A database for publications published by researchers and students at SimulaMet.
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- Journal articles (36)
- Books (2)
- Edited books (1)
- Proceedings, refereed (28) Remove Proceedings, refereed <span class="counter">(28)</span> filter
- Book chapters (5)
- Talks, keynote (11)
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- Posters (1)
- Technical reports (2)
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- Talks, invited (23)
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- Public outreach (11)
- Miscellaneous (2)
Proceedings, refereed
Projects VS Continuous Product Development - Does it Affect Benefits Realization?
In The Ninth International Conference on Advances and Trends in Software Engineering (SOFTENG). Xpert Publishing Services (XPS), 2023.Status: Published
Projects VS Continuous Product Development - Does it Affect Benefits Realization?
Software investments are traditionally implemented using project organization, which often leads project participants to focus on time, cost and scope, rather than the intended benefits of the investment. We conducted a survey to compare work organized as projects against work organized as Continuous Product Development (CPD). Our results indicate that: 1. Both project organization and CPD are commonly used in practice. 2. Agile is very popular, but DevOps and the use of linear models for organizing work are also frequent. 3. CPD is perceived to outperform projects in realization of benefits. 4. We found no difference in perceived realization of benefits between those using or not using a set of ways of organizing work (including linear models, agile, DevOps, BizDev or program organization). We conclude that organizing work using CPD is a viable alternative to project organization, especially in situations where failure must be avoided. Also, we suggest that more research should be conducted to better understand what factors of the different ways of organizing work affects the realization of benefits.
| Afilliation | Software Engineering |
| Project(s) | Department of IT Management, EDOS: Effective Digitalization of Public Sector |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2023 |
| Conference Name | The Ninth International Conference on Advances and Trends in Software Engineering (SOFTENG) |
| Pagination | 20-25 |
| Date Published | 04/2023 |
| Publisher | Xpert Publishing Services (XPS) |
A Survey on the Use and Effects of Goal Hierarchies in Digitalization Efforts
In Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology: Managing Technology, Engineering and Manufacturing for a Sustainable World (PICMET 2023), 2023.Status: Accepted
A Survey on the Use and Effects of Goal Hierarchies in Digitalization Efforts
Digitalization has become a primary goal for organizations. Successfully adopting the digital context both in daily operations and in business management and strategy entails great benefits at different levels (organizational, economic, social, environmental...). Thus, it is very important that practitioners have clear conceptions of the goals in this regard and that those goals are “alive” in organizations.
For this reason, in this study we present a survey that we performed among practitioners related to the management of Information Technology (IT) from both the private and public sectors in Norway. Through this survey we have tried to find out how organizations understand and translate the current context of digitalization from different goal levels. For that, we asked respondents to relate to one of three goal hierarchies: A) a classical governance approach; B) an organizational tier approach; and C) an effects-based approach.
Among the results obtained we found that the first two are the most used and the goal achievement is slightly higher for the classical governance approach than for the organizational tier approach. Likewise, we identified that while top level management has a good understanding of the goals, this understanding deteriorates as one moves down the organizational hierarchy.
| Afilliation | Software Engineering |
| Project(s) | Department of IT Management |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2023 |
| Conference Name | Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology: Managing Technology, Engineering and Manufacturing for a Sustainable World (PICMET 2023) |
| Keywords | Digitalization, information technology, Management, strategy, sustainability |
Gender Equality in Information Technology Processes: A Systematic Mapping Study
In Future of Information and Communication Conference (FICC 2023). Vol. 652. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems: Springer, 2023.Status: Published
Gender Equality in Information Technology Processes: A Systematic Mapping Study
Information Technology (IT) plays a key role in the world we live in. As such, its relation to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) stated by the United Nations to improve lives and health of the people and the planet is inexorable. In particular, the SDG 5 aims to enforce gender equality and states 9 Targets that drive the actions to achieve such goal. The lack of women within IT has been a concern for several years. In this context, the objective of this study is to get an overview of the state of the art on gender equality in IT processes. To do so, we conducted a Systematic Mapping Study to investigate the addressed Targets, challenges, and potential best practices that have been put forward so far. The results we have obtained demonstrate the novelty of this field, as well as a set of opportunities and challenges that currently exist in this regard, such as the lack of best practices to address gender equality in IT processes and the need to develop proposals that solve this problem. All of this can be used as a starting point to identify open issues that help to promote research on this field and promote and enhance best practices towards a more socially sustainable basis for gender equality in and by IT.
| Afilliation | Software Engineering |
| Project(s) | Department of IT Management |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2023 |
| Conference Name | Future of Information and Communication Conference (FICC 2023) |
| Volume | 652 |
| Pagination | 310–327 |
| Date Published | 03/2023 |
| Publisher | Springer |
| Place Published | Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems |
| ISBN Number | 978-3-031-28072-6 |
| Keywords | Gender Equality, information technology, Processes, sustainability, Systematic Mapping Study |
| DOI | 10.1007/978-3-031-28073-3_22 |
Designing and Testing a Mobile App to Fight Child, Early, and Forced Marriage in Developing Countries
In 14th Scandinavian Conference of Information Systems (SCIS 2023), 2023.Status: Accepted
Designing and Testing a Mobile App to Fight Child, Early, and Forced Marriage in Developing Countries
Child marriage is still a severe issue in developing countries. Among the strategies that work most to fight it, is empowering girls with information combined with the education of parents and community. As smartphones are more accessible year after year in developing countries, we want to investigate how a mobile app could effectively fight child marriage and which characteristics such an app should have. The research was organized into three main phases. The first phase was focused on 4 expert semi-structured interviews to understand if an app could be a good solution to help in fighting child marriage. The second and third phases were based on a case study with young girls in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The second phase had focus groups with 26 girls to test and improve the requi- sites of the app, and the third phase had a questionnaire that 14 girls had to fill out after trying the app. The study shows that girls in developing countries have access to smartphones, and most can use the developed app satisfactorily and that it is worth continuing to study this problem as an app could be a new instrument to use alongside traditional tools.
| Afilliation | Software Engineering |
| Project(s) | Department of IT Management |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2023 |
| Conference Name | 14th Scandinavian Conference of Information Systems (SCIS 2023) |
| Keywords | Child Marriage, Developing Countries, Digital Illiterate Users, ICT4D, Low-Literate Users, Mobile App |
An Overview of the Understanding and Use of Assessment Methods in Benefits Management
In 25th IEEE International Conference on Business Informatics (CBI 2023). IEEE, 2023.Status: Accepted
An Overview of the Understanding and Use of Assessment Methods in Benefits Management
Evidence suggests that benefits management is critical for enabling greater value and for enhancing the positive impact of programs, projects, and portfolios. However, many organizations only focus their efforts on identifying the intended benefits, without conducting a proper follow-up through ongoing assessment or evaluation to ensure benefits realization. For this reason, this study aims to obtain an overview of the actual use of the assessment methods in benefits management, through a compilation and analysis of the literature following the Systematic Mapping Study methodology. The results and findings obtained show a significant gap in the interplay between the fields of assessment methods and benefits management. Based on this, we suggest opportunities for improvement, such as developing audit guides and frameworks for enhancing the monitoring of the benefits, strengthening the focus on external benefits of organizations, and for adapting benefits assessment to the changed perceptions of intended benefits, in line with continuous improvement.
| Afilliation | Software Engineering |
| Project(s) | Department of IT Management |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2023 |
| Conference Name | 25th IEEE International Conference on Business Informatics (CBI 2023) |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| Keywords | Assessment, benefits management, Literature Analysis, Literature Review, Project Management |
What can we learn from surveys on the importance of software development productivity factors?
In CiBSE. Brazilian Publishing Company, 2023.Status: Published
What can we learn from surveys on the importance of software development productivity factors?
A proper interpretation of survey results on the importance of software development productivity factors requires an understanding of what the responses reflect. To find out more about this, we conducted a survey with 79 experienced software professionals. The strongest connection found was between the high perceived importance of a productivity factor and how frequently the respondents had experienced that a low performance on that factor had caused productivity problems. We argue that it is challenging to interpret survey-based results on the importance of productivity factors. Instead of conducting more surveys on the importance of such factors, we recommend asking directly about previous experiences related to productivity factors and including contextual information that enables proper interpretation of the responses.
| Afilliation | Software Engineering |
| Project(s) | EDOS: Effective Digitalization of Public Sector |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2023 |
| Conference Name | CiBSE |
| Publisher | Brazilian Publishing Company |
Proceedings, refereed
Research Incentives in Academia Leading to Unethical Behavior
In Research Challenges in Information Science. Vol. 446. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2022.Status: Published
Research Incentives in Academia Leading to Unethical Behavior
A current practice in academia is to reward researchers for achieving outstanding performance. Although intended to boost productivity, such a practice also promotes competitiveness and could lead to unethical behavior. This position paper exposes common misconducts that arise when researchers try to game the system. It calls the research community to take preventive actions to reduce misconduct and treat such a pervasive environment with proper acknowledgment of researchers’ efforts and rewards on quality rather than quantity.
| Afilliation | Software Engineering |
| Project(s) | Department of IT Management |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Conference Name | Research Challenges in Information Science |
| Volume | 446 |
| Pagination | 744 - 751 |
| Date Published | 05/2022 |
| Publisher | Springer International Publishing |
| Place Published | Cham |
| ISBN Number | 978-3-031-05759-5 |
| ISSN Number | 1865-1348 |
| Keywords | Incentives, Misconduct, Research ethics, Research quality, Researcher performance |
| Notes | Part of the Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing book series (LNBIP,volume 446) |
| URL | https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-05760-1_51 |
| DOI | 10.1007/978-3-031-05760-1_51 |
Perceived Challenges in Benefits Management - A Study of Public Sector Information Systems Engineering Projects
In Conference on Business Informatics (CBI). 24th ed. IEEE Computer Society Digital Library, 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 | Conference on Business Informatics (CBI) |
| Edition | 24 |
| Pagination | 156-165 |
| Date Published | 06/2022 |
| Publisher | IEEE Computer Society Digital Library |
| Keywords | Benefits management challenges, Benefits management models, Information systems engineering, Public sector |
| DOI | 10.1109/CBI54897.2022.00024 |
Benefit Considerations in Project Decisions
In International Conference on Product-Focused Software Process Improvement. PROFES 2022. 23th ed. Springer, Cham, 2022.Status: Published
Benefit Considerations in Project Decisions
Software project success is often characterized in terms of time, cost and scope – despite that delivering benefit is the main purpose of a project. In this paper, we explore 1) to what degree benefit considerations influence major project decisions, 2) to what degree a specific set of benefits management challenge are handled and influence major project decisions and 3) if there is any realization (over time) that benefit considerations should receive greater attention. We investigate influence in projects with four types of problem severity: completed projects with only minor problems, completed projects with major problems, projects that were disrupted but completed, and projects that were terminated before completion. We asked 45 software professionals to what degree time, cost, scope, benefit and benefit/cost, as well as benefits management challenges, influence major roject decisions. Our findings indicate that time, cost and scope have a significantly higher degree of influence on project decisions than benefit and benefit/cost. However, practitioners think that benefit and benefit/cost should have significantly more influence on decisions than cost. The benefits management challenges are found to have less influence in the more severe projects. We argue that giving benefits considerations a stronger voice in project decisions would be in line with the desire of practitioners and the prime objective of delivering benefit to stakeholders. We conclude that it is important to understand how to handle benefits management challenges at different stages of project life and that handling such challenges should be integrated with other prime drivers of project success.
| 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 | International Conference on Product-Focused Software Process Improvement. PROFES 2022 |
| Edition | 23 |
| Pagination | 217-234 |
| Date Published | 11/2022 |
| Publisher | Springer, Cham |
| ISBN Number | 978-3-031-21388-5 |
| Keywords | Benefit, Benefits management challenges, Cost, Scope, Software project severity, Time |
| DOI | 10.1007/978-3-031-21388-5_15 |
Measurement of software development effort estimation bias: Avoiding biased measures of estimation bias
In 11th International Conference on Software Engineering and Applications (SEA 2022). SEA, 2022.Status: Published
Measurement of software development effort estimation bias: Avoiding biased measures of estimation bias
In this paper, we propose improvements in how estimation bias, e.g., the tendency towards under-estimating the effort, is measured. The proposed approach emphasizes the need to know what the estimates are meant to represent, i.e., the type of estimate we evaluate and the need for a match between the type of estimate given and the bias measure used. We show that even perfect estimates of the mean effort will not lead to an expectation of zero estimation bias when applying the frequently used bias measure: (actual effort – estimated effort)/actual effort. This measure will instead reward under-estimates of the mean effort. We also provide examples of bias measures that match estimates of the mean and the median effort, and argue that there are, in general, no practical bias measures for estimates of the most likely effort. The paper concludes with implications for the evaluation of bias of software development effort estimates.
| Afilliation | Software Engineering |
| Project(s) | Department of IT Management |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Conference Name | 11th International Conference on Software Engineering and Applications (SEA 2022) |
| Publisher | SEA |