended Reality, and Artificial Intelligence |
Series Volume | LNCS 13095 |
Pagination | 423–436 |
Date Published | 11/2021 |
Publisher | Springer International Publishing |
Place Published | Cham |
ISBN Number | 978-3-030-90963-5 |
Edited books
Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming
In 22nd International Conference on Agile Software Development, XP 2021, Virtual Event, June 14–18, 2021, Proceedings. Vol. 419. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2021.Status: Published
Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming
Afilliation | Software Engineering |
Project(s) | EDOS: Effective Digitalization of Public Sector |
Publication Type | Edited books |
Year of Publication | 2021 |
Secondary Title | 22nd International Conference on Agile Software Development, XP 2021, Virtual Event, June 14–18, 2021, Proceedings |
Volume | 419 |
Publisher | Springer International Publishing |
Place Published | Cham |
ISBN Number | 978-3-030-78097-5 |
ISSN Number | 1865-1348 |
URL | https://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-030-78098-2 |
DOI | 10.1007/978-3-030-78098-2 |
Journal Article
Finding the sweet spot for organizational control and team autonomy in large-scale agile software development
Empirical Software Engineering 26 (2021).Status: Published
Finding the sweet spot for organizational control and team autonomy in large-scale agile software development
Afilliation | Software Engineering |
Project(s) | EDOS: Effective Digitalization of Public Sector |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2021 |
Journal | Empirical Software Engineering |
Volume | 26 |
Number | 101 |
Date Published | Jan-09-2021 |
Publisher | Springer |
ISSN | 1382-3256 |
URL | https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10664-021-09967-3/fulltext.html |
DOI | 10.1007/s10664-021-09967-3 |