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Information Systems and Technology Education: From the University to the Workplace Glenn R. Lowry United Arab Emirates University, UAE Rodney L. Turner Victoria University, Australia

InformatIon scIence reference Hershey • New York

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Published in the United States of America by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global) 701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Suite 200 Hershey PA 17033 Tel: 717-533-8845 Fax: 717-533-8661 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: http://www.igi-pub.com/reference and in the United Kingdom by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global) 3 Henrietta Street Covent Garden London WC2E 8LU Tel: 44 20 7240 0856 Fax: 44 20 7379 0609 Web site: http://www.eurospanonline.com Copyright © 2007 by IGI Global. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without written permission from the publisher. Product or company names used in this set are for identification purposes only. Inclusion of the names of the products or companies does not indicate a claim of ownership by IGI Global of the trademark or registered trademark. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Information systems and technology education : from the university to the workplace / Glenn R. Lowry and Rodney L. Turner, editors. p. cm. Summary: "This book presents a multifaceted, global view of the human dynamics of education, supply, demand, and career development in the information systems and technology industry. It provides a tool to meet the challenges of providing improved education and employing an optimal supply of information systems and technology graduates in the decades to come"--Provided by publisher. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-59904-114-8 (hardcover) -- ISBN 978-1-59904-116-2 (ebook) 1. Information technology--Vocational guidance. 2. Information technology--Educational aspects. I. Lowry, Glenn R. II. Turner, Rodney L. T58.5.I528 2007 004.023--dc22 2007007278

British Cataloguing in Publication Data A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book is available from the British Library. All work contributed to this book set is new, previously-unpublished material. The views expressed in this book are those of the authors, but not necessarily of the publisher.

Table of Contents

Preface ................................................................................................................................................. xii Acknowledgment .............................................................................................................................. xvii

Chapter I A Dynamic Structural Model of Education and Skills Requirements for Careers in Information Systems: Perspectives Across Gender and Time / Glenn R. Lowry, Rodney L. Turner, and Julie Fisher ............................................................................. 1 Chapter II Leveraging Diversity in Information Systems and Technology Education in the Global Workplace / Eileen M. Trauth, Haiyan Huang, Jeria L. Quesenberry, and Allison J. Morgan .................................................................................................................................. 27 Chapter III Critique: Information Systems Academics’ Core Competency? / Mike Metcalfe ................................ 42 Chapter IV Enterprise Systems Software in the Business Curriculum: Aligning Curriculum with Industry Requirements / Ravi Seethamraju......................................................................................................... 57 Chapter V Globalising Software Development in the Local Classroom / Ita Richardson, Sarah Moore, Alan Malone, Valentine Casey, and Dolores Zage......................................................... 82 Chapter VI Creating an Entrepreneurial Mindset: Getting the Process Right for Information and Communication Technology Students / Briga Hynes and Ita Richardson .............. 105 Chapter VII Curriculum Change and Alignment with Industry: The Student Perspective / Krassie Petrova and Gwyn Claxton .................................................................................................... 128

Chapter VIII Aligning Learning with Industry Requirements / Jocelyn Armarego ................................................. 159 Chapter IX Relevance of Computing Programmes to Industry Needs in Jordan’s Higher Education Institutes / Ala M. Abu-Samaha............................................................... 195 Chapter X Professionalism and Ethics: Is Education the Bridge? / Zeenath Reza Khan, Ghassan al-Qaimari, and Stephen D. Samuel .................................................................................... 214 Chapter XI Experiential Group Learning for Developing Competencies in Usability Practice / Phil Carter .......................................................................................................................................... 242 Chapter XII Industry-Academic Partnerships in Information Systems Education / Mark Conway ....................... 264 Chapter XIII Industry-University Collaborations in Research for Information Systems: An Exploratory Study of a Management Model / Tom O’Kane ......................................................... 279 Chapter XIV Ethics for the Graduating Class: Issues, Needs, and Approaches / Theresa M. Vitolo and Barry J. Brinkman .......................................................................................... 299 Chapter XV Tomorrow’s Workforce Today: What is Required by Information Systems Graduates to Work in a Collaborative Information Systems Workplace? / Kathy Lynch & Julie Fisher .......................... 311 Chapter XVI COCA: Concept-Oriented Course Architecture Towards a Methodology for Designing and Teaching Information System Courses / Youcef Baghdadi ......................................... 327 Chapter XVII Enhancing the Employability of ICT Students with Hybrid Skills: Insights from a UK Survey with Small Business Managers / Yanquing Duan, Daoliang Li, and Yongmei Bentley ..................................................................................................... 349

Chapter XVIII Teaching Business Intelligence in Higher Education / Paul Hawking and Robert Jovanovic ................................................................................................. 370

Compilation of References ............................................................................................................... 379 About the Contributors ................................................................................................................... 414 Index ................................................................................................................................................... 421

Detailed Table of Contents

Preface . ................................................................................................................................................ xii Acknowledgment................................................................................................................................ xvii Chapter I A Dynamic Structural Model of Education and Skills Requirements for Careers in Information Systems: Perspectives Across Gender and Time / Glenn R. Lowry, Rodney L. Turner, and Julie Fisher.............................................................................. 1 This chapter presents a dynamic structural equation model of the contribution and importance of education and skills required of information systems (IS) professionals. The authors present a model that links these areas and compares the application of this model to IS students and industry decision makers who employ our graduates. The model was employed to identify gender differences in perceptions of the relative contribution and importance of education and skills required of IS professionals. The model was also used to describe how attitudes and perceptions of IS professionals change across career stages. The model allows, with some confidence, a quantitative interpretation of the relative importance of the respective variables from the perspectives of the student and employer-stakeholder groups toward the education and career development of IS professionals. Chapter II Leveraging Diversity in Information Systems and Technology Education in the Global Workplace / Eileen M. Trauth, Haiyan Huang, Jeria L. Quesenberry, and Allison J. Morgan........................................................................................ 27 The need for information systems and technology (IS&T) education to include a course on human diversity in the global IT context is based upon two recognized IT workforce gaps. One is a participation gap in which women and certain racial/ethnic groups are under represented in the IT workforce. The second is a knowledge gap in which students who do not develop a cross-cultural awareness are not being adequately prepared for the global IT workplace of the 21st century. In response to this educational

need, a new course was developed and introduced into the IS/T curriculum at Penn State University. The goal of this course is to enable students to understand better the ways in which human diversity affects the IT field. Chapter III Critique: Information Systems Academics’ Core Competency? / Mike Metcalfe................................. 42 What is the core competency of IS academics, what do they know best compared to an experienced IS manager? It cannot be an understanding of the technology or of how to manage it. The experienced manager has lived with the realities of these problems daily. All the academic can offer the manager is tools for thinking about whatever poses today’s problem. This chapter calls these ways of critiquing and seeing the problem from differing perspectives. Chapter IV Enterprise Systems Software in the Business Curriculum: Aligning Curriculum with Industry Requirements / Ravi Seethamraju................................................. 57 Along with developing an integrated business process view, multidisciplinary perspectives are considered essential for the successful workplace performance of business graduates. Several reviews of higher education by professional associations and experts in the past have highlighted such inadequacies in the current business education and recommended changes to the curriculum. This chapter analyses the pedagogical value and effectiveness of one such attempt at enhancing the students’ learning of enterprise integration. It analyses the benefits, strategies, and challenges of incorporating industry–standard, enterprise system software solutions into the business school curricula and reports on the effectiveness of such attempts. While encouragement and senior university management support to align curriculum with industry requirements is essential for the successful integration of enterprise systems (ES) software solutions, regular updating of the curriculum in line with the changes in the software versions and technologies, inadequate administrative support in schools, lack of perceived academic career benefits, difficulty in balancing theoretical knowledge, and practical software skills in the design, however, are some of the challenges faced. Continuous evaluations and improvements of the curriculum are necessary to align it with the contemporary and future workplace needs and deliver requisite skills and knowledge to students. Chapter V Globalising Software Development in the Local Classroom / Ita Richardson, Sarah Moore, Alan Malone, Valentine Casey, and Dolores Zage.......................................................... 82 Software graduates are expected to work in global software development (GSD) environments. Some of the authors, themselves educators at universities, provided learning environments which allowed students to participate actively in GSD projects. The chapter discusses how the projects were implemented and the educational research that was undertaken during the projects. Findings from this research are presented.

Chapter VI Creating an Entrepreneurial Mindset: Getting the Process Right for Information and Communication Technology Students / Briga Hynes and Ita Richardson............... 105 This chapter emphasises the importance of third-level education in preparing students for their career, either as employee or as entrepreneur. We discuss how entrepreneurship education, through its broad and integrative philosophy, accommodates the changing workplace demands. This is achieved through the adoption of the process framework for information and communication technology (ICT) entrepreneurship education. Describing how they can be modified to facilitate and encourage the more creative and enterprising mindset in the ICT student, we present two courses that have been successfully implemented at the University of Limerick. Chapter VII Curriculum Change and Alignment with Industry: The Student Perspective / Krassie Petrova and Gwyn Claxton..................................................................................................... 128 Curriculum developers in the area of ICT are experiencing difficulties in the face of rapid technology development and technology convergence as well as a dynamic job market. The need to understand the dimensions of the process of aligning ICT curriculum with industry requirements is the focus of this chapter. The study identifies stakeholders in the process and focuses on the role of students in the evaluation of academic outcomes in relation to job market and employer demands. Data gathered through several surveys was used to analyse the types of skills and capabilities that are currently being developed in graduate profiles and that need to be developed in the future in order to maintain the balance between academia and the workplace. Information about other stakeholder groups was also considered to support and enhance the student perspective of the chapter. Chapter VIII Aligning Learning with Industry Requirements / Jocelyn Armarego.................................................. 159 Studies of IT practitioners indicate that many of the skills considered important in industry are not well covered in formal education. In general, these relate to soft and intellectual rather than technical skills. This chapter looks at an action research study to apply models based on constructivist and reflective approaches to learning in order to enhance student development of metacognitive strategies. These are seen to address flexibility, adaptability, and other soft skills identified by practitioner studies as not well developed during undergraduate study. Chapter IX Relevance of Computing Programmes to Industry Needs in Jordan’s Higher Education Institutes / Ala M. Abu-Samaha................................................................ 195 Jordan’s REACH initiative has branded IT programmes at local universities as ineffective; that is, they do not meet the needs of industry. The chapter presents the findings of a survey conducted in the year 2004 that identified many of the skill gaps that exist in current computing curricula designs. The survey points out three major areas of knowledge identified as the most relevant areas of knowledge in comput-

ing programmes to industries’ needs: (1) systems/software development/engineering and management, (2) electronic business development and management, and (3) system/software development tools and languages. Also, the survey points out a number of areas of knowledge that the current structure of computing/IS programmes lack, mainly: research skills and enterprise resource planning (ERP); online database design and concurrency; applied design; business process analysis and re-engineering; systems integration and auditing; management information systems (MIS) applications; business ethics; communication skills; creative thinking; problem solving; team work; image processing; and system programming. Chapter X Professionalism and Ethics: Is Education the Bridge? / Zeenath Reza Khan, Ghassan al-Qaimari, and Stephen D. Samuel.................................................... 214 This chapter critically determines the root cause for unethical behaviour in the workplace to be “prior knowledge” or educational background. It surveys both students and employees to determine the affect of education or the absence of it on their perception of cyber ethics and corporate social responsibility and concludes with strong recommendations for introducing courses at tertiary levels to overcome the possible gap that exists from classrooms to workplaces. Chapter XI Experiential Group Learning for Developing Competencies in Usability Practice / Phil Carter........................................................................................................................................... 242 The chapter presents an overview of usability and a reflection on a number of years of experience in a usability lab. It describes the development of an approach to usability testing called situated co-inquiry. An overview of the teaching of usability is described and provides illustrations of teaching usability using an experiential learning approach in a group setting. Chapter XII Industry-Academic Partnerships in Information Systems Education / Mark Conway........................ 264 Many software vendors offer academic “partnership” programs that provide faculty and universities access to their solutions and tools for teaching purposes. This chapter highlights several of the leading “academic alliance” programs from firms such as Hyperion, Teradata, and SAP. The chapter is written from an industry practitioner’s perspective and covers the motivation and metrics that firms expect from these types of collaborations. It reviews the benefits of participation in these programs—updated curricula, access to new information and management systems, new skills for students, and so forth—and discusses how, with common and realistic expectations, all of the participants can benefit from these academic partnerships.

Chapter XIII Industry-University Collaborations in Research for Information Systems: An Exploratory Study of a Management Model / Tom O’Kane.......................................................... 279 It has been recognised that there is an urgent need to produce organisational devices that will make collaborations between academia and industry workable and beneficial for both partners. Private corporations view research collaborations with academia as business arrangements, but unlike the synergies that one would normally associate with industry-industry collaborations, there are apparent dichotomies in industry-university collaborations which require a special kind of synergy. This chapter, written primarily from an industry perspective, is an exploratory study of a management model for industry-university collaborations in IS research projects. It proposes the extension of concepts found in a commonly used software process standard for managing software projects, to the management of IS project collaborations with universities. Chapter XIV Ethics for the Graduating Class: Issues, Needs, and Approaches / Theresa M. Vitolo and Barry J. Brinkman........................................................................................... 299 Many of the issues and decisions facing technical professionals are not about technology but about the ethical application and ramifications of the technology in society. Historically, teaching ethics was not defined as part of the curriculum. However, accreditation boards, professional organizations, employers, and society are stressing the need to incorporate ethical analysis into the curriculum. While a laudable and timely goal, the teaching of ethics has inherent difficulties. By recognizing, understanding, and addressing these difficulties, young professionals can be given ethical tools to address the dilemmas. Chapter XV Tomorrow’s Workforce Today: What is Required by Information Systems Graduates to Work in a Collaborative Information Systems Workplace? / Kathy Lynch and Julie Fisher.............. 311 This chapter presents the investigation, design, and development of a curriculum framework that could be used as part of an undergraduate IS degree program. Input from IS practitioners and professionals helped identify employer requirements of their IS graduate recruits prior to working in a collaborative team environment. The identified collaborative work skills, attributes, and knowledge form the basis of a curriculum framework that is structured according to Bloom’s taxonomy of learning behaviours, and level of progression throughout a degree program (intermediate or graduate) to form a modularised framework that could be used in its entirety or in-part. Chapter XVI COCA: Concept-Oriented Course Architecture Towards a Methodology for Designing and Teaching Information System Courses / Youcef Baghdadi.......................................... 327 This chapter introduces the COCA as a new architectural style to design IS courses and curricula. COCA represents the basic concepts of IS as main building blocks. COCA stipulates that the IS concepts are provided by a business model and registered in a registry to be statically or dynamically discovered

by courses/curricula designers. COCA is also used as a method to teach information where the business model, the main provider of concepts, is steadily instantiated as a case study while flowing in the course/curriculum. Chapter XVII Enhancing the Employability of ICT Students with Hybrid Skills: Insights from a UK Survey with Small Business Managers / Yanquing Duan, Daoliang Li, and Yongmei Bentley............................................................................ 349 This chapter presents an empirical study investigating UK small business managers’ perceptions on the importance of hybrid skills of ICT staff in supporting their business success. The study was an important part of a European Commission funded pilot project. Findings confirm the importance of ICT staff’s hybrid skills from small business managers’ point of view and add further empirical evidence to support the call for a change in ICT staff training design and development in education and training organisations. A hybrid skills model is discussed and significant implications of the findings are highlighted. Chapter XVIII Teaching Business Intelligence in Higher Education / Paul Hawking and Robert Jovanovic............ 370 ERP systems have become a necessary IT infrastructure to support day-to-day transactions for the world’s leading companies. Universities have now realised the importance of these types of systems and have attempted to incorporate them into their curriculum offerings. Companies are now leveraging their ERP systems through the adoption and use of customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), and business intelligence (BI) solutions. Universities are now exploring how these types of solutions can also be incorporated into their curriculum. The chapter provides a case study of an approach to the development of BI curriculum by one university. This chapter provides a foundation for other universities interested in BI curriculum development. Compilation of References................................................................................................................ 379 About the Contributors .................................................................................................................... 414 Index.................................................................................................................................................... 421

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Preface

Since its beginnings the growth and development of the information systems and technology (IS&T) industry has been shaped, and limited, by the availability of sufficient numbers of skilled technical and professional workers. The main stakeholders include educators, students, industry executives, human resources professionals, and government officials and policymakers who are concerned with ensuring and improving the ongoing supply of IS&T professionals. In addition to traditional concerns including student recruitment and induction; curriculum content and delivery; employment recruiting and career development; and the role of professional associations many tertiary IS&T programs throughout the world have experienced a dramatic decline in student numbers in recent years. The reasons for this decline in the face of growing demand are unclear. Unfortunately, integration between and understanding among stakeholders is mostly topical and uneven. What articulation exists is mainly local in nature, generally involving a limited number of collaborating partners in a specific geographical area. IS&T have become so critical to human enterprise and society that improving the integration of the stakeholders in the supply of new professionals, of understanding and “tightening” the human resources supply chain for the global industry, has become increasingly necessary in order to meet the needs of the industry in the decades ahead. This book is intended to help stakeholders to communicate and better articulate their efforts. The purpose of this book is to provide a forum for illuminating and better understanding the dynamics of supply and demand for professionals in the IS&T industry. The objectives of the book include: • •

•

Refining our understanding of the human resource supply chain for industry and research establishments Identification and discussion of issues of supply and demand of IS/T professionals from a number of stakeholder perspectives, including those of employers, students, recent graduates, and tertiary educators Helping stakeholders to understand these issues and learn how others perceive and deal with them

This book provides an international perspective from academic, industry, and government personalities in Asia, Europe, Ireland, the Middle East, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In Chapter I, titled A Dynamic Structural Model of Education and Skills Requirements for Careers in Information Systems: Perspectives Across Gender and Time, Glenn R. Lowry, Rod L. Turner, and Julie Fisher present a directional model of the contribution and importance of education and skills required of IS professionals. The model provides a replicable and robust empirical approach for the quantitative interpretation of the relative importance of the respective variables from the perspectives of student and employer stakeholder groups toward the education and career development of IS professionals.

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In Chapter II, Leveraging Diversity in Information Systems and Technology Education in the Global Workplace, Eileen M. Trauth and members of the Penn State University Center for the Information Society, including Haiyan Huang, Jeria L. Quesenberry, and Alison J. Morgan identity two human resource gaps that affect the preparation of tomorrow’s IT workforce. These are a participation gap in which women and certain racial/ethnic groups are under represented in the IT workforce, and a knowledge gap in which students who do not develop cross-cultural awareness are not being adequately prepared for the global IT workplace of the 21st century. The authors argue that diversity is a lens that can be used to both understand human resource gaps and to develop curricular responses to them. The chapter presents a course titled “Human Diversity in the Global Information Economy” to exemplify a way of addressing the diversity dimension of the IT skill set. In Chapter III, Critique: I. S. Academics’ Core Competency?, Mike Metcalfe explores the proposition that the core competency of IS academics is a capacity for pragmatic critical thinking for developing unique and useful concepts to reflect on industry-related problems, rather than addressing specific technical problems and issues. Metcalfe discusses ways of critiquing problems, of seeing issues from differing perspectives, and argues that academics can usefully serve industry by developing and teaching new ways to critique management practice. In Chapter IV, titled Enterprise Systems Software in the Business Curriculum: Aligning Curriculum with Industry Requirements, Ravi Seethamraju presents a review of literature on the inadequacies of business education, the pedagogical value of incorporating enterprise systems in the curriculum, and an analysis of the effectiveness of curriculum design and delivery. This chapter presents an analysis of the pedagogical value and effectiveness of an attempt at enhancing student learning about enterprise integration through IS&T. The author analyses the benefits, strategies, and challenges of incorporating industry–standard, enterprise system software solutions into business school curricula and reports on the effectiveness of some attempts. In Chapter V, Globalising Software Development in the Local Classroom, Ita Richardson, Alan Malone, Sarah Moore, Valentine Casey, and Dolores Zage provide Irish and American academic and practitioner perspectives on preparing students to work in an environment in which the software industry has had to adapt to a global software development (GSD) strategy that has become increasingly popular as software development has become a globally sourced commodity. The authors provided students with an opportunity to take part in a learning experience that transcended geographical and institutional boundaries, giving them first hand experience of working within globally distributed software teams. They identified three specific forms of learning that took place: (1) pedagogical, (2) pragmatic, and the (3) achievement of specific globally distributed competencies. The chapter presents a discussion of how the projects were implemented and the educational research that was undertaken during the projects. Findings from the research are presented. In Chapter VI, Creating an Entrepreneurial Mindset: Getting the Process Right for Information and Communication Technology Students, Briga Hynes and Ita Richardson emphasize the importance of entrepreneurship education in preparing students for professional information and communication technology (ICT) careers. The authors discuss how entrepreneurship education, through its broad and integrative philosophy, accommodates to changing workplace demands. This approach links together the synergy of enterprising activity and the small firm ICT sector through entrepreneurship education. This is achieved through the adoption of the process framework for ICT entrepreneurship education. Describing how to facilitate and encourage a more creative and enterprising mindset in ICT students, the authors present two courses that have been successfully implemented at the University of Limerick.

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In Chapter VII, Curriculum Change and Alignment with Industry: The Student Perspective, Krassie Petrova and Gwyn Claxton focus on the need to understand the dimensions of the process of aligning ICT curriculum with industry requirements. This chapter presents the design and results of a study that focuses on students as stakeholders in the education process. A general framework based on a nomological net is introduced and used to derive the research models underpinning data gathering and the subsequent analysis of those data. The findings indicate that students realistically evaluate gaps in their learning but put more emphasis on technical skills, ignoring or undervaluing soft and business skills, despite academic efforts to develop these through skill-centered teaching. The authors also found a mismatch between student expectations of required skills and skills demanded by employers. In Chapter VIII, Aligning Learning with Industry Requirements, Jocelyn Armarego is concerned that the underlying “socialization” necessary for new graduates to achieve “working professional” status is poorly addressed in formal education. After introducing a framework for comparison, this chapter presents an action research study in which nontraditional and innovative learning models are applied to address identified mismatches in alignment between formal IT education and industry requirements. The findings of the study suggest that models which focus on independent learning and soft skills prepare students to enter industry with enhanced ability to engage in the career-long professional learning required for success in professional practice. In Chapter IX, Relevance of Computing Programmes to Industry Needs in Jordan’s Higher Education Institutes, Ala M. Abu-Samaha reports on efforts in Jordan to better align industry requirements with academic curricula. The author aims to articulate the concerns and issues surrounding the relevance of computing programmes of higher education institutes in Jordan to market and employer needs. The chapter presents the findings of a study conducted in 2004 that identified many hard and soft skill gaps in existing curricula. In Chapter X, Professionalism and Ethics: Is Education the Bridge? Zeenath Reza Khan, Ghassan al-Qaimari, and Stephen D. Samuel, writing from the United Arab Emirates, take up the topic of the role of ethics in the ICT profession. This chapter reports a study of the knowledge and views held by ICT professionals on ethical issues such as personal use of e-mail, net surfing, net privacy, and copyrights, recognized by professional societies such as ACM, IEEE, and ACS. Using a grounded survey approach, the authors investigated the relationship between unethical behavior in the workplace and knowledge and values gained through high school and university education. They investigated the extent to which unethical behavior is related to students’ education and awareness of ethical issues. The authors suggest ways to include material that highlights ethical issues in the workplace. In Chapter XI, Experiential Group Learning for Developing Competencies in Usability Practice, Phil Carter provides an industry perspective of software usability and reflects on his years of experience in a usability lab. Over the past several years, an approach to usability called situated co-inquiry has become a useful way to structure the teaching of software usability. This chapter introduces and illustrates how this experiential learning approach has been used effectively in a group setting. In Chapter XII, Industry-Academic Partnerships in Information Systems Education, Mark Conway highlights several of the leading IT-focused, industry-academic programs such as Hyperion’s Academic Alliance Program, the Teradata University Network, and SAP’s University Alliance Program and references similar initiatives from Cisco, SUN, and IBM. As an industry practitioner, Conway offers insight into what motivates companies to sponsor industry-academic partnership programs, what the goals of those programs are, and how participating companies and universities benefit. In Chapter XIII, Industry-University Collaborations in Research for Information Systems: An Exploratory Study of a Management Model, Tom O’Kane, writing from an industry perspective, has conducted

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an exploratory study of a management model for industry-university collaborations in IS research projects. He proposes the extension of concepts found in commonly used software process standards for managing software projects to the management of IS project collaborations with universities. In Chapter XIV, Ethics for the Graduating Class: Issues, Needs, and Approaches, Theresa M. Vitolo and Barry J. Brinkman identify and discuss some critical challenges of teaching ethics to students preparing for careers in technical professions. They argue that many of the issues and decisions facing technical professionals are not about technology but about the ethical application and ramifications of the technology in society. While historically, many higher education programs have focused primarily on specialized major discipline subjects, there is a growing emphasis by accreditation boards, professional organizations, employers, and society on the incorporation of ethical analysis into tertiary curricula. The authors discuss on-going challenges limiting efforts to include ethics in undergraduate degree programs and develop a composite of the ethical dimension of graduating college students in the IS&T field. In Chapter XV, Tomorrow’s Workforce Today: What is Required by Information Systems Graduates to Work in a Collaborative Information Systems Workplace?, Kathy Lynch and Julie Fisher report on a study in which they identified the needs of today’s IS workforce in terms of the nondiscipline skills required to work effectively in collaborative teams. The chapter includes a list of collaborative skills, identified from the literature, extended and confirmed by key IT industry professionals. The authors identified two sets of skills: individual skills and group skills, that IS&T graduates must possess to work effectively in today’s professional workplace. Their findings suggest that curriculum developers need to carefully consider how these skills can be taught and learned to properly equip our graduates for tomorrow’s workforce. In Chapter XVI, COCA: Concept-Oriented Course Architecture: Towards a Methodology for Designing and Teaching Information System Courses, Youcef Baghdadi introduces COCA as a new architectural approach to designing IS courses and curricula. COCA is a building-block approach for designing and teaching IS courses. Based on a flexible, scalable, well-specified architecture of IS concepts and their organization, COCA facilitates the complex and resource-consuming task of designing and teaching IS courses in an environment in which IS tools and concepts are rapidly evolving. In Chapter XVII, Enhancing the Employability of ICT Students with Hybrid Skills: Insights from a UK Survey with Small Business Managers, Yanqing Duan, Daoliang Li, and Yongmei Bentley present an empirical study of UK small business managers’ perceptions of the importance of hybrid skills to ICT staff in supporting business success. Their findings confirm the importance of hybrid skills from a small business managers’ point of view and add further empirical evidence to support the call for a change in ICT staff training design and development in education and training organizations. A hybrid skills model is presented and significant implications of the findings are highlighted. In Chapter XVIII, Teaching Business Intelligence in Higher Education, Paul Hawking and Robert Jovanovic write that, as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have become a necessary part of many business’ IT infrastructures, supporting the day-to-day transactions of many of the world’s leading companies, some universities have attempted to incorporate them into their curriculum offerings. In addition to such critical applications as customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM), leading ERP systems have evolved to incorporate more strategic components such as business intelligence applications. Universities and ERP vendors are investigating ways in which the IS curriculum can be developed to include these new solutions. This chapter discusses a blended approach adopted at one university in the development and implementation of business intelligence in the curriculum.

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The authors of this book include practitioners and academics from Australia, Ireland, Jordan, New Zealand, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Together, they provide a global perspective of key issues of staff supply and demand facing IS academics and practitioners. These issues include the alignment of curriculum with industry requirements; soft skills formation and development by students; and lifelong learning by professionals. We are grateful to our authors for their contributions and are confident that their experience and insight will benefit the global IS profession in coming years. Glenn R. Lowry, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, UAE Rodney L. Turner, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia May 2007

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Acknowledgment

The editors wish to thank those who supported our work and who helped to write, review, and publish this book. We would first like to thank our colleagues in the College of Business and Economics at United Arab Emirates University and in the School of Information Systems at Victoria University in our home city of Melbourne, Australia. Our colleagues have been generous with their ideas and helpful suggestions and forgiving of our lapses and shortcomings as we worked to bring this book into being. Our authors’ enthusiasm and seemingly inexhaustible good will are only exceeded by the quality of their work. Contributions by authors from Australia, China, Ireland, Jordan, New Zealand, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States, provide global perspectives. Contributors include practitioners and academics. Their work offers fresh perspectives from authors beginning their careers as well as contributions from well-known senior academics. We are grateful to our indefatigable team of reviewers whose dedication and willingness to work to very tight deadlines and short turn-around horizons helped our authors to polish and articulate their work for our greater benefit. All chapters were double-blind reviewed before acceptance. We are grateful to our editors at IGI Global for their confidence that this book would make a worthwhile contribution to thinking about curriculum development and preparation of students and new graduates for professional careers in information systems. Jan Travers and Kristin Roth provided unwavering encouragement, assistance, understanding, and a level of support available only from talented editors at an exemplary publishing house. We dedicate our efforts to our wives, Silvana Lowry and Im Turner, whose cheeky wit, good humour, and unwavering support made it possible. Glenn R. Lowry, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, UAE Rodney L. Turner, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia

Chapter I

A Dynamic Structural Model of Education and Skills Requirements for Careers in Information Systems:

Perspectives Across Gender and Time Glenn R. Lowry United Arab Emirates University, UAE Rodney L. Turner Victoria University, Australia Julie Fisher Monash University, Australia

Abstract This chapter presents a dynamic structural model of the relative contribution and importance of education and skills required of information systems (IS) professionals. Model development took into account the technical skills found in many tertiary IS programs, other business-oriented academic studies, and soft skills sought by employers in new graduates. The model also includes features of the working environment which influence the career progress of IS graduates. Acknowledging the importance of these four areas, the authors present a second-order structural model that links these areas and compares the application of this model to IS students and decision makers who employ graduates. The model fits the data for the two groups and exhibits some unexpected outcomes in the area of soft skills, with students attributing more importance to soft skills than IS managers. The model was employed to identify gender differences in perceptions of the relative contribution and importance of education and skills required of IS professionals. The model also includes features of the working environment which influence the career progress of IS graduates. The model was used to describe how attitudes and perceptions of IS professionals change across career stages as measured by age groupings. Changes in perceptions across four major age groupings show significant differences with respect to these factors according to age groups

Copyright © 2008, IGI Global, distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

A Dynamic Structural Model of Education and Skills Requirements

and by inference, career stage. The model allows, with some confidence, a quantitative interpretation of the relative importance of the respective variables from the perspectives of the student and employer stakeholder groups toward the education and professional development of IS professionals. The model also suggests the presence of contrasting, gender-based quantitative views of the relative importance of the respective variables to the education and professional development of IS professionals.

IntroductIon

PrevIous studIes

Are the aspirations of IS students and employers fundamentally incompatible? How can IS educators help to achieve a better fit between university study and professional IS practise? How do gender and age affect perceptions of the relative value of education, reward, and career development? Employers are often critical of a lack of practical experience or unrealistic views and expectations perceived to be held by some new graduates. Students and new graduates necessarily lack experience, yet they sometimes seem to expect to begin their professional careers in senior positions. Students and new graduates are first and foremost concerned with employability. They typically focus on developing sufficient skills and a base of knowledge to secure their first professional position following graduation, to survive in that position, and to insure that their education will prepare them for advancement in the medium term of 5 or more years (Knapp, 1993; Lowry, Turner, et al., 2004; Waterman, Waterman, & Collard, 1994). Employers, on the other hand, often indicate that they want new graduates who can be immediately productive in their environment; who are teachable and loyal team players who work to deadlines; who possess the ability to make an intelligible presentation; and who can write understandable business letters, memoranda, and reports (Knapp, 1993). How can a workable and satisfying balance between employer needs and graduate expectations be reached? How do gender and age affect perceptions over time?

Considerable work has been devoted to investigating skill requirements of IS graduates including soft skills (Ross & Ruhleder, 1993; Van Slyke, Kittner, & Cheney, 1997), hard skills, and job features (McLean, Tanner, & Smits, 1991) that are motivating factors for IS graduates. Some of these studies compare various stakeholders such as academics and industry or student perceptions (Ahmadi & Brabston, 1998; Cappel 2001/2002; Farwell, Lee, & Trauth, 1995; Goles, 2001; Lee, Koh, Yen, & Tang, 2002; Orr & Von Hellens, 2000; Trauth, Farwell, & Lee, 1993; Williams, 1998; Wong, 1996; Woratscheck & Lenox, 2002). In the main they have been descriptive in nature covering curriculum emphasis, often rating skills in order of importance. Interpersonal skills are viewed by some as just as important as technical skills (Young, 1996; Young & Keen, 1997). IS students need to develop skills and abilities in various “soft” areas including teamwork; creativity and communication; and time management. A capstone course has been proposed to achieve these aims (Gupta & Wachter, 1998). The changing role of the information systems and technology (IS&T) professional and the skills/competencies required for their development in the early 21st century have been identified (Kakabadse & Korac-Kakabadse, 2000). Determining those skills sought by employers of new IS graduates is important for educators in designing curricula and advising students. Van Slyke et al. (1997) found that specific technical skills were less important than basic


technical skills and nonacademic skills. Doke and Williams (1999), in a study across various IS job classifications, found that systems development skills and interpersonal skills were common across classifications, but programming skills were more important for entry level IS positions. Similar results were obtained in a pilot study of students and employers of IS graduates (Turner & Lowry, 1999b). Wrycza, Usowicz, Gabor, and Verber (1999) found the knowledge and skills useful for IS work in small businesses is different from that required for larger enterprises. Further, they found that contemporary firms had a stronger need for IS specialists than they did for computer programmers. Several authors have attempted to develop a standard list of technical skills that identify a typical IT professional. Examples include Rada (1999), who proposed a portfolio of 40 technical skills and Todd, McKeen, and Gallupe (1995), who performed a content analysis of IS job advertisements over a 20-year period from 1970 until 1990 covering sought-after skills. Litecky and Arnett (2001) developed a list of 38 technical skills that were in demand for a typical IT professional. These authors carried out a content analysis of 20,000 job advertisements that appeared in newspapers and the Internet over a 10-year period from nine major metropolitan areas across the United States, ranking the top skills during the 1999 survey period. The education sector provides core skills for industry to develop and maintain competitive advantage but the onus is on the IS industry to obtain skilled workers, to train existing staff, and to provide opportunities for the new entrants (National Office for the Information Economy [NOIE], 1999b). There have been numerous attempts to define a core set of generic attributes required of IS graduates (Snoke & Underwood, 1998a, 1998b, 1999, 2000, 2002). Core curriculum requirements have been set in association with professional bodies in Australia (Underwood, 1997) and the United States (ACMAIS, 2002; Lidtke, Stokes, & Haines, 2000;

Mawhinney, Morrell, Morris, & Munro, 1999; Mehic & Al-Soufi, 1999). However, it has been suggested that the course requirements in the IS 2002 curriculum likely contain more technical material than can be covered in an undergraduate course (Beachboard & Parker, 2003). Others have observed that teaching students material that they can learn more efficiently after graduation takes up time and resources that may have been better used during formal undergraduate study (Lee et al., 2002). Yet Ross and Ruhleder (1993) note that IS education is often seen as concentrating too much on a narrow set of technical skills and suggest the IS curricula should concentrate on developing technical and business skills; working in a collaborative setting; instilling a sensitivity to social and organisational impacts; and to inculcate the ability to self-learn in a rapidly changing technological environment. Others (Ashley & Padgett, 1997; Turner & Lowry, 2001) have shown that despite the call from IS employers for more business-orientated skills in exiting IS students, core business subjects do not rate highly. Technical skills are not the total answer in preparing new IS professionals. Ross and Ruhleder (1993) claim that many IS do not address clientbusiness objectives and that some developers may be insensitive or unresponsive to user needs. Further, Ross and Ruhleder suggest that programs aimed at developing IS professionals of the future must cover a wide range of skills and assist in the integration of these skills in complex environments. Little et al. (1999) observe that in addition to technical capabilities IS graduates should also be aware of the need for professionals to take responsibility for their work and to understand the importance of appropriate ethical behaviour. They further suggest a need to include these aspects in the curriculum of current IS programmes. They describe an “industryacademic gap” that leads to dissatisfaction among employer groups with IS graduates. They suggest that the ways in which professionalism


and workplace issues are currently addressed in IS curricula is a reason for this gap. Wrycza et al. (1999) state that the IS profession is being “pulled in opposite directions” toward a human orientation or towards technical skills. Hemingway and Gough (2000) suggest that the IS&T profession is handicapped by the differing needs of business and geography. The range of activities IS professionals are called upon to perform leads to a lack of formal career structure (Hemingway & Gough, 2000, p. 179) that matches skills with roles, causing confusion among stakeholders. Nevertheless, Gillard (2000) maintains that there should be two aspects of a university course that require consideration—employer expectations of graduates and student preparedness on entry to an IS course. Westfall (1998) asserts “Information technology literacy must include (but is not limited to)”: • • •

•

•

•

Knowledge that covers the breadth of the field at the current point in time Practical, hands-on experience learning and using new information technologies An understanding of what makes specific new information technologies more important than others Knowledge of economic factors and trends that will lead to new information technologies and to obsolescence or devaluation of existing technologies An understanding of the relationship between career choices and specific information technologies Knowledge of the critical importance of continuous learning, and skills for maintaining and extending knowledge in this field on a self-service basis, to supplement continuing formal education and training.

Calitz, Watson, and deKock (1997) identified several new performance and psychometric predictors, useful in selecting IS students. In addition, they identified nontechnical skills that are

important for success in the business environment including business knowledge, social skills, and communication skills. They particularly note the importance of the English language, and especially technical English. In addition, they observed that while the investigative personality type has traditionally succeeded in the IT industry, the social personality type is becoming increasingly important. An early study by Young (1996), which looked at the importance to industry of a range of technical and interpersonal skills when employing new IS personnel, was replicated in a study of students from differing backgrounds (Weber, McIntyre, & Schmidt, 2001). Differences in students’ perception of industry requirements, based on background and gender, was reported. However, both the Young (1996) and the Weber et al. (2001) studies were restricted by the 3-point scales used in gathering the data. It is clear from the literature that important interactions exist between competing aspects of the IS curriculum in the development and education of IS graduates. How can these interactions be measured? This chapter presents some results from studies of the interaction of educational and personal factors that may heavily influence and affect the development of the attitudes and values; the professional persona and orientation; the knowledge base, and the skills repertoire of IS students and managers. A structural equation model was developed that illustrates some of the critical relationships between these areas and the emphasis that students and IS decision makers place on them.

creAtIng the structurAl Model Method The authors developed a multipart questionnaire that solicited views on the importance of academic


Table 1. Survey questionnaire distribution and responses Survey group

Number of questionnaires sent

Number of questionnaires completed

Group response rate

Percent of total

Students

300

253

84.0 %

35.0

IS academics

395

195

49.0 %

27.0

IT&S professionals

1200

136

11.3 %

18.8

IT&S employers

2000

138

6.9 %

Total

3895

722

19.1 100.0

Table 2. Distribution of responses by gender Group

Frequency Gender

Percentage

Female

Male

Female

Male

Students

112

141

44.3

55.7

Academics

54

141

27.7

72.3

IS professionals

38

98

27.9

72.1

IS decision makers

19

119

13.8

86.2

Total

223

499

30.9

69.1

areas that are included in the curriculum of many IS degrees along with a number of others that may be regarded as useful adjunct subjects in an IS degree programme. The instrument developed was based on surveys by others (Cappel 2001/2002; Cheney, 1988; Cheney & Lyons, 1980; Farwell, et al., 1995; Leitheiser, 1992; Leonard, 1999; Snoke et al., 1998; Tang, Lee, & Koh, 2001; Trauth et al., 1993; Van Slyke et al., 1997) and modified by the authors to include some additional items. Questions covered technical topics found in undergraduate IS degree programmes, core non-IS subjects, personal skills/attributes and a number of work features and incentives that are appealing to graduates seeking employment in the field. Online surveys were distributed to IS academics, professionals and decision makers. A paper

survey was administered to students enrolled in IS subjects at three universities in Victoria, Australia. Details of questionnaire distribution and responses are shown in Table 1. A total of 3,895 survey questionnaires were distributed during 2002-2004. A total of 722 usable responses were received, achieving an overall response rate of 18.5%. The distribution of responses by group by gender is shown in Table 2. The majority of responses for all groups except Students were overwhelmingly from male respondents. The more even gender representation of responses from female and male students may reflect success in sustained efforts over the past decade to recruit females into tertiary IS study. The data were analysed using SPSS R11 to produce descriptive statistics and factor analysis.


Table 3. Factor interpretation Factor

Interpretation

Emphasis

F1W

IS academic subjects

High level applications

F2W


Design and development

F3W


Web-related applications

OAF1W

Non-IS academic subjects

Inwardly focussed core non-IS business subjects

OAF2W

Non-IS academic subjects

Outwardly orientated non-IS subjects

SF1W

Soft skills

Get along with people, communicate, or stand out

SF2W

Soft skills

Skills acquisition and able to do job

WF1W

Work-related incentive

Environmental and comfort

WF2W

Work-related incentive

Reward-related (hygiene) factors

The structural models presented next were developed from the SPSS data using AMOS 5.

single factor or which did not have a value of at least 0.5 were removed from the analysis. The factors are:

DATA ANALYSIS

1.

Item Reliability Item reliability was tested using Cronbach’s α (Cronbach, 1951). Item reliability was good with the overall value for each subscale exceeding the recognised benchmark value of 0.7. Summated scales were computed using a weighted mean approach (Hair, Tatham, Anderson, & Black, 1998; Holmes-Smith & Rowe, 1994), where the mean scores are multiplied by the respective factor loadings, summed, and divided by the sum of the factor loadings. This ensures that the factor loadings are properly and fully taken into account when computing the summated scales.

Factor Analysis Nine factors representing four separate areas of interest were identified through exploratory factor analysis. Factor analysis was performed on the items in the questionnaire using principal component analysis (PCA) with Varimax rotation. Questions that did not clearly load onto a

2.

3.

4.

Three factors (F1W, F2W, and F3W) measured by eight questions were identified as IS academic subjects. Two factors (OAF1W and OAF2W) measured by eight questions were identified as non-IS academic subject areas. Two factors (SF1W and SF2W) measured by eight questions were identified as soft skills. Two factors (WF1W and WF2W) measured by seven questions were identified as work related incentives.

An interpretation of these factors is given in Table 3. Two factors pertain to the IS job and its features, two are related to soft skills and personal qualities, and five were concerned with educational matters from IS technical areas (three items) and non-IS academic areas (two items).

Developing the Structural Model Structural equation modelling requires comparatively large data sets to be truly effective. Although


722 usable responses were received from a sample of 3,895, the size of the respondent categories was a cause for concern. For example, with just 253 usable cases from students and 138 from IS decision makers, the authors were concerned that there were too few cases for sensitive analysis. This concern was not without foundation. The basic model had 30 manifest variables which notionally require nearly 1,300 returns (Hair et al., 1998). To address this concern, individual variables were combined into composite variables, based on the respective questions and factors on which those questions loaded. Following the method outlined by Holmes-Smith and Rowe (1994); Hair et al. (1998); and Hughes, Price, and Marrs (1986), composite factor measurement models were developed to reduce the complexity of the model and to reduce the number of returns required for a reliable model. The various latent variables in the model were replaced by the calculated composite variable that is then treated as a distinct manifest or measurement variable (Hair et al., 1998). This approach reduced the number of returns needed for development of a structural model to approximately 200—a more realistic figure. The maximum likelihood (ML) method was used for model fitting. This method is often used in structural equation modelling (Hair et al., 1998; Wang & Armstrong, 2001). The structural model developed during this study has four latent variables. They are: 1. 2.

3.

4.

Soft skills: Includes interpersonal skills and team work; IS ed: Includes IS education skills outcomes and technical skills such as Web development, analysis, and design; Non-IS ed: Includes nonacademic subjects such as accounting, economics, and commercial law; and Work aspects: Includes aspects of the work environment that may influence the IS professional.

The dependent variable, IS Professional, is the result of the interaction of soft skills, education, and work environment. The structural model derived from IS student data is shown in Figure 1. As no single-fit measure has been developed, a number of fit measures are usually presented. The measures and the values for an acceptable fit are presented in Table 4 (Hodgson, 1999; Murray, 1997; Schumacker & Lomax, 1996). The fit values for IS students are good with GFI=0.97, AGFI=0.94, TLI=0.97, RMSEA=0.044 (range LO90=0.00, HI90=0.073), RMR=0.028, p=0.06, CMIN (discrep) =1.49, and the BollenStine p=0.18. Each of the standardised residual covariance values between indicators are each below the critical value suggest by Hair et al. (1998) of 2.58. To be valid, a model must be tested against other sets of independent data. In the present case this was done with data from IS decision makers and managers. Table 4 shows the values of the various normality tests applied to the variables in the structural model. The values for univariate kurtosis and skewness are each within the acceptable range of between ±2 (Garson, n.d.). However, there is some departure from multivariate normality with kurtosis exceeding this value and therefore bootstrapping methods were employed and the Bollen-Stine correction computed. Only the probability is reported by AMOS. Chi-square is sensitive to sample size and p values alone should not be relied upon when sample size is larger than about 100 (Hair et al., 1998). Figure 2 shows the structural model derived from IS Manager responses. As can be seen from Figure 2, the fit indices for managers are also very good with GFI=0.96, AGFI=0.91, TLI=0.96, RMSEA=0.043 (range LO90=0.00, HI90=0.088), RMR=0.024, p=0.187 and CMIN (discrep) =1.26. The range of values for RMSEA is a little high but the average value is within acceptable levels. As in the case of the students, standardised residual covariance values between indicators are each below the critical


Figure 1. Standardised structural model: IS students Chi Square = .0 df = p = .0 Discrep. = .0 AGFI = . GFI = . TLI = . RMSEA = .0 RMR = .0 Bollen students Bollen-Stine bootstrap p = .

qw

WFW

qw

.

WFW

qs

.

work aspects

.0

SFW

.

.

.

. soft skills

.

z

.

SFW

.

.

.

qs

.

z

IS Professional

.

z

. .

IS ed

. .

.

z

non-IS ed

.0

.

.

. FW

qe

.0

FW

qe

.

FW

qe

value suggest by Hair et al. (1998) of 2.58, confirming they are significant at the 0.05 level and supporting the fit of the model to the data. Table 5 shows the standardised regression coefficients determined for the two groups. For the student data and IS managers, the unstandardised regression coefficients are significant at p0.05

Bollen-Stine correction for non-normality

p>0.05

χ /degrees of freedom (normed chi-square, CMIN/DF)

< 3.0

Goodness of fit (GFI)

> 0.9

2

Adjusted goodness of fit (AGFI)

> 0.9

Root mean square residual (RMR)

Close to zero

Root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA)

< 0.08, and preferably < 0.06

Tucker Lewis index (TLI)

> 0.9

Normed fit index (NFI)

> 0.9

Comparative fit index (CFI)

> 0.9

Figure 2. Standardised structural model: IS managers Chi Square = . df = p = . Discrep. = . AGFI = . GFI = . TLI = . CFI = . RMSEA = .0 RMR = .0 Bollen isms Bollen-Stine bootstrap p = .

qw

WFW

qw

.

WFW

qs

.

.0

. work aspects z

.

SFW

.

.

qs

.

.0

.

.

SFW

.

.

soft skills z

IS Professional

.

z

. .

IS ed

.0

FW

qe

.

FW

qe

. non-IS ed

.0

.

.

. .

z

FW

qe

.

OAFW

qe

.

.

OAFW

.

qe


Table 5. Standardised regression weights: Students and IS managers Estimate Students

IS managers

non-IS ed

←

IS Professional

.68

.69

IS ed

←

IS Professional

.73

.69

soft skills

←

IS Professional

.97

.84

work_aspects

←

IS Professional

.95

.88

F1W

←

IS ed

.65

.40

F2W

←

IS ed

.62

.68

F3W

←

IS ed

.50

.69

OAF1W

←

non-IS ed

.56

.69

OAF2W

←

non-IS ed

.82

.74

F1W

←

non-IS ed

.11

.40

SF1W

←

soft skills

.73

.60

SF2W

←

soft skills

.64

.53

WF1W

←

soft skills

.15

.41

WF1W

←

Work_aspects

.47

.11

WF2W

←

Work_aspects

.68

.72

Note. Weaker values below 0.3 are displayed in italics.

occurring path weights between constructs. The contributions involving the composite variables suggest that students place greater importance on soft skills (SF1W and SF2W) than managers do. There is little difference in technical skills except for Web-related activities, which is higher for managers. Inward focussing areas (OAF1W) are rated higher for managers but there is little difference for OAF2W. Working conditions (WF1W) are rated higher by students. Table 6 shows squared multiple correlation 2 (R ) values for the variables in Table 5. With the exception of F3W for students and SF2W and WF1W for IS managers, the squared multiple correlations (R2 values) presented in Table 6 are good and above the recommended minium

0

value of 0.3, suggesting item reliability is satisfactory (Holmes-Smith, 2000). The standardised residual covariance values between indicators are each below the critical value of 2.58 suggest by Hair et al. (1998). The model indicates solid contributions from each group individually, with only slightly lower emphases from IS managers on the four latent constructs compared to students, and both groups display strong total effects. Somewhat unexpectedly, the variable F3W, which relates to Web development matters, is relatively weaker for the student group. The constructs WF1W, concerned with environmental and comfort factors and SF2W, concerned with skills acquisition and ablity to do job, are relatively less reliable for IS Managers.


Table 6. Squared multiple correlations: Students and IS managers Estimate Students

IS Managers

Work aspects

.90

.77

non-IS ed

.46

.47

IS ed

.53

.48

soft skills

.93

.70

F1W

.50

.47

F2W

.38

.46

F3W

.25

.48

OAF1W

.31

.48

OAF2W

.67

.55

SF1W

.53

.35

SF2W

.41

.28

WF1W

.37

.25

WF2W

.46

.52

Note: Weaker values below 0.3 are displayed in italics.

For most of the remaining constructs, the reliability indicated with the R 2 values is similar for both groups. For nontechnical education there is less emphasis on the inwardly focussed, core non-IS business subjects, such as economics and statistics, but more on the outwardly oriented, non-IS subjects, such as management and marketing. In both instances the R 2 values are similar.

male subjects were fitted to the structural model shown in Figure 4. In this case a group model is illustrated and thus the structural model fit indices are identical. The model shows the relative contributions of the nine factors, expressed as values of R 2, to the four separate areas of interest:

gender-bAsed vArIAtIons In the structurAl Model

2.

1.

3.

regression Models 4. Data from female respondents were fitted to the structural model shown in Figure 3. Data from

Factors WF1W and WF2W accounted for 37% of the variance in the workplace conditions area. Factors SF1W and SF2W accounted for 65% of the soft skills area. Factors F1W, F2W, and F3W accounted for 51% of the IS education variable. Factors OAF1W and OAF2W accounted for 26% of the non-IS education variable.


For males, shown in Figure 4. 1.

2. 3. 4.

and have values above 0.3 with the exception of three paths. For females, WF1W← work aspects and F1W←non-ISed and for males WF1W←work aspects are weak. Males indicate a much stronger importance in non-IS education and work than do females but this is reversed for IS education. Soft skills are stronger for males. There is little difference in work aspects between the two. The differences are also reflected in the R 2 values. For males, the explained variance in non-IS education and work issues are much higher than those for females. For IS education (IS ed), however, the explained variance is higher for females.

Factors WF1W and WF2W accounted for 69% of the variance in the workplace conditions area. Factors SF1W and SF2W accounted for 65% of the soft skills area. Factors F1W, F2W, and F3W accounted for 41% of the IS education variable. Factors OAF1W and OAF2W accounted for 57% of the non-IS education area.

Table 7 shows standardised regression weights for female and male participants. From Table 5 it can be seen that most regression weights are sound

Figure 3. Structural model (females) Chi Square = . df = p = .00 Discrep. = .0 RMR = .00 AGFI = . GFI = . TLI = . RMSEA = .0 CFI = . Bollen gender females Bollen-Stine bootstrap p = .

qw

WFW

qw

.

WFW

.

qs

.0

SFW

.

.

.

qs

SFW

.

. .0

work z

.

.

soft z

.0

. IS Prof

z

. IS ed

.0

z

. .

.

non-IS ed

.

.

.

.

.0 FW

qe

.

FW

qe

.

FW

qe

.

OAFW

qe

.0

OAFW

qe

.


Figure 4. Structural model (males) Chi Square = . df = p = .00 Discrep. = .0 RMR = .00 AGFI = . GFI = . TLI = . RMSEA = .0 CFI = . Bollen gender males Bollen-Stine bootstrap p = .

qw

WFW

qw

.0

qs

.

WFW

.

SFW

.

.0

.

qs

SFW

.

. .

work z

.

.

soft z

.

. IS Prof

z

. IS ed

.0

z

. .

.

non-IS ed

.

.

.

.

. FW

qe

.

FW

.

qe

Total indirect effects as described earlier show some differences for non-IS areas where the contribution for males is stronger in both instances. High level technical applications (F1W) are rated stronger for males than females. For the remaining constructs, the differences are small. The some difference is found in the education area. For IS education the R 2 values for males is .41 and .51 for females. For non-IS eduction the R 2 value for males is .57 and females is .26. For soft skills R 2 are the same, with values for males and females of .65 and for workplace conditions area, .69 and .37 for males and females respectively.

FW

qe

.

OAFW

qe

.

OAFW

.

qe

Squared multiple correlations (R 2 values) are presented in Table 8. Only one (WF1W for males) is below the recommended minium value of 0.3, which suggests that item reliability is good for most other items (Holmes-Smith, 2000). For females educational issues rate very strongly for both groups with a stronger emphasis on IS education by females. Soft skills are very important in this model, and it has been known for some time that employers are seeking a variety of these skills in their employees. This model supports the importance that these qualities have in the overall picture of what constitutes an IS employee, and there is little


Table 7. Standardised regression weights: Female and male participants Male

Female

non-IS ed

←

IS professional

.75

.51

IS ed

←

IS professional

.64

.72

soft skills

←

IS professional

.83

.61

work_aspects

←

IS professional

.81

.80

F1W

←

IS ed

.50

.40

F2W

←

IS ed

.66

.57

F3W

←

IS ed

.68

.60

OAF1W

←

non-IS ed

.58

.55

OAF2W

←

non-IS ed

.79

.69

F1W

←

non-IS ed

.37

.31

SF1W

←

soft skills

.72

.77

SF2W

←

soft skills

.56

.60

WF1W

←

soft skills

.44

.49

WF1W

←

Work_aspects

.09

.13

WF2W

←

Work_aspects

.71

.96


difference in males and females in this respect. More importantly, perhaps, is the indication that the work situation appears to quite strongly influence these very soft skills. The model indicates that reward-related incentives (WF2W), or so-called hygiene factors (Hertzberg, 1968), are more important than environmental factors (WF1W). There is a noticeable difference in the importance of soft skills with getting along well with people and communication (SF1W) much stronger than skill acquisition matters (SF2W).

On education matters, there is a big difference between the traditional business-related subjects such as accounting, economics, and statistics, referred to as inwardly-focussed (OAF1W), and the more outwardly oriented subjects such as marketing and management (OAF2W). There is evidence that importance is placed on high-level applications such as client-server technologies; data mining and enterprise resource planning (ERP) (F1W); database application; object-oriented programming (OOP); and computer-aided software engineering (CASE) applications (F2W).


Table 8. Squared multiple correlations males

females

work aspects

.69

.37

non-IS ed

.57

.26

IS ed

.41

.51

soft skills

.65

.65

F1W

.57

.34

F2W

.44

.32

F3W

.46

.36

OAF1W

.33

.30

OAF2W

.62

.47

SF1W

.52

.60

SF2W

.31

.36

WF1W

.26

.31

WF2W

.50

.93

However, the response to Web applications e-commerce (F3W) was comparatively weak.

Age-bAsed vArIAtIons In the structurAl Model The age of the respondent was used as a measure of career stage. A modified version of a two-level regression model reported elsewhere (Turner, Fisher, & Lowry, 2004b) was applied to the data and group comparisons made. This model is shown in Figure 5. Again, the data were analysed using SPSS R10-12 for routine statistics and factor analysis and AMOS 5 was used for the structural model development and application. The structural model was applied simultaneously to four age groups: ages 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, and 50 and above. A number of fit statistics were calculated to establish the soundness of the fit to the data. Numbers in each age range were 57 (20-29), 61 (30-39), 59 (40-49), and 97 (50 and above). The fit statistics suggest the model fits the data quite well as all parameters lie within target ranges. The discrepancy function (chi-sq/degrees of freedom)

= 1.082, p= 0.25, AGFI =0.855, GFI =0.905, TLI = 0.974, CFI =0.976, RMSEA = 0.017 (range 0.000.04), and Bollen Stine p=0.98. AMOS calculates only one set of fit values for a group model. Table 9 presents the standardised regression coefficients for the model applied to the four age groupings. With the exception of the path F1W← non-IS ed, which is significant at the 0.05 level, all the paths are significant at 0.005 or better. Table 9 shows the group values of the standardised regression coefficients for the path diagram depicted in Figure 4. There are some notable differences across the groups. The first four rows of Table 9 represent the structural aspects of the model and relate to factors which are features of the IS professional. There are two components relating to education—IS technical skills and non-IS education. While non-IS education is quite high in importance for each group, IS education is comparatively weaker and only begins to rise for the oldest age group. In the two middle groups (30-39 and 40-49), IS education is relatively low. This is also supported by the weak R 2 values for all the age groups with the exception of the 50+ age group. This may indicate that IS professionals


Figure 5. Two-stage regression model: Age and career stage qw

qw

qs

qs

WFW

WFW

SFW

SFW

work aspects

soft skills

z

z

IS Professional z

z

IS ed

non-IS ed

FW

FW

FW

OAFW

OAFW

qe

qe

qe

qe

qe

in mid-career see formal IS education as being a relatively small contributor to their skills portfolio. Interestingly, non-IS education for the 50+ group is the weakest but still stronger than IS education. Soft skills and work-related aspects are strong for all age groups, although soft skills are relatively less so for the 20-29 year age group and relatively more so for the older groups. Table 9 shows the group values of the standardised regression coefficients for the path diagram depicted in Figure 6. There are some notable differences across the groups. The first four rows of Table 9 represent the structural aspects of the model and relates to factors that are features of the IS professional. While non-IS education is quite high in importance for each group, IS education is comparatively weaker. In the two middle groups (30-39 and 40-49), IS education is relatively low.

This is also supported by the weak R 2 values for all the age groups with the exception of the 50+ age group. This may indicate that IS professionals in mid-career see formal IS education as being a relatively small contributor to their skills portfolio. Soft skills and work-related aspects are strong for all age groups, although soft skills are relatively less so for the 20-29 year age group and relatively more so for the older groups. Contributions from total indirect effects discussed earlier are relatively uniform and relatively strong across all groups with non-IS areas being lower for the younger age groups (20-29 and 3039). Interestingly, however, the 30-39 age group is consistently lowest in all categories. This may reflect the career stage of those in this age range but as the numbers are small, more research is needed to determine reasons for this.


Table 9. Standardised regression weights: Four age groupings Age Group 20-29

30-39

40-49

50+

non-IS ed

←

IS Professional

.83

.53

.91

.70

IS ed

←

IS Professional

.54

.46

.50

.69

soft skills

←

IS Professional

.79

.89

.93

.93

work_aspects

←

IS Professional

.85

.81

.88

.88

F1W

←

IS ed

.61

.60

.68

.51

F2W

←

IS ed

.69

.75

.84

.62

F3W

←

IS ed

.65

.59

.73

.61

OAF1W

←

non-IS ed

.45

.55

.52

.65

OAF2W

←

non-IS ed

.59

.90

.69

.82

F1W

←

non-IS ed

.19

.25

.18

.24

SF1W

←

soft skills

.74

.62

.71

.71

SF2W

←

soft skills

.63

.46

.54

.56

WF1W

←

soft skills

.27

.16

.21

.23

WF1W

←

work_aspects

.37

.27

.33

.36

WF2W

←

work_aspects

.49

.41

.65

.61


Table 10 shows the R 2 (squared multiple correlations) values for each of the variables for each age group. By computing the model simultaneously for all groups, direct comparisons between groups can be made and for different paths with a group. As far as non-IS academic skills are concerned, there is substantial evidence to indicate inwardly focused areas such as economics and commercial law are seen as less important than areas such as management, marketing, and other areas that are more outwardly focused. Work-related aspects such as the environment and economic rewards are important across all age groups, however, the mix alters. Reward-related features rate more importantly for older groups with a substantial jump occurring between 30-

39 and 40-49, which is maintained thereafter. Environmental factors remain relatively constant across all groups but these are also seen as softskill related.

dIscussIon The selection, education, and professional development of IS professionals continues to engage the concern and imagination of IS educators, professionals, and students. Most of the previous studies discussed in this paper are focused on one or another aspect of the IS professional identity. Many studies report stakeholder perceptions of the education, skills, and personal qualities of IS studentss and professionals. A growing body of


Table 10. Squared multiple correlations: Four age groupings Age Group 20-29

30-39

40-49

50+

work_aspects

.72

.66

.77

.77

non-IS ed

.68

.28

.83

.49

IS ed

.30

.21

.25

.47

soft skills

.62

.78

.86

.86

F1W

.51

.50

.60

.43

F2W

.48

.56

.70

.38

F3W

.42

.35

.54

.37

OAF1W

.20

.30

.27

.43

OAF2W

.34

.82

.47

.67

SF2W

.55

.39

.51

.50

SF1W

.39

.21

.29

.31

WF1W

.34

.16

.26

.31

WF2W

.24

.16

.42

.37


literature focuses on the growing importance of soft skills in the IS curriculum and professional practise. Some of the research focuses on the effects of the working situation. Other studies have illuminated the importance placed on businessrelated skills acquired as part of the IS graduate’s perparation for professional work. To the authors’ knowledge, no research has appeared that link these areas together via a structural model. The findings reported in this paper suggest that there is a stable and interactive relationship between these four factors and

18

shows the relative importance and strength of the factors for both students and employers. The model shows the relative importance and strength of the factors. Development of a structural model advances our knowledge of the constellation of skills, knowledge, and values held by IS stakeholders beyond conventional factor analysis, and analytical technique that does not allow for comparison of the significance of these factors. Structural equation modelling overcomes this limitation of factor analysis. For the first time it is possible to show the interacting relationships


of the four factors along with measures that suggest their relative importance to each of the stakeholder groups. The work presented in this paper addresses the issue by relating the various preceptions in a single model. When applied to students and to IS managers the model shows a good fit for both sets of data. Once of the important requirements for any model is that it is able to be fitted to independent set of data. This requirements has been satisfied in this case. The results presented in this paper indicate that the perceptions of students, IS managers, and of nonmangerial IS professionals, can be discribed by a second order, four latent factor model described in terms of hard IS skills; nonIS educational skills; personal attributes and soft skills; and job conditions. It should be stressed that the model is not necessarily the only one that can fit the data. It does however show that it is possible to develop a comprehensive model to explain the various attributes of IS professionals. Ultimately it is hoped that such a model can be useful in improving the career prospects of new graduates and as providing indicators of shifting emphasis and value of these factors as individuals change stakeholder groups throughout as their careers develop. The model is currently being tested against other stakeholder groups such as academics engaged in teaching IS students as also IS practitioners. The results so far are promising.

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23


on Information Systems (pp. 682-692). Adelaide, South Australia: Australian Computer Society & ACIS Executive.

24


Appendix A. Survey question variables used in IS curriculum and gender studies IS Subjects Analysis and design of information systems

Business application of computers

LAN operations and data communications

Database design

Web page design and development

E-commerce/e-business development

Knowledge base or expert systems

Knowledge of PC applications

Able to apply 3GL programming languages

Able to apply object-oriented languages

CASE tool applications

Large computer system experience/knowledge

Project management

Use of operating systems

Client-server applications

Data mining/data warehousing

ERP implementation & operations Other Business Subjects Accounting

Business finance

Business ethics

Business or commercial law

Business statistics

Economics

Knowledge of foreign languages other than English

Psychology

Communications & report writing

Management

Marketing

Operations research

Mathematical modelling

Organisational behaviour

International business Soft Skills Ability to accept direction

Able to quickly apply new skills

Able to independently acquire new skills

Good sense of humour

Able to meet deadlines

Able to work as part of a team

Able to think creatively

Able to work independently

Able to work under pressure

Place organisational objectives first

Business analysis skills

Able to prepare multimedia presentations

Information seeking skills

Be client focussed

Have leadership potential

Have oral presentation skills

Have problem definition skills

Have problem solving skills

Time management skills

Willing to undergo on-going professional development

Have written communication skills

Able to interact with people of different backgrounds

Able to work with people of different disciplines

Able to handle concurrent tasks continued on following page

25


Work incentives Good promotional prospects within the company

Opportunities for travel

A friendly work environment

Challenging work assignments

Provision for on-going training

An industry competitive salary

Flexible working conditions

Reliable internal communications

Supportive superiors

Opportunities to expand personal skills

Fringe benefits (e.g., company shares, car etc.)

26

27

Chapter II

Leveraging Diversity in Information Systems and Technology Education in the Global Workplace Eileen M. Trauth The Pennsylvania State University, USA Haiyan Huang The Pennsylvania State University, USA Jeria L. Quesenberry The Pennsylvania State University, USA Allison J. Morgan The Pennsylvania State University, USA

Abstract In this chapter we consider the educational needs of the globally diverse information technology (IT) sector and a curriculum that has been developed in order to respond to them. We begin by discussing two human resource (HR) gaps that are affecting the preparation of tomorrow’s IT workforce. The first gap is a participation gap, which is related, in part, to the under representation in recruitment and retention of students with particular demographic profiles in information systems and technology (IS&T) education. The second gap is a knowledge gap, which is related to the globalization of the IT field and the challenges of developing compatible curriculum and pedagogical practices that will prepare students for careers in such a field. We argue that diversity is a lens that can be used to both understand these HR gaps and to develop curricular responses to them. We do this by considering, as a case study, a course developed and taught in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Pennsylvania State University that is intended to address these gaps. This course—Human Diversity in the Global Information Economy—is offered to exemplify a way of addressing the diversity dimension of the IT skill set. Copyright © 2008, IGI Global, distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Leveraging Diversity in Information Systems

IntroductIon The gap between the supply of information systems (IS) professionals produced by the educational system and the demands of industry have long been the focus of attention for concerned stakeholders: employers, policy makers, and educators. This issue has been exacerbated on a global scale, in recent years, for three reasons. First, the role of the information economy as a function of the overall economy of a country has grown in both size and importance. This includes activities associated with the development of the primary IT sector (i.e., those involved in the creation of hardware and software systems) and facilitating the diffusion of IT into other sectors.1 As a result, an increasing number of countries have taken on the challenge of developing a pool of talented IT workers, which can enable it to enter the global IT market and to engage in globally collaborative IT work. Second, networking technologies have made both asynchronous and real-time communications between different regions and countries feasible and have created new forms of work and collaboration. For example, global IT outsourcing work can be seen as the practice of seeking diverse knowledge resources globally. Third, in contrast to the cultural diversity evident in the makeup of the global IT workforce, national statistics show that the domestic workforces of many countries (in terms of race, gender, age, social class, etc.) are not as diverse. Thus, the purpose of this chapter is to consider the ramifications of including, in the IT skill set, preparation for work in the globally diverse IT sector. We do this by discussing a curriculum that has been developed in order to respond to these needs. In this chapter we begin by discussing two HR gaps related to diversity that are affecting the preparation of tomorrow’s IT workforce. The first gap is a participation gap, which is related, in part, to the under representation in recruitment and retention in IS&T education of students with particular demographic profiles. The second gap is

a knowledge gap, which is related to the globalization of the IT field and the challenges of developing compatible curriculum and pedagogical practices that will prepare students for careers in such a field. We then consider, as a case study, a course developed and taught in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Pennsylvania State University that is intended to address these gaps. This course—Human Diversity in the Global Information Economy—is offered to exemplify a way of addressing the diversity dimension of the IT workforce shortage.

bAcKground The gap between the supply of IS professionals produced by the educational system and the demands of industry has long been the focus of attention for concerned stakeholders (Lee, Trauth, & Farwell, 1995; Miller & Donna, 2002; Swanson, Phillips, & Head, 2003; Trauth, Farwell, & Lee, 1993). Such a gap can be attributed to the interdisciplinary nature of the IS field (Checkland & Holwell, 1998; Lyytinen & King, 2004) and the fast changing environment of the IT industry. While the interdisciplinary nature of the IS field requires the boundaries of IS educational curriculum to be inclusive and flexible, the fast-changing IT industrial environment demands that educators actively change the IS curriculum design to address the emerging challenges.

globalization One of the major changes in today’s IT market is globalization, which has been facilitated by advancements in various information and communication technologies (ICT). Globalization, in turn, is having a significant influence on the IT industry (Walsham, 2000). The globalization of the IT industry is manifested in the prevalence and diversification of global IT work such as IT offshore outsourcing (Carmel & Agarwal, 2002),


global software development (Sahay, Nicholson, & Krishna, 2003), and global IS management (Niederman, Kundu, & Boggs, 2002). Such diverse forms of global IT work and global IT collaborative relationships demand a set of new knowledge and skills from the future IS workforce. This would consist of: understanding different contexts of IT development, management, and service; understanding policy, infrastructure, regulation, and cultures of different regions; understanding the diverse needs and work behaviors of various global IT partners and clients; and communication and team work skills in either face-to-face or virtual work environments. In the current global IT market, the United States, western European, and Asian countries including the UK, Germany, Japan, and Korea are actively pursuing outsourcing and global IT collaborative opportunities (Sahay et al., 2003). In addition to current dominant service providers countries such as India, Ireland, and Israel, China and Russia are beginning to enter the global outsourcing market (Gopal, Mukhopadhyay, & Krishnan, 2002). At the same time, global outsourcing participants are no longer limited to large corporations as more and more small suppliers are entering the market by focusing on their own specialties (Lacity & Willcocks, 2001). Other evidence of diversification is activity diversification, which refers to the wide variety of outsourcing interests, including application packages; systems operation and management; systems integration; and business processing (Lee, Huynh, Kwok, & Pi, 2003; Sahay et al., 2003). These new demands together with conventional challenges of IS curriculum call for proactive approaches and creative ways of reforming the undergraduate programs of IS disciplines. Several IS undergraduate programs have begun to specifically target the global IT environment by either adding a global business perspective to existing curricula or by developing new specialized courses focusing on global information management in particular (Beise, Niederman,

Quan, & Moody, 2005). Some examples are reported by Carmel and Mann (2003); Beise et al. (2005); and Van Genuchten, Vogel, Rutkowski, and Saunders (2005). The development of a new global IS undergraduate program is facing two major issues. First, how do we conceptualize the intellectual space of the program to address both the current and future needs of the global IT workforce? Second, how do we implement the program to challenge the existing mindsets of the student participants and at the same time give them a realistic sense of what it will be like to engage in global IT work in the future?

domestic diversity As opportunities for global expansion and outsourcing increase, so does the trend to more diversity in the workplace. Domestic diversity generally refers to diversity of a workforce within the context of a given country. Yet, Adya and Kaiser (2005) argue that the decline of the dot-com era coupled with an increase in global outsourcing of IT jobs has negatively affected the appeal of IT careers and filtered out inflated demand. As a result, universities report lower enrollment in post-secondary, IT-related degree programs, particularly from women and minorities. These programs of study2 are important gateways for students interested in pursuing careers in the IT workforce. Yet, unfortunately, researchers have found that women and minorities are alarmingly under enrolled in these technical programs (e.g., Camp, 1997; Freeman & Aspray, 1999; Margolis & Fisher, 2002; Teague, 1997; Von Hellens et al., 1997). Data from the United States, and from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) (2003) reports that from 2001 to 2002 women accounted for 28% of degrees in computer science and information science. The Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) adds that in 2002 women accounted for 30.5% of degrees in library and information


science (Saye & Wisser, 2003). The NCES (2003) also highlight the under representation of racial minorities in computer science and information science degrees during the same time period. African Americans accounted for only 11% of total degrees awarded, Hispanics for 5%, and Native Americans for .5%. The under representation of women and minorities in post-secondary, IT-related degree programs also contributes to their under representation in the IT workforce. An Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) Blue Ribbon Diversity Panel study (2003, 2005) found that American representation in the IT workforce fell from 41% in 1996 to 32.4% in 2004. This number is significantly low considering that in 2004 the percentage of women in all occupations in the United States was 59% (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2005). Also alarming, is that women in the United States hold only 10% of the top IT positions and are climbing the leadership ladder much slower than in the past (Adya & Kaiser, 2005; D’Agostino, 2003; Gibson, 1997). The number of women in the Canadian workforce is also declining from 28% in 2001 to 25% in 2003 (Downie, Dryburgh, McMullin, & Ranson, 2004). In addition, the European IT workforce is heavily male dominated. For instance, in the UK and Germany, men outnumber women 5 to 1 in computing professions, whereas the rate is 7 to 1 in The Netherlands (WANE, 2004). Furthermore, in 2001, women comprised only 22% of the Australia IT workforce. Racial minorities are also under represented in the IT workforce. For example, in the United States the percentage of African Americans in the IT workforce fell from 9.1% to 8.2% between 1996 and 2002. This statistic is lower than their 2002 participation rate of 10.9% in the general U.S. workforce. In 2002, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans represented 6.3% and .6% respectively, in the American IT workforce. These statistics are also lower than their 2002 participa-

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tion rates of 12.2% and .9% respectively, in the general U.S. workforce (ITAA, 2003; Morgan, Marshall, & Moloney, 2004). Another minority in the IT workforce is the older employee. In 2002, only 29.4% of the U.S. IT workforce was comprised of workers over the age of 45 (as compared to 37.6% of the overall U.S. workforce) (Morgan et al., 2004). The case is the same in Canada, older workers in the IT workforce represent only 15% of employees between the ages of 45 and 54 and only 3% of employees between the ages of 54 and 64 (Downie et al., 2004). In Europe, the overwhelming majority of IT workers are under the age of 45. In 2002, 77.5% the German IT workforce was comprised of employees under the age of 44. This percent jumps to 79.5% in the Netherlands and 82.2% in the UK. Furthermore, in 2001, the Australian IT workforce was comprised of approximately 6% of employees over the age of 55 (WANE, 2004). The under representation of women and minorities in the IT workforce holds a number of implications for the management and development of IS&T. Recently, there has been a rise in discourse that points to the importance of diversity in the global IT economy. First, increasing the involvement of under-served groups would make a clear effort at resolving the IT worker shortage. If the IT workforce was open to a larger group of employees then fewer shortages would exist (Roberts, 2000; Schenk & Davis, 1998; Wilson, 2004). Second, it has been argued that a diverse workforce contributes to increased levels of innovation (Florida, 2005), economic development (Gravely, 2003), and the creation of more diverse products and services (Joshi & Kuhn, 2001; Wardle, 2003). Finally, a more diverse IT workforce would support the move toward increases in social inclusion and social access (ITAA, 1998; Kvasny & Payton, 2004; Office of Technology Policy, 1999; Trauth, Huang, Morgan, Quesenberry, & Yeo, 2006).


sKIll gAPs In the It FIeld Understanding the IT educational skills gap is a moving target. Quite clearly, this gap is related to the fast growing nature of the IT field and the challenges of developing compatible curricula and pedagogical practices for such a fast changing field. The IT workforce is a dynamic area which requires its members to engage in constant re-skilling in order to stay current (Gjestland, Blanton, Will, & Collins, 2001). It is also an area that must take into account the individuals who will be designing and using this technology. Thus, there is an ongoing need to re-evaluate the IT curricula to meet the ever-changing need of such an integral field. We suggest that the current re-evaluation should take into account the need to develop IT professionals who possess a set of skills that relate to the people who will develop and use the technology and the context for doing so.

Participation gap Many agencies, organizations, and researchers in the United States are attempting to document the dimensions size and shortage of individuals in the IT industry. A variety of studies have revealed the magnitude at which the IT workforce is suffering from a shortage (Freeman & Aspray, 1999; ITAA, 2002; Office of Technology Policy, 1999; 1998; Roberts, 2000; Schenk & Davis, 1998). IT-related occupations are the highest growing positions globally and are among the largest professional specialties, rivaling that of nursing, elementary and secondary teaching, and engineering. For example, the U.S. Department of Commerce (2000) expects new jobs for IT workers to increase 78.7% between 1998 and 2008. In addition, the United States will need to replace 306,000 workers who are leaving these occupations due to retirement, change of profession, and various other reasons. Therefore, the United States will require 2 million new IT workers in the 10-year period (1998 to 2008), which is an

average of approximately 201,800 workers each year. An additional analysis of data reports that “IT jobs will grow slightly more than 7 percent per year over the decade, far more quickly than the 1.4-percent average across all jobs” (Hilton, 2001). Also, in 2004, ITAA reported that what appeared to be a 2% increase in IT employment from 2003 to 2004, has a now “shrinking forecast” for growth in the future. Even so, the forecast is for continued IT employee shortages, despite the under representation of women, racial minorities, and older workers in the IT workforce. Addressing this under representation of diverse workers would make a clear effort at resolving the worker shortage. If the IT labor force were open to more diverse workers then fewer shortages would exist. Thus, IT workforce diversity is of vast importance because it directly impacts the IT skills shortage. Hence, one dimension of a skills gap is the participation gap. This gap is related, in part, to the under representation in recruitment and retention of students with particular demographic profiles in IS&T education (Minton, Boyle, & Dimitrova, 2004; Varma, 2006). Much of the nation’s enrolled student body in IT programs consists of a homogenous group of individuals (Burge & Suarez, 2005). Thus, the exposure to different perspectives may be affected as well as perceived openness of the field to other minority groups. Basically, there is an important role to be played by the university in addressing the recruitment and retention of diverse students into technical concentrations at each level of the educational system. Not only is it important to manage the diversity of students but additionally maintaining a diverse faculty may assist in providing role models and resources for these minority groups. Woszczynski et al. (2003) discuss the influence of a variety of demographic groups on technology. They argue that without the participation of women in the development of technical artifacts, for example, the process may be more geared to-


wards speed than innovation. Also, with the input of disabled individuals, more emphasis may be placed on accessibility and usability of different attributes of technology. Diversity of age in IT teams provides rich knowledge that facilitates an understanding rooted in history and experience in the field. Lastly, culturally diverse teams are necessary to meet the demands of globalization in the IT workforce. Baird and Meshoulam (1988) explain that business objectives are more easily achieved when strategic HR programs are in place, that is, when HR practices, procedures, and systems are developed and implemented based on organizational need. A primary function of these HR programs is to ensure that organizations have the right mix of skilled professionals to effectively perform its value-creation activities. At the same time, HR functions must also ensure that professionals are adequately recruited, trained, motivated, and compensated to perform their value creation tasks (Hill & Jones, 1998). Hence, a common theme of modern management philosophy explains “that people are the only sustainable asset in modern business” (Schwarzkopf, Saunders, Jasperson, & Croes, 2004, p. 28). Therefore, it is critical that researchers and practitioners take an active role in creating HR solutions that meet the demands of today’s professionals. In order to accomplish this task it is important to understand diversity in terms of increasingly globalized enterprises. Thus, many types of arguments can be made for the importance of diversity, however for the IT field; the most prominent may be a way in which to address the present skills gap. If the demand for IT workers exceeds the available supply, then investing in the recruitment, retention, and education of under-represented minorities may help to lessen the skills gap and increase the number of qualified IT professionals.

Knowledge gap IT has become a valuable and important area of focus due to the integration of technology into nearly all facets of society. Governments, industries, and organizations invest endless amounts of capital into the development of technical infrastructures, processes, and systems. Business strategy and processes are often tailored around technical capabilities and applications. Technically skilled personnel are critical to the productive accomplishment of goals and the execution of tasks. As a result, the opportunities for individuals trained in technical subject matter have become critical to both progress and innovation. In addition, prior research has established the need for human skills—business and interpersonal skills—in addition to technical skills (Lee et al., 1995; Trauth et al., 1993). Further, insofar as IT professionals need to understand their clients in all their diversity, and given the global diversity of the IT workplace, an argument can be made that part of the “human skills” that IT professionals need to develop is an understanding of human diversity and its implications for the IT profession. An understanding of diversity can be seen to contribute to IT effectiveness in several ways. Diversity assists in the process of creative problem-solving efforts through the integration of different perspectives (Foldy, 2004; Reichenberg, 2001). From a business perspective, then, diversity can be viewed as a positive asset in strengthening the organization. According to research conducted with senior management teams, entities that are comprised of diverse age, gender, and ethnic groups performed better than teams with lower levels of diversity. Thus, it is an understandable notion that diversity improves organizational productivity and creativity (Salomon & Schork, 2003).


An important current argument in support of recognizing diversity in the IT sector is the existence of a global IT workforce (Trauth et al., 2006). This global IT workforce is largely the result of the global IT outsourcing phenomenon. Based on increased economic development in connection to this information economy, global diversity within the IT labor force too can be expected to grow. However, the management of a diverse workforce does present challenges (Bazile-Jones, 1996). Within the organization, there is potential for great accomplishments and great variance. The presence of diverse opinions may affect an organization’s efficiency by requiring investigation into the varied interests that a diverse workforce may possess. The approach we take is to conceptualize the phenomenon of global IT work and global IT outsourcing as part of diversity. Being argued in the previous section, diversity is not only an important concept for social inclusion and social welfare, and a great asset for productivity and creativity of organizations and businesses, but also an integrated component and an increasing trend of global IT work.

cAse studY oF An educAtIon resPonse: A huMAn dIversItY course course Motivation Students entering the professional IT arena in the 21st century will be required to be familiar with and have exposure to more than just technology. They will have to understand cross-cultural and virtual work; have an understanding of outsourcing processes; and be supportive of an organization’s diversity initiatives, and principles. Therefore, the task of equipping students with a myriad of skills needed to prepare them for knowledge-economy work must be dedicated to providing them with a broad yet comprehensive

understanding of issues important to not only the latest developments in IT but also outsourcing, diversity, and innovation. Innovation and achievement are catalysts for growth in the global environment, and thus require personnel who embody a variety of attributes, perspectives, experiences, and insights. In addition, those involved with the technical efforts must have knowledge and appreciation for the diverse environment in which they contribute (Fuller, Amillo, Laxer, McCracken, & Mertz, 2005). Thus, the integration of principles that encourage the understanding and awareness of diversity within the IT field is key to preparing the next generation of technical professionals. Because of the trend toward outsourcing and globalization of IT work, it is critically important to be prepared for this global workforce and client base. An integral part of this preparation includes understanding the diversity of colleagues with whom individuals will be working, both virtually and face-to-face. It also includes understanding the diversity of clients and users for whom a person will be developing systems. These diverse clients and users will be located all around the country, all around the world, and right next door. Understanding the diversity of both colleagues and users will have ramifications for the way in which work is accomplished, user requirements for systems are understood, and interaction with computer-based tools is accomplished.

course overview In response to this need a course was developed and pilot tested in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Pennsylvania State University. This course is intended to examine the effects of human diversity on the analysis, development, and use of IS&T. It explores the meaning and implications of diversity. It takes a comprehensive view of diversity that builds upon the notion of “diversity” as “differences.” When applied to demographic characteristics of the IT


workforce and IT user base, the term includes such meanings as: race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, religion, socioeconomic status, age, and (dis)ability. When applied to the global workforce, the term refers to cross-cultural diversity. The concept of diversity in IT work is examined from two different viewpoints: (1) that of the “minority” person who is interacting with the “majority” person; and that of the “majority” person who wants to develop greater awareness regarding successful interaction with “minority” individuals. This course makes extensive use of a range of pedagogical devices including: problem-based learning; experiential learning; seminar; case studies; global, virtual team work; and guest speakers. The rationale for this range of pedagogical devices is that, taken together, they mimic the complexity of the global information workplace. The issues are not clearly identified, there are competing interests, solutions are developed through group consensus, and often there is no one, best answer to the problem. Therefore, in order to help students develop the skills necessary for coping with this situation, the learning approach taken in this course mimics this real world of the global information economy. In order to accomplish this, the course employs the problem-based learning approach to education. The subject matter of the course is learned through a variety of “problems” that will enable the students to learn about the ways in which human diversity affects the work of an IT professional. Through these assignments students will explore issues of human diversity and their influences on IS design, development, use, and management. Upon completion of this course, students will have gained an understanding of the dimensions of human diversity within the field of IS&T in order to better prepare them for the diverse working environment they will experience. Student learning is assessed using the following metrics:

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Demonstrates an understanding of the ways in which diversity affects the IT field. Demonstrates an understanding of key issues related to the overall topic of diversity in the IT field as well as key issues related to specific subtopics of diversity in the IT field. Demonstrates critical thinking about the issues and themes about diversity in the IT field. Demonstrates the ability to work productively in a team.

In an effort to educate future technical professionals on the concept of diversity, the course was developed with a notion that the emerging global information economy is a complicated space. The issues are not clearly identified, there are competing interests, solutions are developed through group consensus, and often there is no one, best answer to the problem. The course was developed to assist students in developing the skills and aptitudes necessary to cope with this situation. In addition, the learning approach taken was one that mimicked the real world of the global information economy. The subject matter of the course was exemplified through a variety of problems that provided the students the opportunity to learn about the ways in which human diversity affects the work of an IT professional. Through assignments, in-class lectures, guest speakers, exams, and personal reflection students explored issues of human diversity and the influences on IS design, development, use, and management. From the perspective of course development, there were some very direct course objectives that were identified as significant to educating students on diversity in the global IT workforce. Upon completion of this course, students were charged to have gained an understanding of the dimensions of human diversity within the field of information sciences and technology (IST) in order better prepare them for the diverse working


environment they will experience. The organization of the course included an overview of diversity in the IT field followed by two modules that investigated diversity in two different ways: domestic diversity and cross-cultural diversity.

course structure The introductory overview provided students with a background as to how diversity is currently being conceptualized within the IT field. This module developed the business case for the importance of this subject matter by establishing how diversity is connected to professional processes, profit, and progress in the industry. In addition, this introduction into the course overviewed important definitions and the baseline rationale to engage students in the understanding of diversity issues. Issues of management, education, innovation, communication, and investment in diversity were all included in this portion of the course and were used as reference points as subsequent topics were covered. The second module, domestic diversity, introduced the notion of individual demographics. Individual demographics in this setting included the topics of individual differences with respect to: race, gender, sexual orientation, the digital divide (i.e., access to IT as related to socioeconomic class), and age. The purpose of exploring these topics was to explore how each demographic characteristic is important and unique and to draw attention to how each is both prominent and relevant to the IT field. The students were given the chance to explore their own perspectives on these topics in addition to learning ways to develop an understanding of characteristics that may or may not be connected to his/her own personal experience. The third module was a global level module that was concerned with cross-cultural diversity. In this section ideas about outsourcing; offshoring; customer relations; globalization; global systems development and management; and economic development were covered. These areas integrated

learning gained from the introductory and individual demographics modules and placed them in real-world, professional situations. Exploring these topics allowed for students to be able to see tangible evidence of how diversity issues are manifested in the workplace. In addition, this module provided an opportunity for raising consciousness in dealing with work scenarios that may realistically occur in the career of an IT professional. Also, issues of awareness around language and professional behavior in cross-cultural settings were addressed.

course Implementation As noted earlier, the implementation of the course included a mixture of problem-based learning; in-class discussions and group assignments; guest speakers; take-home assignments; and group projects. These assignments were based around the core concepts presented in the class and provided the students with a vehicle to demonstrate critical thinking, learning, and self-reflection. In addition to assigned readings and a midterm exam, this course included five written assignments which integrated the core course principles.

Assignment (Individual) The purpose of this assignment was to enable the students to reflect upon their work and life experiences; academic study of diversity topics; and initial experiences in the course. The students were to develop a written baseline in which they were asked to provide information about themselves, their thoughts on the topic of diversity, and about their own personal experiences with diversity. This was done, in part, to encourage the students to use their own life experiences to begin to understand this topic. Then, an additional requirement was to participate in an outside-of-class discussion called the Race Relations Project. This discussion


engaged the students in a peer-facilitated dialogue about diversity. This assignment also asked the students to reflect upon their experiential knowledge in the Race Relations Project and learning gained in the process.

Assignment (Individual) The purpose of this assignment was to enable the students to deepen their understanding of diversity through experiential understanding of the topic. Specifically, the students were charged to experience diversity from the point of view of one who is the minority or an “other” in some way in a group. In this assignment the students were asked to interact with members of a group that has one or more identity characteristics different from theirs in order to complete a problem-based learning assignment that utilized a problem scenario.

Assignment (Group) In this assignment, the students were required—in a group—to develop in a 10-page, double-spaced report in which they develop the content for a diversity policy for a company’s Web site. In order to prepare for this assignment students are expected to study the diversity sections of real company Web sites.

Assignment (Individual) In this assignment the students were asked to do three things. First, they were asked to demonstrate what they learned about how the recognition and appreciation of differing individual identities contributes to an understanding of human diversity. Second, they were asked to consider the integration of multiple identities that characterize and individual (e.g., race and gender). Third, they were asked to apply that understanding to their chosen career in IS&T. This five-page paper served as the final reflection assignment for this course.

Assignment (Group) The final assignment of the course was a report on a semester-long, cross-cultural project. To help the students explore and address cultural diversity and cross-culture work issues, each of seven-student teams were assigned to engage in a collaborative activity with students in a different country. The objectives of this project were threefold. First, it provided them with a first-hand, cross-culture work experience. Second, it assisted them in making sense of and learning about the challenges of cultural diversity by actually experiencing it. Third, it provided them with a sound case study to explore the issues and challenges related to incorporating cultural diversity into the business of IT development and use. These assignments, which were completed outside of class, served as milestones throughout the class to mark the progression of students’ engagement with the topic, reflection, and learning. Within the course, in-class scenarios were also utilized in an effort to help the students develop critical thinking skills within a limited time frame. The course integrated scenarios around the topics of the digital divide; gender and sexual orientation; and cross-cultural communications. The digital divide scenario asked the students to consider some of the challenges in using Internet technology. The students were asked to evaluate the problem in terms of social and technological access perspectives as well as outline where responsibility lies in resolving the divide issues. The gender and sexual orientation scenario asked the students to evaluate IT workplace issues that dealt with the mistreatment of individuals based on either of those characteristics. The students were required to consider their position as a colleague to the individual in the compromised position as well as an appropriate management response that facilitated team cohesiveness and professionalism. The cross-cultural scenario asked the students to evaluate how to interact and effectively man-


age work in a nondomestic setting. The students chose a country and documented some significant cultural and work-style differences of the country of choice. They then discussed how IT work could be affected and the role that technology could play in facilitating communications. Guest speakers were another method of introducing the students to topics about diversity. One of the first speakers was an alumnus from our program, who was having a “real-time” experience in dealing with issues of cross-cultural management and communication. His presentation provided the class with an example of how necessary cultural awareness was to achieving goals and working effectively in the IT field. An administrator at Penn State came to the class to help the students challenge their understanding and notions about culture and work, as well as to understand more about diversity in the domestic setting. The speaker who covered issues about sexual orientation discussed the topic from a very personal perspective: that of the mother of a lesbian. This discussion gave the students insights into how to cope and be supportive of differences in the workplace. A speaker from a high-tech company spoke about the movement in the IT field toward IT services and the consequent need to better understand the diversity of clients. In the cross-cultural unit the guest speaker was a Greek woman who discussed her work in an Asian environment. She discussed working in a cross-cultural setting and the implications such as time, culture, and work style. Overall, the guest speakers provided some concrete examples of diversity in the IT workforce as well as providing the students some additional background on issues of diversity in all facets of life.

conclusIon The need for IS&T education to include a course on human diversity in the global IT context is based upon two recognized IT workforce gaps. One is

a participation gap in which women and certain racial/ethnic groups are under represented in the IT workforce. The second is a knowledge gap in which students who do not develop a cross-cultural awareness are not being adequately prepared for the global IT workplace of the 21st century. In response to this educational need a new course was developed and introduced into the IS&T curriculum at Penn State University. The goal of this course is to enable students to better understand the ways in which diversity affects the IT field. The approach is to employ problem-based learning techniques in which students must apply their developing understanding of diversity to concrete IT problems. At the conclusion of the course students are able to demonstrate an understanding of key issues related to the overall topic of diversity in the IT field as well as key issues related to specific subtopics of diversity in the IT field. Two more general educational goals are for the students to engage in critical thinking about the issues and themes related to diversity in the IT field and to develop their ability to work productively in a team setting with individuals who are different from them in some way. The students in the course were provided a comprehensive overview of the concept of diversity in the IT workforce, how to celebrate it, how to manage it, and how to facilitate it. They were exposed to many different methods of experiencing diversity, and the journey that was explained by many of the students provided an additional motivation for this type of course. The course was mostly composed of white American males in their early 20s. Additionally, there were multicultural individuals, white American females, and gay and lesbian students. Each grouping of students took on a unique perspective to the idea of diversity and each personally enriched the discourse in the classroom. Initially, students were required to document their baseline understanding of diversity and their own experiences. There were a range of responses, and very interesting outlooks


on what role diversity would play in their personal and professional lives. This baseline understanding helped the instructor to know more who the students were and where they were in their exposure to diversity. The class was meant to be a vehicle to facilitate self-reflection and learning about issues that would prepare them for the professional IT workforce. The students provided a great deal of feedback at the conclusion of the course about the applicability of diversity to their given career field, IT, and their personal journey around celebrating differences and diversity. The student reflections provide evidence that there was a journey that occurred over time and throughout the course. Many of the students began the semester with an underdeveloped appreciation and understanding of the concept of diversity. At the conclusion, there were well versed and prepared to think and act critically regarding diversity, both personally and professionally. Though much of the feedback from the students indicated that the coursework was challenging, the benefit was realized when the reflection showed a marked growth in enlightenment about diversity at the end of the class. This course is an example of a concrete educational intervention that can be instituted to address the two significant educational gaps: the participation gap and the knowledge gap. By doing so, an IS&T curriculum is able to better prepare students for the issues and people they will encounter in their careers. Whether the students know it or not, a highly diverse workplace—both domestically and cross-culturally—will be the norm during their careers. As such, an IS&T education should include educational preparation for this dimension of the IT field.

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Trauth, E. M., Farwell, D., & Lee, D. (1993). The IS expectation gap: Industry expectations versus academic preparation. MIS Quarterly, 17(3), 293-307. Trauth, E. M., Huang, H., Morgan, A. J., Quesenberry, J. L., & Yeo, B. (2006). Investigating the existence and value of diversity in the global IT workforce: An analytical framework. In F. Niederman & T. Ferratt (Eds.), IT workers: Human capital issues in a knowledge-based environment (pp. 331-360). Greenwich, CT: Information Age. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2005). Women in the labor force: A databook. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/bls/databooknews2005.pdf U.S. Department of Commerce. (2000). Update: The digital workforce.Washington DC: Department of Commerce. Van Genuchten, M., Vogel, D., Rutkowski, A., & Saunders, C. (2005). Innovation in information systems education-VIHKNET: Instilling realism into the study of emerging trends. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 15, 357-370. Varma, R. (2006). Making computer science minority-friendly. Communications of the ACM, 49(2), 129-134.

perspectives on information technology: IFIP TC8 WG8.2 International Working Conference on the Social and Organizational Perspective on Research and Practice in Information Technology (pp. 195-210). Boston: Kluwer Academic. Wardle, C. (2003, April 22-24). Luncheon panel: Fostering diversity in the IT workforce. SIGMIS Conference on Computer Personnel Research, Philadelphia. Wilson, M. (2004). A conceptual framework for studying gender in information systems research. Journal of Information Technology, 19, 81-92. Workforce Aging in the New Economy (WANE). (2004). Europe, Phase one: A selection of initial findings on employment diversity. Retrieved from http://www.wane.ca/PDF/EUBriefing.pdf Woszczynski, A., Beise, C., Myers, M., & Moody, J. (2003). Diversity and the information technology workforce: An examination of student perceptions. In Proceedings of the 2003 SIGMIS Conference on Computer Personnel Research, Philadelphia: PA. (April 22-24, 2004)

endnotes 1

von Hellens, L.A., Nielsen, S.H., Greenhill, A., & Pringle, R. (1997). Gender and Cultural influences in IT education, PACIS 97. Walsham, G. (2000, June 9-11). Globalization and IT: Agenda for research. In R. Baskerville, J. Stage, & J. I. DeGross (Eds.), Organizational and social

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For an explanation of primary and secondary information sectors see Trauth (2000, chapter I). IT-related degree programs include areas of study such as computer science (CS), management information systems (MIS), and information sciences and technology (IST).

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Chapter III

Critique:

Information Systems Academics’ Core Competency? Mike Metcalfe University of South Australia, Australia

Abstract This chapter is about identifying a distinct core competency for information systems (IS) academics. The author is concerned that, while many would agree that their competency has more to do with thinking skills than technical expertise, thinking skills are poorly defined. This chapter will suggest a definition using pragmatism, which is growing in popularity both in IS and the theory of knowledge. More specifically, this chapter will explore the argument that the core competency of IS academics be recognised as pragmatic critical thinking where this is defined as developing unique and useful concepts to reflect on industry-related problems. While there is some recognition of this role for IS academics already, the lack of explicit definitions of “critique” and the provision of practical examples may be blocking its development as a feasible core competency. IS academics may want to develop news ways to critique management practice rather than more ideal methodologies. In this way, academics would have a useful service to offer industry. Examples of possible critique methods are presented with some discussion about how they might be applied.

INTRODUCTION There is a near endless debate within the IS discipline about the relevance and integration of its research. This seems to stem from an acceptance by many IS academics that their primary role is simply as trainers for future system developers. This means there is sometimes no genuine appre-

ciation by IS academics of the need for research. A quick survey of the teaching materials used in most first-year undergraduate courses soon reveals a lack of mention of research or of its close cousin, critical thinking. The majority of IS textbooks use the dogma of “trust me” this is how you do it.” For example, these sorts of books rarely demonstrate how they know their advice is


Critique: Information Systems Academics’ Core Competency

really justified. They rarely encourage students to ask “how do you know that is true,” or what is the empirical evidence to support any claims of how to act. Those academics that do research then get told to “get relevant” by practitioners. This cry may best be interpreted as “understand our current problems, offer us something more.” Yet IS academics may never be able to fully appreciate current business design problems as practitioners do, even though many academics do have a little relevant management experience. This is partly because academics now work and learn under a different organisational culture compared to practitioners. They are on a different path; their practise experience quickly becomes out of date. Moreover, the two different organisational cultures mean movement between industry and academia is difficult because of attitudes reflected in work processes. For example, each operates on different time scales. The 3-year time scale of academic research qualifications clashes with the 3-month timescale of many industry projects. Moreover, academia claims to be focused on the critical development of the individual, whereas, industry is focused on the development of a corporate financial bottom line. A possible way forward out of these problems is to consider the core competency of each group and how they may “synergise” each other. Thought of using this approach arose from consideration of the clustering literature in economics, which deals with developing networking between the tacit core competencies of locally based industries. This raises the question, “What is the core competency of IS lecturers and how would that help clustering between the IS industry and academics?” What is IS academics’ distinct core competency? For a historian or philosopher, clearly it is about knowing history or philosophy from research. However, knowledge about business problems lies with those struggling amid its day-to-day demands, that is, managers. Business knowledge is not born and nurtured in universities, as might

be true with knowledge of history, but rather in business. IS academics need to identify a different core competency from academics in general, as well as practitioners.

co-evolvIng A unIque core coMPetencY It is suggested that “thinking” is the core competency of the academic, more specifically, constructive and creative “critique1.” An ability to critique contemporary business problems systematically and constructively has the potential to be evolved, with industry, as our unique core competency. There is now an extensive, mainly economics literature that discusses core competencies, typically in relation to innovation (Belussi & Fabio, 1998; Lawson, 1999; Prahalad & Hemel, 1990). My interpretation of their work suggests that core competency in business education is some knowledge that can stand the test of time and that provides the skills to evaluate any particular technique, fad, or conventional wisdom. Examples of these fads and techniques include e-commerce, how to calculate a critical path, designing a spreadsheet, drawing supply curves, and citing the four Ps. These techniques are merely the “momentary expression” of a deeper knowledge graduates acquire to tackle any new problem as it arises. IS academics could develop a competency to critique these ever-changing problems constructively. D. Wade (personal communication, 2001) reviewed the core competency management literature and argues that the characteristics of competencies lead to the creation of a competitive advantage. These include value, rarity, appropriability, and sustainability. Enthusiastic teaching of the latest techniques is neither rare, appropriate, nor sustainable; techniques change. A more long-term, stable, and deep-rooted competency is required to assist the graduate to deal with the everchanging world. However, Wade’s characteristics


do align with constructive and creative critique provided it can be demonstrated to be superior to the everyday thinking of busy managers. Critiquing methods will offer a competitive advantage only if they are relevant and offer more insight than common-sense thinking. Most nongraduate managers have reasonable, but untrained thinking skills. Developing these skills must be essential. Thinking outside, and in a different dimension to, the “box” would seem to be a requirement of the global IS industry. •

•

•

•

Value: Good ideas are clearly commercially viable. There is little substitute service for creativity in business, and it is not really a tradable commodity. Rarity: There is a rarity of IS academics who think about thinking and managers will be the first to say they do not have time to consider such abstract ideas. Appropriability: Constructive critique is appropriate to universities and separates the role of the academic from that of the manager. Yet creative thinking is also appropriate to IS. Sustainability: Critique is sustainable because clever thinking will always provide a competitive advantage. Creative thinking is expected to be durable over time and hard for the untrained to imitate, given it will be in a constant state of development. It is believed that the 3-year undergraduate course, if better structured, should be sufficient time to significantly alter students thinking skills beyond nongraduates.

Findings Without mentioning critique skills, I asked 2,715 subscribers to ISWORLD, an IS academics e-mail Listserv, for their thoughts on the core competency of IS academics. Extracts of their replies are summarised next. The justification for considering this information is that the mean

or standard deviation of the responses was not sought. It was not thought to be a sample that could be generalised to any wider population. Rather what was sought was the response of those with considerable experience in IS to the idea of what is the core competence of IS academics. I was seeking new perspectives and as Churchman (1971) suggests, a new perspective can provide new knowledge. I asked: … what constitutes the core competency of … academics. What is their long term, deep knowledge? It needs to be slightly different from practitioners and be something that graduates can apply to every trendy new development. It also needs to be something that enables academics to be able to offer a unique service to undergraduates and to managers. My first guess is something like: • • •

Being able to spot bulldust (i.e., develop critique skills) How to design systems Inquiry methodologies

This I would contrast with noncore competencies such as: • •

Application knowledge Specific (technique) knowledge

Moreover, how do academics hone these core competencies over the lifetime of their teaching career? At least one respondent agreed that academics should stop thinking their expertise lies in “specific technical knowledge” as per physics or history lecturers. ... would tend to agree with your preliminary conclusions that specific technical knowledge would not be a source of sustained advantage (D. Wade, personal communication, 2001)


Many of the replies did focus on the issue of “thinking” as academic core competency but few explained what this was in much detail. Respondent Tingling (personal communication) is an example of one who sides with critical and rigorous thinking without providing a definition:

• understanding the importance of context and how to select inquiry and analysis methods to fit the problem and • understanding the interconnectedness of problems and the subjectivity of problemdefinition.

... I think that being much more critical and rigorous in our thinking should be what separates us from the nonacademic pop or faux science that is foisted on the industry by many of our nonacademic pundits (not to mention anyone by name but there are a few eponymous research firms that come to mind…)

When I was a practitioner, these were the main things that I did not understand. I understood how to design a system for a particular environment, but I did not understand all the contextual and subjective issues that surround this. Now that I am an academic, I realize that it is management of these issues that tend to distinguish successful projects from unsuccessful ones.

Chua’s (personal communication) take on thinking is an ability to spot “bulldust” which also may be roughly translated as critical thinking: [Re] Being able to spot bulldust. While I would strongly support the notion that … academics SHOULD be able to do this, I have not seen strong evidence that we actually do spot the bulldust, or if we do, we do not alert practitioners to the fact. …literature suggest that we [academics] are as susceptible to the bulldust as the practitioners are. I believe that as academics, we can sometimes discern the bulldust from the truth. … Furthermore, I would suggest that the group of academics that can discern the truth changes from bulldust to bulldust. As such, I cannot subscribe to the notion that we are better than the practitioners in this regard. Glasson (personal communication) focuses on academics having an overview and a greater appreciation of context…

…Academics should be able to take an overview, in whatever area they work. They should be able to apply this “metaknowledge” to other application areas (i.e., courses or research projects) and see the patterns that connect these disparate parts… Is it reasonable to equate appreciation of context with “theory”? … I am weary of having practitioners teach without theory. (Peter, personal communication) If this is suggesting, “that academics are able to take a bigger picture,” then it may be problematic. Their having an analysis of what “most” companies do or having read about some interesting cases, does appear to give them an edge. This is particularly so if practitioners have become too inward looking on their own business. The author, however, is not convinced that academics do have such an advantage over practitioners who read the professional/consulting press and have good social networks. Couple this with the mobility of many modern managers and the tendency for academics to have gained their knowledge from formal write-ups, then thoughts of academics fades somewhat.


A couple of respondents suggest that our core competency may be research methodology. … [it is] understanding research methodologies (Subramani, personal communication) The author is not comfortable with “research methodology” as academics’ core competency. Having some experience with business reports compared to academic research thesis, the author agrees that academics can be more rigorous in how they collect evidence, but this is countered by academics often not being current, well-funded, or having the scope of practitioners’ reports. Subramani’s (personal communication) angle on thinking is one of abstraction… Ability to translate lay/managerial cause and effect models (that tend to be very context specific) to more basic/fundamental relationships among theoretical constructs. This involves abstraction and knowledge of theory and is the critical skill that I believe differentiates researchers from practitioners and excellent researchers from good researchers… Andy’s (personal communication) angle is that academics should be able to think differently, which I am tempted to interpret as the ability to offer new perspectives, which is what this paper has been defining as critique… …university staff, whilst perhaps lacking in cutting edge skills, can offer industry and business a different skill set, often the solution to a problem comes because we decided to think about it differently! Peter (personal communication) summarises, but still does not provide any definitions of “thinking.” …we are a university and should be helping people think not teach them what will be obsolete when they leave.

However, McBenoy (personal communication) provides a word of warning that it cannot simply be assumed that academics are naturally better, more critical thinkers… I’m tempted to say that the best spotters of bulldust are the practitioners and not the academics... There’s nothing like having to make something work to bring home the reality of its application … Chua (personal communication) made the point that academics “should” be able to spot bulldust but need to think about how that is to happen. The author with his many years of switching between business and academia believes that academics should not automatically assume their core competency is being more “clever” than practitioners. They need a system to make them more critical. So there did seem to be some agreement from the 32 respondents, of which a few have been presented, that the IS academics core competency has something to do with “thinking.” However, there was a lack of suggestions as to what constitutes thinking beyond “use of theory,” unbiased: putting ideas into context; overarching: able to stop bulldust; and thinking differently. This last one may come the closest to what is being suggested here, that applied critical thinking is about being able to provide a unique and useful perspective on a contemporary business problem. Moreover, the perspective needs to be logically and rigorously investigated for its limitations and hidden assumptions.

dIscussIon business studies lecturers: the competency owners By IS lecturer, it is meant those at any level involved in the undergraduate and postgraduate


education of those seeking expertise in undertaking a career in managing technology. It also includes those who wish to provide students with the skills to develop and grow as individuals in an increasingly technology dominated world. The education of IS academics has traditionally been first from their own studies as undergraduates, then a short period in commerce in some junior or middle management position, followed by a masters degree. Increasingly, this is being supplemented later by a mid-career PhD studied while being involved in educating others. In most cases, this learning experience is not refreshed by the lecturer undertaking ongoing published research. For many, there will have been very limited discussion about thinking methods beyond school level discussions about logic, scientific experimentation, and research methods for their postgraduate thesis. Unlike subjects like psychology, most undergraduate IS courses contain little discussion about tools for thinking. At best, some academics may have taken a university-wide, critical thinking subject that makes a good argument applied to some generic social issues. For very many IS lecturers, their new knowledge comes from the course textbooks, reinforced by articles and spasmodic conversations with practitioners. Of course, this does not apply to all but the author feels it does summarise many. The textbooks typically do not include any discussion about thinking methods, the source of the evidence and conclusions provided, nor do they provide contrasting views. Moreover, they assume the managerial perspective of “do this and your boss will make more profit.” While science has very strict rules of evidence, and many lecturers would know these, much of the educational material is closer to “absolutism” than scientific method. There is a dominance of dogmatism by business school professors not accustomed to having to provide evidence to justify their opinions beyond salary level or personal contacts with multinational directors. It is a very “unscientific” approach. While experience is important, accepting it without

question deprives students from developing their evidence collection and justification skills. This has also lead to a noncritical acceptance of the efficiency-effectiveness managerial perspective. In modern times, the power of the relative stakeholders that enable projects to succeed has shifted from being at the sole discretion of the company board of directors. Suppliers, customers, unions, consultants, and skilled employees can all act to construct a project to their perspective. Managers, as representatives of the project owners, need to accommodate alternative perspectives and present their views using convincing evidence, which is not a skill developed under a dogmatism epistemology. The result of the dominance of a dogmatic epistemology is that IS lecturers are not well informed about thinking per se. The author estimates that this is less so for lecturers in the other humanities such as history, sociology, geography, or literature. This may explain the attraction of getting business students to take humanities studies to increase their analytical skills. If thinking skills are to be a core competency, they will need to be made very explicit and well integrated with lecturer notes, course design requirements, journal article design requirements, and thesis write-ups.

PrAgMAtIsM And APPlIed crItIque Pragmatism provides a useful way to think about thinking (Churchman, 1971; Dewey, 1910). It suggests a separation of concept used to think about some object and the object under study. For example, if employee motivation was being critiqued using the concept of independent, people would ask question about individuals; if motivation was being critiqued using the concept of organisations then questions of how that motivation was best channelled into making profits might be asked. Using concepts from social critical theory, such as emancipation, the critique would promote ques-


tions such as, “Do they want to be motivated?” and “Is employee motivation too divisive and not in their best interest?” Using the concept of metaphors the roots of the words employee can be contrasted with colleague, mate, and expert. Motivation would appear to have engineering roots, as in motion and locomotion. Perhaps a more social concept like encourage (from courage) would be more humane. The Marx and Engel’s concept of the dialectic which encouraged questions about what are the underlying tensions that have created the condition of lack of motivation. Using the systems concept would encourage questions about the purpose of the group, the purpose of studying the group, and the focus on the members’ relationships with themselves and relevant technical artefacts. Developing an understanding about these alternative concepts for thinking about IS project issues can be a service only academics offer. Therefore, it is being argued that the core competency of IS academics is, or should be, about understanding and improving different concepts that can be used to think about any system design problem. Of course I am not the first to suggest this (see Settle, 1971), and there is a diverse language around with the same approach as pragmatism. Pragmatism uses the language of critiquing through concepts, other sources use the language of multiple perspectives, conceptual schemes, ways of thinking, underlying assumptions, paradigms, diagnostic methods, mental models, lens, frames, filters, critical skills, inquiry systems, worldviews, and concern appreciation. It is being argued that the ongoing education of IS academics should focus on their developing a clearer appreciation and application of the range of critique methods available to help deal with system design problems. This should enable academics to provide a unique education for undergraduates and thereby assist both them and industry to utilise this knowledge to deal with the myriad of highly complex organisational design

problems. Making these methods explicit should help identify the essential difference between IS expertise and IS-academic expertise. However, it needs to be emphasised that it is not being advocated academics merely “think about thinking” but rather become very aware of contemporary problems facing industry and use these to validate their toolshed of “applied critique” methods. As the action learning literature points out (Argyris & Schon, 1996), the thinking about an action and the action need to interact. Provided there is effective “town and gown” communication, academics can develop, ponder, and try to apply the critique methods while industry supplies the problems. The complexities of how the brain thinks, coupled with the complexity of designing business systems, should provide plenty of challenge for academics. This division of labour also works for those “critical-social” business academics who prefer to think of an education as being about students’ personal development rather than merely providing trained feedstock for industry. The same diagnostic thinking skills that could make a student an effective manager should be useful in assisting the student in thinking about his or her own quality of life, ethics, equity, and the impact of industry on culture and the environment. Business system design problems include business as a problem. This is consistent with the generic advice that the role of the academic is not to tell people what to think, but to assist in how to think about important and complex social issues. Therefore, the metaphor that is being invoked is for business academics to become developers of critique methods and their role to be focused around improving these methods for application on real business problems. Business makes the product, suppliers provide the raw materials, and machine tools and business schools provide the critique methods either through consulting activities or well-educated graduates. These graduates, with their critique skills, can also elect to consider the impact of business on the wider society.


some useful concepts A further expansion of what is meant by “pragmatic critique” may be overdue. Fundamentally, it is about structuring thinking. Thinking is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as “to meditate on a problem.” It is systemic in inquiry, problem solving and system design. Walker (1983) argues that vertebrate animals without language can think, process, and store information, but most likely cannot reflect on the tools they are using to think. Humans can do this which makes them unique—this defines human intelligence. By pragmatic critique methods, it is meant methods, techniques, aids, and schemas to structure thinking that adopts the stance of the pragmatists like Pierce, James, Dewey, Churchman, Mason, Ackoff, Mitroff, Putnam, Quine, Marx, and Rorty. The book the Metaphysical Club (2001) describes the meetings of the early pragmatists who were looking for a new ideology after the massive carnage of the American Civil war; a war that was about the defence of a very colonial constitution, human liberties, and the removal of servitude. Their mood was progressive, humanistic, and critical of the very structured and privileged “European” society. This again rings of Marx, Engles, and Mao. However, rather than looking at politics and economics, Pierce looked to interpretations of “truth,” knowledge, and epistemology. Habermas’s book Knowledge and Human Interests, which has a chapter on Pierce, argues for the sociology of knowledge (1984). Quickly then it is necessary to mention a central concept of pragmatism, that of being anti-foundationalist. Knowledge is not seen to be a process of building one premise upon another as advocated by the rationalists; and empirics can be explained from numerous viewpoints. Pragmatism argues we see experience through differing concepts (lens, theory, perspective, stance, viewpoint, or ideology). Everything can be seen in different ways depending on the concept chosen. For example, the movement of planets seen with the concepts

of clockwork, Newton’s attraction, or Einstein’s time space distortions result in three different interpretations of what was being seen (Dewey, 1958/1929). The pragmatic construction of truth is, what fits best within the inquirer’s fabric of experience, seems at first glance too relativistic. Surely, knowledge would not have moved beyond the flat earth. Our experiences reinforce the truth that the world is flat. However, this is not true to sailors. Their experience and use of the concept of roundness have been used to argue to the satisfaction of most landlubbers that a round earth can fit into their experience of the world. The concept of roundness is more “useful” than that of flatness. Notice how this view of truth uses experience, argument, and concepts. The best-known concepts used to help us think about the physical world are logic and measurement. They are the tools associated with science but pragmatism sees them as particularly useful concepts for thinking. Logic combined with measurement as a thinking method is well known to most Western high school children through physics and chemistry experiments. These thinking tools are not merely a method for scientific discovery but can be used in a limited way to think about a range of day-to-day problems of a physical nature. For example, a builder can have a problem with something not fitting correctly and can use falsification experiments to help clarify the problem. Logic and measurement, the scientific thinking tools, are undoubtedly the most pervasive critique method for structuring thinking in the academic business domain. Argument has long been another concept used for thinking, but for both physical and metaphysical problems. It is a relaxation of the strict rigours of logic developed by philosophers like Aristotle and more recently Hegel, Habermas, and Toulmin (1958) and many others (see Walton, 1998) into a more inquisitor, dialectic, rhetorical, and creative form that enables it to be used for a very wide range of human inquiry. Argument closely reflects


how science and organisational decision making is really done, which is more openly acknowledged in courtrooms. It acknowledges that a debate is being set up between two humans each with very different backgrounds and biases. Emotion and power are acknowledged as real influences. It has been discussed extensively in the management literature in modern times from Mason (1969) in titles such as, The Dialectic Approach to Strategic Planning, which suggests setting up a two team debate. Balin (2003), Meyers and Seibold (1989), and Metcalfe (2006) are more recent writers. See also the journal, Argumentation. To critique a business problem using the concept of argument is to ask what is being claimed to be known and asking what is the supporting evidence for these claims. Use of fallacies can also be highlighted. The critical social theory (CST) (e.g., Turner, 2000) concepts for critique are usually assumed to have emerged from the Frankfurt School, which includes Adorno, Habermas, and Marx. While originally designed to critique society or the establishment, it has evolved into highlighting the perspective of “workers” or “dis-empowered persons” on business activity, and so exposing implicit power structures. It is, therefore, a very person-level analysis rather than that typical of economics or sociology, which undertakes study at the level of nations or the whole of “society.” Turner (2000) argues that the focus on “empowerment” needs to be widened to view business problems as resulting from individual human needs (psychological and physical). He believes that critical social thinking should be using the perspective of humans as sensory individuals who are striving for food, relationships, and their place in a community. As a result of this “state” being similar for most humans, various powerful stakeholders “institutionalise” these needs, foibles, and wants into organisations. For example, the need for safety becomes the police force or the army. Institutions of society should be examined and evaluated for the underlying human need and for how they became institutionalised.

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Consider the alternative example of critiquing project stakeholders. Imagine the situation where a company is starting to think about a new large IS project, and they want to ensure that there is maximum stakeholder involvement as the project manager’s last project was hampered by constant arguments and office politics. Your role is to help with the brainstorming meeting where issues related to managing the stakeholders are to be made explicit and action plans drafted. A stakeholder review using concepts from CST might ask questions about which group gains the most from the project, by revealing implicit power assumptions in the language used to justify the project, ask how things ought to be, and trying to reveal who gets the benefits and who carries the social costs. A new project means old institutionalised power vested in individuals may be lost and new one powers established. For example, those who acted in gatekeeper roles for a manual system may be different people from those who will be the gatekeepers after a computerised system is installed. An extreme example of this is the adoption of literacy in indigenous communities. When knowledge is stored in books, then academics become powerful, moving the power from the elders in oral communities, who then become a burden. Boulding (1978) identifies three concepts of personal power that stakeholders can use to get their own way: (1) destructive, (2) integrative, and (3) economic. The stakeholders review can ask which stakeholders have or will gain any of these means of power. The point of identifying stakeholders may be to use the very strong integrative power by trying to build an inclusive group of the stakeholders. The concept for critique used by Marx and Engel, writers usually associate with CST (Nielson, 1999; Sowell, 1985) was to consider the “underlying dialectic forces.” In their case, this was mainly to examine the underlying political and social forces resulting in the class struggle. For modern business, not only is this still a viable


tool for thinking but it still remains a very useful one. For example, in understanding e-commerce in terms of the political, economic, social, and/or technical forces, drivers could be very informative to business students. The concept of “systems” (for example, Churchman, 1971; Ulrich, 1983) is a critique method that places much emphasis on relationships and boundaries. The boundary concept can be particularly enlightening and can be used as either a “scientific” (hard) or “social” (soft) tool for thinking. The hard form is most often used for “engineering” systems like computers or railways, while the soft systems are usually people and artefact combinations. The soft system is assumed to be self-conscious and purposeful, both in itself and for the person observing the system. So, for example, the system’s concept provides a useful way of thinking about such things as Venezuela, an organisation, or a marketing strategy. If thought about systemically, rather than as inanimate objects, then a different perception emerges. Using the system’s concept to think critically about the stakeholders example mentioned previously would encourage thoughts about purpose, boundary, connectivity, and transformation. “Purpose” may suggest that the project team think carefully about exactly what their purpose is in conducting a stakeholder review. Is it to control, neuter, learn from, or pacify the other stakeholders? Boundary thoughts may encourage questions of who is to be included (or excluded) in the stakeholder critique and why. Put another way, the term stakeholder needs some definition, is it anyone without whose input a particular project would be unable to function, or those who have no formal role in a particular project but may still be affected (positively or negatively) by its functioning. Ulrich (1983) extensively discusses setting system purpose as an internal motivator. This can prompt questions about the purpose of the project and of undertaking the stakeholder critique. What purpose will the stakeholders give to the stakeholder review?

Connectivity thoughts may include wanting to appreciate the networks of stakeholders. Who do they talk to, who gives them power, who do they influence? How well networked are the stakeholders both between and within their own grouping? Therefore, questions, such as how the internal politics of stakeholder groups is likely to affect the project, may be raised. Transformation thoughts may result in questions about how unsupportive stakeholders may be “turned around,” and what may turn presently supportive stakeholders into unsupportive ones? It may also raise thoughts of how the stakeholders might help “transform” various stages of the project. While it is not possible to be exhaustive about the questions that may arise using the system’s thinking, it is hoped that the aforementioned information gives some demonstration of how the system concept can assist critical thinking. Another critique method, advocated by Mitroff and Linstone (1993), they call “Multiple Perspectives” which argues that business systems be “seen” through three concepts: (1) that of the scientist (technical analysis), (2) that of the senior manager of an interested organisation (organisational self-interest), and (3) that of a psychologist (from a person’s needs perspective). Each of these “ways of seeing problems” can be used to look at technical, organisational, and personal problems. Linstone later develop his method to look at the tension between his three concepts, that is, T-P, P-O, and O-T. P-O for example includes the tension between individual and their duties to society. Using the stakeholder example, the technical analysis would include analysis of any quantitative or explicit data on the stakeholders such as costbenefit analysis of stakeholder involvement or some kind of regression model of their likely response to certain organisational variable changes. The organisational concept would focus on the bureaucratic responses to the legal and financial risk of stakeholder groups (which maybe separate organisations). This may also


raise questions about interdepartmental politics, clashes with other groups, and issues of whether stakeholder groups are representative (or if they should be). The person concept is intended to generate questions about the feelings of individual stakeholders, how the review will align with their personal values, motivations, career needs, and self-esteem. The concept of metaphors (similarity) (Richards, 1936) sees the social construct of artefacts as being achieved through the use of constantly refreshed linguistically derived images. The classic study in business is Morgan’s (1986) Images of Organisations, with the mechanical, organism, psychic prison, and so on metaphors of organisations. Each image powerfully reveals a different way of seeing the management issues related to organisational life. Even social constructs like accountancy, marketing, and other business disciplines can be better appreciated using this critique method. It is particularly effective as it is embedded in language. The concept of evolution (Dennett, 1996; Schumpter, 1942) is related to Marx and Engel’s underlying dialectic forces, as reflected in the famous saying, “You cannot understand the caterpillar, if you don’t know about the butterfly.” Given the impact of Darwin’s work on Europe and that Marx was writing immediately after Darwin, the connection would be expected. While the evolutionary view has been used as support for right wing politics, it remains still a very useful way of understanding some problems, especially those involving biological entities. Where did the problem come from? What are the forces over time acting on the problem? The power problems endemic in human systems can be understood in terms of our being a hierarchical species, as can competitive cooperation and people’s motivation; both being rooted in their gene pool needs, rather than just themselves. In the stakeholder example, the evolution concept may encourage the idea of the benefits of the project as being a species trying to survive

amid numerous other ideas (memes). This suggests strategies like finding a stakeholder who will be able to nurture the new idea and then present it to the minds of others in an acceptable way. Alternatively, thinking of the stakeholders as different competing species encourages questions about how they compete, for what do they compete, how adaptable they are, what powers they have, and how they are likely to survive in the preand post-project environment. Boulding (1981) emphasises the importance of remembering that species, stakeholders, are not competing with each other but rather for resources to achieve their goals, so how they see a new idea in terms of their access to those resources is important. There are numerous other possible concepts that could be used to think about projects. It is assumed that they will fall under the pragmatic classifications of more or less useful. Useful meaning it suggests an increased number of possible choices or actions to those undertaking the inquiry. Emergence, chaos, complexity, and self-organisation are further examples of concepts that have been reported as useful. Indeed, it is sometimes difficult to determine what is not a possible concept, particularly with metaphoric analysis. It is this type of issue that those claiming critique methods as their core competency need to consider. As an example, consider the suit of concepts called SWOT analysis. It is possible to perceive this as a subset of the dialectic tool— strengths versus weaknesses, opportunity versus threats, internal versus external analysis, which, in turn, is related to the powerful “compare and contrast” critique concept. Strict classification may not be helpful, but some consideration of the relationship between concepts seems wise. Awareness of these concepts, which are used to critique, must surely be an important educational tool to any IS graduate to equip him or her to deal with new problems. These problems include how best to undertake an inquiry deciding on the usefulness of a new technology, whether to enter a new market, or to support a proposal for new


regulation. Practise at applying a range of critique concepts to the design of business systems seems essential and should not be taken for granted. It is being argued that it is business academics’ core competency to know about these differing concepts and be able to compare and contrast them. Which are the useful concepts for which problem? What are their attributes and relationships to the other concepts? Exposing this often requires some practical applications, or “doing” activity.

so-WhAt: In the clAssrooM … I think there is less of a distinction between the core and noncore competencies—the “core” can only be honed and tested “for real” through design and implementation in the “noncore” techniques. A. Martin (personal communication) There is extensive management literature on “learning by doing,” action science, double-loop learning, or action learning (Agyris & Schon, 1996). This presents the argument that learning (inquiry) is best considered a reflective dialectic, with two interactive elements. The first is what this paper has been calling critique concepts, while most of the action learning literature calls it “theory.” The second is some “action” (doing activity). A looped process is suggested so that the learning is to: • • •

• •

Think about the task Try to apply that thinking to doing the task Perhaps note a difference between what you had thought will happen and what actually happened Reflect on this difference Maybe modify your thinking about the task and try doing the task again

In the classroom, this may come out as first introducing students to one of the critiquing con-

cepts such as the underlying dialectic forces. Then have them read a corporate case study, listen to a manager recount a current real system design problem, or learn a technical skill such as mastering a computer package. Next, ask the students to try to use the underlying dialectic to critique the task (e.g., the manager’s problem). Alternatively, different students could use different critique concepts and present their thoughts to the rest of the group. This process of both applying and honing the critique methods (core competency) against real pragmatic tasks is considered essential for relevant deep learning. The second element in the action learning loop suggests the need for direct sensory inputs. This “doing” element is particularly relevant in a professional discipline such as business studies where course designers feel under some pressure to provide graduates with a reasonable level of specific hands-on skills, for example, chairing a meeting or drafting a spreadsheet. However, it is important to remember that these tasks are being done as part of trying to organise some very complex, purposeful, social systems. In the “action world” of commerce, these “doing” things can easily dominate the day-to-day routine of managers to the extent that even they can fail to appreciate what concept is being used to deal with this complexity. Plans need to be drafted, meetings concluded, and analysis completed; this is the “doing” that will involve only surface or “first-loop” learning if some thought is not given to altering the “doing” and refining the perception. For example, learning a few new spreadsheet commands is considered surface learning, compared to thinking about a systematic approach to learning how to use any new software that comes along in the future. Another example would be to consider teaching first year students how to use Microsoft Excel spreadsheets after first outlining the systems thinking critique concept. The system thinking can be used to ask how spreadsheets might be used as part of a corporate electronic IS, or how


to think systematically and systemically about both learning new software applications and new financial models. It is important that both parts of the learning loop be present at the same time. There is an essential co-evolution between the two. It must, therefore, be possible to construct a hierarchy of useful activities for someone seeking an IS education. At the lowest level would be general knowledge. Thus, the development of critical skills against activities such as “whom to vote for” or “whether to recycle” may be a good starting place, but not as useful as developing those skills specific to business design problems. Not only is there a need for students to usefully criticise how the spreadsheet is designed, but also its role in the planning process. With chairing meetings, there is a need to be critical about how the meeting is designed, how contributions are to be evaluated, and how to critically appraise the effectiveness of the meeting. The problems then become more complicated; how to design a well-balanced critical report; how to critically appraise an organisation’s strategic planning; and how to critically appraise the functioning of an organisation in a global marketplace or under a regional government. While there are rudiments of how to think critically, they need to be honed on very relevant activities. Although the textbooks and present courses abound with examples of techniques for students to master, it does seem important that lecturers be very aware of contemporary issues in their discipline. This means that there is a very strong need for business academics to keep in touch with business or the community and so appreciate contemporary problems to which the critique methods may be applied. The problem becomes how best to maintain these links between business and business schools.

conclusIon This chapter has sought to argue that IS education needs a core competency that is distinct yet complementary to generic management core competencies. Applied critique methods appropriate to business system design were suggested. These critique methods were defined as being able to draw on a range of well-scoped concepts like critical social theory, metaphor, and dialectic, which can be applied to the latest management problem from organisational change to implementing an enterprise resource planning package and using a spreadsheet. Importantly, it was suggested that useful concepts be co-evolved with current business problems. This means that academics must maintain constant interaction with industry. The “doing” knowledge of IS is believed to be in industry, the work of research, and developing applied critique concepts relevant to these problems could be done in the academic environment with its longer time frame and more reflective work ethic. Using the learning-by-doing concept, it is being suggested that academics develop the thinking part of the loop so as to be able to assist practitioners to see their problems in different ways. Unfortunately, it is also believed that many IS academics lack the skills to make these sorts of critique skills explicit and to be able to develop them systematically. It is believed that there are at least two reasons for this. The dominant academic style in business studies textbooks is “absolutism,” whereby eminent consultants pronounce the fad of the day without being required to be either rigorous or critical in terms of supporting evidence. This style, understandably, discourages thinking about thinking. Secondly, IS academics have been too distracted by “glitz” of new technical toys, most of which are introduced to them from industry. Given they are not in a position to afford, apply, and test these toys to the same extent that practitioners are forced to, they have struggled to play catch up and loose focus on developing a


unique core competency of their own that could complement industry. The idea that critical thinking means providing a new concept with which to think about a problem can be hard to comprehend, especially for those who have not been introduced to some of these ideas through a good academic education. However, it is a potential core competency for academics, one that is badly needed if we are to regain the respect of practitioners. It will not be an easy task to re-educate academics mid-career. The lead needs to come from those who gate-keep journals, grants, and course reviews.

Dawkins, R. (1989). The selfish gene. UK: Oxford University Press.

reFerences

Hospers, J. (1982). Human conduct (2nd ed.). New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Alvesson, M., & Skoldberg, K. (2000). Reflexive methodology. CA: Sage.

Lawson, C. (1999). Towards a competence theory of the region. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 23, 151-66.

Argyris, C., & Schon, D. (1996). Organisational learning II. MA: Addison Wesley. Bailin, S. (2003). Is argument for conservatives or where so sparkling new ideas come from? Informal Logic, 23(1), 3-17. Belussi, F., & Fabio, A. (1998). A typology of networks: Flexible and evolutionary firms. Research Policy, 27, 415-428. Blumenau, R. (2001). Kant and the thing in itself. Philosophy Now. Boulding, K. E. (1978). Three faces of power. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Boulding, K. E. (1981). Ecodynamics. CA: Sage. Churchman, C. W. (1971). The design of inquiring systems. New York: Wiley. Crosswhite, J. (1996). The rhetoric of reason. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. Davidson, D. (1984). Inquiries into truth and interpretation. UK: Oxford University Press.

Dennett, D. C. (1996). Darwin’s dangerous idea. New York: Touchstone. Dewey, J. (1910). How we think. New York: Dover. Haynes, J. (2000). Perspectival thinking. NZ: OneCompany Ltd. Hintikka, J., & Hintikka, M. B. (1982). Information seeking through questioning. In E. M. Barth & J. L. Martens (Eds.), On argumentation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Lett, J. (2000). A field guide to critical thinking. Sceptical Inquirer. Mason, R. O. (1969). A dialectic approach to strategic planning. Management Science, 15(8), B403-421. Metcalfe, M. (2006). Critiquing research. Wales: Elgar Mellen Press. Meyers, R. A., & Seibold, D. R. (1989). Perspectives on group argument. Communications Yearbook, 14, 268-302. Mitroff, I., & Linstone, H. (1993). The unbounded mind. UK: Oxford University Press. Morgan, G. (1986). Images of organisations. Beverley Hills, CA: Sage. Nielsen, R. P. (1996). Varieties of dialectic change process. Journal of Management Inquiry, 5(3), 276-294. Piaget, J. (1973). Psychology and epistemology. Harmondworth, UK: Penguin.


Prahalad, C., & Hamel, G. (1990). The core competence of the corporation. Havard Business Review, 68(3), 79-91. Richards, L. A. (1936). The philosophy of rhetoric. New York: Oxford University Press. Schumpeter, J. A. (1942). Capitalism, socialism and democracy. New York: Har per and Brothers. Schutz, W. C. (1966). The interpersonal underworld. Palo Alto, CA: Science and Behaviour Books. Settle, T. (1971). The rationality of science versus the rationality of magic. Philosophy of The Social Sciences, 1, 173-194. Sowell, T. (1985). Marxism. London: Unwin.

Toulmin, S. (1958). The uses of argument. MA: Cambridge University Press. Turner, B. (2000). A companion to social theory (2nd ed.). London: Blackwell. Ulrich, W. (1983). Critical heuristics of social planning. New York: Wiley. Walker, S. (1983). Animal thought. London: Routledge. Walton, D. (1998). The new dialectic. Canada: Toronto University Press.

endnote 1

The term critique is being used to avoid the confusion over the word critical.

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Chapter IV

Enterprise Systems Software in the Business Curriculum: Aligning Curriculum with Industry Requirements Ravi Seethamraju The University of Sydney, Australia

Abstract An integrated view of business and multidisciplinary perspectives are considered essential for business graduates in today’s workplace. Recognising the increasing importance of enterprise systems (ES) in business and the pedagogical value in imparting the above, several universities have incorporated ES software solutions into their business school curricula. This chapter presents a review of literature on the inadequacies of business education, the pedagogical value of incorporating ES in the curricula, and an analysis of the effectiveness of curriculum design and delivery. Expansion and regular updating of the curriculum, more interaction with industry practitioners, more case studies that deal with post-implementation issues, better alignment with other prerequisite courses, and improvement in the knowledge of academic staff are some of the challenges faced. Varying student mix, significantly higher cost of providing access to software, difficulty in obtaining a sustainable industry support and involvement, inadequate administrative support in schools, limited interest by academic staff and the lack of perceived career benefits, however, are found to be problematic. Appropriate administrative policies, top management commitment and encouragement to align curriculum with industry requirements and industry support are essential for the successful integration of ES software solutions in the business curricula.


Enterprise Systems Software in the Business Curriculum

IntroductIon The environment in which business organisations operate today is changing very rapidly. Universities are generally criticised for lagging behind businesses in the adoption of new technologies and systems in general and information technologies (IT) in particular. With this gap between theory and practise, university graduates are considered not suitable and not adaptable to the modern workplace. Because of this functionally oriented focus in business education, with a reliance on traditional and reactive systems of curriculum design and delivery and ever increasing content in each of the disciplines, the gap between what industry wants and what business schools can provide has widened. With their relatively higher emphasis on research at the expense of innovation in teaching and learning and increased competition for scarce funding and students, business schools are not able to dynamically change and align their business curriculum with the rapidly changing needs of business. Do universities prepare graduates with the necessary integrated view of business? Do they offer a multidisciplinary perspective? These are both critical for the success of students in modern business organisations today. Are they preparing graduates who are ready for the new workplace that is process-oriented and requires an integrated view of business rather than functional compartmentalised orientation? With business process orientation and cross-functional integration embedded in software, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, also increasingly known as enterprise systems (ES), are one of the major technologies in recent times to have made a significant impact on organisational structure, systems, decision making, controls, and people. This chapter analyses business and information systems education and the role of ES in university education in general, and their ability to impart an integrated view of business, in particular. It discusses various approaches to integrating ES into the university

curricula and analyses how it assists in enhancing the multidisciplinary perspective and integrated view of business to students.

busIness educAtIon: InAdequAcIes And IndustrY needs Business education has been subjected to major reviews worldwide. Several reviews of higher education by practitioners as well as experts have pointed out the lack of a multidisciplinary view in business graduates and strongly recommended incorporating cross-functional integration in business curricula (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business [AACSB], 1998; Boston Consulting Group [BCG], 2001; CecezKecmanovic et al., 2002; Ethie, 2003; Harvard Business Review [HBR], 1992; Karpin, 1995; Michaelsen, 1999; Trites, 2004). These reports consistently criticised business education for producing graduates who generally lack crossfunctional and multidisciplinary perspectives (AC Nielsen, 1998; Barker, Gilbreath, & Stone, 1998; Evangelauf, 1989; Karpin, 1995, Stover, Morris, Pharr, Reyes, & Byers, 1997). For example, Karpin (1995) pointed out that universities in Australia, though successful in providing functional skills have precluded the development of integrative skills critical in a business environment. The report argued that over emphasis on functional skills, such as accounting and marketing, creates a barrier to building better teamwork skills and an integrated approach to business management. Subsequent, reports by industry organisations, professional bodies, and research experts consistently pointed out the inadequacies of business education (BCG, 2001; Cecez-Kecmanovic et al., 2002). Some of the major factors contributing to these inadequacies and a summary are presented in Table 1.


Table 1. Summary of inadequacies in current business education Factors

Summary of inadequacies in current business education

Discipline-based structure of university business schools

• • •

Functionally oriented university business schools suitable for 20th century organisations Developing good specialists in individual disciplines Difficulty of changing the functionally oriented teaching/research focus entrenched for many decades in business schools into cross-functional processes and integration

Employers’ concerns

• • •

Graduates are narrowly trained and hold a compartmentalised view of the way business is conducted Lack cross-functional perspective and multidisciplinary view of business Need to spend considerable employer resources broadening graduates’ understanding and integrated view of business

Inadequate teaching and learning strategies

•

Exponential growth in discipline-based knowledge not permitting inclusion of integrative elements in the business curriculum A course on strategy, a business/simulation game, a capstone unit/project, a case study, or team-teaching approach—typically adopted to impart multidisciplinary perspective Curriculum structure; course syllabus and teaching; and learning strategies inconsistent with the modern idea of integrated processes Integration left to individual student and/or individual faculty members

• • •

Usage of information technologies/ systems

• • •

Insufficient information orientation in discipline-based core units Undue focus on imparting IT skills and/or usage of information systems and technologies as teaching aids for improving teaching and learning effectiveness Underlying importance and utility of information and process links in developing integrated view between various business functions generally ignored

discipline-based structure of university business schools The pedagogical model of business education developed at the beginning of the 20th century, which was based on disciplines/functions, is still being used. These functionally specialised schools/disciplines have evolved over time in order to meet the needs of the large, highly bureaucratised organisations that have generally dominated the 20th century. Adopting the Harvard University model of a core (Nelson, 1990), many university business schools are typically organised into functional departments of accounting, marketing, human resources (HR), operations, and so forth. Mirroring the 20th century approach of organising work in industrial organisations, this model believed that the delivery of business education could best be achieved by dividing the effort according to areas of speciality. The hierarchical values and functional silos typical in a business organisation do not allow them to respond to a

marketplace that demands flexibility and customer responsiveness (Walker & Black, 2000). The functional optimisation advocated by this traditional approach to work organisation does not lead to organisational optimisation and is not consistent with the idea of integrated processes (Davenport, 2000).

discipline-based specialists The strength of business education at present lies in specialist or technical areas such as marketing, finance, accounting, HR management, or operations. The business schools, though successful at graduating accountants, marketers, and financiers are not good at developing good business graduates (HBR, 1992). Not surprisingly, universities are therefore criticised for producing narrowly trained individuals who hold a compartmentalised approach to the way business is conducted (Byrne, 1993; Morris, 1997; Wheeler, 1998). Business schools have been criticised for being far removed from the reality and practise


of the business world (Berhman & Levin, 1984; Buckley, Peach, & Weitzel, 1989; Mandt, 1982: Porter & McKibbin, 1988). By continuing to teach business functions as discrete activities, business schools are not able to impart a multidisciplinary view of business to their students (Byrne, 1993; Porter & McKibbin, 1988). Even though many large and medium-sized organisations have been shifting the focus of management development away from specialisation and towards integration of the different disciplines and functional departments (Malekzadeh, 1998), the universities have not adopted the same approach. Businesses seek graduates who can analyse problems by drawing on cross-disciplinary knowledge (Lightfoot, 1999). Even in such functionally oriented curricula such as accounting, few universities have incorporated an interdisciplinary style (Albrecht & Sack, 2000). For example, by ignoring the information systems (IS) component of the accounting majors, current business needs are not met by the universities (O’Donnel & More, 2005). Emphasising the importance of IS knowledge to business graduates, Andrews and Wynekoop (2004) argued that all business graduates must understand how information systems and technology (IS&T) work and how they can be used and misused. There is a gap between what employers want graduates to have and what universities teach to their accounting students (Ahmed, 2003). Business school graduates view their careers from a functional perspective (e.g., as accountants, marketers, or financial analysts) and cannot see an integrated viewpoint until they are well into their careers (Ethie, 2003).

teaching and learning strategies Several approaches have been suggested for providing an integrated understanding to business students. These include a process-based approach (Hershey et al., 2002; Seethamraju, 2004; Walker

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& Ainsworth, 2001), integration across different units of study (Cecez-Kecmanovic, 2002; Leonard & Seethamraju, 2004), a capstone project/unit (Burrack & McKenzie, 2005; Johnson, Lorents, Morgan, & Ozmun, 2004) and a strategy course with a case/simulation-based approach (Payne, 1998). Though their effectiveness is not clearly known, it is argued that these strategies would help students to develop these cross-functional perspectives (AACSB International, 2003). While such strategies can provide a more integrated curriculum to students, they do not impact on students’ objectives of majoring in disciplinebased specialisations such as accounting, marketing, logistics, HR, and so forth. If students see themselves as functionally defined then attempts to provide them with an integrated curriculum may not succeed. In fact, it is argued that an understanding of the intersection and interaction of various disciplines is necessary to enhance a deeper understanding of discipline-based knowledge (Barret, 2005). The need for functional integration is well articulated by AACSB International (2005) in their document on procedures and standards for business schools’ curricula. The exponential growth in business management knowledge and the increasing technical content of even the most elemental business course has not allowed for the possibility of any additional integrative elements of the course and is generally left to either the individual student or to a learned faculty member. Though adopting cross-functional integration as a teaching approach and creating an information orientation were recommended in a classic review of higher education by Porter and McKibbin (1988), and in several subsequent reviews and reports, the evidence of such change is sketchy. Though there have been many debates about interdisciplinary collaborations (Toombs, Amey, & Chen, 1991), little integration has been carried out (Smith, Jeffrey, & Mary, 2000). Graduates and employers are realising the importance


of integrative capability in the workplace and are spending a considerable amount of resources in retraining business graduates.

It and tools in curriculum Integration of IT and associated skills into the curricula of business schools is not new. For years, the business school faculties have incorporated various IT tools as an aid to improve teaching and learning effectiveness (Leidner & Jarvenpaa, 1995). In universities, the integration of IT into the business curriculum has been too focused on either the acquisition of IT skills or usage of IT to support the teaching process. It is also a common practice for business school faculties to include IT tools in their courses and impart critical skills to the business graduates that would be useful to function effectively as business managers. While accepting that these are necessary developments, more attention is needed in imparting the processcentred concepts and the critical role of information in business (Noguera & Watson, 2001).

enterPrIse sYsteMs And theIr role In busIness currIculuM enterprise systems EPs or ERPs demonstrate the seamless flow of information across all functional areas such as accounting; production/logistics; procurement; sales and distribution; and HR. SAP, Oracle, Sage group, and Microsoft are some of the major vendors supplying these packaged ES software solutions. Products such as SAP R/3, Oracle , Great Plains, Axapta, SSA global, Lawson/Intentia, and so forth, with their focus on business processes and information flows across various functions, act as an underlying link between various functional disciplines (Hawking, McCarthy, & Stein, 2004; Rosemann & Watson, 2002). These systems provide the depth of functionality and breadth of

integration required for today’s organisations that are often global. Whether from SAP R/3, JD Edwards, or PeopleSoft or from some other software providers in the marketplace, the ES software is well in place in a majority of large business organisations, and the number is reportedly increasing even in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (Forrester Research, 2005; Rosemann & Watson, 2002; Staehr, Shanks, & Seddon, 2002). With PeopleSoft and JD Edwards now part of the Oracle Corporation, there are now effectively two large ES vendors in the market place—SAP and Oracle, with several small players such as Microsoft, SSA, Lawson/Intentia, and so forth. They are already widespread now in large and medium-sized firms and are increasingly viewed as an essential backbone for launching and running successful e-business initiatives. Adopting an ES to a firm generally involves implementation of standard software for core business processes combined with bespoke customisation for competitive differentiation (Skok & Legge, 2002). Usage of ES software is changing the face of business organisations significantly and is blurring the lines between IT and users.

cross-Functional nature of Is discipline The discipline of IS, in this context, is in the best position to help solve the functional integration problem (Baskerville & Myers, 2002; Ives et al., 2002; Leidner & Jarvenpaa, 1995). With its emphasis on information flows, data, and business processes, IS is the only discipline that could deal with the issues that cut across various functional disciplines (Hershey et al., 2002; Leidner & Jarvenpaa, 1995) and is the most common link between functional disciplines such as marketing, accounting, finance, and HR (Berghel & Sallach, 2004; Hershey et al., 2002; Ives et al., 2002; Oliver & Romm, 2002).


role of enterprise systems Using ES as a vehicle to stress the integrated nature of business (Becerra-Fernandez, Murphy, & Simon, 2000; David & MacCracken, 2003; Davis & Comeau, 2004; Hawking, Ramp, & Shackleton, 1999; Seethamraju, 2004) has been a recent phenomenon. What is different and new about the ES software solutions is their ability to help “integrate” the key knowledge and concepts from functional-oriented courses such as accounting, marketing, finance, operations, and HR and help graduates develop integrative skills. In addition this also equips graduates with some readily employable generic software and IT skills. Today, ES act as an underlying link between various disciplines and facilitate integration of curriculum in business schools (Joseph & George, 2002). ES, by their multidimensional, integrative, and normative nature offer the depth of functionality and breadth of integration required for managing global operations of business organisations today. These systems create new, hitherto unknown opportunities for demonstrating powerful concepts of business process integration (Fedorowicz, Gelinas, Usoff, & Hachey, 2004) and may contribute to imparting innovative integrative skills and process orientation to business graduates (CecezKecmanovic et al., 2002; LeRouge & Webb, 2004; Noguera & Watson, 2001; Seethamraju, 2004) and enhance their employability (Seethamraju, 2004; Webster, 2003). ES serve as a focal point for integration of knowledge across functional disciplines (Johnson et al., 2004). They are expected to enable a change in the delivery of business education from a functional orientation to a business-process orientation and lead to the integration of curriculum across functions (Becerra-Fernandez et al., 2000; Johnson et al., 2004). Incorporating them in the business curriculum will facilitate integration of curriculum in business schools and assist in the development of integrative skills (Hawking et al., 2004; Hershey et al., 2002; Noguera & Watson,

2001; Seethamraju, 2004; Watson & Schneider, 1999). Importantly they offer real world exposure to students and are closest to bringing the “real world” to the classroom (Rosemann & Watson, 2002; Seethamraju & Leonard, 2004; Shtub, 2001; Webster, 2003). Incorporating these industry, best-practice, ES software products into the curricula gives students an exposure to typical business transactions close to reality (Rosemann & Watson, 2002; Seethamraju, 2004). In fact, beyond their state-of-the-art status, ES software solutions are expected to provide a sound pedagogical basis for teaching the concept of integration and business process orientation to business graduates (Joseph & George, 2002; Seethamraju, 2004). Though the ability of ES in teaching concepts of cross-functional integration and process orientation are well recognised and discussed in the academic literature, many business schools/faculties, for different reasons, are slow in incorporating these latest software products in their curricula as explained later in the chapter.

vocational es software skills in universities Integrating a large ES software product into business courses raises a traditional dichotomy in an ideal university curriculum. Some educationalists, who prefer a classical approach to university education, doubt the value of application or vocation in business education (Cannon, 1996; Casey, 1997), while others support its role in enhancing experiential learning (Challis, Holt, & Rice, 2005). Specifically on the use of ES, other researchers argued both for and against (Gable & Rosemann, 1998; Elam, Murphy, Becerra-Fernandez, & Simons, 1999). Resolving the question of balance between scholarship and vocational training is imperative to meet the changing market needs of universities and their customers—industry and students. Contrary to the traditional “push” model in the design and development of courses,


universities are increasingly using realistic market “pull” models and are increasingly reflecting the growing vocational emphasis embedded within a suitable academic framework (Harvard, Hughes, & Clarke, 1998). The educational needs of working professionals, expanding international student markets, and budgetary pressures on universities to earn fees, have encouraged several universities to start full-fee paying postgraduate programs that will impart employable skills to students. Several specialised business courses in the areas of quality management, occupational health and safety, logistics management, transport management, industrial relations, banking, insurance, public sector management, hospitality management, golf management, and so forth were designed and successfully marketed by universities. Increasingly it is possible to see university curricula that are integrated with some product-specific training and certification by the software vendors. Such collaborations have now become common in many universities.

Industry needs ES are complex and need resources to manage changes emanating from changing organisational characteristics and technological imperatives, even after implementation (Davenport, Harris, & Cantrell, 2002; Markus, 2001). Activities such as continuous adaptation of systems to changes in the structure; integration of ES applications to other applications such as supply chain management, knowledge management, customer relationship management, and so forth; installation of new releases of software and training; redesigning business processes and/or software based on management advice; and changing market and environmental needs are expected to continue forever after implementation. Though there are large numbers of consultants who have product-specific technical skills, they may not possess theoretical grounding and

knowledge required for the day-to-day operations and maintenance and may lack a process-centred approach to managing the business (Elam et al., 1999). Moreover, the high cost of these consultants and their narrow focus on one or two software modules in an ES create problems for ongoing running and maintenance of the ES. In view of the pervasive nature of ES in business today, a growing number of business graduates are already involved in the usage, maintenance, and upgrade of the ES and their associated add-on software products (Bradford, Vijayaraman, & Chandra, 2003), and more working professionals are upgrading their skills in these areas.

universities’ unique role Universities are positioned well to provide the theoretical foundations required for this process-centred view. University courses emphasise conceptual as well as procedural content and thereby reduce the risk of information overload while teaching complex ES software. A university course has several advantages over a typical training on software offered by the ES vendor companies at their private training centres (Scott, 1999). University courses are considered to be more adaptable to students’ learning needs because they provide sufficient time for students to contemplate and reflect on learning. They give an opportunity for lecturers to complement procedural activities on the software with conceptual lectures, discussions on case studies, and business concepts. University courses have the unique ability to combine various learning models effectively and impart learning. While direct lectures are objectivist, the group projects are collaborative and learner-centred (Scott, 1999). With the help of group projects and case discussions, these university courses have also incorporated constructivist and collaborative models of learning in which the learner controls the pace and constructs new meaning. Though it is not feasible for indi-


vidual human instruction/teaching in university courses, individual learning needs are catered to by providing individual feedback on some assessment components and class discussions and by incorporating a variety of teaching methods that involve guest lectures, videos, and demonstrations (Noguera & Watson, 2001; Seethamraju, 2004; Seethamraju & Leonard, 2004).

enterPrIse sYsteMs soFtWAre In unIversItY teAchIng There are several motives for the adoption of ES software into business curricula (Bradford et al., 2003) and several models of integration (Antonucci, Corbitt, Stewart, & Harris, 2004). A brief discussion of various models and motives is presented next.

different Approaches of Integrating es software The sheer size and degree of complexity of typical ES software makes it difficult to integrate the full range of the software functionality into the curriculum. Hence, the curriculum developed by various universities is different in terms of the scope, content, and relative emphasis. While some universities in the U.S., Europe, and Australia have incorporated the ES software into their business and IS curricula, the nature of integration in terms of the ES applications and depth of the ES’ software knowledge imparted in these courses is ranging widely (Bradford et al., 2003). In terms of the level of integration and successful cooperation between the software vendors and the higher education institutions, the business schools in Europe, however, are reported to be more effective and considered to be far ahead of the schools in U.S. (Bradford et al., 2003). The approach adopted by various universities is generally influenced by the field or discipline

initiating this move (whether computer science/IT or business/commerce), and the specific focus adopted. Some focused on the programming and technology, while others concentrated on the business applications and business processes. There are some who attempted incorporating both technology and business processes in their curricula. For example, some business schools focused on the business perspective emphasising the business process concepts, application software skills, and implementation and configuration issues and/or concentrating on one or two application modules such as accounting and logistics. While some courses aimed to bridge the gap between traditional business and IT courses offered by universities and the real world requirements of business in practical application of skills, others have used it to make an accounting, finance, or HR/ logistics professional a well-rounded professional with an integrated business view and process perspective. At one extreme, a few universities have an entire postgraduate business course on ERP and incorporated all the applications and technology components (Seethamraju, 2004). Some other universities have incorporated just a few aspects or selective application modules into one or two units/courses relevant to accounting or logistics disciplines. In spite of increasing competition for international students and the changing educational needs of working professionals and full-time students to gain employable skills, fewer than 10% of the business schools in Australia have attempted to incorporate ES software into their curricula (Seethamraju, 2004). Even though about 400 universities worldwide have incorporated SAP in their curriculum (Hawking et al., 2004), only a few universities are considered active. As suggested by Antonucci et al. (2004), many universities are in varying stages of ES education deployment. As explained, they differ in terms of the extent of multidisciplinary or cross-functional perspective and process and interenterprise focus to their curriculum design and delivery.


software vendors and university Alliance Programs On the market side, several major ES software vendors such as SAP, Oracle, JD Edwards, and PeopleSoft (last two now part of Oracle) developed university alliance programs in the late 1990s to assist the universities to incorporate ES software into their curricula (Rosemann & Watson, 2002). Though it started actively in Europe in 1990s, it expanded later into the U.S. and the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia and New Zealand. Recently Microsoft also entered the market by developing academic alliances with universities in deploying their ES products such as Great Plains, Axapta, Solomon, and so forth. Under these alliance programs, vendors will provide software, a training database, along with associated documentation and training to the universities generally free of cost or for a very low fee (Watson & Schneider, 1999). The universities, on their part, will invest in hardware; develop curriculum and course materials; and incorporate the software into their programs. SAP and Microsoft have also provided facilities and support for the development of curriculum and dissemination of those materials across the world through their curriculum congress and conferences. Integrating ES software into curriculum is resource intensive and is challenging for both the faculty members as well as students (Bradford et al., 2003; Fedorowicz et al., 2004; Peslak, 2005; Seethamraju, 2004).

Application hosting: A Model to Access es software Considering the difficulties in upgrading software versions and training every year, increasing demand on hardware for the newer versions of ES software and their advanced products, and the higher dollar investments required for replacing obsolete hardware and technology, it is a challenge for a single university to make a business case and obtain adequate funding support in the

current tight budgetary environment (Peslak, 2005). Some universities decided to have their own ES installations while others have chosen to access the software through common application hosting centres. An application hosting centre was established at the Queensland University of Technology in 1999 in Australia, with some support from SAP and other technology hardware/software vendors. The objective was to give access to the SAP R/3 software initially and to its several extension products on supply chain management, business intelligence, customer relationship management, and so forth to various other universities in the Asia-Pacific region for a fixed annual fee. At present it offers these services to about six universities in Australia and New Zealand.

MethodologY And obJectIves Even though there are several studies explaining the conceptual basis and strategies for deployment and integration of ES into the curricula and several models of incorporating ES software into the business and computer science curricula, not much is known about the effectiveness of these different models and their impact on student learning. The main aim of the following two studies was to evaluate the effectiveness of those strategies/models of integrating ES software (SAP R/3) into business curriculum and their influence on the pedagogy and the content. The objective was to analyse the design and instructional strategies employed in the delivery of these courses and provide guidance to other business schools to achieve effective integration. Based on the information collected through a survey of graduates in the first study, and current students in the second study, the two curriculum design and delivery models explained previously were evaluated and the implications were discussed. The first study was conducted in 20012002 and evaluated the effectiveness of a full-fledged


master of business course in ERP that incorporates SAP R/3. The second study was conducted in 2004 based on a model that incorporates SAP R/3 into a subject at the postgraduate level. Similar to other evaluations in the higher education context, a questionnaire approach was considered appropriate and relevant in view of its low cost of administration, confidentiality, and relatively easier way to administer and analyse (Burns, 2002) in both the studies. The following section explains the background and features of these two different curriculum designs and delivery models and the research methodology employed.

Model 1: A busIness course In erP IncorPorAtIng sAP r/3 course objectives and expectations A full-fledged Master of Business course in ERP incorporating SAP R/3, was designed by the author in 1998. Eight subjects that incorporate a majority of the SAP R/3 modules were designed in the course. It includes application modules in sales and distribution, production, materials management, accounting, customer service, implementation, and technology-related issues such as ABAP programming and system administration. Graduates of this course were expected to be able to assist the organisations in implementing and configuring the ES software to suit specific requirements, assist in the re-engineering of business processes for improvement and in the maintenance and upgrade of the system. These graduates were not expected to be technical (IT) personnel and would not have the capability to design and administer the system; their expertise, rather, would be confined to the implementation, configuration, running, and ongoing maintenance of the system in several application areas. These graduates could also be suitable to assist SMEs and

to be able to affordably implement and maintain integrated ES solutions in their operations.

Features of curriculum design and delivery Adopting an “interactive design model” (Cunningham et al., 1997), the program structure of this course envisaged three tiers of knowledge with some flexibility for students to acquire additional theoretical inputs from IT and/or business subjects. The first level was comprised of three subjects and provided foundational knowledge covering issues such as basic concepts of IT; networks; databases and enterprise computing; re-engineering and process redesign in the context of ES; and acquisition, selection, and implementation of ES. The second tier comprises five subjects and imparts theoretical knowledge and practical software skills about major business processes and management systems that include procurement; customer order management; financial management; controlling; HR management; production planning and control; and quality management modules of the software. The third tier is comprised of three subjects focusing on strategic technology, enterprise performance management, and implementation issues and covers modules such as ABAP programming, administration of ES software, configuration/implementation of ES, and valuebased management/solution manager. Each subject included in the course was expected not only to teach the relevant conceptual frameworks and tools, but also develop abilities to extend knowledge through research and independent investigation. In addition, to these subjects, an action learning project was designed to work as a capstone for the entire course. This action learning project is an industry-based project that involves redesigning processes and/or implementing/ maintaining parts of ES in business organisations and heavily involves industry partners.


In addition to the class room lectures in a computer laboratory environment, some handson practical work on the software, case studies, and guest lectures from the practitioners were included in the delivery. Course materials suitable for university level teaching balancing the theoretical concepts, and practical software skills were developed by the academics involved in the course and used, though this proved to be a challenge.

data collection Recognising the immense importance of graduate feedback for making improvements in the program design and delivery and the general push in universities towards customer-focused educational programs; graduates were considered subjects in this study. With the objective of bringing improvements to the course design and delivery, it was decided to evaluate the following aspects: curriculum design, delivery, teaching performance, assessment, university resources, SAP R/3 system facility, projects, placement, and other facilities. There were no separate evaluations of particular subjects, instead, graduate students were asked to evaluate the entire program and provide feedback. The questionnaire consisted of a series of statements with respect to several aspects of course design, delivery, and resources, which sought the perception of graduates. For example, questions such as coverage of SAP modules, concepts of business processes, involvement of external partners, and clarity of expectations were included in the course design, while questions on the structure of lectures, feedback on assessment, availability of individual help, knowledge of academic staff, and so forth were included in the delivery part as well as some statements that refer to the administration and resources. In addition, respondents were asked to self-assess the knowledge gained in the course with reference to aspects such as business process knowledge, business terminology, SAP

software skills, and so forth. On a Likert scale of 1 to 5 (1 = very poor, 2 = poor; 3 = good, 4 = very good and 5 = excellent), the respondents were asked to give their perceptions and rate the knowledge gained in the course. Graduates were contacted through e-mail and asked to fill in the questionnaire on the Web or post a hard copy of the filled-in questionnaire to the investigator. From the 140 potential respondents contacted 104 graduates responded to the survey. The data were entered into the SPSS files for analysis.

data Analysis and results About 53% of the graduates were international students coming from various countries such as China, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Norway, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. More than 70% of the respondents had some previous working experience. More than 50% of the graduates believed that this course helped them in getting employment or in achieving career progress. The overall mean ratings given by the respondents in the study are summarised in Tables 2 and 3 for various dimensions and knowledge factors.

Model 2: A busIness unIt IncorPorAtIng sAP r/3 objectives and Features of curriculum design and delivery The objective of incorporating SAP R/3 into one subject is to develop an understanding of the concepts of business processes and their integration and to impart a cross-functional perspective. Drawing on the knowledge gained from the sales/marketing, accounting, logistics, and HR disciplines, this unit provides a multidisciplinary view of the enterprise and demonstrates benefits of process and information integration. Since SAP R/3 is complex software, the focus in this


Table 2. Perception of the course design and delivery Dimensions/factors

Overall Mean (1=Poor, 5= Excellent)

Curriculum design

2.88

Course delivery

3.36

Resources and support

2.68

Overall satisfaction with the program

3.13

Table 3. Knowledge and skills gained in the course Dimensions/factors SAP Software skills—Production module

3.26

SAP Software skills—Materials management

3.56

SAP Software skills—Sales and distribution

3.35

SAP Software skills—Accounting/finance

2.89

SAP Software skills—Human resources

3.80

SAP technical skills

2.47

Implementation and configuration knowledge

2.84

Business process knowledge

3.92

Generic skills

2.82

Overall knowledge/skills gained

3.13

unit is on process cycles, transactions, master data, and limited configuration. As the objective is to demonstrate cross-functional integration concepts, only five SAP R/3 modules, namely sales and distribution, procurement, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and general ledger are covered in the course. The curriculum incorporates a variety of teaching methods that includes case studies, live demonstrations, guest lectures, and group work and caters to individual learning needs (Noguera & Watson, 2001). The unit is taught in a computer laboratory environment where access to the system is readily available for demonstrating concepts and carrying out exercises. In addition to the theory-based examinations, this unit has a group project, case studies analysis, and exercises on the software. These assessment tasks are designed to

Overall Mean (1=Poor, 5= Excellent)

test the theoretical understanding, ability to apply the concepts and principles to practice, and SAP R/3 software specialist technical skills. The group project requires students to design and configure a simple workable integrated ES using SAP R/3 and demonstrate the integration of processes and information across different functions.

data collection Respondents in this study were students who were currently enrolled in this unit. Out of the 84 students who participated in the study, 35% of the students came from the School of Information Technology/Computer Science. About 55% of them had previous business experience and 50% of them were international students.


A questionnaire was employed as the primary method of data collection. The items in the questionnaire were designed based on the objectives of this course, learning outcomes expected from this unit, subject content, and necessary skills and knowledge to be acquired in this unit. This questionnaire consisted of statements that measured students’ perception of the design, delivery and resource administration of the unit, using a Likert scale of 1 to 5 (1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree). For example, several statements were included that seek students’ perception on issues such as coverage of SAP modules, integrative nature of the design, structure, sequence of the topics, discussion of theoretical issues, relationship of ES with other solutions, computer laboratory usage in class, quality of SAP R/3 manuals, and so forth. Further students were asked to make a selfassessment of their knowledge on specific topics/dimensions and the competence gained during the course. These statements related to specific knowledge related issues and concepts discussed in the curriculum that relate to generic business processes, business terminology, implementation of ES, managerial and interface issues, and technical software skills. They were asked to rate their knowledge on a Likert scale of 1 to 5 (1 = very low to 5 = very high) before enrolling in the unit and after completing the unit (week 1 and week 13 of the semester in the class). The difference between these ratings was considered the perceived gain in the knowledge.

data Analysis and results In addition to the data collected using a questionnaire survey, regular qualitative feedback provided by the students throughout the semester by e-mails, comments in the online discussion forum, and the formal feedback given by student representatives in the student-staff meeting organised by the School were taken into consideration in the analysis and

discussion. Tables 4 and 5 summarise the perception of course design and delivery. The level of perceived knowledge gain is summarised with reference to two dimensions: (1) theoretical knowledge and (2) SAP software skills.

lIMItAtIons oF the studIes The approach adopted and the questionnaire methods employed in these studies may not be the best, but, given the circumstances, these approaches traditionally serve better in obtaining feedback from the students and/or graduates. The value of their feedback, however, depends upon the questions asked. In order to ensure that the right questions were asked, several instruments used in the past by universities, literature on curriculum design, and a focus group discussion were used to develop the questionnaires. Since the studies were designed and managed by the author, the findings may have some inherent bias. While it may to some extent limit the generalisability of the findings, the author believes that the findings will make a positive contribution to knowledge on the effectiveness of ES education in particular and its integration with business curriculum in general. In addition, general limitations of a typical questionnaire survey (Burns, 2002) and self-assessment of students’ knowledge would also apply to these studies. Measuring the effectiveness of any university course is complex, especially when the students have just completed the course and have not yet gone into industry as products of the university system and put their skills and knowledge to use. The performance of graduates in the workplace setting can be best evaluated by their employers, and a feedback from employers on the program would be more useful to judge the effectiveness of this program. Finally, it is important to note that there are other dimensions that influence the effectiveness of these programs. They include: quality of


Table 4. Perception of the course design and delivery Dimensions of teaching effectiveness

Mean

Curriculum design

3.13

Delivery

3.24

Resources

3.27

Overall satisfaction with the course (1 = poor to 5 = excellent) – global measure

3.81

Table 5. Perceived knowledge gain Avg. level of knowledge gain

Business process knowledge

ES Management knowledge

ES implementation knowledge

Overall

Below 1.01

5%

7%

12%

5%

4%

1.01 to 2.00

26%

30%

27%

14%

26%

2.01 to 3.00

38%

45%

36%

35%

45%

3.01 to 4.00

22%

14%

20%

25%

20%

Above 4.00

9%

4%

5%

21%

5%

Total

100

100%

100%

100%

100%

student recruits that a university could attract to this course, employment opportunities, changes in the technology, versions, and so forth that are beyond the control of a university.

dIscussIon oF results/ exPerIences Integration of ES software products into the business school curriculum is challenging and resource intensive. Irrespective of the model adopted by the universities, integrating such products will have significant impact on the pedagogy, content, resources, and relevance of the skills and knowledge gained by the students, and on the academic staff, as demonstrated in the studies.

curriculum design and delivery Curriculum design is considered the strength of these courses. Confirming this notion, respondents rated it to be good in both the studies and reinforced

0

SAP skills

the universities’ belief about these programs. Students generally sought more information about the second generation ES products on supply chain management, customer relationship management, and e-commerce in both the programs. It is always challenging to determine the most effective combination of theoretical topics and practical hands-on components with appropriate breadth and depth in each subject. On the course delivery side, while delivery of lectures and assessment components such as SAP-based assignment and group project and discussion of theoretical issues were rated relatively low, case studies used in the course, knowledge of academic staff, unit coordination, and discussion of issues relevant to industry and practice were rated relatively high. Course delivery is a challenging issue, especially, when complex software such as SAP R/3 system needs to be taught along with the theoretical concepts of the processes. In addition, it also depends upon various aspects of teaching such as knowledge of academic staff (both process and software); structure and sequence of the topics;


design of and feedback on specific assessment tasks; communications; tutorial sessions and help on the system; availability of help and guidance; reliable access to the system; and quality of course materials. In spite of good overall rating for the course delivery, there were still some significant differences between students with some experience and those with no experience. Generally students with no experience were less satisfied than the students with experience. On issues such as availability of individual help, actual delivery of lectures, help during tutorials, and access to academic staff there were no differences and generally the respondents were more than “satisfied.” There was, however, some dissatisfaction expressed about the academic staff on issues such as feedback on assessment tasks, structure of the lecture and topics, and general lack of concern for the learning needs of students. It was observed in qualitative comments that the academic staff were not fully equipped to impart knowledge of SAP configuration. This generally reflects the limitations in the delivery of these software-based courses in universities. Inability of the academic staff to offer opportunities to individual students for developing specific in-depth knowledge in a particular module was by far the biggest issue raised by the respondents in both the studies. While the students saw the potential benefits of real-world application through hands-on work and case studies, they felt that the depth of coverage in general was inadequate, particularly the SAP configuration part. In the second study, the course attempted to take the students through four modules in SAP R/3 focusing more on the integration of end-toend business processes across the enterprise and from a business perspective. Therefore, the curriculum design in the second study that pertains to just one subject focused more on the breadth rather than on the depth of the software, keeping in view its objectives and its positioning within the business school and semester time frames. It focused more on the business transactions rather

than on customising the technical aspects of the software.

business Process Perspective and Integrated view Students and graduates generally appreciated the way the business processes were introduced and discussed in both the studies and reported improvement in the integrated view of the business. In addition, they were able to understand the complex inter-relationships between different processes and functions and appreciate the significance and impact of integrated IS on business operations. In the first study this was very elaborate, with each process discussed in the relevant subject covering all the major processes. In the second study, however, customer order management process starting from procurement to account receivables was discussed through the demonstration of the transaction cycles in procurement, account payable, sales and distribution, accounts receivable, and general ledger modules. In both the programs, cross-functional integration and the effects of integrating information and processes across the organisation were demonstrated. These issues were reinforced by hands-on activities and exercises in both the studies and helped the students to develop a cross-disciplinary view of the business.

differences between different cohorts of students The degree of this learning effectiveness and perception of students’ satisfaction with the courses, however, was not uniform and varied depending upon the previous experience of the students, basic knowledge of business processes, and their student status. Though about 50% of the respondents in both the studies had work experience, both courses do not require students to possess any experience. In the first study, student recruits were graduates in any discipline and no experience


was a requirement. The second course assumes that the students acquire the basic knowledge of business processes, IS, data/information flows from the prerequisite course in business IS or its equivalent. In the first study, some significant differences were noticed between local students who had business/IT experience and international students who did not have any experience. For example, on the issue of covering concepts of business processes, design of assessment tasks, clarity of course content and expectations, coverage of SAP modules, and teaching of computing basics students with no business experience (mostly international students) were far less satisfied than those with previous business experience (mostly local students). The lack of functional experience of the majority of international students and differences in the expectations of the international students from the course, were some of the factors that contributed to this perception. Some respondents in the second study reported a failure to understand the business process perspective and viewed the entire experience as routine data entry exercises. Thus, business experience and previous knowledge of business processes played an important differentiating role in both the studies.

challenging the Perception of routine data entry Even though about 40% of the students had studied a minimum of four IS&T-related subjects, the perception of some of the students that they are performing some simple data entry activities threw up a challenge to the academic staff and course coordinators. Subjective comments by the students pointed towards the inadequate course materials that deal with cross-functional and process-related issues, insufficient coverage in the class room, and the inability of students to understand the information flows behind the transactions. This failure, even if it involves less than 20% of the students, is a problem when the

objective of these courses was to develop a business process perspective and an integrated view of business. While there are no immediate solutions to this problem, an attempt is made by the coordinators/ academic staff to improve students’ learning by offering extra material on business processes; additional case studies to work at home; by explicitly stating the basic process and business knowledge underpinning this course at the beginning of the semester; and by redesigning the core subjects. In addition to this, better alignment of course needs with the prerequisite course and/or recruitment of students is also being tried. By having frequent discussions with academics offering the core prerequisite subjects and regular reviews of the courses, fine tuning the course sequence and relative emphasis on each of the topics were some of the strategies implemented. While it is not possible to separate student cohorts based on their previous experience and business knowledge, the administration sometimes attempted to separate part-time students from the full-time cohorts of students (with no business experience) and deliver the course differently to these two groups. Considering the demands on students’ time and attention, inevitable variation of the quality of student recruits from year to year, variation in the basic degrees (from business to engineering to education to psychology) in the first program, significant proportion of enrolled students with no previous business experience/knowledge, insufficient students’ motivation to learn on their own, ever increasing content in each of the courses, and varying styles of teaching and differing relative emphasis by academic staff, these attempts so far, are not yet completely successful.

sAP software skills A significantly higher level of perceived gain in SAP software skills than in other dimensions


of knowledge was observed in both the studies. In general, software-based courses stimulate learning because of their hands-on nature, opportunities they present to participate actively in the learning-by-doing in the class, and by facilitating self-directed learning through help facilities and online tutorials. In addition to these, if the software products such as SAP expose students to real-world business contexts, transactions and business processes, and potentially equip students with employable skills students’ interest will be further stimulated, enhancing learning effectiveness. Confirming this observation, a large majority of students reported satisfaction with this part of the course in both the studies and reported improvement in their integrated view of the business enterprise.

theoretical Knowledge In the second study, the perceived knowledge gain on dimensions that deal with the implementation and management of ES though significant, was relatively low on issues that deal with the ES interface and business process knowledge. Even though a traditional teaching and learning model with case studies was used in teaching all these topics, the perceived knowledge gain was different. Closer scrutiny of the course content, case studies and subjective comments by the students revealed that the case studies employed in this course predominantly dealt with the implementation and management issues. This together with the experience of the academics in ES implementations and not on managing the ES interface, made it easy for students to understand the implementation better than interface. The ES interface with other applications such as CRM, SCM, and EC can still be considered to be in a formative stage, especially in Australia, and no case studies were available that deal with those issues in the wider curriculum world. Considering that these issues were not the main focus of the course and that each of the topics were very large,

it is logical to expect students not to feel confident on these issues. While the graduates in the first study had reported significant knowledge gain in the area of business processes and application modules, the perceived gain for technical skills such as ABAP, configuration and reporting was poor. For example, respondents in the first study commented that the discussion of theoretical framework for each subject; knowledge of other ES software (other than SAP R/3); basic concepts of data communications; database and systems analysis; and knowledge of technology, configuration, and administration of the system were not adequately covered in the course. While the ES software component of the course was taught in the computer laboratory environment with hands-on exercises, online help, tutorial support, and an ES software manual, the rest of the topics such as business processes, ES concepts, implementation, management, and interface of ES were taught in a traditional lecture mode interspersed with case studies. Therefore, it is not surprising that the perceived gain was significantly higher in SAP software skills and knowledge than on theoretical issues. These significantly higher perceived gains in SAP skills reinforce the central role played by the ES software in the programs whether it is a full masters program or just a single subject on ES.

resources and Academic Administration From the resource management and academic administration point of view, the significant cost of resources required to teach and administer these courses, particularly when the number of courses/subjects and number of students enrolled in these software-based courses are less, is a major challenge. Considering the high cost of accessing ES software products either from application hosting centres or from in-house installation, the cost per student is significantly high in these


courses. Failure to provide adequate support to the program would neutralise the positive perceptions of the curriculum design and delivery and the pedagogical value of incorporating ES software into the curriculum. Availability of the SAP R/3 system for practice and teaching in the computer laboratories and from home through the Internet, speed and reliability of the access, inadequacy of the SAP training system for teaching purposes, academic staff’s limited access for fixing system configuration problems, inadequacy of course materials such as case studies, insufficient support and help from industry, and lack of advanced skills to academic staff to fix the configuration and system problems were some of the problems reported in the studies. For example, course materials used were not very developed and comprehensive and did not provide enough information for students to learn on their own. Many of these course materials were edited versions of the ES software training manuals and are still not made suitable for university teaching. In print media also, not many reference books and textbooks were available in the university libraries. Though there have been recent improvements, students are still not completely satisfied with these resources, particularly when they compare with other traditional subjects/courses. With new versions of ES software coming out every year, the professional books available in the market are expensive and unsuitable and could soon become obsolete. Most of these problems could be solved with additional resources such as SAP consultants, installation and maintenance of the system in-house, regular incentives and time off to academic staff for retraining, additional tutorial, and teaching assistance. These solutions are feasible and resolve most of the problems, but they are expensive and universities in the present circumstances of funding caps are not prepared to commit additional financial resources.

competence and sustained Interest of Academic staff One of the fundamental requirements for the continuous delivery of the programs that include industry-best practice software products is the competence of academic staff and sustained interest. Attracting more academic staff members into teaching these kinds of courses is another challenge for the administration. Unlike other courses in IS that have traditional teaching and learning models, courses that involve extensive use of complex business software products, though exciting, would always put pressure on academic efforts. It requires academics to put in additional efforts for maintenance of the system and continuously deal with unique individual student problems of learning. Though the training is provided free of cost by software vendors such as SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft, not many academics are prepared to invest their time for software training on a regular basis, in addition to their research and academic responsibilities. Therefore, the depth and range of academic expertise available for teaching in these programs is generally limited. The need to continuously update their software knowledge with every change in the version through training and practice is placing enormous demands on academics’ time and the interest appears to be waning. The complexity of the software, coupled with the inadequate experience of academics in the configuration and implementation of the software, is affecting the overall experience and learning effectiveness of students. In both these studies, schools had provided additional teaching/tutorial assistance to the academic staff for teaching and administration. While this is a temporary solution to the ongoing problem, business schools/ universities must develop strategies and new


academic workload models to deal with these challenges and to encourage academic staff to adopt best practice software products into their curriculum and align their curriculum with industry requirements and changing workplace needs.

summary of Findings and Implications From the academic perspective, it is always challenging to continuously update, expand, and improve one’s software skills, and to balance the time allocated to theoretical issues and hands-on components of the course within the time frames and pressures of university teaching and research, and balance the varying needs of students from different backgrounds (technical and business backgrounds, no business background, local, international, etc.). This is particularly significant in business IS courses that are considered to be multidisciplinary and will have students from different disciplines and backgrounds. For example, the learning needs of students from technical backgrounds (computer science, IT, engineering) are found to be different from those with business background/experience (commerce/business students), with technical groups demanding more technical content, while business groups demand more business content. Similarly, students with no business experience struggled to understand the business and process terminology and concepts, and ES management and interface issues. It is important to manage student expectations in terms of the depth and breadth in these cases considering varied student mix and other constraints on recruitment and curriculum design. Instead of designing more separate units that exclusively incorporate ES software applications and technical aspects, the business school in the second study is attempting to incorporate some relevant components/aspects of the ES software into other units/subjects. For example, the HR component of the ES software is now being

incorporated into the HR information strategy and systems subject with an objective of demonstrating the transactions and process cycles that are closed to the real world. Similar attempts are necessary in other mainstream subjects that deal with management accounting, cost accounting, logistics management, and marketing management to move them closer to the industry. Such attempts will not only make the learning effective, bringing the real world to the class room, but also equip students with valuable and readily deployable skills to align with the contemporary needs of the workplace. It is difficult to cover exhaustively the basic process knowledge required as well as software skills in a particular unit, given the constraints of time and limitation of the academic staff’s competence on the software. Moreover, the courses were not designed to provide SAP training similar to a training institution. Basic introductory knowledge of the appropriate business processes and software skills were imparted in the course and students were required to develop further on their own and/or by taking other electives that impart deeper knowledge and skills on process concepts and management issues. It is important to note that both these programs were business courses and designed with an emphasis on business processes and cross-functional integration rather than on pure technical skills typically offered in computer science/IT courses or subjects. Therefore, it is expected that they will be less competent in technical areas. The ability to access ES software from home, availability of online tutorial help throughout the semester, and the online discussions and communications on the blackboard appear to have significantly enhanced their learning experience and assisted in the acquisition of software skills. Based on significant level of perceived knowledge gain in a majority of the dimensions and good satisfaction rating with reference to various aspects of teaching and learning (design, delivery and resources), and the strong correlation of the


perceived knowledge gain with the academic performance of students, these attempts at integrating the ES software into the business curriculum can be concluded as a reasonable success. Expansion of the curriculum to enhance the depth of the SAP skills; more guest lectures to bring real-world experiences into the classroom; integrated projects that truly test the conceptual as well as technical (software) understanding and skills of students; more case studies that deal with ES interface and post-implementation issues; better alignment of this course curriculum with other prerequisite courses; and improvement in the knowledge of academic staff and their access to students are some of the potential improvements emerging from these studies. With ES well embedded in most of the large organisations today, the emphasis could possibly be shifted towards the interface and post-implementation issues rather than implementation issues and basic business process issues. With more and more business courses in marketing, accounting, logistics, and HR disciplines emphasising the business process perspective, it is possible that the students in the future will have a sound understanding of the integrated view of business in time. This will allow the administrators of these courses to focus more on post-implementation and interface issues.

conclusIon University students in business schools often see narrowly functional teaching, a large bureaucracy with unchanged curricula over years, limited evaluation processes that are not relevant to their student days or work lives, and overtly theoretical concepts with no discernable link to practice. Changing a functional perspective embedded in the discipline-focused teaching in business schools and imparting an integrated view of business and business-process orientation is easier said than done. The business-process orientation and

cross-functional integration embedded together with the latest user-friendly technologies in the design of ES software products will offer significant opportunities to business schools to bring real world business transactions and a multidisciplinary integrated view of business to the class room. Considering the complexity of the software; the high cost of managing resources and access to deliver such courses; and the varied mix of students incorporating ES software products and/or any other industry best practice products into business curricula is challenging and resource intensive. Though support from the major software vendors in terms of training, free software, and application hosting have eased the burden on universities, the very complexity of the software and the ever-changing versions and expanding products are making it difficult for universities to cope. In addition, inadequate support and encouragement to academic staff for designing/redesigning innovative curricula that are aligned to industry requirements and future workplace needs is proving to be challenging, and interest among academic staff appears to be waning. A move by a group of universities to share the curriculum materials with each other and, increased awareness and recognition of technology-based, skill-oriented courses by the senior management in university business schools and accreditation bodies such as AACSB are making course administration relatively less challenging. Continuously evaluating the effectiveness of the design and delivery of such courses and improving them in line with the changes in business needs and technologies is critical in keeping IS education in line with the changing world, if not ahead of it. Like any other business enterprises, universities also face perishable opportunities for delivering requisite skills and knowledge to students which align with contemporary and future workplace needs and industry requirements. If the universities fail to learn and incorporate these requirements in their curricula effectively, their business schools will


remain in the past along with their students, while the business world moves on.

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Chapter V

Globalising Software Development in the Local Classroom Ita Richardson University of Limerick, Ireland Sarah Moore University of Limerick, Ireland Alan Malone Siemens Corporate Research, USA Valentine Casey University of Limerick, Ireland Dolores Zage Ball State University, USA

Abstract In the dynamic global economy that exists today the operation and structure of organisations have had to adapt to the reality of the information revolution which has taken place. This has been the case within the software industry where global software development (GSD) has become a popular strategy and software development has become a globally sourced commodity. Given the requirement for graduates to operate in this type of environment, we as educators considered how our teaching methods could be developed and enhanced to instil GSD competencies within our graduates. We provided students with the opportunity to take part in a learning experience that transcended geographical and institutional boundaries, giving them first-hand experience of working within globally distributed software teams. Two separate projects were undertaken. One was with Siemens Corporate Research which was part of a larger project. The focus of this project was the shadowing of the development of an actual geographically distributed software product. The second project was carried out in collaboration with Ball State Copyright © 2008, IGI Global, distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Globalising Software Development in the Local Classroom

University, and the focus of this endeavour was virtual team software testing. Extensive qualitative research was undertaken on the data provided by the students. We identified three specific forms of learning which had taken place: (1) pedagogical, (2) pragmatic, and (3) the achievement of specific globally distributed competencies. Our findings would confirm that mimicking real-work settings creates the possibility of giving rise to the range of learning benefits that are associated with truly problem-based learning environments.

IntroductIon This chapter explores the reality of the software industry today, which is becoming more virtual and globally distributed in its methods of operation. It discusses the educational implications of these strategies and how they impact graduates. It looks at what measures can be taken to prepare students to operate in this dynamic and virtual environment. It outlines two projects in which masters students participated in that transcended geographical and institutional boundaries. The projects and the students’ experiences were researched and analysed. The results, which are presented here, demonstrate the benefits associated with utilising a hands-on, truly problembased learning environment.

globAl soFtWAre develoPMent GSD has given rise to the implementation of new types of development teams and project structures within organisations. In many software development organisations, teams are no longer local, but operate within a virtual team environment. As a result they are fundamentally different in their structure and modus operandi to those of a single site team. For educationalists, the emergence of new team and organisational structures require that graduates from software engineering courses be made familiar with these new methods of operation.

The number of organisations employing virtual,1 team-based globally distributed software development strategies continues to increase (Powell, Piccoli, & Ives, 2004). GSD in essence allows distributed teams to split up the tasks of a project and distribute them as separate jobs (Grinter. Herbsleb, & Perry, 1999). This allows development decisions about each project task to be made with a degree of independence (Herbsleb & Grinter, 1999). However, managing this type of team is not a straightforward endeavour. Some of the difficulties encountered include the problems of understanding requirements and the testing of systems (Toaff, 2002). These difficulties are compounded by cultural and language differences, lack of communication, distance from the customer, different process maturity levels, testing tools, standards, technical ability, and experience. These issues are further augmented by the lack of “trust-building” communication techniques. Trust is important for software development teams to work together successfully, and it is harder to establish trust within virtual teams than it is with local teams (Robey, Khoo, & Powers, 2000), rising from the fact that faceto-face communication methods that can build trust are generally not present in a distributed team (Pyysiainen, 2003). Equally, established trust gained from co-located experiences can deteriorate over time in a distributed setting (Casey, 2007). To address these substantial issues, project management must change from the traditional to the virtual for a GSD strategy to be successfully implemented.


Making gsd Work As the GSD team is dispersed across geographical locations, it operates differently to the co-located team. Regardless of the strategy implemented, distance is responsible for the introduction of barriers and complexity. These directly impact on the management and operation of the GSD team. However, other related factors also come into play. Coordination, visibility, communication, and cooperation are all negatively impacted by distance, and if their impact is not identified and correctly managed, they can produce further barriers and complexity within a project (see Figure 1). Effective coordination is a key element in the success of a geographically distributed software development project. This includes undertaking realistic project planning and risk evaluation given the specific requirements of the GSD environment. Work must be partitioned between sites based on the technical needs of the project and on the capabilities and experience of the team members at different geographical locations. Furthermore, there is a requirement for the effective utilisation of technology across sites and between team members. Procedures should be put in place to facilitate and monitor the level of cooperation

between team members in all locations. These should also allow for the identification and addressing of problems if and when they arise. Visibility is another important factor in the successful operation of the global team. It is important for management to ensure that roles and responsibilities are clearly articulated. Each team member should be informed of work product requirements and due dates. This requires effective reporting schedules and a visible reporting strategy. There is a requirement for continuous visibility into the team’s activities and operation at all locations. Team members should also be aware of the management structure within the team across all sites. Communication issues should not be allowed to become a barrier to the successful operation of a distributed software development team. This necessitates the development and implementation of a common vocabulary for all aspects of the project. Effective communication tools, which are utilised and understood by all team members, should be provided. Communication between remote team members is normally electronic and asynchronous in nature with limited opportunities for synchronous contact, depending on the time zone difference between locations. The

Figure 1. Factors in virtual development (Source: Casey, 2007)


global team normally operates in a multicultural and multilingual environment, which may cross organisational boundaries (DeSanctis, Staudenmayer, & Wong, 1999). Cooperation within global teams is essential to achieve a successful implementation of a GSD strategy. In distributed teams there are limited opportunities for one-to-one contact between remote colleagues. Project managers need to consider how team relationships can best be developed and fostered. The specific implications of cultural diversity on the project operation must be ascertained, monitored, and addressed. All team members should be given cultural training. The identification of a relevant subject matter expert (SME) is important, and team members should be informed who this is. Once identified the SME must be willing and able to provide the required support to local and remote colleagues.

educAtIng the grAduAte One of our tasks as software engineering educators is to produce graduates for the software market, and with the increase in GSD worldwide, it is incumbent on us as educators to provide these graduates with a background that allows them to work in the global environment.

To operate in the global environment students need to be aware of the factors involved in GSD. Through research carried out by the authors (Casey, 2007; Casey & Richardson, 2005), specific competencies that are needed have been identified. From the perspective of the graduate, these can be broadly divided into two categories: (1) competencies required by both the software developer and manager and (2) those required more significantly by the software development manager (see Table 1).

competencies required by the software developer and software Manager When working in the global environment, communication and language takes on greater importance than when working in a local team. English has become the international business language and is extensively used in GSD teams. However, many co-workers will not have English as their first language, therefore, misunderstandings can occur, as there may be different dialects of English and/or a number of regional accents in use (Kiel, 2003). A further consideration is the use of communication tools which must be done correctly and in such a way that it benefits and not hinders the project. Global teamwork is often

Table 1. Competencies required by the software graduate Software Developer and Manager

Software Development Manager

Communication and language

Visibility and coordination

Use of communication tools

True cost of GSD

Culture

Technology transfer and knowledge management

Temporal issues

Roles, responsibilities, and competencies management

Cooperation

Partitioning of work

Software process

Management of fear and trust

Use of process tools

Motivation

Reporting schedule

“Teamness” Risk management


carried out through asynchronous communication tools like e-mail (Boland & Fitzgerald, 2004). This is not the environment in which graduates or locally experienced software developers are used to working—they need to learn and understand how to use language, communication, and communication tools efficiently and effectively in the global development team. An advantage of having a variety of cultures involved in one team is diversity and bringing diversity together to work toward a common goal can increase the innovation within a project (Ebert & De Neve, 2001). However, those working within global software teams must learn to understand and appreciate cultural diversity. Cultural differences include values, language, approach to authority, concepts of space, regard for material goods, and time keeping (Carmel, 1999; McDonough, Kahn, & Barczak, 2001). Cultural differences, unless understood by all involved, can have a negative impact on the operation of the global team. Those working on GSD teams should also have an appreciation of the temporal issues that may arise. A strategy which has been employed in establishing global teams has been to have team members in two or three time zones around the globe. For individuals working on such teams, this requires them to ensure that their working hours overlap somewhat with their remote colleagues (Casey & Richardson, 2004; McDonough, Kahn, & Barczak, 2001). Furthermore, responses to communications need to be made in a timely manner. Response delays can cause frustration and decreased motivation among team members. These difficulties can be exasperated if the person required is remotely situated (Herbsleb & Grinter, 1999). As mentioned previously, cooperation is required for a global team to be successful. An advantage for GSD is that, given the diversity of global teams, the acquired mix of skill sets and life experiences within a team can result in im-

proved coordination among GSD team members (Ebert & De Neve, 2001). However, geographical distance reduces the level of informal contact that can help build better working relationships, and consequently, support cooperation (Herbsleb, Mockus, Finholt, & Ginter, 2000). In the global environment, and without this level of informal contact, software developers need to develop cooperation between themselves and local and remote team members. They need to be able to modify their locally focused competencies to work successfully in the global environment. With the increase in use, internationally, of software processes and the implementation of models such as the CMMI2sm and ISO15504 among others, software developers are becoming more au fait with the implementation of processes. However, processes in the global environment are typically different to those in the local co-site operation. They need to be set up with global information flow, global reporting, and the effective division of labour in mind. For example, if a wiki3 is being used, project members need to continually keep it updated as they will not have the informal contact which, often in the local situation, allows team members to know what is happening on a project. Process tools can help local teams in managing processes such as configuration management, risk management, and testing. In the global environment, they can ensure that even though team members are not discussing issues on a face-to-face informal basis, processes can be efficiently controlled. Along with the technical use of such tools, team members need to understand the tools’ effectiveness and requirements. As mentioned previously, visibility of project activities is important. Culture has an effect on whether overruns in project tasks are reported. Furthermore, teams may be set up so that the project manager is based in one location only. To ensure visibility and to minimise difficulties arising through differences across global teams,


it is important that regular scheduled reports are made to all team members. These reports should be timely and accurate and submitted by all team members.

competencies required by the software Manager In addition to the competencies required by the software developer, the software manager working in the global environment must be able to ensure that the team for which he/she has responsibility can work effectively. This requires them to bring additional competencies and requirements to the team. They are responsible for ensuring the visibility of, for example, tasks, team members, project structure, and reporting structures across the global team. They are likely to be co-located with some team members and may never meet face to face with all their global team. To coordinate the work of a global team in this environment may cause difficulties if they are not dealt with in an effective manner. Companies are not always aware of the “true cost” of GSD, and indeed there is no “silver bullet” that can provide them with that information. However, it is something about which the software development manager should be aware. Negative influences within a global team are high risk and can cause decreases in productivity. For example, lack of communication can reduce the effectiveness of a project and can occur easily through the misuse of communication tools (Casey & Richardson, 2004). Moving from a local co-site team structure to a global team environment requires technology transfer and knowledge management. The global software development manager has to understand how they can do this effectively. If new project members are being employed at an off-site location (normally global), how can these people be given the same transfer of technology and knowledge as would happen in a local environment where there

are informal discussions and the availability of experts? This needs to be correctly managed with an effective training strategy put in place. The global project manager must be able to decide upon the roles and responsibilities within the project team so that the team can work successfully together. In doing this, they must recognise the variety of competencies that individuals are bringing to the project, and they need to manage these competencies for the project’s benefit. Considering the lack or limited opportunity for informal contact between teams, the impact this has in a geographically dispersed group is extremely important, and the failure to be cognisant of these factors can cause the team’s effectiveness to be reduced (Casey, 2007). Once the project team has been structured, the project manager must be able to partition the work in such a manner that the team’s effectiveness is maximised. In some cases, the partitioning can be based around the software development life cycle, where the team members at each location undertake one element of the life cycle, for example, development or testing, while control is maintained at a central location. Another model, which is becoming increasingly popular, is to set up virtual teams, where team members work as one team even though they are located globally. This is not an easy task for the project manager to undertake (Nidiffer & Dolan, 2005). Within countries, such as Ireland, who no longer are considered a low-cost economy, people who work on project teams can perceive the implementation of GSD as a step in the transfer of their jobs to low-cost economies in Eastern Europe and the Far East. This can, in turn, lead to an element of fear and mistrust among the project team members, which would not exist in a local team. The role of the software development manager is to understand these fears and address them where possible. The objective is to ensure that the team does not become de-motivated about the work they are expected to do. Maintaining a level of motivation is an important task that should not


be overlooked by the manager. This in turn will facilitate the development of “teamness” within the group, which has to be built across communities and geographical locations. It cannot be done in the informal manner in which local teams can gel together, through casual meetings on the corridor, or through more company-based structured activities, for example, starting a sports and social club (Linnane & Richardson, 2006). The GSD manager has to consider all the risks involved in setting up and operating their global software development team. While risk management is an important element within a co-site software process and it is a level three process area of the Capability Maturity Model Integrated (CMMI4sm). The additional risks involved in managing a GSD team are significant and need to be specifically acknowledged and addressed.

Providing gsd competencies to the graduate Given the requirements emerging from GSD, the graduate of the 21st century will not only be required to have competencies that are useful in the local development environment; they must also, for the success of GSD initiatives, demonstrate those other competencies that allow them to operate effectively in the global environment. As educators, we considered how our teaching methods could be developed and enhanced to instil these GSD competencies within the graduate. Our experience has shown that we must be prepared to introduce experiential learning to the student through extending education across international boundaries, cooperating globally between educational institutions and others, thus giving the graduate an educational experience which could not be provided in the local classroom. In the light of these principles the projects described in subsequent sections were undertaken. When introducing an experiential dimension to student learning, the features of the learning environment can become different and ultimately

more beneficial than they might otherwise be. By creating a learning experience that mimics the dynamics, pressures, and puzzles of “real-life” GSD environments, we present a learning context that has the potential of addressing some of the problems that may be associated with more conventional learning modes. In the light of these principles the projects described in the section, Global Software Development in the Classroom, were undertaken.

educAtIonAl obJectIves AssocIAted WIth InterventIon The GSD team structure and process created a problem-based learning environment for students, the benefits of which are well documented, for example, in Savin-Baden (2004) and Barrett (2005). In particular, the benefits of group work in which several students work together to solve a problem or to achieve a task have been evidenced in the educational literature. Joy (2005) has recently shown the particular way in which group working experiences can be beneficial in the context of a computer science curriculum by highlighting learning and experiential outcomes such as the application of knowledge, motivation, advanced cognitive competencies (or deep learning), and self-direction. The importance of ideological development is also relevant in the way that Reynolds (1994) has suggested. It is argued that working on real problems in a group setting can prepare students to become more collaboratively orientated and subsequently more willing to participate in collective effort. By setting up virtual teams for software engineering students, we also argue that it is possible to inject several more specific learning benefits than the ones that have been briefly outlined. By learning from direct and relevant experience, students’ own sense about the plausibility of their learning environment becomes stronger. Levitt and March (1988) and Luo and Peng (1999) are


among many who highlight the importance of real-world experience that is applied in the context of a genuinely and realistically problematic task. Being part of a virtual team in which other pedagogical support is also available can bestow a reflective dimension on learning that can allow students to learn more about themselves through reflection of the ways in which they engaged with the process. Reflective practice in a “safe” environment is a process that can have both psychological and pedagogical benefits. It dismantles defensive reactions to problems and errors and allows participants to examine them in order to enhance understanding and cognitive command of their features. Indeed, defensiveness in many work environments often prohibits the capacity for learning in ways that are damaging to individuals, teams, and their organisations (Tjosvold, Yu, & Hui, 2004). Setting up early professional experiences in which teams can effectively reflect on and analyse their mistakes as well as their successes in a supported learning environment is one of the beneficial features that we hoped would prevail in this particular learning innovation. We hypothesised that this type of innovation would create professional precedents that would make it more likely that participating students would engage professionally in more learningoriented ways. This innovation went beyond just simulating an environment; it allowed students to become contributory members of GSD teams. This could have also created insights about how a sense of responsibility to deliver their part of the task is experienced, and how this sense of responsibility interacts with their learning. These are the kinds of integrated insights that might not otherwise have been possible using other modes of learning. We argue then that the sense of engagement and responsibility was automatically enhanced. These dynamics of learning are ones that have been highlighted as crucial to the creation of self-directed, responsible learners in higher education (e.g., Hwarng, 2001).

These real GSD experiences also have the potential to raise student awareness of the importance of related competencies that they might not otherwise have considered important. Such competencies include those related to communication and global interaction; language and intercultural awareness; and functioning effectively as part of a team (self awareness; creativity; formulation and implementation processes; problem solving; time management; and task completion). By designing the learning experience described in this chapter, we hoped that we would be able to give rise to the learning benefits outlined previously. The following section captures the insights that participating students provided when asked to reflect on their experiences as part of the GSD team to which they had been assigned.

globAl soFtWAre develoPMent In the clAssrooM The University of Limerick (UL) delivers a Master of Science course in software engineering. Participants have previously completed a related undergraduate degree course. To date, one-third of the students are working in software development and are part-time. The remaining students are pursuing the degree in full-time mode—85% of these have no prior industrial experience, having commenced the degree directly after completing their undergraduate studies. When pursuing the MSc degree, students study a variety of modules which include software engineering quality, software engineering requirements, human computer interaction, software design, software development paradigms, software evolution, software engineering system design, and software engineering fundamentals. These modules account for 60% of course credits, and the remaining 40% of course credits are obtained through a final dissertation, encompassing a major study undertaken by the student.


As educationalists, and given the importance and growth of GSD within both multinational and small to medium-sized companies in Ireland, we strive to expose graduates from this course to GSD. We do this in some cases through lecturing on the topic. However, as we aim to maximise the pedagogic experience for students we have implemented two specific GSD projects for the course, where students were given the opportunity to participate in situated GSD projects. One of these projects, Ard na Croise,5 is carried out in conjunction with Siemens Corporate Research, USA and has been running for 2 years. In each year, there has been one team of five people from the MSc class involved. Of these, nine had no prior industrial experience. The other project, Ainm an Eolaithe,6 is a collaborative project with Ball State University, USA and has run during one course, with 12 full-time students participating in UL. Ten of these students had no prior industrial experience. Four of these students also participated in Ard na Croise. In implementing these projects we aimed to equip students with the competencies required for software developers and managers as given in Table 1, while additionally expecting that at least some of the competencies required by software development managers in working with globally dispersed teams will be attained by the participants.

ProJect descrIPtIons Ard na croise with siemens corporate research Siemens Corporate Research, Inc. (SCR) has been conducting research aimed at developing a better understanding of the issues and impact of various practices with respect to GSD. By making this investment SCR hopes to establish itself as a GSD centre of excellence that can assist other Siemens operating companies to cope with the

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unique complexities of conducting GSD. SCR, in conjunction with Harvard Business School, University of Limerick, Carnegie Mellon University, Monmouth University, Technical University of Munich, the Indian Institute of Information Technology Bangalore, University of Toronto, Penn State University, and the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS) in Brazil have set up an experimental geographically distributed development project (GSP) using student teams to study associated issues. The project ran for 2 years, with different students involved in the teams each year within the participating institutions.

organisation of the global studio Project The project simulates a hub-and-spoke model. The hub is the central team at SCR in Princeton orchestrating the effort, and the spokes are the remote teams consisting entirely of participating students. The central team is responsible for project management, requirements, architecture, testing, and integration of the system. The remote teams are responsible for design, development, and unit tests for defined work packages that correspond to code modules or subsystems defined by the central team. Interactions between the central and remote teams are managed by the role of a supplier manager. There is a supplier manager for each remote team and the incumbent of this role is a member of the central team. In the first year of the project the central team was staffed by four members of SCR’s technical staff (part time) and two masters students (full time) working onsite at SCR. The team consisted of several roles: architect, requirements engineer, project manager, supplier manager, and build meister. The build meister handled the system testing, integration, configuration management, and delivery of artefacts from the teams. For the second year of the project, the structure of the central team changed. It was staffed


with four interns working full time on the project along with one member of SCR’s technical staff working part time in a supervisory capacity. Team roles were similar to the first phase but evolved to include an infrastructure manager, quality assurance manager, process manager, integrator, and wiki administrator. The role of a build meister was abolished as it encapsulated several key responsibilities that could be split and assigned to various central team members. Three graduates from the University of Limerick with an MSc in software engineering were central team members in the second year, one of whom became the central team contact for UL. Remote development teams were set up at five universities across the globe in the first year. The teams consisted primarily of masters or graduate students in the field of software engineering. UL, Carnegie Mellon University, Technical University of Munich, and the Indian Institute of Information Technology each had one team while Monmouth University had three teams. In the second year of the project, an additional student team was established in PUCRS in Brazil. Each team member committed a specified number of hours each week on the project, taking the academic commitment within their own university into account. Each team had a direct contact on the central team.

Ard na croise: ul’s Involvement in the global studio Project Participation by the MSc in software engineering students at UL in the Global Studio project has been implemented as part of the MSc dissertation process. Students are expected to research a topic relevant to their degree. Students who chose to participate in the GSP project were expected to become reflective practitioners within the project and use this analysis to compare with their chosen aspect of GSD in the “real world.” For example, dissertations included a comparison of project management in the local versus the global, and

how communication is carried out within global project teams. In each year, five students volunteered to participate in the SCR GSP project. In the first year, none of the students had previous industrial experience and did not know each other prior to commencing the course a few weeks earlier. Each of the students assumed a role within the team—project leader, software architect, technical support, tester, and quality assurance. These roles were decided on by the team members themselves without any input from the supervisor. Internally, within the university, students were given the software and hardware that they required. This was located in a laboratory shared with students studying this course and other postgraduate courses. The UL team was assigned a supplier manager who was based in SCR. All contact for the first 2 months was via Internet or telephone. The supplier manager visited UL at that stage. In the first year, as with all participating teams, the UL teams were engaged in the definition phase of the project. Initial tasks were assigned with the goal of bringing the teams up to speed with the building automation domain. Work breakdown was done considering several factors. The schedule, available weekly student hours, and the geographic proximity of the teams to the central team were all considered when defining the original work breakdown. During the first year, it was decided (as part of the research project) not to allow the UL team to communicate with any other team. Their communication was only with the central team. Work packages were defined and distributed to all of the teams. The initial work packages contained: requirements specification, high level architecture, market intent, specifications, high level project plan, and a description of the tasks to be completed by the team for the first engineering release. In year 2, a new team was formed. One parttime student had significant experience, and he became the project leader of the team. Other roles


assumed by each of the team members were defined by the SCR central team. The UL team was also provided with a space that was private to the project team. The SCR central team contact for UL had been the project leader on the UL team the previous year. Prior to this, no member of the UL project team knew him, and none of them had met him. Furthermore, the restriction on the UL team communicating only with the central team was removed. A wiki, set up by the central team, was continually updated by students and central team members. Otherwise, the project structure was similar to that in year 1.

reports (UL and BSU), the white-box testing scripts, the white-box test cases accompanied by the testing resources, and a summary report. The black-box and white-box test cases were to be recorded in a collaborative testing tool (GATE), which was used by students from both locations. Within GATE, students had access to a wiki where they were free to enter discussions with each other and where they could add information about themselves.

Ainm an eolaithe with ball state university

At UL, all full-time students studying software quality engineering (one module) as part of their MSc in software engineering course were randomly selected to participate in testing teams, which comprised two or three students based at UL. Many of these students did not know each other prior to the course, so in some cases they were working with people they had not met before they attended these classes. However, they had been in the MSc class together for 8 weeks before this project commenced. These teams were then paired, again, at random, with student teams from BSU, thus creating virtual teams. Initially some difficulties arose with the provision of the product to be tested. UL students were given a week-by-week oral update of status and were also given regular updates through the class Web page. This impacted on the start of the initial projected time line for testing outlined perviously. The Irish students testing assignment started 3 weeks later than anticipated, which meant that their training was completed 3 weeks before they had an opportunity to start testing.

As with other aspects of GSD, distributed testing is becoming important to the global software development industry. Researchers from UL and Ball State University (BSU) have been involved in studying management and technical issues involved in the distribution of testing across countries within a multinational company who are based in Ireland, USA, and Malaysia (Casey & Richardson, 2005; Zage, Zage, & Wilburn, 2005). As part of this research project, we set up a collaborative teaching project involving MSc students from both UL and BSU. While we were interested in establishing “what works” and “what does not work” when implementing global testing, a further aim of this project was to provide knowledge and education on GSD to individual students in both locations. The time frame for this joint project began with a week of instruction for the UL students. The projected testing time line of the project was to commence with black-box testing7 (UL) in weeks 2 through 4. During the black-box testing time frame, it was expected that the white-box testers (BSU) would review the actual code, would review the unit testing environment, and prepare test scripts. At the end of the semester each BSU team was expected to submit the combined defect

Ainm an eolaithe: ul’s Involvement in the testing Project

reseArch MethodologY Having instigated and managed both of these projects within the MSc class, both of which required extra collaboration and input from the


university lecturers, we were interested to establish the success or otherwise of both of these global projects. We collected and analysed data throughout the lifetimes of each of the projects described previously. The results presented in this chapter are based exclusively on the analysis of data obtained from UL participants. Each member of the two UL Ard na Croise teams participated in a semistructured interview with one of the authors. These interviews focused on the expectations and experiences of each of the participants. When the interviews were conducted, five students had completed their dissertations, the remaining five had completed 3 months’ involvement in the project. During the Ainm an Eolaithe UL/BSU collaboration, UL students were required to maintain a log book describing their participation. As part of their continuous assessment submission, they were required, in teams of two or three, to write a reflective analysis on the experience of being involved in a GSD testing team. While the educational objectives (outlined later on) were of interest to the researchers, a semistructured, grounded approach was adopted, so that students were facilitated in identifying learning-related issues in their own words and on their own terms. However, students were guided in the provision of responses and insights by a variety of prompts, which, for example, in the interviews that were conducted included questions like: Why did you participate in the project? What were your expectations? Were your expectations fulfilled? What did you learn? What was good? What was bad? What was done well? What was done badly? What should be changed? What should I keep? Would you participate again? These prompts had two functions. Firstly, they were designed to help students to make more sense of their experiences and to integrate those insights into their learning. Secondly, they allow us to capture and disseminate (via this commentary) issues that may be of use to teachers and academics planning similar interventions within their own contexts.

The interview notes, log books, and the reflective analysis was analysed by the researchers. A qualitative content analysis of these sources of data took place in order to identify overarching themes associated with the students’ experiences of this learning intervention. A broad analysis of the frequency of different concepts was conducted based on an interrogation of the available data.

student InsIghts The data gathered from students about their insights and experiences were rich and diverse, expressed mainly in their own words in response to various prompts and delivered as part of the reflective requirements of the programme of study on which they were enrolled. We categorised the feedback, reflections, and ideas that they provided, while also attempting to stay true to the student voices and the priorities that they reported. Throughout this process we maintained awareness of the emphases that we had established as educators. We observed certain insights, focusing on either pedagogical process or GSD requirements. Oftentimes, these observations were so intertwined, that they were essentially inseparable in the eyes of the students themselves. Therefore, this section organises these student insights into categories sequenced in order of the frequency and emphasis with which certain response categories appeared in the data. There is no explicit division between pedagogic and GSD issues. Our analysis of the reflective, qualitative data reveals seven overarching categories of student insight into the learning experiences associated with the GSD project process. These categories can broadly be summarised under the following headings: 1. 2.

The importance and subtleties of communication and timing of contact. Interpersonal awareness and team dynamics.


3.

4.

5.

6. 7.

The movement from incompetence and uncertainty to confidence and command over ambiguous dynamics. Issues associated with energy and emotion: stress, isolation, commitment, morale, satisfaction, and motivation. Awareness of and concern with how students present themselves as individuals and teams, and how they represent their institution Career development advantages. Empowerment, responsibility, and decision making.

Each category is discussed in further detail. This discussion is supported by respondent statements (presented in italics).

Importance and subtleties of communication and timing of contact A content analysis of student insights shows that the issue of communication was the most frequently invoked overarching “insight category.” A variety of subcategories also emerged here which mainly focused on the inherent value, the subtleties, and the timing of communication. Participants frequently referred to the overall importance of having virtual team communication that was regular and positive, while also revealing perceptions that this was difficult to achieve. General comments about communication often revealed how important the participants considered (or came to consider) it to be: Communication would be the big one. Communication can be helped with emails. Phone calls, Wiki’s, instant messenger etc but require effort and participation from distributed teams. The pragmatic issue of timing of communication was seen generally as a problematic aspect of the experience, but also often recognised both

as a realistic and inevitable challenge that needed to be managed. In addition, many of the insights that students provided suggested that “waiting” for responses from the team members in the remote location may have given rise to frustrations and anxieties that affected the group and its work. We were told by SCR to sit tight and wait. Timing can be a problem. If the [local] team finds an error at 8am then it won’t be until the next day that team B will tackle the error, leading to delays. One student made a link between early communication problems and a feeling of ambiguity and noted that addressing this would lend clarity and possibly more momentum to the work that they had been assigned: There should be more phone conferences early in the req phase. This probably would help clear up ambiguity. Another respondent recognised the importance of the proximity of certain types of expertise by saying: The remotely located team may have different knowledge and experience than others and therefore communication is a key player to resolve this issue. Subtleties of communication and the nuances, conflicts, and misinterpretations to which it can often be vulnerable, were also regularly invoked in this response category. Several respondents talked about the importance of face-to-face contact and seemed to suggest that tone and patience are more important when communicating with remote team members. Learning point: Know what to say and what not to say.


Team in US was not as helpful as they could have been. They made us feel bad about it “Where is it?” I like meeting and talking to people. With the teams so dispersed there was no face to face warming of the teams. This led to a slow start in stimulation of the participants. The sense of interdependence between the locations was also invoked: Coordination of effort also came into play after the black-box testing phase as the American teams used our completed tests to form a basis for white box testing. Our performance would obviously have an impact on that. These comments echo with communication competencies that we identified in Educating the Graduate section as essential to facilitate the software developer and manager functioning effectively in the GSD environment. The student teams articulated insights about communication in a global classroom setting, a fact that should equip them to operate more effectively in subsequent GSD work environments.

Interpersonal Awareness and team dynamics Commonly, students’ reflective statements about their experiences as a part of the project, invoked the issue of interpersonal awareness and team dynamics. These statements were coded under this category when they specifically referred to issues about “getting to know” the remote team members or themselves more accurately. They were linked to issues of communication too, but the following statement types were deemed to be sufficiently different and more focused on team dynamics and interpersonal awareness issues to merit their own category:

We got on very well as a team. We did have problems. Some worked better with each other. Some were really pessimistic—could only see the downside of things. I tried as a team leader to see the upside—sometimes seeing the downside can stop a project too—it does stop the whole thing from happening, or stop the momentum but it gives a reality check. I started to understand the importance of group work. I have more of an understanding of different personalities—what we had to deal with—laid back or not. In particular, one of the respondents indicated a need to “get the measure” of people in the remote locations and refers directly to “making up” personalities. [With this project] you never get a sense of what the other guys are like. We have made up a personality for [him] (S8). This suggests the conscious “construction”of individual images along with their own mistrust in their theories about other people. There also seem to emerge “theories” about team functioning. Several comments from respondents suggested that they had generated overall hypotheses about how teams should work, based directly on the experiences that they had with this task: Teams should be more inquisitive. When there are 5 people there are always problems of someone not there. The development of a sense of “teamness” among all members of the virtual team was also highlighted more particularly as problematic through the following insights: At no stage was a sense of teamness developed. In fact at times it felt very much a case of running test cases and hearing nothing back.


The aforementioned statements reflect a rich engagement with the development of insights about team characteristics, and an emerging sense of understanding gained about the strengths of different members of the team. Some of the statements provide evidence of a fine-grained development of knowledge about which team member’s strengths relate to which aspect of the task. In addition, respondents demonsrated the feeling of getting to know different emotional orientations towards the processes in which they were immersed (for example, some people could only see the downside of things). It is difficult to see how such fine-grained knowledge of team dynamics could be achieved without the direct participation that they had experienced, and it is unlikely that the curriculum relating to their programme of study specifies this level of understanding and knowledge of the nuances and complexities of team functioning. The statement provided by respondent S8, reveals something even more complex—that is, a sense of caution and awareness about the assumptions made relating to personalities of people that had not yet been met in person. We have made up a personality for [him] is a statement that may reveal the need for team members to apply characteristics to people they have not yet met, accompanied by a recognition that the assumptions are only provisional and cannot be confirmed from a distance. In terms of interpersonal awareness and insight, such statements demonstrate strong and complex learning of some of the intangible aspects of GSD as a process and a task.

the Movement from Incompetence and Uncertainty to Confidence and command over Ambiguous dynamics There is plenty of evidence among the reflective statements provided in this study that a developing sense of competence and confidence started to emerge as part of the GSD experience.

Statements that signalled a gradual unfolding of knowledge and engagement with the task included the following: We did not know what they meant. As we went through the course more we got to know what they meant. We learned from our mistakes and adapted. It is often said that we learn more from our mistakes than our successes and in that case it has been fair to say that it has been a worthwhile experience. It also seemed clear that part of the journey to competence included encountering an experience of ambiguity and confusion, as revealed by the following kinds of statement: Hard to pin down how code was going to work in a new system. A component was changed so all the work we did before Christmas was wasted. Requirements were not good. We constantly had to read between the lines. Insights about emerging confidence also appeared frequently in students’ responses and reports, particularly in response to prompts that encouraged them to think specifically about what they had learned from the process. Familiarity, comfort, and confidence seem to have replaced the sense of the task having been “daunting” and of feeling out of their depth. The recognition of the importance of experience and the role that it has played in reinforcing and developing their learning seems to be clear: Well now I’ve seen that (req doc) before so it won’t be as daunting .


It all comes down to experience. If we could go back and do it again, we’d do it differently.

We felt isolated. We felt a bit alone as a small development team.

The fundamental purpose of education is to facilitate the journey towards competence. It is clear from the previous statements that students appeared to navigate a kind of pedagogical “journey” to competence. When looking back on this experience, their insights suggest that the negotiation of confusion and ambiguity was central, if not essential, to the learning processes in which they were involved. Again this suggests that there was something very crucial about the simulated GSD experience, and that in conventional learning environments the movement from ambiguity to clarity might not be as significant or as realistic as those experienced by this group of students. A link between these insights and the developing sense of “teamness” reflected in other comments suggests that the developing sense of competence might also occur in tandem with a developing sense of teamness. This may be evidence of the students’ enhanced understanding of the sophisticated and complex dynamics of GSD.

It was time consuming and stressful but at the same time I enjoyed it.

Issues Associated with energy and emotion: stress, Isolation, commitment, Morale, satisfaction, and Motivation

Are you going to be in at 9 a.m. during the 3 week break. It is worth it in the end if you can do it.

Another common statement category among students suggested that they were readily able to identify “emotionally relevant” aspects of the experience of working in a GSD team. The ability to signal the relevance of difficult feelings associated with stress and isolation as well as the more positive emotions associated with commitment, morale, and motivation demonstrate another dimension of self-awareness that may have developed and become enhanced over the course of the experience. Student references to experienced stress and isolation included the following types of statement:

Some of the stress was linked to the time deadlines associated with the learning experience, while one respondent also highlighted that the emotional engagement with the task could be experienced as simultaneously positive and negative. In addition, responding students also seemed to demonstrate an awareness of the commitment required in order to complete the task successfully and on time. Some of them demonstrated this awareness by highlighting that among their team members that commitment was not always present, while others took commitment as one of the learning outcomes of the process: Make sure they understand the commitment they need to give to the project. People not coming in [on] time affects morale.

Others noted how the experience induced commitment by creating inherent motivators into their lives as students. Statements demonstrating this insight included the following: This gave me something to get up and come into college for [even when my lecture schedule did not require it]. I have something to push me along. The realisation of the effective dimension of working seems to have had an effect on students’ recognition of how feelings can impact on projects. An explicit recognition of the added value of intangibles like commitment shows that students


are developing a more subtle comprehension of how team dynamics work and how emotions impact on those dynamics in sometimes fundamental ways.

Awareness of and concern with how students Present themselves as Individuals and teams, and how they represent their Institution A very clear category of statements emerged from respondents that related specifically to the ways in which the local student team presented itself and appeared to the remote members of the GSD teams. A concern for how they came across to their corresponding team members in the other locations emerged as something that was important to students: We didn’t want to look like a bunch of muppets and you were our supervisor. You don’t want to be seen to be proven wrong. Very pleased when we were able to say the other team was wrong. We didn’t want to be seen as a failure. These statements express that students were prevented from availing themselves of useful learning moments during the process. They were reluctant to clarify, question, and learn. This was not because of pressure from lecturers, project supervisors, or central team members but because of an internal pressure that they put on themselves and a concern regarding how they might be viewed by other stakeholders in the process. It also seems clear that once they had met face to face with a representative of the remote team members, this reluctance and concern diminished significantly: Once they met the guy from Siemens they were much happier.

This year’s team haven’t got that problem at all because the links are stronger. Furthermore, the implementation of the wiki, which is used as a remote communication tool within the Ard na Croise project during year 2 has helped communication—Wiki may be helping too—to break taboo about asking “stupid” questions. The wiki contains questions from all students internationally—so UL students have visibility into queries from other international student teams. This was not the case in year 1 of the project, when UL students were isolated from communicating with other teams. This was a decision of the research project team. The most striking aspect of this category of statements lies in its identification of a learning paradox within the student teams. On one hand, the concern for projecting themselves in a positive light led to them wanting to work hard and appear to be performing at high levels. This may have boosted their motivation and engagement with the task. On the other hand, the need to be seen in a positive light seemed, at least occasionally, to block good learning, as the students were reluctant to ask important questions at key stages in the process.

career development Advantages and Practical “real-life” experience Students tended also to invoke the pragmatic and instrumental benefits associated with having participated in the process. Many of them mentioned specifically how being able to say they had participated in the project would be helpful for their career opportunities, indicating particularly that it would give them “the edge” in an interview setting. In addition the benefits of having been involved in an activity that reflected the real life pressures and structures of GSD was something that they invoked explicitly as being positive and beneficial:


While we did not hypothesise that this experience would be seen in such pragmatic ways by the participants, our research shows that the pragmatic benefits of participating in this kind of educational experience must not be underestimated. We as educators tend to look at the “whole curriculim” as contributing to the overall employability of our students. However, it seems in this instance that the specific GSD experience reported here was heavily weighted by students as having particularly useful career development effects. It is worth noting that out of five participants in one of the GSD projects, three were subsequently employed in GSD environments, a series of choices and opportunities that may not have arisen without their participation while studying.

empowerment, locus of control, and decision Making Students also highlighted the struggles and issues that they encountered in the development of a more “internal locus of control” for the work that they were doing. They highlighted key questions and problems that seem to indicate that a gradual emerging of empowerment occurred over the course of the project. The worries associated with who was responsible for what were indicated in the following types of statements: I’d feel a good bit responsible. I didn’t think we should go to Ita. One student articulated an emerging conviction that the decision making relating to the task ultimately lay within their own team: We had to learn to figure things out for ourselves. Several noted the issue of responsibility and locus of control as something that needed to be defined and clarified:

Something like a contract would be good at the start. It’s important to assign responsibilities. If we don’t, no-one will take it on for themselves. Another intangible but important aspect of learning and work performance is relevant to this issue of locus of control. Understanding levels of responsibility and empowerment influences individual and group decision making in very significant ways. In grappling with the issue of locus of control and decision making in GSD contexts, students also seem to have gained a possibly deeper level of insight about their engagement with the tasks and processes. The pragmatic effects of student participation can be seen explicitly when we analyse their career development advantages. However, there were other pragmatic effects observed in the study, for example, following their participation in the global projects, they recognise the importance of teamwork (I learned a lot of things that are valuable like working with the group), how they need to change their work practices (It involved changing my mindset from haphazard to process), and how to deal with responsibility (Need to set ground rules and clarify responsibility). As illustrated in Table 1, graduates are expected to demonstrate competencies for use in the GSD environment. Through involvement in the projects discussed, students had exposure to all of the competencies required by the software developer. Through the discussion on interpersonal awareness and team dynamics, students developed communication and language and worked with other cultures. They also had exposure to communication tools and how these are used differently by different cultures (for example, Differences in the Irish and American teams—Irish used email more, but US used discussion boards). The reality of temporal issues became clear (Communication may have been delayed as a result of the time difference). The students were


also exposed to cooperation issues. Not only did they have to work together within local teams, they also had to cooperate with internationally dispersed teams. Furthermore, in the Global Studio Project, in particular, they were required to report to a “management” team in Siemens Corporate Research. As discussed earlier, this was not always an easy task and participation ensured that the students learned how to cooperate. In our interviews, statements from the students such as—One would make breakthrough, others would put shoulders to the wheel—illustrate this. In the global environment, as in other development environments, software developers should also be aware of processes and process tools. Participants in these projects were exposed to processes such as requirements and configuration management and were expected to continue development even with changing requirements. Global tools were implemented and used by the students. Students were expected to make regular reports to both their internal university supervisor and to the teams with whom they were working. In addition to competencies required by the software developer, students were also exposed to some of those required by the software manager. In particular, they experienced roles, responsibilities, and competencies management. In one case, when the students stated: We didn’t want to look really bad. We all thought that if we kept ringing with questions, we did not want to seem incompetent; they learned that to survive in the global environment, then they needed to do exactly the opposite and have their questions answered.

conclusIon And observAtIons Through the qualitative analysis of key reflective statements conducted for this chapter, it has been possible to extract several overarching themes that demonstrate participants’ own perceptions of the learning concerns, experiences, benefits, and

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outcomes associated with being part of a virtual GSD team. We now bring these themes together in an effort to map the student experiences with pedagogical interventions and aims associated with this project. Moore and Ryan (2006) remind educators that “Important truths that seem obvious to experienced practitioners can often only be learned by students if they have been encountered in a ‘deep’ as opposed to a ‘shallow’ sense.” In the complex experience of joining an international, virtual GSD team, students gained insights, learned lessons, and acquired understanding that would otherwise have been very difficult, if not impossible to achieve. In an analysis of students’ own words we have seen evidence of both cognitive and affective breakthroughs achieved directly as a result of their experience with a GSD environment and tasks. While students could be given vicarious insights (through lectures, tutorial sessions, and discussion forums) about the importance of knowing the subtleties of communication, team dynamics, and perceptions, we find it difficult to imagine how the range of work-based comprehension that they have reported could possibly be achieved outside of the experiential frame provided by this learning experience. In sketching out the framework of competencies that the literature highlights as central to the needs of GSD developers and managers, we are struck by the parallels found between this competence set and those identified by the students when discussing and explaining their learning outcomes. For several decades now, there have been significant criticisms of conventional higher education environments. Biglow (1983) highlighted a direct link between university classroom norms and the problems faced by graduates on entering the workplace. Passivity, dysfunctional competition, and lack of a sense of responsibility are, he argues, all facilitated by inactive, disengaged educational environments. While conventional educational norms can be active, engaged, and


excellent, it is arguably much easier to create these conditions in more experiential settings like the ones described and evaluated in this chapter. By observing the seven outcomes identified previously, it is possible to argue that there are three forms of learning impact experienced by students who participated in this project: (1) pedagogical, (2) pragmatic, and (2) achievement of specific GSD competencies. The pedagogical effects can be tracked most strongly through observed references to the journey from incompetence to competence. The pragmatic effects, while they may derive from this journey, are more closely evidenced by participants’ own insights about the practical and optical value of participation. The specific GSD competency development is demonstrated through the students’ own reported sense of achievement, but still requires confirmation through the normal curriculum assessment process. We do, however, argue that the sense of competence that the students report sets the scene for more positive and engaged learning, even in didactic contexts. In summary, we champion the application of the learning experiences we have described in this chapter, while recognising that the implications of this for GSD learning are that educators need to work interinstitutionally and in tandem with industry where relevant. Mimicking real work settings creates the possibility of giving rise to the range of learning benefits that are associated with truly problem-based learning environments. Adding pedagogical support, opportunities for reflection, and the capacity to revise and develop ideas using experienced teachers as a sounding board creates an added-value environment that we believe should become a standard part of software engineering education curricula.

pal Investigator, B4Step project (Grant no. SFI 02/IN.I/108) and Cluster project GSD for SMEs (Grant no 03/IN3/1408C) within the University of Limerick, Ireland; by the National Science Foundation (U.S.) within the Software Engineering Research Center, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, U.S. (Grant no: EEC-0423930); and by Siemens Corporate Research, Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.

AcKnoWledgMent

Casey, V. (2007). PhD to be published, University of Limerick, Ireland.

The research in this chapter has been funded by Science Foundation Ireland through the Princi-

Casey, V., & Richardson, I. (2004). Practical experience of virtual team software develop-

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Casey, V., & Richardson, I. (2005, September 26-30). Virtual software teams: Overcoming the obstacles. Third World Congress on Software Quality, Munich, Germany, 1-63 to 1-70, Volume 1.

Jarvenpaa, S. L., & Ives, B. (1994). The global network organization of the future: Information management opportunities and challenges. Journal of Management Science and Information Systems, 10, 25-57.

DeSanctis, G., Staudenmayer, N., & Wong, S. S. (1999). Interdependence in virtual organisations, The virtual organization (Trends in organizational behavior). Chichester, England, UK: John Wiley & Sons.

Joy, M. (2005). Group projects and the computer science curriculum. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 42(1), 15-25.

Ebert, C., & De Neve, P. (2001). Surviving global software development. IEEE Software, 18(2), 62-69. Grinter, R. E., Herbsleb, J. D., & Perry, D. E. (1999). The geography of coordination: Dealing with distance in R&D work. In Proceedings of ACM SIGGROUP Conference on Supporting Group Work (pp. 306-315). Phoenix, AZ. Hayes, I. S. (2002). Ready or not: Global sourcing is in your IT future. Cutter IT Journal, 15(11), 5-11. Herbsleb, J. D., & Grinter, R. E. (1999). Splitting the organisation and integrating the code: Conway’s law revisited. Twenty-first International Conference on Software Engineering, Los Angeles: IEEE Computer Press. Herbsleb, J. D., & Mockus, A., Finholt, T. A., & Ginter, R. E. (2000). Distance, dependencies and delay in a global collaboration. ACM conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Philadelphia: ACM Press. Herbsleb, J. D., Paulish, D. J., & Bass, M. (2005, May 15-21). Global software development at Siemens: Experience from nine projects. In Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Software Engineering, ICSE ’05 (pp. 524-533). New York: ACM Press.

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Kiel, L. (2003). Experiences in distributed development: A case study. ICSE International Workshop on Global Software Development, Portland, OR. Levitt, B. B., & March, J. G. (1988). Organisational learning. Annual review of Sociology, 14, 319-340. Linnane, S., & Richardson, I. (in press). Distributed software development—Difficulties for the SME. In Perspectives in Software Quality, Proceedings of Software Quality Management Conference, SQM2006, (pp. 113-128). Southampton, UK. Lipnack, J., & Stamps, J. (1997). Virtual teams: Reaching across space, time and organisations with technology. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Luo, Y., & Peng, M. W. (1999). Learning to compete in a transition economy: Experience, environment and performance. Journal of International Business Studies, 34, 52-68. McDonough, E. F., III, Kahn, K. B., & Barczak, G. (2001). An investigation of the use of global, virtual, and collocated new product development teams. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 18, 110-120. Moore, S., & Ryan, A. (2006). Learning to play the drum: An experiential exercise for management


students. Innovations in Teaching and Learning International, 435-444.

the Information and Communications Technologies Panel. Dublin, Ireland: Forfás.

Nidiffer, K. E., & Dolan, D. (2005). Evolving distributed project management IEEE Software, 22, 63-72.

Tjosvold, D., Yu, Z., & Hui, C. (2004). Team learning from mistakes; The contribution of cooperative goals and problem solving. Journal of Management Studies, 41(7), 1223-1245.

O’Brien, J. A. (2002). Management information systems managing information technology in the business enterprise (6th ed.). McGraw-Hill Irwin. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (2004). International investment perspectives. France: Author. Powell, A., Piccoli, G., & Ives, B. (2004). Virtual teams: A review of current literature and direction for future research. The DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems, 35, 6-36.

Toaff, S. S. (2002). Don’t play with “mouths of fire” and other lessons of global software development. Cutter IT Journal, 15(11), 23-28. Zage, D., Zage, W., & Wilburn, C. (2005, April). Test management and process support for virtual teams (Tech. Rep. No. SERC-TR-271). Muncie, IN: Ball State University.

endnotes 1

Pyysiainen, J. (2003). Building trust in global interorganizational software development project: Problems and practices. ICSE Workshop on Global Software Development. Reynolds, M. (1994). Groupwork in education and training. London: Kogan Page. Riley, M. (2005, September 13). The proof is out there. Software Development. Retrieved February 2006, from http://www.sdmagazine.com/documents/s=9889/sdm0510b/0510b.html

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Robey, D., Khoo, H. M., & Powers, C. (2000). Situated learning in cross-functional virtual teams. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communications, 43(1), 51-66. Savin-Baden, M. (2004). Understanding the impact of assessment on students in problem based learning. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 41(22), 221-233. Sommerville, I. (2001). Software engineering (6th ed.). Harlow, UK: Addison-Wesley. Technology Foresight Ireland. (2001). Information and communications technologies. Report from

A virtual team may be formally defined as “A team whose members use the Internet, intranets, extranets and other networks to communicate, coordinate and collaborate with each other on tasks and projects even though they may work in different geographical locations and for different organisations” (O’Brien, 2002). sm CMMI is a service mark of Carnegie Mellon University. A wiki (from the Hawaiian word meaning quick) is a user-editable Web site. Users can visit, read, reorganise and update the structure and content of a wiki as they see fit. An Internet connection and Web browser are all that are required to read and edit a wiki, (Augar, Raitman, & Zhou, 2004).

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sm

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Ard na Croise (height of the cross) is a hydro-electric power station built by Siemens, Germany and is located about 8km from the University of Limerick. Its 75th anniversary was celebrated in 2005.

CMMI is a service mark of Carnegie Mellon University

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6

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Anim an Eolaithe (name of the scientist): In recognition of the scientific achievements in Ireland and the U.S., each of the teams was named after two celebrated scientists—one Irish and one American.

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Black-box or functional testing is an approach to software testing where tests are derived from the program or from its specification. Success or failure of the test can only be determined from studying its inputs and related outputs (Summerville, 2001).

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Chapter VI

Creating an Entrepreneurial Mindset: Getting the Process Right for Information and Communication Technology Students Briga Hynes University of Limerick, Ireland Ita Richardson University of Limerick, Ireland

Abstract Change in the structure and profile of the industrial base in Ireland emphasises the importance of the small firm sector in certain growth sectors. One such sector is the information and communication technology (ICT) sector, which now demands a more enterprising graduate. This chapter emphasises the importance of third-level1 education in preparing students for their career, either as employee or entrepreneur. We discuss how entrepreneurship education, through its broad and integrative philosophy accommodates the changing workplace demands. It links together the synergy of enterprising activity and the small firm ICT sector through education courses, specifically entrepreneurship education. This is achieved through the adoption of the process framework for ICT entrepreneurship education. Describing how they can be modified to facilitate and encourage the more creative and enterprising mindset in the ICT student, we present two courses that have been successfully implemented at the University of Limerick.

Introduction A challenge facing policy makers in Ireland is how to encourage more individuals to consider self-employment as a career option and as an alternative to the more traditional career patterns

of paid employment in the ICT sector. Since career choices are informed and influenced during the educational experience of the individual, we suggest that the education context of the individual should be examined to determine how it could be developed to encourage ICT


Creating an Entrepreneurial Mindset

individuals to consider self-employment. To do this we argue that there is a need to modify and devise current programme offerings to include increased exposure in a realistic and practical sense as to what self-employment is about and how it can be a career option to consider. To add value to the competency base of the ICT student, entrepreneurship education can facilitate a more informed choice and exposure to the possibility of self-employment. The question posed is how can the education context and experience of the ICT student contribute to creating this entrepreneurial mindset? To achieve this, it is necessary to examine the broader philosophy of the purpose of education. Our answer to this question is the linking of entrepreneurship education to the ICT curriculum through the adoption of a more integrated and interdisciplinary approach. This will create a more entrepreneurial mindset in ICT students in thirdlevel educational institutions. This adds value to the educational experience of the ICT student, providing them with the knowledge, skills, and competencies required for self-employment. Entrepreneurship education is a process, involving a series of stages and a number of stakeholders who need to be an active part of the process. The central stakeholders are the students, teachers (trainers), the educational institution, and employers within the business community. Entrepreneurship education courses should provide students with a very real-life experience and enhance not just knowledge acquisition but also skills development in areas of idea generation; market research; product and process development; communication; negotiation; conflict management; project management; and people management. Essentially this chapter addresses a number of related topics such as entrepreneurial activity, entrepreneurship education, and the changing knowledge required by ICT graduates. In doing this, we integrate these topics which are frequently researched independently.

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Initially the chapter provides a background to ICT and entrepreneurship within Ireland, thus strengthening the rationale for the chapter. We then propose that an effective means of bridging the entrepreneurship knowledge and skills gap for the ICT student is the development of entrepreneurship education initiatives. To achieve this a process framework of ICT entrepreneurship education is presented and described. Following this, two interdisciplinary entrepreneurship courses at undergraduate level are profiled to describe how this need can be addressed. In the discussion of such courses important issues such as programme design, the role of the lecturer to facilitator, resource implications, and delivery and assessment issues are examined. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the benefits of adopting such initiatives and the implications for policy makers and educators.

the sMAll FIrM sector: theIr IMPortAnce to the IrIsh econoMY In 2003 it was estimated that the number of small firms in Ireland was approximately 186,114, an increase of 16,114 over a 3-year period since 2000, (The Revenue Commissioners Statistical Unit, 2003). The same report states that the majority of these firms employed less than 50 people (182,916 firms). Overall, these firms accounted for more than 99% of all enterprises in the state and contributed to 68.4% of private sector employment. Furthermore approximately 16,000 new businesses are created each year in Ireland (Small Firms Association [SFA], 2003). Forfás (2004) indicated that certain sectors were also critical to the continued success of the economy. One such sector is the ICT sector. Current government policy is examining how a greater level of enterprising activity can be developed in the small firms’ ICT sector.


This snapshot of the contribution of small firms in Ireland may appear positive and indicate a growing entrepreneurial culture. However, a more in-depth profiling would suggest otherwise. Research completed by O’Gorman and Jones (2000) suggested that as the proportion of employment contribution of Irish small firms was lower than their European counterparts (11% compared with EU average of 15%) there was a need to revitalise the small firm sector as a source of future importance for the Irish economy. This need was more recently reinforced in the Global Enterprise Monitor (GEM) (2003) survey, which found that 6% of already established firms (0-4 years) employed 20 or more people, which would translate into only 16,000 entrepreneurs having significant growth aspirations for their firms. Regarding the stock of new firms established, GEM (2004) indicated that 45% of respondents perceived good opportunities to start a business, which was a 19% increase in optimism on the 2002 rates. However, while 45% believed that good opportunities existed to start a new business only one in nine Irish adults (10.99%) indicated that they would expect to start a business in the next 3 years. This is the same rate as was reported in 2003 and slightly lower than the rate in 2002 (13%). It should be noted that this indication of intention to get involved in entrepreneurial activity is only half the rate it is in Poland (21.87%) and is also behind other European countries such as France (14.38%), Greece (13.45%), Italy (11.62%), and Sweden (11.73%). The trends for the period 2001-2004 (time period for which data is available) are summarised in Table 1.

It is important to ensure that this decline is arrested, as it will have implications for both the number of new firms established and for the number of surviving small firms in Ireland in the next few years. Central to the composition of this indigenous sector is the ICT sector.

groWth oF the Ict sector In IrelAnd The success of the growth of the ICT sector in Ireland is attributed to a number of factors, which include upgrading of Ireland’s telecommunications infrastructure, low corporation tax, English speaking workforce, availability of highly qualified and educated workforce, a strong indigenous firm base, and deployment of European Union (EU) structural and cohesion funds to Ireland (Enterprise Ireland Strategy Group, 2004; Forfás, 2004; Trauth, 2000). According to reports over the past number of years this sector employed an estimated 92,000 people within 1,300 companies, with a combined estimated turnover of €52 billion for the year 2003 (Central Statistics Office, 2004; ICT Ireland, 2005). One of the “exploitations,” which should occur, is to ensure that the small firms’ ICT sector benefits from the presence of multinational companies in Ireland. In fact one indigenous company in Ireland, Iona Technologies, which was established following a research project at Trinity College (Dublin), is responsible for more than 25 spin-off firms (ICT Ireland, 2003). The

Table 1. Entrepreneurial activity in Ireland 2001-2004 (Source: Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, 2004) Measure of Entrepreneurial Activity22

2001

2002

2003

2004

Total entrepreneurial activity (TEA)

12.20%

9.14%

8.10%

7.70%

Nascent entrepreneurs

7.34%

5.66%

5.10%

4.39%

New firm entrepreneurs

4.88%

4.20%

3.76%

3.59%

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same report suggests that partnerships between early stage ICT companies and multinational companies would provide the early-stage firms with competitive advantage. Furthermore, a consequence of Ireland’s rapid economic progress over the past decade has been an increase in Ireland’s cost base to a point where Ireland is no longer a competitive location for many of the traditional manufacturing companies. Simultaneously, Ireland is facing increasing competition for inward foreign direct investment (FDI) for low, added-value, manufacturing-oriented activities from Eastern Europe and Asia. This reinforces the need to compensate for the demise for FDI in traditional sectors by increasing the number of indigenous firms in growth sectors such as ICT. This need is reinforced in research findings of GEM (2003) and Forfás (2004), who suggested a need to increase resources to build a more selfsufficient, indigenous industrial base to reduce the reliance on FDI. In Ireland, government industrial policy emphasises the development of these sectors, which have growth potential in added-value service and product areas in a global market. This will provide the country with a small firm sector that is capable of responding to the changing needs of growth in a national and global context. We suggest that the continued creation and increase in the number of new firms established on its own is not an indicator of a positive small firm sector. A sustainable enterprise and small firm sector should consist of a combination of new firms and established growth firms, which compliment each other. Therefore, to accommodate these trends, policy should encourage more individuals to consider self-employment in these growth sectors as a career option and as an alternative to the more traditional career patterns of paid employment. Since career choices are greatly influenced by the educational experience of the individual, we consider that the role and influence of the educational system should be part of this policy agenda.

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As educationalists we have a role to play in this. The education context of the individual should be examined to determine how it could be developed to encourage individuals to consider self-employment. From our experience we have found that this enterprising activity can be linked easily with certain disciplines to add value to the competency base of the student resulting in greater participation in self-employment in that discipline. Given its importance to the Irish economy the discipline that we are interested in is ICT.

educAtIon: PrePArIng the grAduAte oF the Future According to Rand (2004), education is about developing a student’s mind and potential to equip them to deal with the challenges posed in the real world. A broader definition from Baig (2004) states that the primary purpose of education is to provide individuals who can contribute to the economic prosperity of a country. The educational experience should develop students to the best of their abilities, to prepare them for the needs of the workplace and encourage them to generate new ideas and to improve the standards of living of that country. However, as the needs of the workplace are constantly changing, it is important that education providers are aware of the current needs to ensure course offerings are relevant. Research by Expert Group on Future Skills Need (EGFSN) (2004) indicated the need for a variety of skills to ensure that firms are equipped to meet and be proactive for the changing needs of the international and global environment. These skills can be grouped as follows: • • • •

Practical experience, flexibility/innovation skills Management skills for the 21st century IT skills Generic skills


Practical experience, Project-based, and Flexibility/Innovation skills Industry is increasingly looking to recruit graduates with practical work experience and commercial understanding. As a result, students with strong technical abilities but little practical experience are losing out on potential jobs. Education courses need to foster adaptability, flexibility, and innovation skills, which must become integral to the education system at all levels if the needs of a changing workforce are to be met. For example, the introduction and expansion of project-based learning will help to provide these skills. By moving in this direction, there is significant scope to improve both the quality of learning and the development of soft skills relevant to the workplace without compromising the intellectual content of courses.

of desktop packages such as word processing, spreadsheet, and database packages becoming increasingly important. Workforce IT skills are becoming one of the most important factors affecting business competitiveness. Such skills, which are used across all levels in organisations including management levels, are increasingly viewed by employers as a basic requirement. Again, it is imperative that such skills are presented in educating the worker of the future.

generic skills

Management skills to include decision making, risk taking, managing change, and people management have become increasingly important to national economic development. Therefore we need to ensure that students are well equipped in these necessary management skills. In particular, when we focus on innovation and entrepreneurship, the need to ensure technology transfer from the research lab into the commercial arena requires specialised management expertise such as the management of technology transfer and intellectual property.

The greater prominence of high-tech manufacturing, internationally traded services, and R&D activities in Ireland’s economy require high standards of generic skills to complement academic or vocational ones. Generic skills include basic skills such as literacy and numeracy, and also key skills such as communication, team working, planning, problem solving, and customer-service handling. Furthermore, research indicates that an increased number of people are working in professional and managerial occupations and that the importance of skills such as communication and planning is growing. (EGFSN, 2004) From the previous findings it is clear that industry requires a graduate who is not just trained as a subject matter expert from a theoretical perspective. There is a definite need for graduates to have skills, which are based on the ability to approach work from a flexible, creative, and innovative approach. It is necessary that graduates are able to perform as a member of a team and have important people management skills.

Information technology skills

A responsive education environment

Given the rapid diffusion of computing technologies into the business and domestic markets, there has been a huge increase in the number of jobs involving the use of information technology (IT). This has resulted in IT skills3 and the use

As a consequence of these changes influenced by economic, social, and technological environmental factors there is a clear need for the education system to be responsive to the changing requirements of the enterprise sector and general business

Management skills for the 21st century

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community. The industrial sector has to cope with flexibility and responsiveness and it is incumbent on the educational system to demonstrate the same traits. The educational experience should provide individuals with an attitude, ability, and competency to excel and participate in the highly dynamic business and technological environment of the future (EGFSN, 2004). A better balance between the courses studied, the length for which they are studied, and the requirements of industry should be taken into account. This suggests the need for more interdisciplinary courses. Increasingly, there is a need for graduates to have skills beyond their core disciplines.

developing these skills: the role of education So how and where can graduates be equipped with these skills? We suggest that the third-level educational system is a key catalyst to impart these very necessary skills to the ICT student. The role of the educational system in achieving this is acknowledged by Galloway, Anderson, Brown, and Whittam (2005), who suggested that educators, including universities, “have an obligation to meet students’ expectations with regard to preparation for the economy in which they will operate.” Krueger, Reilly, and Carsrud (2000) argued that career-related decisions reflect a cognitive process that is influenced by the attitudes, beliefs, and intentions which are in turn influenced by the knowledge and experience base of the student. The educational system influences the knowledge base, the acquisition of skills, competences, and attitudes on which future career choices are based. Since these decisions are fundamental to the future of the individual we argue that it is incumbent on the educational system to inform and expose students to a broad range of career options including entrepreneurship.

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exPosIng the Ict student to entrePreneurshIP There is a need for all third-level institutions to adopt a much greater and more strategic enterprise focus, both in terms of satisfying the skill requirements of business and industry as well as fostering new business start-ups. From a policy level the importance of enterprise education is acknowledged by the European Commission (Europa, 2003), who advocated that entrepreneurship education is important to create the “correct mindset” to foster greater enterprising behaviour. This need is reinforced by many researchers as summarised by Galloway, Anderson, Brown, and Whittam (2005). This summary suggested the need for universities to develop as entrepreneurial institutions, becoming more proactive in addressing the needs of the employers and the business community when devising programs. They should help to encourage the growth of new businesses thus exploiting the creative potential and depth of knowledge within higher education. Other benefits promoted by De Faoite, Henry, Johnson, and Van der Sijde (2003) found that entrepreneurship education provided for the integration of a variety of business subjects, the promotion of improved decision-making skills, and an increase in technology transfer between universities and the market place. Thus they create improved synergy and added value between both entities and the potential to add value to nonbusiness and technical programmes. The need to broaden enterprise education outwards from business schools has also been endorsed by the European Commission (Europa, 2003) and Galloway and Brown (2002). Galloway and Brown (2002) also suggested that a “cross disciplinary approach” to enterprise education could influence a range of industry sectors including the arts, science and technology disciplines. Hytti and O’Gorman (2004) found that the better or more successful


programmes were those who had the ability to integrate learning across the general educational experience of the student and those introducing enterprise education into other courses. The innate abilities of an individual, coupled with the overall socioeconomic environment (ease of establishing a new business, access to finance, and advice as well as the prevailing cultural attitudes to entrepreneurship) are extremely important factors in determining whether they pursue an entrepreneurial path. These innate abilities can be greatly enhanced by education and training. We are in agreement with a number of researchers (such as Audretsch, 2002; Department for Education and Skills [DFES], 2002, 2003; Martin, 2004; National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education [NCIHE], 1997) that the focus and objectives of entrepreneurship education programmes should involve the acquisition of a broader set of life long skills and not simply training for business start-up. Entrepreneurship education should contribute to the development of a range of skills, including the ability to innovate and to provide leadership, which pays dividends for the individual and the economy in any employment context. Furthermore, Martin (2005) suggests that through enterprise education, both students and staff may be more likely to start up new firms and to develop business opportunities and in doing so create a more enterprising culture in the institution. Essentially, there is considerable scope for the educational system to foster a culture that is conducive to innovation and entrepreneurship. The role it can play ranges from instilling a positive attitude to entrepreneurship among young people, via the promotion of positive role models and presenting failure as a prerequisite for success, to providing the enabling or prerequisite skills needed for success. These enabling skills range from an understanding of business, financial marketing, and legal issues to generic or soft skills such as team-working, communication, and interpersonal skills.

How can the enterprise education context and experience of the individual contribute to creating the correct entrepreneurial mindset? To answer this, it is necessary to examine the broader philosophy of the purpose of enterprise education, how current courses may be modified, and how new courses can be developed to address these needs.

Process FrAMeWorK For entrePreneurshIP educAtIon In an evaluation of entrepreneurship courses Hynes (1996) suggested that entrepreneurship education is process driven. This process consists of a number of stakeholders who have a range of needs, which may differ in nature and scope. Starting a new business involves more than the development of a final product or service. Rather it encompasses a series of stages which link together and are managed in a subjective way by the entrepreneur. These are influenced by a number of factors both personal and situational. In the specific context of the ICT student the focus is on how it can create an awareness of self-employment as a viable alternative career path upon graduation or in a few years after gaining some practical experience. Based on Hynes’ (1996) work we have modified the process framework for the ICT student (see Figure 1). One of the benefits of the framework is that it is flexible and encourages adaptation to suit both the participant needs and the demands of the workplace.

overview of the Process Framework of Ict entrepreneurship education The model used has three primary elements: (1) inputs, (2) process, and (3) outputs. The role of entrepreneurship education (and thus the role of the educator) is to put a process in place which will include consideration of broader less-struc-


Figure 1. Process framework for information and communications technology entrepreneurship education (Adapted from Hynes, 2006) Inputs

Process

Outputs

Students

Content Focus

Teaching Focus

Professional / Technological

Prior knowledge base Motivation Personality Needs/interests Independence Attitudes Parent influence Self-esteem Values Work experience

ICT (science, mathematics, programming, ICT design, development process) Entrepreneurship (entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, innovation, new product development, innovation, idea generation, research and development) Business (marketing, accounting and finance, human resources) Legal aspects (Intellectual property rights, employment legislation, insurance) Soft skills (Communication, presentation, writing)

Didactic (reading/lectures) Skill building (case studies, group discussions, presentations, problem solving, simulations, teamwork, projects) Discovery (brainstorming, personal goalsetting, career planning, consultancy)

Personal (confidence communication) Knowledge (enterprise, initiative, self-employment, business, management and market skills, analytical, problem solving, decision making, communication, presentation, risk taking) Career (improved knowledge, broader career options, broader less-structured career perspectives).

tured career perspectives. These will ensure that the student at least considers entrepreneurship as part of their professional career path. How this is achieved is dependant on the content, subject areas, and the accommodation of multiple teaching methods. The emphasis on getting the process right is also raised by authors such as Chell and Allman (2003) and Gibb (1996). They raised issues about the provision of entrepreneurship education and the pedagogical and delivery developments required to appropriately meet the needs of the various stakeholders.

course objectives As with the design and development of any educational intervention, there must be a set of clear realistic and achievable objectives guiding the development of entrepreneurship education courses. There is a need to include multiple objectives incorporating both discrete quantifiable ones and less specific and more behavioural re-

lated objectives. This later category may be more difficult to measure as their impact may not be immediate and become more relevant after the student has graduated and is involved in a career choice or change. Building on the process framework, entrepreneurship education objectives should include creating awareness and knowledge of self employment as a viable career option. It should also facilitate students to more confidently identify business opportunities. It should also equip students with the attitudes, skills, and competences collectively referred to as “entrepreneurial mindset” where the graduate adopts an entrepreneurial and creative approach to the “world of work” either in an employee or employer role. While the student is the immediate and direct stakeholder, it is necessary that the needs of the other indirect stakeholders such as employers and lecturers are considered in course design. We need to ascertain the various approaches adopted in courses with a view to examine how


they can be modified or incorporated into entrepreneurship courses for ICT students who are, in this case, the primary input to course development.

Inputs: the student When students come into courses, regardless of the subject area, they bring with them their own personality, life experiences, and prior learning. These include such factors as motivation, self-esteem, values, personal interests, and work experience. The job of entrepreneurship education is to give students the ability, skills, and tools with which they can mould these inputs to provide the expected outputs. In some cases, for example, students may enter the course with low self-esteem. Through the educational process, these students may discover some ability that they have, which has not been visible to them prior to this. This in turn can boost the esteem in which they hold themselves. While some Irish students will have experienced entrepreneurship through second-level entrepreneurship schemes, the education system is structured in such a way that many students will not come to third level with any entrepreneurial background. Therefore, it is incumbent on the entrepreneurship educators to ensure that the innovative ability of the student, often hidden until this stage in their education, is brought out during the education process. The personal profile and personality characteristics of the students (“inputs”) are important to define before the content or teaching focus is finally decided upon. It is at this stage that many of the needs of the workplace can be accounted for and accommodated in the content, teaching, and delivery process. A useful method of ensuring this detail is collected is through the completion of an entry questionnaire or entrepreneurial self-assessment questionnaire. This assists the students to determine their own levels of selfawareness and interest in both disciplines, which they are studying.

Process As with any process, it is important to convert inputs to outputs. The education process for entrepreneurship courses should include both content and teaching focus. While these can be dealt with separately, it is important that they are also integrated to ensure that the objective(s) is achieved. Decisions on one of the stages will impact and influence the other.

Content Focus The process framework includes IT content (Figure 1). The content focus presented provides students with an understanding of ICT topics and of the stages of the entrepreneurial process in a holistic manner to highlight the synergies that exist between both areas. When educating the ICT graduate (regardless of whether they are working towards entrepreneurship), we need to consider the skills that they require. They should be provided with topics such as programming and design; they need to understand the hardware and software underlying computer processing; they need to understand the algorithms and logic involved in computing; and they need to have specialist skills such as graphics design and genetic algorithms. Furthermore, they need to be kept up to date with progressions within science, engineering, and technology, for example, bioinformatics and nanotechnology (EGFSN, 2004). Depending on the focus within ICT courses, different skills will be taught by the educators. What is important is that the content of such a course is given due consideration, and the graduate is provided with the correct mix of skills which can introduce them, in this case, to the entrepreneurship labour market.

Entrepreneurship Subject Focus The students should be educated in entrepreneurship and innovation for new start-up businesses


in the ICT sector, and entrepreneurial behaviour within larger organisations should be presented in tandem with the aforementioned ICT content. The key topics here introduce students to the theory and practice of entrepreneurial creativity and innovation, providing an understanding of the nature of entrepreneurship and the characteristics of the entrepreneur. They should also examine the role of the sociocultural and economic environment in fashioning innovative entrepreneurship. In addition, the topic should examine technical entrepreneurship and the process of managing innovation. As there is a very practical and applied emphasis on the topic students must be encouraged to generate a number of business ideas. The ideas should be as practical as possible and related to market and business opportunities. After initial research and evaluation, an idea can be selected for the development of the business plan—topics to be covered include the importance of marketing and market research. Issues such as secondary and primary research, industry analysis, competitive advantage, identifying target markets, product/ service development, manufacturing/operations, forecasting demand, intellectual property, market/sales strategy, legal forms of organisation, and sources of finance can be presented as to how they apply to the start-up firm. Other “content focus” topics such as marketing; accounting and finance; and human resources are often not associated with the study of ICT. The provision of these within entrepreneurship modules will add value to the knowledge of necessary business subject areas and also develop the skills base to encourage more enterprising behaviour.

Soft Skills: Content Focus Furthermore, to survive in their careers, graduates from ICT entrepreneurship education need to have soft skills such as communication, presentation, and writing skills. They need to be able to communicate effectively with their peers, management,

and subordinates. Additionally, as entrepreneurs, they need to be able to present themselves effectively with the business community around them, while also being capable of marketing their potential product/service to customers. They will have to face challenges such as presenting business plans to potential investors and making internal changes which affect employees. The challenge for us as educators is to provide graduates with these skills, while making sure that the breadth of the subject does not cause the depth to be eroded. This is ensured by adopting multiple flexible delivery and teaching methods.

Teaching Focus Traditional lecture-driven teaching methodologies are not relevant to entrepreneurship courses. Kirby (2002) argues that these traditional approaches may inhibit the development of entrepreneurial skills and characteristics. Therefore, the role of the trainer moves from the traditional “sage on the stage” to becoming a “guide on the side” (Hannon, 2005). The trainer needs to adopt the role of coach, mentor, and challenger and have the ability to provide feedback in a constructive and relevant manner. The teaching process should focus on “active learning” and “problem based learning” (Postigo & Tamborini, 2002). Active learning places less emphasis on transmitting information to the student. Instead, greater emphasis is placed on the student exploring their own skill, competencies, and general self-awareness. The use of problembased learning can result in the development of other important skills. In a problem-based learning environment, either on their own or in teams, students assume responsibility for solving problems, which are practical and relevant to the various subject areas. It encourages creativity, resourcefulness and tests the student’s ability to make decisions, take risks, and analyse a situation. Essentially, the combination of both approaches provides students with personal and career de-


velopment. Galloway, Anderson, Brown, and Whittam (2005) suggested that role models, guest speakers, and case studies can inspire urgency in entrepreneurial intent. They can contribute to knowledge about and encourage skills development such as self-efficacy, confidence, initiative, and problem-solving skills. These methods can be used as part of active learning and problem-based learning approaches. Delivery of entrepreneurship courses is often primarily dependent on a few key faculty members. These faculty members need to be equipped to deliver courses, which are often less lecture driven, less theoretical, and require a level of entrepreneurial behaviour. This is a key issue for consideration and is indeed an area worthy of further research. Research by Hytti and O’Gorman (2004) in a comparative study of entrepreneurship programmes across a number of countries (Ireland being one), found that the trainers lacked the skills and information required about entrepreneurship to provide students with the necessary skills and knowledge for entrepreneurship education. They recommended the need for in-career training to support and address the needs of the trainers to ensure they are better equipped. As concluded by Hannon (2005), how can growth in graduate entrepreneurship be achieved without competent and capable trainers? There is a need to examine the quality and experience of entrepreneurship educators, their level of experience or exposure to entrepreneurship, and the training and development opportunities that are available and accessible. Other key attributes required are the willingness to give time and commitment to the delivery of such courses. As was previously discussed, entrepreneurship should be delivered across disciplines, therefore there is a need to encourage team teaching where faculty from the business disciplines cooperate with faculty members from nonbusiness disciplines to cover the range of technical and nonbusiness subject topics.

Focusing then on ICT entrepreneurship, teaching should be performed in three ways: (1) didactic, (2) skill building, and (3) discovery. Didactic teaching is important in presenting information to students. This is useful where we need to impart information to students, for example, lectures, reading, and video clips are often used. In the case of ICT entrepreneurship education, topics such as intellectual property rights may be covered solely through didactic teaching. However, most of the subjects presented in the content focus for ICT entrepreneurship will require some element of didactic teaching combined with other forms of teaching. Skill building allows the students to interactively become involved with the topics being studied. Methods such as group discussions, projects, and problem solving are often used during skill building. In ICT entrepreneurship education, much of what is required is that students build their skills through such interactivity. By doing this, not only do they become more familiar with the skills that are required to become good entrepreneurs, but they also are presented with the situation where they are trying out these skills. In ICT entrepreneurship education, it would be unusual to teach subjects through skill building only—it is normally taught starting with didactic teaching and followed by skill building. Subjects such as design, new product development, and marketing would be part of this process. Furthermore, discovery can also be used as a teaching method. Discovery allows students to develop their self-awareness and the inputs which they brought with them to a course through reflective practice either in an individual or group situation. In ICT entrepreneurship education, discovery is important as the drive and intuition for entrepreneurship often comes through the “innerself” combined with prior knowledge. Methods of discovery in teaching include brainstorming, personal goal setting, and consultancy and combined with didactic and/or skill building, can be


used successfully in teaching subjects such as idea generation, innovation, and research. The teaching process aspect is critical to ensure that identified skills and knowledge objectives are achieved. The teaching focus should also take into consideration the obstacles that militate against participation in ICT entrepreneurship education. The focus should combine both formal and informal teaching methods and also encourage topics such as problem solving and career planning. The teaching focus should provide students with the knowledge of not just “what” to do but “how” to do it.

Teaching Focus and Content Focus: Creating the Links One of the difficulties experienced by ICT educators is the changing pace of technology. Therefore, we need to ensure that students are not only equipped with the “current” ICT knowledge base at time of graduation, but furthermore, are equipped with the skills to update their knowledge as required. To tell them about current trends and knowledge can be done through didactic teaching. However, to allow them to apply this knowledge, skill building methods emphasising action and problem-based learning should be incorporated. It is not enough, for example, for the student to be shown how to write a program—they must experience writing a program for themselves before they can really understand how to do this correctly. Furthermore, discovery teaching provides students with a learning process which will equip them with the ability to continue educating themselves throughout their career. The combination of content and teaching focus can provide students with an understanding of the stages of the entrepreneurial process. The completion of a business plan in an interdisciplinary team provides the student with a practical and realistic insight into how self-employment in the ICT field can at some stage be a career option for them. The process focus should combine both formal and

informal teaching methods, encouraging topics such as problem solving and career planning.

outputs/Assessment Robertson, Collins, Wilson, and Lyewllyn (2003) stated that assessment and examination form the basis of how well the student has utilised time and resources available to them to accomplish the objectives of the course studied. Conventionally, at third level, a final examination—which is generally theory based—forms the primary component of assessment. Gibb (1996) and Henry, Hill, and Leitch (2003) suggest that entrepreneurship education does not fit neatly into these models of assessment of the traditional examination. Assessment methods need to mirror the objectives of the ICT entrepreneurship courses and also accommodate the different nontraditional teaching and delivery methods discussed previously.

Institutional environment for entrepreneurship education In the broader context, an influence on the acceptance and encouragement of entrepreneurship education programmes is the culture, systems, and structures of the actual educational institution. The institutional environment includes the resources, facilities, and general support that entrepreneurship programs are provided, within the educational institution itself. The “entrepreneurial nature” of the institution is tested and exhibited in their recognition and support or otherwise of entrepreneurship programmes. As is seen from the explanation of the framework, entrepreneurship education is process driven, which requires a level of integration and synergy between a number of elements. It is essential that integration exists between the content and delivery elements and indeed integration can occur within these elements. This level of integration is imperative to ensure the specific needs of the “inputs” are addressed in a relevant


manner and the desired outputs of this group are materialised. In summary, the process framework of entrepreneurship education provides for a flexible and adaptable approach for the delivery of entrepreneurship education to diverse groups of students. The framework can be customised to meet the specific needs of a targeted group. This level of customisation is allowed for by the consideration of and starting the process from the review of the inputs. This customisation is now examined by presenting how current courses offered within the University of Limerick can be adopted to suit the needs of the ICT student. To date, participating students have come from disciplines such as equine studies, wood science, and public administration programmes. Based on the framework presented, we integrate the content and process of these courses. Given its success with these nonentrepreneurship students, we expect that the use of the framework can indeed support the integration of ICT and entrepreneurship, ultimately creating an ICT entrepreneurship mindset. These programs adopt a multidisciplinary and intercollegial approach.

entrePreneurshIP At the unIversItY oF lIMerIcK The first entrepreneurship initiative was introduced at the University of Limerick in 1983. Courses introduced since then have been designed to develop and transfer knowledge about the enterprise process. They are expected to encourage students to examine entrepreneurship as a viable career option. Courses operate at both undergraduate and graduate levels. They range from structured courses consisting of lectures, assignments, case studies, and readings to innovative integrated courses where students actively participate in the small business sector, develop business plans, and are exposed to prominent entrepreneurs, both national and international.

The two courses that we present are described in terms of their objectives, input (student group) the process (content and teaching), and outputs (assessment) taking ICT entrepreneurship into account. The first course is currently a broad course aimed at students in the third year of their undergraduate business studies degree programs. The second course is aimed at final year students and is thus a “capstone” module within their undergraduate degree programs in business studies, equine science, wood science, and public administration.

course 1: enterprise development This course exposes students to the process of entrepreneurship and the stages of developing a new business from idea generation to final preparation and presentation of the business plan. It provides hands-on experience in the creation and development of a new business venture. Students, in teams, take a multidisciplinary approach to the preparation of a professional business plan. For the ICT student, this business plan should focus on the changing trends in the industry, thus identifying potential business opportunities that can be developed into viable business ideas. For example, they could focus on the medical device industry, where software is a growth sector in Ireland.

Objectives A number of objectives, tangible and intangible are incorporated into the development of the course. Primary objectives are: •

•

To develop sophistication in creating a new venture, including skills in evaluating, preparing, and presenting a business plan (combination of tangible and intangible objectives). To create in the student an entrepreneurial mindset and a sense of entrepreneurial behaviour, which can be effectively used in


•

•

•

•

a number of different work environments (intangible objective). To provide the students with the insight and knowledge to understand the changing requirements of the ICT industry and how it might affect future business plans (tangible and intangible objective). To facilitate students in the development and application of the analytical and decision-making skills necessary in formulating, implementing, and controlling a business plan and in the development of a prototype of their proposed idea (tangible and intangible objective). To establish project creditability and improve students’ presentation and communication skills (tangible and intangible objective). To encourage students to enter the “Enterprise Ireland Student Awards 2006,” a national competition run by Enterprise Ireland (tangible objective).

Inputs: Student Group The content of the course should assume no prior knowledge of entrepreneurship by the students. However, in this course, students are expected to have prior knowledge of information systems, the ICT industry, and a general understanding of business. Given this requirement, participating students should have a diversity of relevant backgrounds and not be limited to ICT knowledge, which could happen if a number of disciplines are not involved. Team members should also demonstrate this diversity. Other inputs mentioned in Figure 1 will vary depending on the individual students (for example, gender, motivation, and confidence).

Process The aforementioned objectives are achieved by the integration of the content and teaching process.

Content Focus The content focus should provide fundamental knowledge and insight into entrepreneurship and starting a small firm. Students need to be given detail on the importance of entrepreneurship activity for the development and future of the ICT sector. They also need to understand how a changing ICT sector will affect the ICT business of the future and be capable of integrating this into their business plan. Other topics to be covered include: evaluation of business opportunities; market research; industry analysis; marketing and sales strategies; management structure; product and service development; manufacturing and operations; start-up finance and return on investment; and financial projections. It is clear from this list that significant business content is required in this module. Through the provision of an understanding of the components of the business plan, students learn to integrate both their prior knowledge brought into the course and the new knowledge that they learn within the course. Students are introduced to the alternative ownership structures (sole trader, partnership, limited company), where the advantages and disadvantages and the legal implications of the options are debated. From the soft-skills perspective, the course is expected to guide the student on assembling and writing a business plan in a professional manner.

Teaching Focus To ensure the objectives presented are met, our experience is that we must include a combination of delivery methods in this course. Formal lectures (didactic methods) are required to present some of the content of this course. This includes the theoretical aspects of establishing a business, how to assess viable business ideas, investigating the market, assessing customer demand, formulating a business plan, and identifying sources of finance. It should also include relevant


ICT-related topics such as future expectations of the ICT industry and how developments within the ICT industry will change the nature of their proposed business. Content of lectures would be guided by a recommended text, supplemented by journal/paper articles, reviews, and cases. In our entrepreneurship courses, we consider the inclusion of guest speakers from government development agencies, financial institutions, professional organisations representing the ICT sector (for example, Irish Software Association, ShannonSoft), and owner/managers from industry as an important aspect to any entrepreneurship course. Through presentation of past experience, they can convey a level of knowledge and context to students. Furthermore, they can encourage discussion and self-analysis by the student as to their interest and ability to pursue self-employment. These methods place emphasis on identifying where the theory and practice link together in a real-world situation. Workshop sessions (discovery learning) are used to support students in developing their business plans. Students, in their project groups, would be expected to attend one workshop session per week. In these sessions students should provide an update on their progress while the faculty member provides feedback. The workshop will ensure that problems or issues in the progression of the development of the business idea for the group are identified as soon as they arise. Through the use of scenarios, role-playing, and peer review students can enhance their communication, decision making, and presentation skills.

Outputs: Assessment While we expect this to be a 100% project-based course, the assessment should include a breakdown of milestones, transparent to the student, indicating what is required from them. This is indicated in the course description given to students on the commencement of the course. These include:

Project management 15% - Individual grade New product/service proposal 10% - Group grade Progress report 20% - Group grade Final business plan 55% - Group grade Project management should examine the student’s ability to work in a team and how they contribute in a constructive manner to a team scenario to complete their final project. Criteria for assessment should include time management, people management, conflict management, the ability to adhere to deadlines, the ability to make decisions and their resourcefulness in solving problems. This improves the student’s ability to manage their time and resources in a more effective and productive manner. How the student’s creative and opportunitysensing skills are developed should be examined through the new product/service proposal. This can assess the submitted business idea in areas such as the source of idea; rationale for submission of idea; potential market; knowledge and understanding of ICT industry; and competitive opportunities. A complete business plan must be drawn up with a design of the product/service to be produced. This should be a significant submission and the guideline length is 25 pages, excluding appendices. Projects should show some degree of innovation, must be feasible and marketable. The business idea should be as practical as possible and relate to direct opportunities observed in the Irish ICT economy. The progress report and the final business plan will test the ability of the student to link and integrate all the elements and stages of developing a new business idea. It also examines


written communication and presentation skills in report writing. This course highlights how, with the understanding of the characteristics of the students, suitable and relevant targeted content and delivery methods are devised to create a more enlightened knowledge about the process of identifying a business opportunity and transforming it into a potentially viable business and career option. Through active engagement in this action-based learning process, the student also develops and enhances a range of important life-long skills such as greater self-awareness and increased confidence, team-working skills, communication, and decision-making skills.

would include: feasibility studies, business plans, marketing plans, and market research reports. Students can benefit enormously from this experience as they have the opportunity to apply experiential knowledge and concepts learned in the classroom to real-life business situations. The nature of the business consultancy course will involve close working relationships over a semester, which at the University of Limerick constitutes 14-week period, with owner/managers of the various companies assisted. The students are not placed in the client firm. The students are facilitated and guided through the consultancy process with a faculty member. The emphasis is on problem-based learning.

course 2: small business consultancy

Objectives

The second course we present here also uses the components of the process framework as a guide to its development. However, this course is aimed at fourth year students who are expected to embark on the workplace within the following 12 months. Also the emphasis in the teaching and content area is focused on discovery and problem-based experiential learning. This course is unique in that there is an added component—the small firm. As the course involves small firms they form another input element that needs to be considered in the course development. To be successful, this course should be promoted by both the institution presenting the course and local development agencies and small firms. It should offer small ICT businesses a consultancy service to identify and solve a business problem. Currently, in the case of the University of Limerick, where this course is run with non-ICT-related courses, interested small firms are matched with a team of students who act as consultants to assist the owner/manager to solve a business problem or develop their business further. Thus, in the future, students can provide confidential managerial assistance to local ICT firms. Typical assignments

0

Tangible and intangible objectives need to be incorporated into the development of the course. The focus here is the provision of a capstone course for students who are about to graduate. Consequently, the main emphasis is on intangible objectives. The objectives include the following: •

•

•

•

• •

To introduce students to the principles and processes of management consultancy within the ICT industry (intangible objective). To provide practical hands-on experience of engaging with the client organisation in a professional consulting capacity (intangible objective). To give the student an opportunity to bring up-to-date ICT knowledge into the industry (tangible objective). To provide students with an opportunity to conduct desk research and primary research (tangible and intangible objectives). To develop students’ report writing skills (tangible objective). To improve students analytical, communication, and presentation skills (tangible and intangible objective).


•

•

To improve the student’s understanding of the practicalities of the roles and tasks assumed by the owner/manager in the operational and strategic management of a small firm. (intangible objective). To provide students with the capability of advising ICT owner/managers in a professional manner (intangible objective).

Overall, the course in fulfilling personal and career objectives for the student, in tandem fulfills objective of problem solving and learning for the small firm client.

Inputs Input 1: Student Group For this course, students should bring prior knowledge of general entrepreneurship and of general business functions to the course. They would also be expected to have an understanding of basic business terms, an understanding of the ICT theory, and an understanding of the trends in the industry. This understanding should include product life cycles, for example, if they are software students they should understand software process and software development life cycles. Students at this stage are more focused on career decisions.

Input 2: Small Firm (the Client) The added input dimension, as referred to previously, is the client firm. The characteristics of the firm such as their stage of firm development, the nature of the business problem, the willingness of the client to adhere to the requirements of the course, and the understanding of the client of the limits of student resources and expertise are factors that need to be considered for suitable matching of client and student teams. The characteristics of both sets of inputs require consideration in the design of the content

and, in particularly, the design of the teaching and delivery methods to ensure they successfully facilitate and support the student in the completion of their assigned tasks.

Process: Content and Teaching Focus A very high level of integration between the content and teaching focus is required to achieve the stated objectives. In order to highlight this, we describe this integration and discuss how the course should be delivered from teaching and content perspectives. During the first week teams of four to five students should be created in the class. Each team should be interdisciplinary, ensuring a well-balanced focus on entrepreneurship and ICT expertise within the group. The team requires a brief indicating the client needs and expectations. A meeting must be held between the client, student team, and faculty member. The purpose of this meeting is to familiarise the client and student team with each other and to discuss the requirements of the project in detail. Subsequent to this meeting the consultant team should devise a research proposal. The research proposal should indicate clearly what the agreed objectives of the research are, the proposed methodology that will be used to address the objectives, and a project log, which indicates the milestones and the time management of the project. This should be sent to the client, with a follow up telephone call by students to discuss any queries. Any modifications to the research proposal should be made at this stage. This modified document will guide the completion of the research. From a teaching perspective, there will be a minor component of formal lectures. However, teaching should be primarily driven by workshops, thus providing discovery learning. This should be completed by week three of the semester. During the remainder of the 9 weeks, through some formal lectures, the students should be familiarised with the theory of consultancy. They


should also be integrating this knowledge with the ICT knowledge that they are bringing to the group so that they are familiar with the particular company in which they will be involved. Furthermore, it is useful if guest speakers are invited to talk to the class. This would include at least one guest speaker who is a consultant and who can explain their consulting experience and the methods he/she uses to consult. Members of a development or funding agency who are involved in assessing completed consultancy projects on behalf of the clients can also provide relevant insights to the students. During these weeks the students should provide a progress report to both the client and faculty member on a weekly basis. They need to meet with their faculty member for a 1-hour workshop to review progress and address issues emerging in the research. In the 10th week, students should deliver a draft report to the faculty member they work with, who can make suggestions about additions or modifications that will be required to meet the client’s needs. In the 12th week, the consulting group should resubmit the draft report with the recommended changes. This can then be presented to the client as the final output of the consulting relationship. In the final week the student team undertakes a formal oral presentation of the findings of the research to the client and faculty member. This process engages the student in skill building and discovery learning. The use of case studies, interactive workshops, questioning, group discussion, and client briefings will all facilitate the student to take responsibility for their learning and will ensure it facilitates them in the achievement of their objectives within a certain time frame.

Assessment: (Outputs) As with course 1 that we described, this course assessment will also be based on the project,

but again should be broken into transparent milestones. Project management and project log 30% - Individual grade Draft report 30% - Group grade Final project report 25% - Group grade Project presentation 15% - Individual grade The combination of assessments ensures that ongoing learning is assessed on both an individual and group basis. Having individual and group assessment will test the student’s ability to work and contribute to a team set up while also demonstrating the ability to perform on their own. In this course there are two elements that can be assessed individually. Project management is similar to the previous course. An added dimension in this course is the requirement for the individual student to maintain a schedule of their activities and contribution to the project. This examines how the individual contributes to the team in areas such as attendance at all meetings, adherence to deadlines, constrictive feedback to other team members, new ideas/innovations brought to the team, what strengths they brought to the team, and in what areas they could have performed better. We envisage that less weighting will be given to the final report (25%) than in course 1. This reflects the need for the student team to have ongoing outputs, which feed into the final report. Thus, we include a grade for the draft report. These interim assessments examine the process and not the outcomes or the final physical report. The final assessment can critique how professionally and articulately the student, as both a team member and an individual, can communicate the


findings of the research and make a set of realistic and practical recommendations to the client. The assessment also includes feedback from the client firms to ascertain their level of satisfaction with the consultancy process. Interestingly they can also learn from the experience and participation. This course, through problem-based learning, can, in a practical sense, engage the student with the world of work in an ICT small firm. They can be given the responsibility to make decisions that will be implemented in a real life scenario. It can create a sense of confidence of dealing with owner/ managers, improve their ability to hold meetings, write proposals, and make decisions. They can demonstrate their ability to justify the rationale for these decisions which are supported by practical suggestions for their implementation.

educating for Ict entrepreneurship For the disciplines where the programs are currently run, the University of Limerick has evaluated the impact of these programs from an employer and student perspective. Feedback received has demonstrated that we are providing enterprising graduates for the existing workplace. This has been particularly evident in the development of skills and competencies in innovation, team work, and decision making. Furthermore, graduates from this program have started their own businesses and an increasing number of graduates consider business start-up as a career option at some stage. Through the presentation of these two courses we have demonstrated that the process framework for entrepreneurship education is an effective mechanism and guiding tool to devise skills and competency-based courses to create and encourage more enterprising activity in the ICT student. As is seen from the profiling of two courses, entrepreneurship courses need to be flexible and adaptable to meet the needs of the students in

different disciplines and can also simultaneously benefit the broader small firm ICT community in that region. The process framework for ICT entrepreneurship education can be used to achieve the required combination of professional, personal, and competency skills development. However, we argue that if ICT entrepreneurship education is to become more mainstream in educational institutions, then there is a need for more specific targeting of government policy at a number of levels, which are discussed in the next section.

concludIng coMMents Education has the responsibility to prepare graduates to embrace and be equipped to contribute positively to the workplace either as an employer or employee. The third-level educational system needs to address these changing needs through the development of more ICT entrepreneurship courses. This should be supported by effective policies. We have shown how the process framework for ICT entrepreneurship education is an effective mechanism to guide the design and development of such courses. This process framework emphasises the importance of understanding the needs of the student. An informed context (situational and personal) of the student will then allow for relevant and targeted design of the content, teaching, and assessment of proposed courses. The characteristics of the broader educational institution environment also needs to be considered. The courses presented acknowledge these factors and result in effective and integrative courses, which foster the creation of entrepreneurial mindset in the ICT graduate. It is important that such programs are integrated in a more mainstream manner into ICT curricula. In order to do this policy issues need to be considered.


collaboration and cooperation As was discussed, there are a number of stakeholders involved in the design and implementation of effective entrepreneurship programmes. From a strategic policy level there is a need for greater communication and coordination in the development of policies devised by departments of education and science and enterprise and employment. This coordination will ensure that policies devised for educational courses are relevant to the needs of the changing workplace. It will also ensure implementation and support at the government level. At an operational level, greater exchanges and discussion should exist between departments of education and science, third-level institutions, and teachers associations. This is important to ensure change is encouraged and implemented without resistance. During the development of ICT entrepreneurship education, we as educators need to ensure that the needs and changes in the ICT sector are addressed in course design and development. Demonstration of the importance of these programs must be highlighted through formal evaluation of these initiatives. This requires cooperation and strong working relationships between the thirdlevel institutions and ICT representative organisations such as the Irish Software Association, Enterprise Ireland, and Forfás. Furthermore, these linkages would encourage a positive disposition towards sponsorship.

make for a better educational experience for the student, the institution, and the economy. There will be no return on investment without investment in the first place.

Institutional commitment to the trainers We also noted that to implement successful ICT entrepreneurship courses requires that the teaching process is different from traditional lecturedriven approaches. This teaching process must include the different forms of teaching: didactic, skill building, and discovery. Given that this teaching requires involvement from different sources (such as local industry) and use of methods not prevalent in teaching, there is a requirement for the commitment and buy-in of the educational institution and the individual faculty. Also, as skill building and discovery teaching take more time and effort than didactic teaching, those who are involved in this should be rewarded for their involvement. It is imperative that if such courses are to be sustained and become more mainstreamed in universities then there is a need for management and institutional procedures to acknowledge, accommodate, and encourage such courses. There needs to be a general culture conducive to enterprising behaviour in the institution. This may take the form of a reduced teaching load or the recognition for the development of such initiatives in faculty promotions models.

resource Allocation

conclusIon

As discussed, ICT entrepreneurship education design and implementation requires extra resources in terms of time, faculty, and physical resources. To ensure the development and promotion of such courses, specific funding should be allocated, and resource allocation models should acknowledge their resource-intensive nature. Creating courses that integrate entrepreneurship with ICT will

The demands of the workplace in Ireland are changing in terms of the type and profile of growth-industry sectors. The development of the small-firm sector continues to be important for the Irish economy, in particular sectors such as the ICT sector. ICT and entrepreneurship must be combined to ensure that we have a strong indigenous ICT sector to continue this economic growth.


References Audretsch, D. B. (2002, July). Entrepreneurship: A survey of the literature. Prepared for the European Commission. London: Enterprise Directorate General, Research (CEPR). Baig, K. (2004). The real purpose of education. Retrieved from www.youngmuslims.ca/articles/ display.asp?ID=44 Central Statistics Office. (2004). Information Society statistics—Ireland 2004. Dublin, Ireland: Government of Ireland.

Forfás. (2004). Employment survey. Retrieved from www.forfas.ie Galloway, L., Anderson, M., Brown, W., & Whittam, G. (2005, May). The impact of entrepreneurship education in HE. Report for Business Education Support Team. Galloway, L., & Brown, W. (2002). Entrepreneurship education at university: A driver in the creation of high growth firms. Education and Training, 44(8/9).

Chell, E., & Allman, K. (2003). Mapping the motivations and intentions of technology oriented entrepreneurs. R&D Management, 33(22).

Gibb, A. (1996). Entrepreneurship and small business management: Can we afford to neglect them in the twenty-first century business school? British Journal of Management, 7, 309-321.

De Faoite, D., Henry, C., Johnson, K., & Van der Sijde, P. (2003). Education and training for entrepreneurs: A consideration of initiatives in Ireland and the Netherlands. Education and Training, 45(8/9).

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. (2003). How entrepreneurial is Ireland? Department of Business Administration, University College Dublin. Retrieved from www.gemconsortium.org/download.asp?fid=327

Department for Education and Skills (DFES). (2002). Howard Review of enterprise and the economy in education.

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. (2004) Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2004—National and regional summaries. Retrieved from http://www. gemconsortium.org/

Department for Education and Skills (DFES). (2003, January). The future of higher education. Paper presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Education and Skills. Enterprise Ireland Strategy Group. (2004). Ahead of the curve: Ireland’s place in the global economy. Dublin: Irish Government Publications. Europa. (2003). Webs’ definitions of micro, small and medium sized Enterprises. Retrieved from www.europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/enlvb/n2606. htm Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN). (2004). Submission to the forum on the workplace of the future. Retrieved from www.skillsireland. ie

Hannon, P. (2005, November). Graduate entrepreneuship in the UK: Defining a research and education policy framework. Twenty-eighth National Institute for Small Business & Entrepreneurship Conference. Henry, C., Hill, F., & Leitch, C. (2003). Entrepreneurship education and training. Ashgate, Aldershot, UK. Hynes, B. (1996). Entrepreneurship education and training—Introducing entrepreneurship into nonbusiness disciplines. Journal of European Industrial Training, 20(8).

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Hytti, U., & O’Gorman, C. (2004). What is enterprise education? An analysis of the objectives and methods of enterprise education programmes in four European countries. Education and Training, 46(1). ICT Ireland. (2003). Creating a world class environment for ICT entrepreneurs. ICT Ireland. (2005). Key industry statistics. Retrieved from http://www.ictireland.ie/Sectors/ ict/ictDoclib4.nsf/vlookupHTML/key_industry_statistics?OpenDocument Kirby, D. (2002, November). Entrepreneurship education: Can business schools meet the challenge? RENT Conference, Barcelona, Spain. Krueger, N., Reilly, M. D., & Carsrud, A. L. (2000). Competiting models of entrepreneurial intentions. Journal of Business Venturing, 15. Martin, L. M. (2004, June 11). Developing an international entrepreneurship programme; A work in progress. IEEE Conference, University of Wolverhampton, UK.

Rand, A. (2004). Retrieved from www.teachersmind.com Revenue Commissioners Statistical Unit. (2003). Annual Report 2003. Dublin, Ireland. Robertson, M., Collins, A., Wilson, K., & Lyewllyn, D. (2003). Embedding entrepreneurial studies across the curriculum paper. Twenty-sixth National Institute for Small Business & Entrepreneurship Conference: SME’s in the Knowledge Economy. Small Firms Association (SFA). (2003). Small Firms Association Annual Conference. Trauth, E. M. (2000). The culture of an information economy: Influences and impacts in the Republic of Ireland. Boston: Kluwer Academic.

Endnotes

1

Martin, L. M. (2005, November). Technology and graduate enterprise education; Innovation management exercise IMIE. Twenty-eighth National Institute for Small Business & Entrepreneurship Conference. National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education (NCIHE). (1997, July). Higher education in the learning society (The Dearing Report). Postigo, S., & Tamborini, M. F. (2002, July). Entrepreneurship education in Argentina. International Entrepreneurship Education and Training Conference, IntEnt.

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2

3

In Ireland, students attend second-level education from age 12-18 (approx). They then attend third-level institutions (universities, technical colleges) to complete undergraduate courses, which range from 1 to 4 years (Undergraduate Certificate, Undergraduate Diploma, Pass Bachelor Degree, Honours Bachelor Degree). The discussion in this chapter relates to Honours Bachelor Degree programs. Entrepreneurial activity as classified in the GEM (2004) study incorporates two indicators, namely, the level of activity of individuals thinking of starting a business (nascent entrepreneurs) and secondly the established firm (up to 42 months in operation). We want to clearly distinguish between IT skills and ICT education. IT skills include desktop packages as mentioned in this section. ICT education is the education of


graduates in subjects such as software engineering, computer science, and computer engineering.

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Chapter VII

Curriculum Change and Alignment with Industry: The Student Perspective Krassie Petrova Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand Gwyn Claxton Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand

Abstract This chapter presents the design and results of a study that focuses on students as stakeholders in the education process. A general framework based on a nomological net is introduced and used to derive the research models underpinning data gathering and the subsequent data analysis. The findings indicate that students realistically evaluate the gaps in their learning but put more emphasis on technical skills, ignoring or undervaluing soft and business skills despite academic efforts to develop these through skill-centered teaching. It was also found that a mismatch existed between student expectations of required skills and skills demanded by employers, to some extent exacerbated by the content of job advertisements.

INTRODUCTION In the last decade the use of the term information technology (IT) has changed as the IT industry itself has changed: “change is the only constant” of the contemporary IT environment (Pedigo & Callahan, 2003). IT is now used to refer to a much wider range of computing disciplines including information systems (IS), computer science (CS), and software engineering (SE).

In the contemporary digital and networked society, communication technologies have become an essential part of the IT landscape and now the information and communication technology (ICT) approach dominates current practice (Chandra et al., 2000; Pedigo & Callahan, 2003). As before, the IT (and IS) disciplines address organisational needs (Shackleford et al., 2005). The change in the IT landscape leads to a change in the nature of the skills and capabilities required by both beginner and experienced


Curriculum Change and Alignment with Industry

IT practitioners, especially for recent graduates who have yet to adjust to their new roles in an industry that is in a state of perennial evolution (Leong & Tan, 2004). However, there is a significant difference between the rate of adoption of new technology by academia and industry. The existence of an adoption gap was recognized in CS studies (Bamberger, 1986; Conner & De Jong, 1979; Moore & Streib, 1989). In IS and e-business, the phenomenon was investigated by Chandra et al. (2000) and by Davis, Siau, and Dhenuvakonda (2003). These authors believe that academia lacks the motivation of a “real-life” driving force and therefore tends not to respond automatically to current industry demands. Typically IT/IS academic programs cover a spectrum of disciplines, some of which were previously referred to as “computing.” IT/IS academic curricula have gradually evolved to include the development of skills and capabilities in several broad areas, for example, CS and SE (Shackleford et al., 2004) and e-business (Gorgone et al., 2002). Research in the field of skill and capability building has identified a number of different skill sets serving as curricula focal points. These sets are often qualified as either technical and technological (“hard”) or business and managerial (“soft”) skills (Litecky, Arnett, & Prabhakar, 2004; Turner & Lowry, 2003). A specific concern addressed in the literature is that undergraduate academic programs still do not produce graduates equipped with the skills and capabilities that industry values and requires as curricula are often too theoretical and out-of-date (Bailey & Stefaniak, 2002; Lee, 2002; Roberts, 2000;). The difficulties faced by curriculum developers are exacerbated by the trends towards the convergence of technologies that traditionally were grounded either in business or in software systems (Shackleford et al., 2004). The inclusion of e-business/e-commerce in the IT/IS curriculum (Gorgone et al., 2002) presents an additional complication as it focuses on the virtual enterprise (Nayak, Bhaskaran, & Das, 2001) and on the

integration between front-end e-commerce capability and back-end IT infrastructure (Zhu, 2004). To address the resulting complexity, a variety of “business cum technical courses” have been developed (for example, Lei, Mariga, & Pobanz, 2003; Ramakrishnan & Ragothaman, 2001). In order to identify the IT skills that organizations require of their employees, academics have collected and analyzed data gathered from the workplace, from academic programs themselves, and from job advertisements and have investigated employer and student expectations. Three skill categories have been identified as a result. For example, Lee, Trauth, and Farwell (1995) who predicted an increase in business/systems analyst and end-user support jobs, recommended academia consider graduate outcomes that incorporated interpersonal, management, and technical skills. Leitheiser (1992), who studied employer expectations, identified a similar set of skills (technical, interpersonal and business) as being important for systems analysts. Similarly, in Bailey and Stefaniak (2002) and in Chilton and Hardgrave (2004) the emphasis is on the importance of interpersonal (soft) and management/business skills, as well as on technical (hard) skills. Research over the years has continued to identify the different emphasis put on these skill categories. Ng Tye, Poon, and Burn (1995) in Hong Kong, and later, Lee, Koh, Yen, and Tang (2002) in a literature survey highlighted the importance of soft skills. Lee et al. (2002) reported that IS practitioners considered interpersonal skills more important than IS academics did. They recommended that “IS academics need a directional change to place more emphasis on nontechnical areas such as interpersonal skills” (p. 60). In a further study of IS business schools and IT companies, Yen, Chen, Lee, and Koh (2003) found that academics rated technical skills more highly than IS practitioners did. Conversely, IS practitioners rated interpersonal and organizational skills (including teamwork, written and oral communication) higher than academics did.


This confirms an earlier finding that managerial skills were the important ones from an industry perspective, as they were needed to sustain the organization’s competitive advantage in view of the rapidly changing IT (Mata, Fuerst, & Barney, 1995). The contradiction highlighted here indicates that some students might exit academia inadequately equipped with the skills most demanded by their future employers. An analysis of IS job advertisements between 1970 and 1990 by Todd, McKeen, and Gallupe (1995) reported that there was an emphasis on technical skills in job advertisements. Another study of job advertisements conducted over a 15-year period showed an increasing emphasis on technical skills required for systems analyst positions (Lee, 2002). Gardiner (2005) and Lee (2005), when identifying skills needed for the job market from an employer perspective, found soft skills to be as important as technical ones. For example, Lee (2005) analyzed 317 company Web sites to identify the important advertised skill requirements for evolving IT/IS careers and found that “general business knowledge was important not only to IT managers but also to programmer/analysts and systems analysts” (p. 91) and that soft skills were required for all three job types. These results confirm the previous findings by Gallivan, Truex, and Kvasny (2004), who evaluated prior research on future job and skill demands, established that industry required a wide variety of skills including soft ones while recruitment agencies emphasized technical skills rather than ‘soft’ skills. In a comparison study of student and industry perceptions of skill importance, students were found to put more emphasis on learning how to use software, whereas industry did not rate this skill highly (Weber, McIntyre, & Schmidt, 2001). The authors suggested that “students may be devoting effort to learning skills that aren’t valued highly by industry” (p. 82). They also found that the perceptions of students who were closer to the

0

end of their study were more closely aligned with industry perceptions (Weber et al., 2001). There is evidence showing that as students move from their studies to the workforce they become aware of the contradictions highlighted previously. In Medlin, Dave, and Vannoy (2001) for example, IT students were surveyed on their perceptions of the importance of technical and nontechnical skills. The results showed that students considered nontechnical skills as important as technical skills. Similarly, the cross-country (U.S.) study by Medlin (2004), which measures MIS student perceptions of technical, organizational, and creative skills as needed for the job market, demonstrated that students perceived communication skills as most important followed equally by managerial and analytical skills, and lastly by technical ones. Leong and Tan (2004) surveyed the perceptions of graduates who were looking for work and found that many students had started to question the technical nature of their education as their job interview experiences demonstrated the importance of business and interpersonal skills. The paradox of job advertisements stressing technical skills versus IS managers putting soft skills as a priority when hiring employees was also noted by Litecky et al. (2004). The role of students as stakeholders in the evaluation of academic outcomes is increasingly considered important as a useful feedback mechanism with a potential to impact on curriculum development (Dressler & Keeling, 2004; Holt, MacKay, & Smith, 2004). Student demands and expectations should play a significant role as drivers of change in the educational value chain (Figure 1) where they participate as actors: both industry expectations and student perceptions of industry expectations instigate demand for specific educational outcomes, subsequently delivered by academia. Academic programs therefore would be successful in attracting candidates only if designed to meet industry requirements and to offer promising career paths.


Figure 1. The educational value chain (Adapted from Oblinger & Kidwell, 2000)

bAcKground A case that may be used to investigate some of the issues discussed in the previous section is the Bachelor of Business (BBus) program offered at a New Zealand university. The goal of the BBus curriculum is to equip students with the ability to solve business problems and add value to business through the application, implementation, and management of ICT; including standards and protocols and business models (Bachelor of Business Handbook, 2005). Two separate IT/ISrelated specializations (“majors”) (one in IT and another in e-business) were developed. IT and e-business graduates are expected to acquire a broad understanding of business as well as specialist knowledge, skills, and professional capabilities. Table 1 illustrates the content of the two specializations. Each specialization consists of a core set of professional “papers” at two different academic levels—level 6 (year 2) and level 7 (year 3). Students specializing in IT or in e-business have to complete at least three papers at level 6 and three papers at level 7 from the relevant table. The program complements academic study with industry experience through a one-semester, cooperative education course (hereafter referred to as co-op). The cooperative placement is typically undertaken during the last semester of the course of study. The cooperative education model implemented is the so-called “full immersion” (Fincher et al., 2004, p. 116) as students work in “real-life” roles and need to meet the employer

requirements for these roles. It is required that students complete a workplace project relevant to the organization they are placed in. Typically IT students are given projects as novice business analysts, including eliciting and interpreting client specifications for new or redeveloped systems, and e-business students are given projects related to designing new business Web sites or evaluating existing ones. Although the two specializations are well differentiated academically, some employers find it difficult to distinguish between their profiles and occasionally an employer assigns an IT student an e-business project (for example, developing a business Web site). One reason could be the changing role of IT in organizations and the implementation of intranet and Internet solutions that blur the difference between online and off-line assets (Zhu, 2004). Consequently, students from either specialization may find that their co-op work assignment involves aspects of both e-business and IS. It seems that there exists a significant fusion of the skills and capabilities required from graduates with IT or e-business specialization (as noted also in Katz & Safranski, 2003). The importance of workplace learning, where industry and students experience informs curriculum development, was highlighted by Holt et al. (2004). Gathering relevant and timely data about the problems faced by students and employers in a cooperative education setting might help ensure that curriculum learning outcomes meet the targets set by the workplace and address educators’ major concern: do students exit the


Table 1. Core professional papers: IT and e-business

walls of academia equipped with the appropriate skills and capabilities needed to meet employers’ requirements and demands? To study the relevance of the academic program described previously to workplace needs and requirements, a three-stage research project building on prior research (Claxton, 2003; Couger et al., 1995; Gutierrez & Boisvert, 2003; Senapathi & Petrova, 2002) was undertaken during the period 2003-2005. The subjects of the study were undergraduate students specializing in IT and e-business, and the employers of IT and e-business students in cooperative placements. The study examined the effectiveness of the learning outcomes of the papers described in Table 1, especially as these cover a range of technical and soft skills. In general, the study addressed the issue of integrating student and employer feedback and perceptions into the process of curricula design and development and evaluating the effectiveness of the process of skill and capability building through curriculum delivery. More specifically,

the study aimed to provide an insight into employers’ expectations about the specific skills expected by employers from students specializing in IT and e-business as academic disciplines. The main objectives of the first two stages of the study were to investigate whether the process of curriculum delivery was effective and to identify true and perceived gaps in the academic programs drawing implications for curriculum development. The last stage of the study specifically investigated the skill and capability building process in undergraduate students studying the IT discipline. Previous work in a similar direction includes two empirical studies (Fedorowicz & Gogan, 2001; Lee, 2002), where the academic curricula in each of the respective authors’ institutions are evaluated in the context of the job market (based on data collected from job advertisements). While both studies provide useful perspectives relevant to the two major stakeholder types—academia (curriculum developers) and industry (employers, managers)—they do not include students as stakeholders.


As mentioned earlier, current and past research has highlighted some contradictions between the requirements stated in job advertisements and the skills and capabilities in demand by real-life employers as well as the existence of different emphases on particular sets of skills in academic curriculum and in the workplace. As students are involved in a structured teaching and learning process, which aims to achieve specified learning outcomes, it is important that these learning outcomes are the ones needed in the job market. It is equally important that students understand the value of what they have learned and acquired and how this might support their future development. The transferability of general business knowledge (Lee, 2005) and the temporality of software product knowledge (Weber et al., 2001) illustrate this point well. Given the gap between ICT curriculum and current ICT development as identified in the literature already discussed, students need to be fully aware of how well they have prepared for their future jobs. A comprehensive constructs framework representing the stakeholders and the environment was used to underpin the study, with the overarching research question formulated as “Do the IT skills and capabilities of future business analysts meet the requirements of the workplace environment?” The study investigated aspects of the ongoing supply of students to the workplace and revealed some interesting facets of student expectations about their own abilities and employers’ preconceived perceptions about student skills and capabilities. It also allowed some conclusions to be drawn about the effectiveness of the teaching and learning process with respect to IT skill and capability building. The main areas of the enquiry were the relationships between the academic programs, the skills and capabilities acquired by students graduating with one or both of the majors, and the requirements of the industry and the job market. The two central problems motivating the study are stated as follows:

Problem 1. Will students have the mix of skills and capabilities that can satisfy the demands of the workplace? Problem 2. Will student graduates consider that they have learned the skills needed for their future work? To answer the central problems we formulated the following set of questions to guide our research. Q1. Do students, through their professional studies, acquire the skills and capabilities needed in the workplace? (Problem 1). Q2. What are the gaps in students’ knowledge as perceived by both students and employers? (Problems 1 & 2). Q3. Do the skills and capabilities of students (future graduates) meet industry expectations? (Problem 1). Q4. How do learning outcomes as part of course design contribute to students developing the needed skills? (Problems 1 & 2). In the next section the research framework and the methodology followed in the study will be discussed in more detail.

the reseArch Process A general research framework with emphasis on stakeholders, and especially students, was developed. It encompasses the whole stakeholder “space” (academia and industry) and also includes the relationships between stakeholders; this was to generate hypotheses related to the research questions formulated in the previous section and served as a basis for the creation of data gathering research instruments.


research Methodology and objectives The research methodology adopts both interpretivist (Klein & Myers, 1999) and positivist approaches (Lee, 1991; Bazeley, 1999). Nomological nets1 of constructs were created from the data gathered at the three consecutive stages of the case study. An initial framework of constructs and relationships (Figure 2) was developed and used to generate the research models for the three stages. The nomological net allows the study of the relationships between the constructs and the formulation of hypotheses. The framework comprises six constructs grouped in three contexts; teaching, learning, and working. It is similar to the nomological net of IT/ IS constructs in Ben-

Figure 2. General research framework

basat and Zmud (2003), a variation of which was implemented in Claxton (2003). The framework captures the processes involved in curriculum design and curriculum delivery with different relationships occurring between the constructs. The relationships linking the constructs used in the study are shown in detail in the legend of Figure 2. A total of 10 relevant relationships were identified, based on the following general assumptions about the case underpinning the study: • •

•

All academic papers have predefined learning outcomes. Learning outcomes include knowledge acquisition,skills acquisition, and capability building. A graduating student possesses knowledge, skills, and capabilities that are acquired


•

•

through studying academic papers (courses). Acquired student skills and capabilities are applied and tested through the assigned cooperative education work project. (Projects are checked by academic supervisors to ensure that the prescribed work relates to the graduate profile of the major). Employers (and job market) require skilled graduates.

Overview of the Study Stages The study was conducted in three stages. At the first two stages the stakeholders from the learning context were student participants enrolled in their third year of the case academic program (i.e., future graduates specializing in IT and/or in ebusiness). At the last stage the student participants were second year students intending to specialize in IT or e-business or both. Stakeholders from the working context were involved at the second stage (co-op work place supervisors). At the first stage, data about the effectiveness of academic learning outcomes were collected and analyzed with regard to the demands and expectations of the workplace. Curriculum development areas were broadly identified and a framework of IT/e-business-related skills and capabilities was

derived. The framework was used in the second stage to identify the skills and capabilities expected from students by their industry employers and to study students’ own perceptions about being able to meet industry expectations. Job types in demand by the industry were also highlighted. At the third stage, the effectiveness of the process of building skills and capabilities within the context of second-year professional papers was investigated. An overview of the study is presented in Figure 3, which shows the sequence of stages, the environments that served as the context for each stage, and the participants. The cooperative environment is in fact a hybrid between academia and “real life” as students work and study within the framework of co-op. During the study, the results obtained from previous stages informed the work undertaken at the next stage. To present the case as a whole, we first describe the research models and the data-gathering process. The results obtained are discussed in two separate sections further in the chapter.

Research Models The following research models were derived from the general framework and used in the three stages mentioned previously:

Figure 3. Study stages, contexts, and human participants Academic environment

Stage 1: Skills and students

Second year students

Cooperative environment

Stage 2: Skills and demands

Third year students

'Real life' environment

Stage 3: Skill acquisition

Cooperative employers

135


Figure 4. Research model 1

Research Models & (Stage : Student Skills and Capabilities) The study subjects were students undertaking the co-op paper that involved working on a project assigned by the workplace. Q1 and Q2 address the processes occurring in this environment, with respect to which hypothesis (H1) was formulated: H1. The skills and capabilities achieved through the learning outcomes of the professional papers match the skills and capabilities needed from students in the workplace. Hypothesis (H1) and the corresponding research model 1 (Figure 4) focus on the learning outcomes of an individual paper. To investigate the compound effect of all papers taken by a student, two additional hypotheses were formulated based on research model 2 (Figure 5), which was designed to identify the “gaps” in student knowledge and skills.

H2.1 The papers taken by a student in their professional specialization leave recognizable gaps in terms of knowledge, skills, and capabilities. H2.2 The identified gaps in the learning outcomes from all papers may provide a basis for curriculum development. Based on the two research models, a series of questionnaires were designed and distributed anonymously to students who were undertaking their co-op placements in semester 2, 2003. Each questionnaire was based on one of the papers in Table 1 and each paper’s learning outcome was converted to a question as shown in the example in Table 2. Students responded to each question on a Likert scale of 1 (“not helpful at all”) to 5 (“very helpful”). If the learning outcome was not perceived to be relevant to the work assignment the student did not rank its helpfulness. All questionnaires contained an open-ended question—general comments about the paper. In addition, the questionnaires for level 7 (third year) papers included an openended question for each learning outcome.



Table 2. A sample question

The questionnaires were distributed to all students specializing in IT and/or in e-business. Responses were received from 45 students. The response rate for level 6 (second year) papers was not very high. This might be explained with the timing of the survey (the questionnaires were mailed out very close to the due date of the final student assessment) therefore only data gathered through level 7 questionnaires are analyzed here (Table 3). The IT papers response rate is close to 100%, which might be explained by the fact that the IT specialization at the time of the survey consisted of compulsory papers only. The variation in the e-business papers response rate can be explained by the fact that a student needs to take only three out of the four papers offered. As the number of students who had completed at least three papers in each specialization was close to 100%, it could be assumed that a representative number of responses had been captured and that the respondents had undertaken the papers

targeted by the questionnaires. This would allow us to test the hypotheses formulated previously. To be able to establish to what extent student responses related to the work undertaken in the co-op placement, the type of work they had been assigned by the employer was analyzed. Based on student learning contracts, the assigned co-op projects were grouped into three classes (Figure 6).

Research Model (Stage : Student Skills and Industry Requirements) A research model incorporating employers and the job market was developed (Figure 7). It was designed to address Q3 by capturing the expectations of industry and students and provide a direction for further research and academic development. Gathering data from multiple sources contributed to the validity of the study (Bazeley, 1999). The data collection process was carried out in semester 1, 2004.


Table 3. Response rates

Figure 6. Stage 1: Projects classification

Three hypotheses were formulated (H3, H4, and H5): H3. Most skills acquired by students may not be needed in the workplace to meet employers’ expectations. H4. Skills and capabilities needed by employers may not be part of academic outcomes. H5. Student perceptions of skills and capabilities needed by industry/employers may not be well aligned with academic outcomes.

Ten co-op employers were sent anonymous questionnaires of which seven were returned. Ten students attended a focus group and were given an anonymous questionnaire each, of which nine were returned. The responses were coded based on results obtained at stage 1. As in Lee (2002), three skill categories were defined: (1) business systems design, business systems development, and generic. Students were asked to indicate what IT and e-business skills and capabilities acquired through their studies proved to be useful, and what other skills they might have benefited from. Similarly



Table 4. Employer and student perceptions of IT and e-business skills and capabilities


Table 5. Stage 2: Projects classification

Figure 8. Projects in two categories

co-op employers were asked what skills and capabilities brought from academia they thought were useful, and what skills students did not seem to have developed sufficiently. A sample of 21 co-op assignments were analyzed and classified using the categories identified previously (Table 5). Five of the projects fell into two categories (Figure 8). For the purposes of data triangulation (Orlikowski, 1993) and following the approach in Lee (2002), three job advertisement sources were scanned for positions related to IT/IS and e-business (http://www.netcheck.co.nz, http://www.

0

seek.co.nz, and the daily newspaper The New Zealand Herald) in April-May 2004. A total of 449 relevant job advertisements were identified. The categories that emerged from the classification of the projects (Table 5) were applied to classify job advertisements (Tables 6, 7, and 8).

Research Model (Stage : Skill Acquisition and Capability Building) The last stage was partially informed by the results obtained at the previous two stages. It was also motivated by results such as the ones reported


Table 6. Job classification: IS/DB and IS

by Tang, Lee, and Koh (2001), who surveyed IS educators and found that according to their respondents, there were numerous gaps between defined IS skills and IS skills achieved by students—including interpersonal communication, personal motivation, critical thinking, and systems development methodologies. The effectiveness of skills and capability building in the classroom was investigated, based on four second-year papers (EBITI, IE, MISDP, and ETS). All papers include a group project assignment, evolving around eliciting and determining user requirements. During the project, students work face-to-face and in a group online forum and engage in role play exercises (e.g., meetings with the “user” to ask questions about user requirements).

The research model (Figure 9) captures the student perspective on the teaching and learning process and the importance of its outcomes. It was used to investigate Q4 through the following hypotheses: H6.1 The paper learning outcomes translate into knowledge and technical skills. H6.2 The paper assessment helps students build interpersonal and soft skills. H7.1 Studying the paper has helped students realize the importance of the acquired knowledge and technical skills for their future careers.


Table 7. Job classification: E-business

Table 8. Job classification: IT infrastructure

H7.2 Working on the paper assignment has helped students realize the importance of the acquired interpersonal and soft skills for their future careers. Data from several sources were gathered both at the beginning and at the end of semester 2, 2005. To determine the level of prior student knowledge, an anonymous questionnaire was distributed to all 133 participants at the beginning of the semester. The questions were derived from the learning outcomes of each paper and asked the respondents to rate the level of knowledge they had

about the content of the related-learning outcome using a Likert scale from 1 (“No knowledge”) to 5 (“Expert knowledge”). The profile of the sample and the tabulated data are shown in Table 9 and Figure 10. End-of-semester achievement results (pass rate) were gathered to determine whether students had gained sufficient knowledge to pass each of the four papers (Table 10). Data from a focus group held at the end of the semester were gathered, focusing on how students perceived their knowledge, skills, and capabilities after studying and completing the papers.



Table 9. Respondents’ profile

results In this section we will consider the results obtained from each of the three stages, as described in detail in the previous section.

stage 1: students skills and capabilities This stage investigated the helpfulness of the skills and capabilities students acquired while studying particular papers, in the context of the cooperative workplace. Results included here refer to level 7 papers. The responses regarding the helpfulness of each learning outcome for each paper were tabulated and summarized, with the average rate of helpfulness for each learning outcome calculated as the average of all respondents’ rankings. The

data analysis graphs in Figures 11 and 12 show the distribution of the level of helpfulness for all papers included in the survey. Strategic data management architectures (SDMA) were perceived as the “most helpful” paper overall in the IT major. In particular the learning outcomes related to database management systems, relational database design, and database administration were found most helpful. In general, students found all learning outcomes to be helpful. An interesting result is the score for “helped but needed more.” A reason for this could be that students were unsure of how to apply the theories they had learned in a work situation, requiring guidance before they were confident in their own abilities. This is supported by student responses to the questionnaires where they indicated a lack of real life experience (Table 4).


Figure 10. Student knowledge at the beginning of the semester

(a)

(b)

144


Figure 10. Student knowledge at the beginning of the semester

(c)

(d)

145


Table 10. End-of-semester pass rate

Figure 11. IT major student responses

In e-business, eMarketing (eM), and Making the Web work for business (MWW4B) were perceived as “most helpful,” followed closely by e-business management (eBM). Although eBM is a compulsory course, its learning outcomes were not perceived as helpful as it might be expected. This can be explained by the fact that student work assignments did not require the application of the breadth of management skills students might have acquired. The relatively low helpfulness of e-business law in the global market” (eLaw) might be due to the fact that the learning outcomes are very specific and might not have been relevant to student work assignments.

The points made previously relate to the validation of hypothesis H1; it can be concluded that in the process of undertaking professional studies at level 7, the respondents of the survey had acquired skills and capabilities meeting the requirements posed by the cooperative workplace assignment. The data analyzed are also related to hypothesis H2.1 and give a preliminary positive response to the question it poses. Students’ suggestions about “new” topics to be included in the IT and e-business curricula (Table 4) were used to investigate further hypotheses H2.1 and H2.2. The “new” topics identified can be broadly grouped into Business Systems Develop-


Figure 12. E-business major student responses

ment (including systems modeling and integrated business environments) and Business Systems Infrastructure (including advanced networking and elements of programming). Considering this grouping, it can be concluded that the data collected confirm the two hypotheses H2.1 and H2.2 and student suggestions may provide a foundation for new curriculum developments. These results compare well with other suggestions for new course development in IT, IS, and e-business as suggested, for example, by Lei et al. (2003) and also by Ramakrishnan and Ragothaman (2002).

stage 2: student skills and Industry requirements This stage of the study focused on the relevance of student skills as demanded in job advertisements,

on employer perceptions of student skills, and on student self-perceptions. To compare student and employer perceptions (Table 4), it can be seen that from a student perspective, valuable skills are data and process modeling, marketing principles, Project planning, and Human-computer interaction. However, employers do not place the same value on all of these skills; in particular, the negative response to human-computer interaction may indicate a certain lack of understanding of this area (by employers). Another area where students and employers have different perceptions is communication skills. While most employers consider that communication skills could be improved, more than half of the student responses show that respondents are confident in having these skills. Skills related to real-life experience elicited a strong negative response from both groups. Although the co-op project is designed to address


Table 11. Topics suggested by students

the need for real-life experience and develop further student capabilities in independent problem solving, it needs to be noted that not all co-op work projects align with already acquired skills and capabilities. This might explain the high rate of negative responses and confirms an earlier observation that students were unsure of how to apply theories in a work situation. Both employers and students indicated that there was a noticeable lack of skills in three particular areas: Web design, software applications, and real-life experience. Web design and software applications are related to constant technological change and the responses might reflect the slower uptake by academia of innovative technologies. The fact that employers and students emphasize the lack of real-life experience is important. It may reflect employer expectations of “work ready” graduates and the students’ own perceptions of not being fully prepared for independent work. Two areas of skills and capabilities IS and networking concepts indicate that students perceive they have a gap in learning in these areas. Employers’ responses also point out the lack of skills and capabilities in networking concepts, and to a lesser extent, in IS concepts. This might indicate that academic curriculum outcomes in these two areas are not adequately aligned with the demands of the industry, although the topics are certainly among the focal points of several

academic courses which co-op students would have undertaken as part of their program. Students think they need more skills in programming and SQL and Web development, however, these are not perceived as important by employers who consider students need more skills in e-business development. In other words, students perceive a need for more concrete programming skills, while employers are looking for more generic skills in the area of e-business development. The data and observations above confirm the first part of hypothesis H3: most skills acquired by students are needed in the workplace. Regarding the second part of the same hypothesis, it can be concluded that while employer expectations are met sufficiently in the area of IS, the subject areas of e-business development and possibly networking need to be integrated more tightly into the current curriculum of both the IT and ebusiness specializations. It can also be concluded that student perceptions of skills and capabilities expected by employers (hypothesis H5) do not necessarily match employers’ requirements. The two stakeholder groups disagree on the skills needed for e-business/Web development. This issue needs to be addressed through an appropriate curriculum design including hands-on experience. The challenge would be to identify the correct mix of skills and capabilities in need of further development.


To investigate hypothesis H4, the co-op projects classification (Table 5) was compared with the data about employer and student perceptions (Table 4). The categories identified in Table 5 match the factual content and the formally stated graduate profiles of the IT and the e-business specializations (see for example School of Computer and Information Sciences Handbook, 2005, pp. 28-30). Most IS type of projects were undertaken by students specializing in IT, while an equal number of IT and e-business students were assigned e-business projects. This indicates that some employers do not distinguish between IS, IT, and e-business skills. Only two projects involved work related to network infrastructure and therefore the notion about lack of skills in networking concepts (Table 4) is not sufficiently supported by the evidence. The number of projects in IS and e-business development are consistent with employers’ responses regarding lack of skills in these areas. These observations confirm hypothesis H4 and indicate that a gap exists in student learning (both in e-business and in IT). The e-business discipline plays the role of a “catalyst” for change (Shackleford et al., 2004) and drives the need to redefine the sets of capabilities relevant to IT and to e-business, and to redesign the related curricula. In stage 1 and partially in stage 2 the co-op environment was used as a substitute for the industry environment. To investigate further the issues identified and looking for evidence confirming the need for curriculum change, job advertisements were analyzed. This also served the purpose of data triangulation as the results of the analysis were compared with results obtained earlier. It can be seen that the job position types in Tables 6, 7, and 8 fit well within the previously identified categories of co-op projects (Table 5). It can be concluded therefore that the co-op work environment represents well the “real world” and that the findings so far, based on the analysis of data collected from the co-op environment, are

credible and applicable to the industry and the job market as a whole.

stage 3: skill Acquisition and capability building This stage studied the process of knowledge building and skills acquisition. The participants were given a project assignment designed to develop both technical and soft skills, with emphasis on user requirements elicitation and determination. Both group work and role play were included as a means of developing the understanding of the business processes needed to derive user requirements. The analysis of the data gathered at the beginning of the semester (Figure 9) shows that students perceived their technical abilities in the content areas of the four papers as relatively low (consistent with academic expectations). Students perceive themselves as slightly better equipped to deal with user requirements determination and project management compared to dealing with the technical design of building of systems (based on the averages in three papers EBITI, ETS, and MISDP). This is consistent with the results of the previous stage and shows that by their second year in the program some of the students already perceive themselves as having developed sufficient “soft” and business skills. Student pass rates for the papers varied from 85% to 98%. The data about student achievement showed that the majority of the students performed very well—indicating that they had met the learning outcomes of the papers and had acquired the knowledge they lacked at the beginning of the semester—thus confirming hypothesis (H6.1). The assessment structure of each of the papers students took can be characterized as “product” based rather than as “process” based, and therefore the achievement measures, although valid when measuring technical (hard) skills and knowledge, cannot be used reliably to measure the acquisition of soft skills (hypothesis H6.2).


Focus group results confirmed that students have gained the technical knowledge required to develop user requirement documentation, business plans, and application of requirements as prototypes of business systems through individual and group assignments. They also highlighted that students put more emphasis on the use of software and the development of systems rather than on the analysis and design before development. They perceived their strengths were in the use of office automation, database management tools, multimedia, and project management software rather than in the application of technical knowledge that underpins software use. They also perceived that they needed to learn more and were aware they need more technical skills. Although students understood the importance of technical skills, the majority had difficulty in relating knowledge learned in the classroom to its application in the real world. This lack of real-world experience is a factor that appeared to undermine student confidence. For example: “although I can produce an eBusiness plan, produce a website that works, and I am comfortable on advising basic infrastructures, I wouldn’t know how to actually go out and set up a LAN.” “The employer demands technical people and multitaskers—even as I finish the level 6 papers I still can’t feel confident enough to confront the challenge.” “With the knowledge I have now I feel I could improve business on an advisory basis only.” These and similar statements show support for hypothesis (H7.1), but they also reinforce the need for a cooperative education, or for another type of industry-related learning, as a means of putting into practice the knowledge and skills gathered through studies and application of these in the workplace. Co-op also gives students the experience of collaborating with colleagues in the workplace. 0

The value of this has not yet been realized with this group of students; however, they did recognize the need for exposure to “real world” projects as mentioned previously. Participants in the focus group did not see the value of teamwork and, although they enjoyed the online aspect of learning, they disliked discussion forums and saw unequal participation being a problem of teamwork. This perception may be brought about by the nature of group assignments and distribution of marks within a team—a situation that does not occur in the workplace. The value of teamwork and its place in the development of soft skills may not be easily recognized when the focus may be on assignments and grades. Thus evidence to support hypotheses (H6.2) and (H7.2) was not found in the results obtained from the student focus group. The low emphasis and importance placed by students on soft skills poses the question of, how can these skills be incorporated into the curriculum in a better way? Although group assignments use case studies where role play is employed to simulate the real world, this does not appear to be recognized as a valuable skill building exercise by students. All hypotheses tested in the study are listed in Table 12. In summary the findings show that in the case considered, a significant effort has been placed on maintaining a current and well-informed IT/business curriculum as a means of enabling students to build the required competencies, as agreed by other educators (Berghell & Salach, 2004; Gallivan et al., 2004; Hunter, 1998; Lee et al., 1995). Students realistically evaluate the gaps in their learning but focus predominantly on technical skills, ignoring or undervaluing soft and business skills—despite educators’ effort to provide means and tools for bridging gaps in areas such as interpersonal communication and collaboration. Students receive a measure of their preparedness to enter the job market as business analysts when they undertake a cooperative education paper. However there are mismatches not only


Table 12. A summary of the hypotheses investigated in the study

between the skills and capabilities possessed by students and the ones expected by their cooperative employer, but also between the skills that employers value and the skills listed in job advertisements. In addition student perceptions about the importance of soft skills are not aligned with the perceptions of employers, and students might overestimate their soft skills and capabilities while feeling not confident in the level and quality of their acquired technical skills.

dIscussIon The data analysis provided in the previous section allows us to address the two central problems formulated earlier in the chapter, and the research

questions investigated throughout stages 1 to 3 of the study. The data from the case show that while there are some gaps, student skills and capabilities acquired in academia meet the needs of the work environment to a significant extent (Q1). In that respect the most helpful academic content was found to be concentrated in papers on database management, and on Web business development and management. Students value general technical skills and capabilities such as project planning, which are also sought after by employers. Some of the skills and capabilities acquired by students might not be valued very highly by employers, for example, skills in human computer interaction were not recognized by employers as “needed,” which leads to students feeling uncer-


tain about the quality of their preparation for a work career. To some extent, students’ perceptions about “lacking” skills and capabilities can be explained by the lack of experience in applying theoretical knowledge rather than lack of knowledge—also noted by employers. An example was provided by “networking concepts”: while students had acquired a theoretical background, they had not learnt how to implement it in more practical terms. The important gaps in student learning (Q2) found by students and confirmed by employers are related to two content areas, business systems development and business systems infrastructure. While students perceived the lack of specialized technical knowledge (such as programming) as an impediment, employers were not so much concerned with the level of technical knowledge but were looking for a demonstrated better understanding of the processes of integration and technology conversion occurring with a business. The identified gap can be addressed through keeping curriculum current and through the inclusion of appropriate teaching and learning techniques to enable soft skills to be developed (Q4). The results from the last stage of the study showed that the task was quite a challenging one and that the academic environment is not a good substitute for real life, that is, that business soft skills are best learned in an industrial environment. It was also found that employers did not perceive that there was a significant difference between the academic profiles of the IT and the e-business specializations (as demonstrated by the example of Web development skills). While the choice of only one of the two specializations therefore might affect the employability of a graduate, the academic program studied emphasizes strongly on the differences between the two specializations and does not inform students about the potential danger in choosing only one of them. This finding indicates that a certain lack of alignment between academia and industry exists, which

needs to be address through curriculum redesign, aimed at merging the academic profiles. The study of the formally stated requirements in job advertisements showed that IT and e-business graduates will be successful in meeting the expectations of the industry when they enter the job market (Q3) as the job types aligned well with the skills and capabilities classifications derived from studying student perceptions and student co-op projects. This conclusion is confirmed also by the analysis of the data collected about employers’ perceptions of students’ skills and capabilities. An underlying agenda by industry could be the judgment of interviewees’ soft skills when narrowing down the employment candidates’ shortlist. The emphasis on technical terms used in job advertisements or in academic course descriptions could indicate a misalignment of stakeholder expectations. Overall it can be said that the IT and e-business programs equip students—future graduates with an appropriate mix of skills and capabilities (Problem 1). As future business analysts they will become valuable employees in a competitive job market. Students are not confident that they have acquired the skills to implement theory into practice and rely more on their technical abilities to enter the job market rather than on their business and interpersonal skills (Problem 2). This result might explain one of the characteristics of the New Zealand environment as portrayed by job advertisements—a relative low starting level for newly employed IT professionals (due to lack of prior experience) but with opportunities for both vertical and lateral growth as they become more confident and business-savvy. With regard to the implications of our findings to curriculum development, we identified two sets of learning outcomes, which are currently being used as a backbone to develop the descriptor of a new third-year elective paper (Table 11). E-business development was identified as an important area for curriculum change, which


will affect the academic programs of the two majors. As the new elective will become part of each of the specializations (IT and e-business) their profiles will merge to a significant degree. However, the content definition of this area is not straightforward and the stakeholder groups differ in their perceptions about the skill sets required. This might be explained with the noted “lack of a widely accepted conceptualization of IT” (Tippins & Sohi, 2003, p.746) and with the overlap between IS capability and e-commerce capability in contemporary organizations (Peppard & Ward, 2004; Zhu, 2004). The study reported here has some limitations. First the study involved students in co-op placements rather than graduates employed as new business analysts. Although the general research framework allows a survey to be conducted by directly targeting employed graduates, such a survey would be technically more difficult. It might also be argued that the respondents might be influenced by their work experiences to a much greater extent than co-op students. Secondly, sufficient data about level 6 paperlearning outcomes at stage 1 were not collected and the responses received were excluded from the data analysis. We feel confident that the exclusion of these data does not influence level 7 results due to the structure of paper prerequisites. In addition, the analysis of the data suggesting new topics shows that level 6 learning outcomes that have not been reinforced at level 7 seem to have been “forgotten” and may contribute to the perceived gap in student knowledge. This new hypothesis could be explored in a further study. And finally, the qualitative study of the process of building skills and capabilities through curriculum delivery was based on a relatively small sample, which might explain why two of the hypotheses stated could not be confirmed (but could not be rejected, either). Further research might be needed to investigate the role of the teaching and learning process and to identify its weaknesses and strengths with respect to soft-

skills acquisition. In addition, an investigation into other types of skills and capabilities (for example, cognitive skills) might produce results relevant to the global perspective on the IT/IS discipline. It would be also interesting to understand better the implications of the importance attached by employers to real-life experience. The general research framework and models could be applied to all programs that offer cooperative education, a capstone project, or other forms of academically relevant work experience. It could also be expanded to cover other factors influencing the acquisition and development of skills and capabilities—such as gender, culture, background, part-time or full time study. The framework could be extended to generate predictions for the future based on data grounded in reality, and to serve as a vehicle for curriculum change.

conclusIon It has been recognized that stakeholder input is important to curriculum development (Bentley Lawry, & Sandy, 2000; Fedorowicz & Gogan, 2001; Medlin et al., 2001; Petrova & Sinclair, 2000). There is no doubt that input from IS managers and IS academics will give value to curriculum development. As pointed out by Trauth, Farwell, and Lee (1993) and also in Gallivan et al. (2004); Gutierrez and Boisvert (2003); and Ng Tye et al. (1995), the expectation gap between the workforce that industry needs and the graduates academia prepares might be bridged if academia and industry communicated and collaborated in developing the curriculum. If IT/IS curriculum is to align with industry requirements and to meet employer demands it will need to identify and then address the changes in the relevant skill and capability sets. Academia’s response to changes in the industrial environment has been slow and it has been pinpointed that changing job requirements has in fact contributed to the existing disconnection between academic


curricula and the labor market (Gallivan et al., 2004; Lee et al., 1995; Lee, 2002). The nature of the IT profession is undergoing a redefinition process, and industry expectations have evolved: there is now a need for ICT roles and jobs which significantly extend the traditional notion of the IT professional. Academic institutions continue to develop the IT/IS curriculum (Featherstone, Ellis, & Borstorff, 2004; Shackleford et al., 2004), as it is considered important to bridge the adoption gap discussed earlier and keep it current. A curriculum informed by developments in hardware/software technologies, business models, and applications will enable students to build the required competencies. Academic programs failing to do so may be perceived as highly theoretical or “dated” and not able to produce graduates equipped with the skills and capabilities that industry values and requires (Bailey & Stefaniak, 2002; Berghel & Sallach, 2004; Lee et al., 1995; Lee, 2002; Roberts, 2000). This chapter presented the design and the results of a study of IT/IS student skills and capabilities. Using data from multiple sources, the study focused on investigating the student perspective on the alignment between industry and academia, and on drawing conclusions about the necessary curriculum change. Directions for further work include the development of integrated IT and IS curriculum informed by the interest and the input of all stakeholders.

AcKnoWledgMent This chapter is based in part on a work published as: Petrova, and Claxton, (2005) “Building Student Skills and Capabilities in Information Technology and e-Business: A Moving Target,” Journal of Information Systems Education, 16(1), pp. 27-41. We appreciate the Journal of Information Systems Education allowing us to use portions of

that article in this chapter. The authors would like also to thank the anonymous reviewers for their extensive comments and insightful suggestions.

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Klein, H. K., & Myers, M. D. (1999). A set of principles for conducting and evaluating interpretive field studies in information systems. MIS Quarterly, 23(1), 67-93. Lee, A. S. (1991). Integrating positivist and interpretive approaches to organisational research. Organizational Science, 2(4), 342-365. Lee, C. K. (2005). Transferability of skills over the ICT career path. In Proceedings of the Annual Conference of Special Interest Group on Computer Personnel Research (pp. 85-93). Atlanta, GA: Association for Computing Machinery. Lee, D. M. S., Trauth, E. M., & Farwell, D. (1995). Critical skills and knowledge requirements of IS professionals: A joint academic/industry investigation. MIS Quarterly, 19(3), 313-340. Lee, P. C. B. (2002). Changes in skill requirements of information systems professionals in Singapore. In Proceedings of the 35th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (pp. 3307-3315). HI: Association for Computing Machinery. Lee, S., Koh, S., Yen, D., & Tang, H.-L. (2002). Perception gaps between IS academics and IS practitioners: An exploratory study. Information & Management, 40, 51-61. Lei, K., Mariga, J., & Pobanz, D. (2003). From theories to actions: A proposal for a new course on enterprise information systems integration. In Proceedings of 4th Conference on Information Technology Curriculum (pp. 106-110). Lafayette, IN: Association for Computing Machinery.

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School of computer and information sciences handbook. (2005). New Zealand: Auckland University of Technology. Senapathi, M., & Petrova, K. (2002). eBusiness education: The second wave. In S. Mann (Ed.), Proceedings of the 15th Annual Conference of the National Advisory Committee on Computing Qualifications Conference (pp. 375-379). Hamilton, New Zealand: National Advisory Committee on Computing Qualifications. Shackleford, R., Cassel, L., Davies, G., Impagliazzo, J., Kamali, R., et al. (2004). Computing curricula 2004: Overview report including a guide to undergraduate degree programs in computing (straw-man draft). Association for Computing Machinery. Shackleford, R., Cross, J., Davies, G., Impagliazzo, J., Kamali, R., LeBlanc, R., et al. (2005). Computing curricula 2005: The overview report including a guide to undergraduate degree programs in computing. Association for Computing Machinery. Tang, H.-L., Lee, S., & Koh, S. (2001). Educational gaps as perceived by IS educators: A survey of knowledge and skill requirements. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 41(2), 76-81. Tippins, M. J., & Sohi, R. S. (2003). IT competency and firm performance: Is organizational learning a missing link? Strategic Management Journal, 24(8), 745-761. Todd, P. A., McKeen, J. D., & Gallupe, R. B. (1995). The evolution of IS job skills: A content analysis of IS job advertisements from 1970 to 1990. MIS Quarterly, 19(1), 1-27. Trauth, E. M., Farwell, D. W., & Lee, D. M. S. (1993). The IS expectation gap: Industry expectations versus academic preparation. MIS Quarterly, 293-307.


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endnotes 1

The interested reader might find more at http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/ nomonet.htm. A form of a nomological net that diagrammatically identifies constructs and the relationships between them was proposed by Benbasat and Zmud (2003) as a model for use in IS research.

159

Chapter VIII

Aligning Learning with Industry Requirements Jocelyn Armarego Murdoch University, Australia

Abstract A review of studies of practitioners of software development reveals a depth of mismatch between their needs and formal education. The conclusion to be drawn is that industry has made a long-term shift in its requirements of graduates from technical subjects, laying emphasis on personal and affective attributes. Concern has been expressed that the underlying “socialisation” requirement for a graduate to achieve “working professional” status is very poorly addressed in formal education. After establishing a framework for comparison between information technology (IT) formal education and industry requirements, this chapter discusses an action research study based on applying nontraditional and innovative learning models to address mismatches identified. Results suggest that models which focus on independent learning and soft skills prepare students to enter industry with the ability to engage in the career-long, professional learning required for success in professional practice.

Introduction Software development has been described as a “craft.” The negative connotations of this label include an inability to consistently guarantee a quality product, fit for the purpose for which it was developed, produced on time, and within budget. As an example, a mid-1990s study of over 8,000 projects (Standish, 1995) indicates only 16.2% of software was successful. These rates do not significantly differ from those reported in the 1970s and 1980s (Mann, 1996). The issues that underlie

this state-of-affairs (namely, intrinsic difficulty, uniqueness of each system, multidisciplinary skills necessary, and a requirement for life-long learning in practitioners) are described later on. A review of major model curricula for software development (e.g., information systems [IS], computer science [CS], and software engineering [SE]) shows that, in general terms, a graduate within the broad IT discipline should emerge from formal education with knowledge of the basic software development processes (and therefore, in theory, be able to produce successful software). While


Aligning Learning with Industry Requirements

practitioner studies indicate that the base case of content knowledge is covered in models used in university programmes, a closer look reveals the depth of the mismatch between practitioner needs and formal education in software development in general.

engineering software Those involved in the development of software agree that one mechanism for dealing with the intrinsic difficulties (e.g., complexity, visibility, and changeability [Brooks, 1986]) of developing successful software was to embed its production within an applied science environment. Royce (1970) was the first to note explicitly that an engineering approach was required, in the expectation that adhering to a defined, repeatable process would enhance software quality. This interest in engineering is mirrored in the education of software developers, with an exponential growth in offerings of undergraduate software degrees within an engineering environment. Increasingly, this education focuses on process and repeatability, modelling scientific and engineering methodologies. The underlying assumption of this approach is that “good” software development is achieved by applying scientific investigative techniques (Pfleeger, 1999).

creating software There are positive implications as well for the label “craft.” Each system is considered a unique synergy between the hardware, software, and organisational context in which it will be utilised. This approach suggests that the development process cannot be repeatable, as the forces at play will differ for each context; continually changing as understanding of the characteristics of the developing system grows in all stakeholders. From this perspective software is a collaborative invention. Its development is an exploratory

0

and self-correcting dialogue (Bach, 1999), based on insight-driven knowledge discovery (Guindon, 1989) facilitated by opportunistic behaviour (Guindon, 1990; Visser, 1992). The risk is that strict adherence to engineering and science methodologies hampers the quintessential creativity of this process (Lubars, Potts, & Richer, 1993; Maiden & Gizikis, 2001; Maiden & Sutcliffe, 1992; Thomas, Lee, & Danis, 2002). These, potentially: • •

•

Restrict essential characteristics such as opportunism (Guindon, 1989) Assist in adding accidental complexity through their attempts to control professional practice (by restricting natural problem solving, Sutcliffe & Maiden, 1992) Impose a plan at odds to inherent cognitive planning mechanisms and hence interfering with the management of knowledge (Visser & Hoc (1990) suggest that, in practice, a plan is followed only as long as it is cognitively cost-effective)

Practicing software The skills and knowledge required to be active as competent professionals are multidisciplinary. For software development, Zucconi (1995) suggested the underlying disciplines of central importance are psychology, CS, and discrete mathematics, and suggests an IT professional needs to be well organised, able to work as a member of a multidisciplinary team, and able to work within the scope of the employer’s policies and procedures and society’s tenets. This equates well with the stated needs of practitioners. Practitioner-based studies (Lee, 2004; Lethbridge, 2000; Trauth, Farwell, & Lee, 1993) and in the Australian context (Scott & Yates, 2002; Snoke & Underwood, 1999; Turner & Lowry, 2003) assist us in building a profile of a practicing IT professional.


teaching software Freed (1992) coined the term “relentless innovation” to describe the capacity to invent and implement new ideas that will impact every facet of life. Oliver (2000) suggests the rate of innovation is so prolific that most of the knowledge that will be used by the end of the first decade of the 21st century has yet to be invented. The speed with which technology evolves, the multiplicity of its impact on society, and the ramifications of that impact mean that metacognitive and knowledge construction skills as well as adaptability become vital. This relates to a fourth issue that needs to be addressed: the need to engage in life-long learning. Professional practitioners with such skills become agents of change (Garlan, Gluch, & Tomayko, 1997). However, Patel, Kinshuk, and Russell (2000) argue that learners in a traditional setting predominantly constitute students who focus on skills that will yield higher grades as an immediate objective. Cognitive skills related to “exam techniques” acquire importance, though they do not model real-life situations. The learning, in many cases, is reduced to assignment hopping with “just-in-time” and “just-enough” learning to fulfill the assessment tasks. This defeats the (academic) objective of providing a well-balanced learning experience.

reseArch/exPerIence questIons The aim of this chapter is to provide: • •

An overview of the dominant pedagogy for formal education in IT disciplines An overview of practitioner studies undertaken over the last 15 years, in order to establish a base for comparison between IT formal education and industry requirements,

described in relation to the dominant curriculum models in IT The chapter continues by discussing the potential of nontraditional and innovative learning models to address any mismatch identified. The need to engage with complexity, the holistic nature of the domain, and the focus on higher learning outcomes imply a commensurate need in teachers to apply to the learning environment the principles they are advocating in their students, namely, flexibility, adaptability, and creativity. The question: How useful is the knowledge generally included in tertiary institution curricula for the practicalities of being an IT professional? and based on the results of this: Do alternate learning models address any mismatch identified? Can these be applied successfully within a formal (tertiary) education environment? are tackled from the perspective af an action research project conducted over several years within engineering at Murdoch University.

curriculum expectations A comparison of the major model curricula undertaken as part of Minor’s (2004) study of requirements engineering (RE) practitioners shows that, in general terms, the base case of discipline knowledge identified in practitioner studies is covered in models used in universities. Table 1 provides a summary of this comparison. A look at generic IT (as opposed to specific RE) suggests Minor’s conclusion can be extrapolated—most bodies of knowledge (BOK) and model curricula address discipline content comprehensively.


Table 1. Minor: Curricula match to perceived industry needs Topics

CC-CS

CC-IS

CC-SE

Discipline Content RE process

o

-

o

Feasibility study

-

o

-

Elicitation

+

+

+

Analysis

+

+

+

Documentation

+

+

+

Verification

+

-

+

Requirements management

-

o

o

Process standards

+

+

+

Project management

+

+

+

Programming languages

+

+

+

Communication skills

+

+

+

Team skills

+

+

+

Other Software Topics

Generic Skills

Note. RE = requirements engineering. Legend: + = extensive coverage; o = partial coverage; - = minimal or no coverage.

However, nontechnical skills are usually addressed at a more abstract level and often in association with ethics, management, or social concerns. For example, while the Australian Computer Society’s core BOK for IT professionals (Underwood, 1997) indicates coverage of group 1 is mandatory (group 1 material relates to interpersonal communications; ethics/social implications/professional practice; and project management and quality assurance), little assistance in addressing these within a programme of study is provided. Some insight into the skills and knowledge required for software development activities is provided by the studies described next, albeit from many different perspectives. This closer look at practitioners reveals the depth of the mismatch between industry needs and formal education in software development in general.

Practitioner Perspective Practitioners of Information Systems Summarising his work of the previous 8 years on the knowledge requirements and professional development of young IS workers Lee (1999) found that: •

•

• •

Significant gaps exist between what industry expects IS workers to know and what universities teach IS students. The knowledge and skills required change, so that that the ability to learn quickly on the job was critical to IS workers. A wide range of nontechnical skills were identified as important to IS professionals. IS workers need not have a technology-relevant degree. IS workers draw heavily from a “bi-polar” knowledge structure—most current techni-


cal knowledge and localised team-centric project work, but are unable to exploit tacit organisational knowledge outside their specific project. In a later work Lee suggests there is an underlying socialisation requirement for a graduate to achieve working professional status. Lee found that one of the “reality shocks” involved in the socialisation of new graduates to work was the onus of teaching themselves what they needed to know in order to perform the task successfully. He concluded: ... educators should also help students to develop their initiatives and abilities to deal with ill-structured problems. This would require approaches which emphasize independent learning and collaborative teamwork. (p.135) Other studies of IS confirm a change in emphasis to both generic attributes and managerial knowledge—a long-term shift from programming and other technical subjects to business analysis and people-oriented skills.

Practitioners of CS and Engineering Fewer studies address the skills and knowledge needed in CS and SE. Lethbridge (2000) examined industry perception in a comprehensive study:

His aim was to gain a practitioner ranking of the usefulness of specific topics compiled from the curricula of (emerging) software and computer engineering and CS programmes, the influence of these on respondents’ career, and how much they had learned formally compared to what was required as a professional. Although he found few surprises, an indication of differing educational focus is provided by pronounced bi-polar distribution in his data: Leadership and Negotiation ranked 3rd and 4th for industrial knowledge, while Technical Writing and Analysis & Design Methods rank as having the 5th and 6th most pronounced bi-polar distribution in education (Lethbridge, 1999). Of the long list of topics that managers consider more important than developers at large, the high ranking of both RE or analysis-related topics and more generic skills is significant (see Table 2). Unfortunately, many of these appear to have been learned on the job (see Table 3). At least in this case it can be seen that teaching does not reflect the needs of the practice. Lee (1986, 1992) also looked at the long-term professional development of young engineers as technologists, in studies reported in the late 1980s and early 1990s. What was found to have significance was: •

Challenging work

Table 2. Lethbridge rankings: Most important for managers Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Topic Project Management Requirements Gathering & Analysis Giving Presentations to an Audience Management Ethics and Professionalism Analysis & Design Methods Software Architecture Leadership Testing, Verification & Quality Assurance Technical Writing


Table 3. Lethbridge rankings: Difference between formal learning and importance Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

•

Topic

% difference

Negotiation Configuration & Release Management Leadership Maintenance, Re-engineering & Reverse Engineering HCI/ User Interfaces Software Reliability & Fault Tolerance Ethics and Professionalism Project Management Management Requirements Gathering & Analysis

84 83 73 72 67 64 63 63 61 60

These results indicate that the effective preparation of young technology workers involves far more than just a fixed set of academic subjects.

hensively within formal education. A follow-up survey to explore the “other skills” aspect of IS curriculum (Turner & Lowry, 2003) shows that, in general, respondents rate soft skills higher than “hard” academic skills. Scott and Yates (2002) report on the experience with engineering graduates as one of the parallel series being undertaken in various professions across Australia and New Zealand. The study sought to identify:

The Australian Perspective

•

•

Approach to information seeking in order to keep up with the relevant changes in knowledge and information requirements Success of the transition from an academic environment and the formation of social ties with veteran colleagues

Other research looks at the situation in an Australian context. Snoke and Underwood’s (1999) study sampled a wide cross section of the IS academics in Australia, including representatives from all universities offering an undergraduate degree in IS or with a major in IS as of July 1998. It showed that personal and group attributes are consistently more highly valued than technical knowledge competencies. The aim of the Turner and Lowry (1999) study was to achieve a better fit between university study and the professional practice of IS. Their survey found that employers lay heavy emphasis on personal attributes, though this may be because technical skills are generally addressed compre-

•

Capabilities that are seen to be most important for successful professional practice in engineering during the first few years after graduation Extent to which the universities at which the participating graduates had studied focused on these capabilities

Respondents noted that learning profession-specific content provides the “scaffold” for the important task of career-long professional learning: The skills to undertake this are of great importance, with the ability to know when and when not to deploy technical expertise, and how to continuously update it, the keys to successful professional practice. The supervisors in the study acknowledged that a high level of technical exper-


tise is necessary but not sufficient for successful practice, giving emphasis to the individual’s ability to diagnose what is really causing a problem and testing solutions in action. In summary then, industry requires personable professionals who integrate into the organisational structure, and, rather than cope specifically with today’s perceived problems, have models, skills, and analytical techniques that allow them to learn, evaluate, and apply appropriate emerging technologies in a collaborative environment. The implications of this include initiative, ability to deal with complexity, and ill-structure and organisational (self, task and information) skills. The value of these softer, more personal attributes has been explored through several studies within our target disciplines.

exploring Affective Attributes Bentley, Lowry, and Sandy (1999) suggest a developmental process in which personal attributes,

which influence intellectual abilities and skills, are applied to the acquisition of knowledge to enable the development of higher cognitive activities. They note that at the end of the educational process, students must be able to apply knowledge to new situations and problems. This requires certain generic intellectual abilities and skills, which, although highly valued by employers, are sometimes given only “lip service” in tertiary education curricula. The personal attributes identified as important in the model proposed include attributes like curiosity, risk taking, personal discipline, and persistence. These can influence in important ways the successful application of the intellectual skills and abilities to knowledge to support the higher orders of thinking. Scott and Wilson (2002) and Scott and Yates (2002) confirm the value of these attributes. They discuss their findings in relation to a framework that identifies professional capability as five scales consisting of:

Figure 1. Professional capability framework (Scott & Wilson, 2002)


• • • • • •

Emotional intelligence – Personal (EI-P) Emotional intelligence – Interpersonal (EII) Intellectual capability (IC) Profession-specific skills and knowledge (Prof) Generic skills and knowledge (Gen) Educational quality (EQ) scale

In Scott and Wilson (2002) the Professional Capability Framework is refined (see Figure 1): Emotional Intelligence (personal and interpersonal (now social)) becomes Stance and Intellectual Capability is now defined by two components, Way of Thinking (incorporating cognitive intelligence and creativity) and Diagnostic Maps (developed through reflection on experience). Respondents to their studies were asked to rate items from the capability scales on their importance for successful performance in their current professional work and then to rate the extent to which the university they attended focused on them. The results of these studies show that Emotional Intelligence ranks highest in importance, closely followed by Intellectual Capability, addressing generic issues such as abstraction and contingency, while profession-specific knowledge ranks relatively low. The ability to work in teams, particularly cross-disciplinary teams that are common in the IT workplace, is also considered vital.

Issues with traditional learning A review of these studies indicates practitioners emphasise attributes additional to professionspecific knowledge and skills. These latter are generally addressed by the content of a BOK and applied within model curricula, as is initial competence (i.e., cognitive attributes Bloom, 1956), though whether at an appropriate level is a moot point. Practitioner concerns have been addressed through interventions in the learning environment

and have taken several forms. In general, however, these have been attempted within the framework of traditional learning, and, according to practitioners, soft skills are still not emphasised enough. Lowry and Turner (2005) suggest that tradition and inertia act as some of the formidable barriers to substantive revisions to curricula in line with the findings of practitioner-based studies.

Learning IT Macauley and Mylopoulos (1995) acknowledge that a standard university lecture cannot achieve what industry requires. For them, activities associated with efficient software development “require a certain level of knowledge and maturity which can only be gained through experience in dealing with practical problems.” Others also note the inadequacy of formal education in training competent software professionals (Lethbridge, 2000; Robillard, 1999). Bach (1997) stated that one reason software engineering is not more seriously studied is the common industry belief that most of the books and classes that teach it are “impractical”: it does not address the inherent cognitive complexity (Robillard, 2005) of software development. As exemplified by the model curricula, approaches to learning IT tend to emphasise technical knowledge. In general this education is based on traditional learning models and adheres to a normative professional education curriculum (Waks, 2001). Students first study basic science, then the relevant applied science, so that learning may be viewed as a progression to expertise through task analysis, strategy selection, trial, and repetition (Winn & Snyder, 1996). As Waks (2001) explains, in this normative model science provides “a rational foundation for practice” [original emphasis], with practical work at the last stage, where students are expected to apply science learned earlier in the curriculum to real-life problems. The addition of either a capstone project and/or an industry-based


placement, typically towards the completion of the qualification, have been seen as a means of addressing general practitioner concerns, providing opportunities for both authentic and experiential learning. Waks continues that the crisis of the professions arise because real-life problems do not present themselves neatly as cases to which scientific generalisations apply. This poor fit between the characteristics of professional practice and those of the learning model produce an “incorrect” learning environment, where the learner is not directed to the important features of the domain, where, as Bubenko (1995) notes: •

• •

•

Complexity is added to rather than reduced with increased understanding of the initial problem Metacognitive strategies are fundamental to the process Poblem-solving needs a rich background of knowledge and intuition to operate effectively A breadth of experience is necessary so that similarities and differences with past strategies are used to deal with new situations

Aligning learning with domain characteristics The nature of software development (complex, Nguyen & Swatman, 2000; cognitive, Robillard, 2005; opportunistic, Guindon, 1989; creative, Thomas et al., 2002; emergent, Budgen, 1995) implies a need to transcend traditional education and focus on flexibility, productive thinking, and creativity-enhancing activities. In this way, while students learn to use past experience on a general level, they are also able to deal with each new problem situation in its own terms. The implication of this is effort spent on higher (metacognitive) learning skills, including abstraction and reflection.

Schön (1987) looked to an alternative epistemology of practice when attacking the normative professional education curriculum discussed previously. For him, practitioners apply tacit knowledge-in-action, and when their messy problems do not yield to it, they “reflect-in-action,” and in the languages specific to their practices. This view of professional practice as ill-structured design has implications: •

•

•

It is learnable but not didactically or discursively teachable: it can be learned only in and through practice. It is holistic: its parts cannot be learned in isolation. It must be learned as a whole because all components of a situation have meaning. It depends upon the ability to recognise desirable and undesirable qualities of the discovered world. But novice students do not possess this ability, and it cannot be conveyed to them by verbal descriptions, only in the operational context of the task.

For Schön (1987) the ideal site of education for reflective practice is the design studio, under the close supervision of a master practitioner serving as coach. Others (Boud, 1985; Spiro, Feltovich, Jacobson, & Coulson, 1991) also argue against traditional learning: •

•

•

Learning based around constructivist principles is likely to be more suitable in domains involving ill-structured problems. Appropriate learning in ill-structured domains and/or dealing with ill-structured problems should itself be problem based. Problem-based learning best provides an effective environment for future professionals who need to access knowledge across a range of disciplines.


Problem-based learning (PBL) is one example of learning environments that embrace these ideas. It integrates the learning of content and skills in a collaborative environment, and emphasises “learning to learn” by placing great responsibility for learning on the learner (Wilson & Cole, 1996). As an ideology, PBL is rooted in the experiential and action learning traditions advocated by Schön (1987) and others, but with a number of different forms according to the nature of the field and goals of the learning situation: for example, Schön’s design studios exemplify Savin-Baden’s (2000) PBL model for professional action. This focuses on know-how, which will allow students to gain competence to practice within given discipline frameworks and is seen to apply within curricula that have strong links with industry and are influenced by the community of practice. Its supporters claim PBL results in increased motivation for learning, better integration of knowledge across disciplines, and greater commitment to continued professional learning (Boud, 1985). As well as offering the flexibility to cater to a variety of learning styles, the emphasis moves from dealing with content and information in abstract ways to using information in ways that reflect how practitioners might use it in real life (Oliver & McLoughlin, 1999). The purpose of the research described in the next sections was to apply and evaluate alternate learning models based on PBL in order to ascertain their success in addressing the mismatch identified between practitioner needs and formal tertiary education for software development.

reseArch desIgn The contrasting philosophical and epistemological assumptions implicit in natural science and social science research approaches have been described and discussed at great length in a number of widely cited works (e.g., Bunge, 1984; Guba & Lincoln, 1994). The assumption, that cognition

and understanding is not a thing located within the individual thinker, but is a process that is distributed across the knower, the environment in which knowing occurs, and the activity in which the learner participates, is fundamental to how this research is conducted.

Research for Action Action research is proposed as a means of meeting this need for contextual research for action. It combines theory and practice through an iterative process of change and reflection and has been categorised into several types, based on the underlying assumptions and world views of the participants (Carr & Kemmis, 1986; Grundy, 1982). Several models exist for undertaking action research in education, based on Lewin’s (1946) concept of a spiral that incorporates a cycle of problem diagnosis, action intervention, and reflective learning, all leading to continuous improvement of practice and an extension of personal and professional knowledge (Zuber-Skerritt, 1995). Action research places the teacher in the dual position of producer of education theory/policy and user of that theory through their practice. Within IT research, action research is celebrated as unique in the way it associates research and practice (Avison, Lau, Myers, & Nielsen, 1999). Although a survey of the literature shows that the IT academic community almost totally ignored action research (Avison et al., 1999 report only 29 articles on action research, spanning the years 1971 to 1995), by the end of the 1990s it began growing in popularity for use in scholarly investigations of IS, spurred by the relevance of research results.

A Framework for Action research in It education The model of action research applied to this study is adapted from the work of Borg, Gall, and Gall


(1993). However, a model for the research design is not sufficient: The context of the study suggests that the action research be placed within a conceptual framework that reflects the “culture” of the organisation in which the study is conducted. The context of this study is an institution of (formal) tertiary education, therefore requiring an acknowledgement of theories of learning as fostering cognitive change through the construction and organisation of knowledge. The learning that takes place is not confined to the student participants in the research being undertaken. The value of action research is its ability to focus on the researcher’s learning as a fundamental component of the context under investigation. The framework for double-loop learning proposed by Hatten (1997) provides a basis for consideration of the researcher’s participation within each action research cycle. In

this model, single-loop learning is a characteristic of a stable context in which problem solving is patterned on proven solutions and previous experience (Argyris & Schön, 1974). Double-loop learning, in contrast, is seen as transformative: required by a context where change is inevitable but its direction unpredicted. In this environment reflection becomes the basis for decision making that relies on intuitive and tacit knowledge and critical analysis. Informed, directed, and committed action (thus Praxis) requires reflective activity in order to change the frames of reference by which action is taken. The dominant characteristics of this study suggest that a conceptual framework for action research in IT education requires each of these components to be incorporated. The process is a defined action research model, the context an environment where the aim is learning (cognitive

Figure 2. Conceptual framework for action research for cognitive change


change). The iterations explicit in the research design require double-loop learning on the part of the researcher at least, so that future action is based on varied reflection. Figure 2 illustrates this framework.

Data Acquisition and Evaluation This research is undertaken with an acceptance of the view that not only is education a social discipline, but so is the (knowledge/discipline) domain into which the students expect to enter. The study adopts a mixed method approach as the most appropriate for the development of multiple interpretations, guided by the concept of complimentarity, reflecting the intention to use the results of one strand to elaborate, enhance, and illustrate the results from the other strand. The value of this nested concurrent approach (Creswell, 2003) is that it provides broader perspectives than by using the predominant method in isolation: Here the predominant approach is qualitative but containing smaller quantitative data collection phases. And, since change is accepted as a fundamental goal of this research, an evaluation strategy that applies a qualitative approach to the collection and analysis of data is seen to have the potential to provide the information required.

Data Acquisition Kember and Kelly (1993) divide observation techniques common to action research in education into three categories: •

•

0

Diagnostic: These devices include student assessment, learning inventories, interaction schedules, diagnosis of conception (e.g., mind maps). Records: Records include such items as diary/journal and supporting documents including syllabus, documents for course development and accreditation, student assessment planned

•

Feedback: Formal and informal questionnaires provide a mechanism for participants to address areas of interest to the researcher, while interviews allow for both general impressions to be uncovered and tight analysis to be undertaken. These are applied in this study to provide mechanisms to validate the interpretations made through a process of triangulation (Denzin, 1970)

Data Evaluation The action research strategy adopted utilises both formative and summative evaluation techniques but also allows for monitoring analysis to take a prominent position: The integration of data collection/data analysis allows the research to be shaped and reshaped by the participants in the research, based on the themes identified through examination of the data. This thematic analysis aims to identify important elements, with the categories induced from the data itself. According to Orona (1990), the value is in the approach’s acceptance (though not reliance) on intuition and creativity, nuances and detail.

PresentAtIon oF reseArch results/exPerIence Since 1995, Murdoch University Engineering (MUE) has provided a suite of programmes in SE. The teaching objectives have focused on producing graduates with a special skill in software: We expect our graduates to find career opportunities in both professional engineering industries that have a strong interest in software as well as in IT disciplines where the design and implementation of quality software is considered a priority. The investigation into characteristics of learning and of the discipline, described in previous sections, has suggested that the issues highlighted as either practitioner or domain needs of formal


education could be best addressed through less traditional approaches to learning, with a focus on advanced knowledge acquisition (Spiro et al., 1991). An education framework for software development should exploit the learning models that provide an appropriate environment for practice. It should: be based on constructivist theory with a focus on strategic knowledge; be placed within a situated experiential environment where authentic context is exploited; and provide learners with exposure to activities that allow students to act opportunistically and creatively. Pursuing these objectives has meant a gradual shift from more traditional learning, resulting in the development of a studio learning model. Based on a PBL approach, integrating Schön’s (1987) ideas on design studios with creativity-enhancing activities, this learning model has been seen to provide students with a solid foundation in subject matter, while at the same time exposing them to real-world characteristics. Within the constraints of professionally accredited curriculum, studio learning addresses the issues previously described: •

• •

An increasing focus on scientific generalisation as the education of choice for software Potential for misalignment with industry needs An acknowledged need for life-long learning

The curriculum for the Bachelor of Engineering, Software Engineering BE(SE) at Murdoch University originally integrated units1 in three primary components: •

•

Computer science: These cover fundamental aspects and form the basis of technical knowledge and skills in software and hardware Software engineering: These focus on SE theory and practice and form the basis

•

of core knowledge and skill in software development and evolution Engineering: These offer knowledge and skills in engineering practice and principles and are common to all our engineering students. They include natural sciences, mathematics, management, and ethics, which provides the basis for: • Engineering internship/thesis: This is also common to all engineering students, though the domain of application targets the appropriate discipline of study. The internship is wholly industry-based in that the student is an “employee” of the organisation. The thesis may also be linked to workplace experiences, but the student is not employed during the duration of the project.

As can be appreciated from this brief description, the learning environment adheres very closely to the traditional model described by Waks (2001). The reduced opportunity for group-based projects due to the introduction of the semesterlong internship/thesis was one trigger for the restructure of some of the core SE units. Other triggers included a need to provide students with a taste of the types of “messy” problems they would encounter during their internship. Exposure to the uncertainties, inconsistencies, and idiosyncrasies associated with real problems would enhance graduates’ potential to deal in their own turn with ill-structured problems within an organisational context.

cycle 1: engaging with Authentic Practice In this cycle, the focus is split between two units—a final semester final year (Sem 2, Year 4) unit that treats students as novice professionals (G4772), and the effects on students placed in


this environment of the prerequisite unit (G260), which treats students as apprentices.

• •

Students as Novice Professionals (G) • A design studio model was applied, anchored by a PBL process based on Koschman, Myers, Barrows, and Feltovich (1994) and in the context of the phased development of a software product. As described elsewhere (Armarego, 2002), student evaluation undertaken in weeks 4, 7, 11, and 13 highlighted student concerns: •

The need to learn new content as well as adapt previous knowledge Dependence on other members of the team (10+ students) both for achieving the tasks and for critical assessment components through peer and self assessment Lack of stability in teams and task (students were rotated into and out of teams, roles, and problem component) requiring a need to “come up to speed” very quickly at each change

•

•

However, benefits were identified: James

we learn so much “practical” stuff from this project, it would be good to get another chance to actually do it right

Chad

learnt a lot about design skills and approaches for problems

Sam

interesting group experience

Brad

you need more practical application of the theory you teach ([this unit’s] style)

The restructured unit was seen to provide students with a number of opportunities (Armarego, 2002): •

To identify, analyse, and solve a number of issues, repetitively. This acts as preparation for professional employment.

•

To practise the art as well as science of SE in a controlled setting. To test the understanding of theory, its connection with application, and develop theoretical insight. To deal with incompleteness and ambiguity. To think independently and work cooperatively, fostering insight into individual strengths and weaknesses.

However, an unexpected problem was encountered early in the semester. While students were accepting of the idea of directing their own learning in a capstone project and thesis environment, they felt (very strongly, at times) that within a formal unit they should be taught: They were comfortable with the concept of a “master” there to oversee their every action. This perception could be traced back to a reasonably high level of teacher direction in prerequisite SE units, confirmed through analysis of teaching style and a review of the introductory unit (G260) based on Reeves (1997). The instrument developed by Reeves provides 14 dimensions for the evaluation of technology-assisted learning. This review indicated a transitional approach to teaching, which did not challenge students’ expectations of traditional learning. The initial student resistance to the environment provided in the final unit showed that these expectations were still evident 2 years later in their studies.

Students as Apprentices (G0) The learning environment for the introductory SE unit (on RE) at this time was based on a cognitive apprenticeship model (Collins et al., 1989). In cognitive apprenticeship settings, the teacher models effective practices within professionally relevant contexts: the students are presented with tasks they would undertake as practicing professionals, requiring proficiency with notations and tools, but also an appreciation of the context in


which these must be applied. This requires an understanding of the underlying conceptual frameworks used in the domain. Because these skills are all new to students, the teacher closely coaches them, to apply a process for modelling each task as they reason about the issues being raised. Whenever the students reach an impasse and are unable to continue or complete the task independently or with assistance from group peers, the teacher can “take over” by once again modelling the appropriate approach, often in a protocol analysis environment, for all students. Gradually, students are required to complete tasks more independently, with the final class assessment item requiring the development of a complete model of a problem, with critique and justification of the approach taken, with minimal support from the teacher. The curriculum for this unit was addressed as a two-cycle spiral: The first part of the semester (8-9 weeks) focused on learning the use of the tools, gaining an understanding of the conceptual framework (in this case object-orientation principles), and an appreciation for the context in which professionals practice (e.g., historical overview;

issues in RE theory and practice; organisational involvement; group dynamics). The second part of the semester focused on issues of group work and knowledge transfer—students are involved in a group project that requires them to apply the tools to model a complex problem. In broad terms, the phases (see Table 4) of the cognitive apprenticeship model are traversed throughout the semester, though without a clean break—the focus of the class sessions changes, but the ability to revisit any phase as required exists. Evaluation of the model was based on elements of assessment (which included mind maps to provide some information on conceptual understanding, portfolios that provided information on student’s willingness to explore outside the boundaries provided within the unit, and hence transcend the unit material) and student feedback, both formal university-wide and school-based, open-question surveys. Evaluation of the cognitive apprenticeship model in relation to practitioner characteristics indicated that although this model addressed some components of industry needs, the fit between characteristics of action in the discipline

Table 4. Phases of cognitive apprenticeship model as implemented Phase

Component

I

Modelling

Class Sessions 6

Activities & Teacher Role • •

•

II

Coaching

10

• •

Demonstration of a task as a process Example approaches and sample solutions provided as basis for comparison and critique Teacher explains strategies applied and use of modelling tools (e.g., notation) explicitly Critique and whole-class discussion of individual approaches applied Focus is on exploration of multiple perspectives and the reasoning process

III

Scaffolding

4

•

Teacher’s role is to question, prompt, and encourage students to stay on task

IV

Fading

6

•

Student collaboration and peer discussion lead to a negotiated solution for submission


and those of the learning model exhibited elements of an “incorrect” learning environment. The environment exhibited some of the traits of surface learning—students focused on learning the tools and techniques of RE at the expense of a more expansive view of the discipline: They did not see themselves as acquiring the more generic skills valued by practitioners, with the majority of students focused on passing the unit. When the teacher “faded” early in the subsequent unit (G477), students were loathed to take ownership of their learning—they insisted they had a “right to be taught.” The outcome of this initial phase was to confirm the need to build into the curriculum a focus on generic skills as part of the outcomes of the unit, with the intentions of improving students’ learning ability, developing employability skills, and preparing for lifelong learning. To maximise effectiveness, these needed to be embedded into the knowledge base constructed by the student during the unit. This has the advantage of enabling students to develop the requisite skills situated within the learning context but, of course, potentially required extensive adaptation of the existing material. The conclusion reached was that the master/ apprentice relation needed to be down played so that students took early control of their own learning.

of integration—the methods, techniques, tools, and so forth acquired within a few isolated units do not permeate the students’ approach to other software-related tasks within their programme of study. An attempt could now be made to present a more holistic approach within the SE curriculum. This second cycle focused on the first SE unit encountered (G260), at that time still early (Sem 1, Year 2) in the 4-year programme. The core component—RE—provided an appropriate environment for attacking student expectations of a learning environment. Education for REs based on traditional learning models tends to emphasise technical knowledge and is based largely on notations and prescribed processes (Nguyen & Swatman, 2000). Although Budgen (2003) suggests this is a requirement of the software domain, it is at odds with the inherent characteristics associated with real RE problems, which imply a need to:

cycle 2: creative software development

The implication of this is the explicit development of metacognitive strategies and the ability to reflect in as well as on action. The value of metacognition is confirmed in the recurring findings from Scott’s work on applying a professional capability framework (previously discussed). A focus on flexibility and productive thinking is also necessary, so that students learn to use past experience on a general level, while still being able to deal with each new problem situation in its own terms. Gott, Hall, Pokorny, Dibble, and Glaser (1993) posit that this adaptive/generative capability suggests the performer not only knows

Reflection on the learning experience highlighted a need to emphasise student-centred learning earlier—the final year was too late. This led to a review of prerequisite units, with a view to making pedagogical changes early in the SE curriculum. Opportunities to focus in greater depth on issues raised in the discussion of education for software development were also identified. One additional issue could also be tackled: IT education has historically been plagued by a lack

• •

•

incorporate creativity-enhancing activities within the curriculum, foster adaptability in students by providing for divergent as well as convergent thinking, and focus on metacognitive strategies and reflection as an aid to transfer of the skills and knowledge learned.


the procedural steps for problem solving but understands when to deploy them and why they work, in effect is wise in the use of them. Glass (1995) suggests that discipline and creativity are the “odd couple” of software development—the discipline imposed by methodology, for example, forms a frame for the opportunistic creativity of design. The educational dilemma becomes one of providing an educational base that enables software developers to both create and engineer the systems they build: to be adaptable to the changing environment that is inevitable in their chosen discipline. Cropley and Cropley (1998), however, suggest that the process of creativity and innovation is poorly understood in engineering and not adequately fostered in undergraduate teaching. This deficiency results in an engineering culture that is frequently resistant to the factors that promote creativity and innovation.

rather than divergent thinking, with the value of conventional behaviour, well-defined problems and good grades emphasised. In addition, many cultures (here we may say discipline-based as well as social) encourage respect for the past and discourage disruptive innovations. Promoting widespread creativity raises expectations that may change employment patterns, educational systems, and community norms. Amabile’s (1996) general theory of creativity suggests three components: •

•

The Place of Creativity Albert (1996) notes that schooling at the age of starting formal education emphasises logical

Domain relevant skills: The more skills the better, and the ability to imagine/play out situations Creativity-relevant processes: Including breaking perceptual (the way you perceive a situation) and cognitive (the way you analyse) set and breaking out of performance “scripts,” suspending judgement, knowledge of heuristics, adopting a creativity induced work style (e.g., tolerance for ambiguity, high degree of autonomy, independence of judgement)

Figure 3. The CreativePBL model

PBL Stage 1 Exploration PBL Stage 2 PBL Stage 3

Idea Generation

PBL Stage 4 Learners

PBL Stage 5

Evaluation


Table 5. Positive influences for enhancing creative potential Encouraging assertion of ideas No reliance on order and training No fear of failure Providing time and resources Developing expertise Giving positive, constructive feedback that is work or task focused Encouraging a spirit of play and experimentation Providing a mix of styles and backgrounds with opportunities for group interaction Making a safe place for risk taking allowing free choice in task engagement Offering rewards that recognise achievements or enable additional performance but maintain intrinsic motivation rather than controlling behaviour

•

Intrinsic task motivation, which are necessary for the enhancement of creative potential

PBL were seen as relevant to the specific domain (RE) tackled in the introductory SE unit: •

The PBL process applied in the design studio model in G477 provided an environment that could be adapted/enhanced for the development of creative potential. Table 5 lists some of these, based on Amabile’s (1996) work. A CreativePBL model (Figure 3) was developed to address the characteristics of software development (specifically RE in G260) as a domain and to provide a learning environment that enhances the opportunity for creative and divergent thinking. The prime motivation, therefore, in changing the learning environment was to address the issues identified previously as an “ill-fit” as early as feasible within the student’s programme of study and to challenge the false expectations students had of learning through less traditional approaches. The congruence between Edmonds and Candy’s (2002) elements of creativity (see Table 6) and the PBL stages of Koschmann et al. (1994) enabled creative activities to be embedded into the PBL process. In addition, other properties of

•

Its problem solving requires the mental representation of problematic situations—the problem space (Newell & Simon, 1972) must be constructed, either individually or (of more relevance in RE) socially through negotiation. Active manipulation of the problem space is required for PBL problem solving and involves information gathering, model building, hypothesis generation, speculation, and solution testing, among others. This engages conscious activity, and in successful problem solvers, leads to more systematic manipulation of the problem space.

Within the CreativePBL framework the focus is firmly on examining the problem at length rather than quickly solving it. There is evidence that students who have been taught to explore different ways to define problems engage in more creative problem solving over the longer term (Baer, 1988), addressing flexibility and adaptability issues raised by practitioners. The


Table 6. Creativity activities (Edmonds & Candy, 2002) Exploration of ideas, knowledge, and options is based on • breaking with conventional expectations, whether visual, structural, or conceptual is a key characteristic of creative thought • immersion—the complexity of the creative process is served well by total immersion in the activity • holistic view—the full scope of a design problem is only fully embraced by taking a holistic or systems view. The designer needs to be able to take an overview position at any point and, in particular, to find multiple viewpoints of the data or emerging design important • parallel channels—keeping a number of different approaches and viewpoints active at the same time is a necessary part of generating new ideas. Exploration involves accessing source data that may be examined, assessed, and interpreted in terms of the goals. This is an open process, possibly without observable directions, but the thoroughness and selectivity of the activity is critical. Having a comprehensive set of knowledge sources readily available is extremely advantageous. Knowing where to look and how to select the knowledge is even more important. Idea generation—problem formulation, as distinct from problem solving, is critical to the effectiveness of the solution space that is defined. It draws upon a wide range of analogous cases often outside the immediate domain. This has been characterised as an ability to make remote associations. Creativity is demonstrated by the generation of many potential solutions instead of gravitating quickly toward a single and (usually) familiar solution that is not necessarily the optimal one. The ability to consider parallel lines of thought and to select and transform the results to meet the demands of a different situation is a critically important aspect of solution generation. Evaluation involves taking the results of the generative activity and testing the candidate solutions against a set of constraints. This leads to modifying, reformulating, or discarding solutions depending on the feedback. Selection of the optimal solution may involve a number of trade-offs against the constraints that are applied especially where, as is usually the case, the product is a complex one. The application of tight constraints may be considered conducive to creative solution finding and thus evaluation is a vital part of the creative process. Evaluation may be viewed as a pervasive activity that takes place from the exploration phase onward. The use of expert knowledge in evaluation has been identified as an important aspect of successful solution finding.

model was developed to focus on creativity and divergent thinking, so that, instead of students aimed at finding the single, best, “correct” answer to a standard problem in the shortest time (convergent thinking), they aimed at redefining or discovering problems and solving them by means of branching out, making unexpected associations, applying the known in unusual ways, or seeing unexpected implications.

Evidence from qualitative and quantitative evaluations3 of this environment (Armarego, 2005) indicates that while some deep learning is exhibited students are still “hedging their bets” by focusing some of their learning strategies on learning for reproduction. This suggests that further work is required in building an appropriate learning environment that provides students with the ability to transcend imposed frameworks, whether those of disciplinary boundaries or of personal stance.


Table 7. Savin-Badin – Model IV: PBL for transdisciplinary learning knowledge

the examining and testing out of given knowledge and frameworks

learning

critical thought and decentring oneself from disciplines in order to understand them

problem scenario

characterised by resolving and managing dilemmas

students

independent thinkers who take up a critical stance towards learning

facilitator

an orchestrator of opportunities for learning (in its widest sense)

assessment

opportunity to demonstrate an integrated understanding of skills and personal and propositional knowledge across disciplines

Within the context of education for software development, Savin-Badin’s (2000) model IV may provide an appropriate framework for learning. As Table 7 summarises, in this model students are encouraged to develop an autonomous position as individuals within the group, and as a group, and implies an evaluation of one’s own stance and openness towards the stance of others. Students take a critical position towards knowledge, themselves, and their peers and elect to use the group to resolve dilemmas. A learning environment based on this model enables students to deal with problems within a metacognitive-rich framework that makes complexity apparent and lets students deal with it explicitly. The challenge for the teacher is to focus on quality of product and provide feedback to the group, as well as facilitate the process. Although generally considered beyond undergraduate learning, this model appears to reflect more closely the skills required to undertake software development and therefore provides both a challenge and a goal in the context of undergraduate education for IT. While much has been written regarding the value of PBL in learning, (e.g., Boud, 1985; Wilson & Cole, 1996), undertaking such a project comes at a cost:

•

•

•

•

•

Content: Guidelines for implementing PBL indicate that success is partly based on a reduction to the content covered: assuming too much content is a pitfall in a PBL environment (Albanese & Mitchell, 1993). Time to develop project: Bridges (1992) suggests that each PBL project requires 120 to 160 hours to construct, field-test, and revise. To this figure should be added technical effort when the problem is developed in an online environment. Cost: PBL is economical for classes of less than 40 students (Albanese & Mitchell, 1993). It is considered not to scale well to large student numbers without a greater increase in staffing resources. More time to teach less content: Albanese and Mitchell (1993) also suggest 22% more time is required to teach in PBL mode, despite the reduction in content usually advocated. In their study, when academic staff consider the hours per week in preparation to teach problems in comparison to presenting lectures, instead of 8.6 hours/week primarily preparing lectures, staff spend 20.6 hours/ week primarily in groups with students. Diffculty in transitioning, both for staff and students: Bridges (1992) suggests academic staff are uncomfortable withholding


Table 8. Thomas: Issues in flexibility and creativity Issues identified by Thomas et al

Addressed in this context

Individuals or groups do not engage in effective and efficient processes of innovative design. As examples of structuring failure, people typically fail to spend sufficient time in the early stages of design: problem finding and problem formulation, then often bring critical judgment into play too early in the idea-generation phase of problem solving. As another example, empirical evidence shows that peoples’ behaviour is path dependent and they are often unwilling to take what appears to be a step that undoes a previous action even if that step is actually necessary for a solution (Thomas et al, 1977)

Problem analysis is a critical stage: starting from the unknown and progressing to a description of the problem itself, and the knowledge needed to deal with it is fundamental to RE.

Evidence suggests individuals have a large amount of relevant implicit knowledge that provides alternate perspectives to a problem. Providing appropriate strategies, knowledge sources or representations can significantly improve an individual’s effectiveness in problem solving and innovation (Thomas et al., 1977)

The value of alternative perspectives is fostered through participation in a collaborative environment and the active promotion of critical friendship.

The appropriate level, type, and directionality of motivation are not brought to bear.

Although external motivation is difficult to eliminate within an undergraduate degree, PBL is seen to foster intrinsic motivation through the authenticity of the tasks undertaken (Wilson & Cole, 1996).

information as they watch students struggle with problems and need training to develop facilitator skills or they may be unsuccessful in PBL. Students may be uncomfortable with the extensive collaboration required or with the lack of teacher direction given. However, despite these costs, the CreativePBL approach also had the value of addressing issues identified by Thomas et al. (2002): They

Problem-solving habit is challenged by the need to generate alternate solution paths. In learning RE this problem analysis is a critical outcome.

Critical appraisal and self-appraisal skills are developed through the use of reflection tools such as the 4SAT (Zimitat & Alexander, 1999)

suggest there is a widening gap between the degree of flexibility and creativity needed to adapt to a changing world and the capacity to do so. Table 8 summarises these issues and indicates the approach taken to address them within the framework developed. Evaluation of this model indicated that student conceptions of the characteristics of the learning environments were related to their study orientations and strategies. Meaning-oriented students


were likely to see their learning environment with positive terms such as having good atmosphere and demanding deep learning, while reproduction orientation was associated with the view that the learning environment demands surface learning and requires students to be overworked. These findings give support to the contextual view of student learning: Study approaches or orientations are formed in the interaction between individuals and their environment. Figure 4 summarises student perception of their learning in this environment and confirms results from other evaluation instruments. Although a great deal of effort went into developing the CreativePBL environment, students needed greater preparation in order to tackle a different learning model (e.g., a better understanding of the PBL process) and support structures (examples, guidelines), so that they have a clear indication of the appropriateness of their learning. Therefore, while the CreativePBL model provided some insights to student learning, ultimately it is a process-oriented approach, implying process is of greater importance than the product (Dahlgren, 2000), and that problem solving is a smooth

process of sequential stages. To some extent, this was an inhibitor to student engagement with the learning environment—so much effort was expended in applying and monitoring the process rigidly (a novice characteristic) that students did not transcend characteristics of surface learning, nor, in particular, allow opportunism and heuristic insight the importance it was warranted. The aim of the next cycle was to improve the proportion of students using aspects of deep learning approaches and to downplay the process of learning (to some extent), while still focusing on reflection on learning in order to balance the importance of both process and product on professional practice.

cycle 3: Agents of change Studies of the design process indicate the importance of opportunistic approaches (Carroll & Swatman, 1999; Guindon, 1990; Khushalani & Smith, 1994), based on the catastrophe cycle illustrated in Figure 5 (Nguyen & Swatman, 2000) rather than a smoothly evolutionary problem-solving model. The catastrophe cycle can be compared to classical Wallas’ (1926) model

Figure 4. Learning in a CreativePBL environment learning this way (n = 23)

43%

48%

less same more

0

9%


Figure 5. Catastrophe cycle for RE Complexity of RE model

Time

of creative problem solving. He identified four stages of invention: (1) preparation, (2) incubation, (3) illumination (insight), and (4) the verification and expression of insight. Schön (1987) notes that in the ordinary form of practical knowledge practitioners do not think about what they are doing, except when puzzled or surprised. Schön named this reflecting-in-action and argued that it is central to the ability to act effectively in the unique, ambiguous, or divergent situations that become central to professional practice. Conceptually, this means being able to think outside the existing boxes altogether in order to invent new ones (Table 7 provides one framework that applies these concepts), which are critical in “messy” disciplines. This relates to a further issue that needs to be addressed: the need to engage in life-long learning. The speed with which technology evolves, the multiplicity of its impact on society, and the ramifications of that impact mean that metacognitive and knowledge construction skills as well as adaptability become vital. Professional practitioners with such skills become agents of change (Garlan et al., 1997). Bowden and Marton (1998) explore several significant ways of engaging with the question of preparing others for situations that are highly

variable and novel and that do not neatly match up with the (artificial) boundaries between discipline or knowledge areas. The CreativePBL environment students experienced has gone some way to addressing these: •

•

•

Shifting the focus from teaching to learning. The environment is student-centred and minimises “teaching.” Concentrating on developing (generic) capabilities and on student learning outcomes. It may be considered a creative environment that enhances divergent thinking and the creative potential of students. Moving from highly differentiated and fragmented curricula to integrated learning programmes. The approach is somewhat holistic.

Therefore, while the progressive development of design studios and CreativePBL models have had some measure of success, the learning diagnostics (e.g., Approaches to Study, Entwistle & Ramsden, 1983) results indicated at least as strong a bias to surface learning as there is to deep learning. The literature suggests this is an outcome of the (different) learning environments students are exposed to in (different) units. Ultimately, innova-


tion introduced a few units may be undermined if traditional approaches are maintained elsewhere in the students’ programme—so that benefits may only be apparent or are enhanced if the innovation is introduced across the entire curriculum. The next cycle therefore took a two-pronged approach: •

•

Applying a studio learning model across all units and all programmes within engineering, albeit for the final 2 years of study only. This approach addressed the issue of undermining the learning “philosophy” being effected in the SE programme.4 Building into the curriculum an even greater focus on generic skills as part of the outcomes of the learning environment. Further refinement to the model was also required in order to achieve a greater degree of “fit” or constructive alignment between the components of the learning environment.

Design Week In 2005 the school instituted a shift to studio learning in the final years of all undergraduate engineering programmes. Based on the model developed through the research described in this chapter, studio learning is a group-based learning approach that requires academics working as facilitators to provide guidance in a richer, holistic learning environment. The aims of this move were: •

• •

Improved learning outcomes for students in areas such as project management; problems solving; group and co-operative work skills; and communication skills Increased focus on design content within each discipline area A closer match to professional requirements and the potential to integrate into employment positions on graduations

By applying studio learning throughout engineering the aim was to enable all graduates to meet the dramatic changes of a transforming industry. In order to effect the “cultural change” towards learning required by this move, students coming into third year (and for 2005, 4th year students) were involved in an orientation programme (Armarego & Fowler, 2005). The objectives of this week-long activity included: • • •

Modelling studio learning Establishing the roles and responsibilities of students and academics within this model Providing an introduction to the necessary support services made available with the learning environment

These were achieved through a small-scale design task as a means of identifying and exposing the studio learning approach and an introduction to generic tools, techniques, methods, and processes that might otherwise have to be duplicated in each studio. A key component of the orientation was reflection on the process and outcomes by way of a journal/diary indicating tasks, outcomes, and times spent. This incorporated student feedback on the value of the experience. As additional feedback, students were asked in Week 6 (fourth years) and a few weeks later (3rd year students) during the semester to comment on the Design Week in the light of subsequent experiences with studio learning. In addition, students were required to complete a set of learning styles diagnostics prior to commencement. These act as benchmarks and will be one of the bases for ongoing evaluation of the learning approach. All students completed the programme successfully—success being measured in terms of both the product (task adequately designed) and the process (group process established, PBL


process applied). Students demonstrated their engagement with this learning model: The quality of the final presentations and diversity of solutions emphasised their ability to be self motivated independent learners. Significantly, initial observation indicated that students who were in the department prior to the Design Week were better able to make the shift to studio learning—understandable since it is pre-empted in several units already running. However, articulation students and (international) students joining the school on exchange programmes initially found the learning model disorienting and confronting.

Curriculum Mapping As well as other adaptations, applying the studio learning model required changes in class structure. All discipline-specific units were moved to the final 2 years. This meant G260 (or its equivalent design studio) moved into Sem 1, Year 3. Also, rather than time set aside for lectures, tutorials, and labs, studios worked in a block-teaching framework—each studio was allocated 10 hours of class contact (teacher present)—generally on a

single day and 10 hours of additional class time. Therefore, students were expected to spend a minimum of 2 days a week on each studio plus any added time required by individual study habits.5 To tackle the issue of a surface learning focus in student (or, in reality, a lesser swing to deep learning than could be expected) a curriculum map was developed to examine the alignment between outcomes and assessment. English (1978) advocated the use of mapping to ensure that the declared aims of a curriculum match those which are taught and learned, while Biggs (1999) suggested mapping of assessment in order to achieve the alignment of declaration, delivery, learning, and assessment of individual skills. Based on a model developed by the Engineering Subject Centre of the Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN, 2002), all topics in the unit were categorised, firstly by the broad area of syllabus and then by the learning outcome to be addressed. The map based on this model (see Figure 6) indicates that the learning objectives noted in the unit documentation are modified through student

Figure 6. Alignment between outcomes and assessment (adapted from LTSN, 2002) Intended Outcomes determine Assessment Criteria Accreditation &

Generic Attributes

Industry Needs Intended Learning Outcomes Domain Characteristics

Appropriate Learning Activities

Emergent Learning Outcomes

Open-ended Tasks

Additional Outcomes

Assessment Criteria

Alignment feedback to Intended Learning Outcomes


engagement with the tasks and activities. The teacher identifies additional outcomes drawn from this engagement that address generic attributes. If alignment exists, the assessment is based on demonstration of the combined outcomes. The feedback loop ensures adaptation is facilitated for closer alignment in the next offering of the unit.

Students as Studio Learners The student cohort undertook the unit successfully—although exams are not a totally appropriate summative assessment component in this environment, they do indicate “individual” performance as opposed to group achievement. A statistically significant increase in marks across all components of the exam was noted, with the exam modelling previous offerings intentionally.6 The average exam marks are as indicated in Table 9. However, more telling are (sample) comments made in response to the question regarding individual student perception of their learning in this environment (Figure 4 also refers to results for the same query from a previous year).

Table 9. Comparative exam marks Year

Average exam mark

2001

48.08

2002

56.53

2003

55.53

2005

67.45

Simon

In my opinion I learn more communication skills and in organizing and less in technical skills in this unit. So in my opinion I learned neither more nor less in this unit, but different things which I haven’t learned before.

Vaughn

Seriously I feel I have learnt a lot more useful things in this unit compared to most of the other units I have taken at this University … I am learning more, much more for reasons that include: • I have been working in a very good team and feel that some of the knowledge I have learnt has resulted from the interaction with my team members i.e. I don’t believe the level of understanding I now have, would have been achieved by working on the assignments by myself • The assignments being based around a problem gives a more realistic context as opposed to some abstract exercise to test understanding of theory • I have found that the assignments have been an extension of the previous one other and clearly a process that is being built upon at every stage i.e. each additional stage in the process has enlightened me to the relevance of the previous stage. This method of teaching has provided me with a framework that I can use to identify future problems and develop solutions. I have noticed that the design studios require a lot more work from me than if I was working alone. For example I have to spend more time working on problems because of the extra overhead of working in a team (meetings and social interaction). There is also the need to do extra research to gain information that is normally just handed out in a lecture. However I don’t mind putting in the extra effort because I feel the extra effort is worth it because I feel more confident that I do know the material (not an impostor) and can apply it to future situations.


Alaina

Dermot

I felt I have not learnt adequately because I could not manage my time effectively. However, the context of this unit was very interesting and the amount of workload was not heavy, I believe I could have learnt much more if I could organise the study more successfully I personally feel I learn less, I guess this is not my style of learning. It is as good as me taking a unit externally and just staying at home and teaching my self, and if I have problems asking a friend, or researching further. I guess however teaching your self things you do tend to understand concepts better. However I feel that I am an audio visual learner, thus listening to someone explaining the concepts, PowerPoint’s and teaching it to us makes life easier for me. I believe I gain a better understanding in this way

From the university-wide student survey (undertaken anonymously at the end of semester) the following comments are noteworthy: student A

This unit teaches a process that is built on knowledge but more importantly that knowledge is converted to a skill via practice on the problem. I don’t believe this is achieved by the other style of teaching e.g. lectures and exercise type assignments

student b

These design studios are a formalisation of what is occurring naturally i.e. we learn from and work with each other already

student c

This method of teaching has provided me with a frame work that I can use to identify future problems and develop solutions.

Comments such as these samples may be aligned with the professional capability framework described earlier. Students are demonstrating awareness of their capabilities in several of the scales:

• • • • • •

Alaina is concerned about her organisational skills. Simon acknowledges his learning of generic skills. Vaughn and student B acknowledge the importance of social stance in learning. Student A and Vaughn comment on the educational quality of the environment. Student C demonstrates diagnostic mapping. Dermot indicates awareness of his personal stance and how it affects his learning.

Interestingly, Dermot’s comments support the findings of Entwistle and Tait (1990, 1995). They found that students who reported themselves as adopting surface approaches to learning teaching and assessment procedures that supported that approach, whereas students reporting deep approaches preferred courses that were intellectually challenging and assessment procedures that allowed them to demonstrate their understanding. Students also noted that with all their studies undertaken within a studio learning environment, they felt a reduction in the need to justify their efforts. Probing of this concept within a focusgroup environment indicated the following: • •

•

Students felt academic staff were more tolerant of the needs of other studios. With a full-time load of only two studios, student time was not as fragmented across different areas. Except for the (negotiated) compulsory attendance, students could vary the time they spent on each studio in response to their total learning context. It was the project manager’s role to ensure tasks were on schedule.

They concluded that this flexibility reduced stress and allowed them to focus on the learning they needed to achieve.


Vaughn’s comments in response to the question: Do you feel there are any good things about a unit structured in this way? act as a summary of student perception: Vaughn

Yes I think this design studio is very very very (Did I mention very) well run. The problem (Development of the game environment by Mursoft for TerColl) covers all the learning outcomes. We have to apply learning’s to a realistic problem which means it moves as out in the real world e.g. the lecturer (TerColl) pointed out errors in thinking and this resulted in us having to revise what we had completed previously in order to move to the next step. I found this gave me a greater depth of knowledge than the usual do an assignment get some of it wrong and move on to the next usually non-related assignment. The lecturer spending the agreed allocated time in the class room has been very useful i.e. we have been able to learn at a faster rate because we have been able to consult with the lecturer when we where unsure i.e. the lecturer became a mentor/consultant who suggested and guided rather than just giving being a lecturer/guru.

Students as Advanced Learners This student cohort was further observed in a subsequent studio—specifically the unit where previous cohorts had “insisted on being taught.” On this occasion, students exhibited a willingness to work independently and to vary their interactions (e.g., teacher explaining, students discussing together, students working individually, etc.) depending on the needs of the learning situation, calling on the teacher only as required. Extensive data provide significant insight to the students’ perceptions of themselves as learners. As one example, students have the choice, in

this studio, of taking a final exam or presenting a working demonstration of the problem/system. Although the latter requires much more effort and is group-based, the cohort decided to dedicate the (extra) time required in producing a working system. The implication of this decision is their ability to gauge the level of proficiency of their attempts to master the problem and complete the task: They appear to be drawn actively into the problem and learning environment, suggesting “real learning” is occurring. Student engagement with subsequent design studios has been exemplary: In effect, the teacher was consulted only as required. More interestingly, as students rotated into the role of project manager, they (individually) applied what they had previously learned with regards to learning strategies and approaches to study in order to motivate their group members. Markus has the final word, in an e-mail 6 months after the end of the studio: Sent: Wednesday, 0 May 00 :0 AM Sorry I have not got back to you sooner, I have been waiting on definitive answers regarding internship possibilities[…] The particular project is a large one and most likely I will only get to the simulation phase. I will be redesigning a complete operating system. I am confident of doing the task with both my background […], and also using the methodology of Software Design you have taught me. I still stand by that the Software Design Studio you taught last year really has given much confidence in the process and the importance of Software Design.

He exhibits many of the attributes this research was attempting to target. He expresses confidence in his own ability to learn and apply new knowledge as well as adapt what he has learned. This confidence is based on knowledge and metacognitive skills that have been encouraged and developed throughout his formal education.


Reviews of Studio Learning A department-wide review of the studio learning model was undertaken at the end of the first-semester offerings. Feedback was sought from all academic staff involved and student representatives across all design studios. The conclusion reached was that while refinement was needed, (for many staff this was the first implementation of nontraditional learning environments), and a need for student feedback aligned to the learning environment identified, design studios had been successful. Students commented positively on the provision of an introduction and rationale to PBL and design studios (46% of comments received, n = 33) and to the value of working in interdisciplinary groups (30%). Staff noted that, despite concerns regarding “lost” content, learning objectives were achieved. External review of the proposal (as opposed to post-implementation) for design studios by the professional accreditation panel suggested this could become the leading programme in this country, while a school review undertaken by the university, at the end of one academic year of design studios, acknowledged staff and student satisfaction with studio learning and recommended that the model be applied throughout the school (i.e., not just to engineering). Longitudinal monitoring with data collection will go some way towards confirming these initial findings and perceptions.

•

•

•

dIscussIon oF reseArch results/exPerIence Although in its infancy within this university and in the discipline of IT, studio learning has been seen to address issues raised in studies of discipline practitioners and the education literature. The need to:

Provide students with authentic experiences that address competencies additional to specific discipline knowledge  Students were exposed to learning both as a “generic” metacognitive activity and as a skill to be continually adapted and utilised within a discipline context  Flexibility in thinking—addressing creativity, opportunism, and divergency/convergency—was made explicit and strategies to exploit it developed Provide learners with a deep understanding of self and others in complex human activity systems:  In a collaborative environment, students became aware of and learned to utilise each others’ strengths and weaknesses in achieving the unit outcomes. They learned how to “jell,” what to do if they did not, and to be empathetic to others’ contexts.  They learned to value and exploit alternate perspectives brought to a problem by different stakeholders (client, teacher/consultant, other team members) to enrich their learning context.  They became aware of the need to be self-motivated and learn independently.  Students were confident in questioning their own and others’ assumptions within the learning environment. Allow time to explore new ideas and to reflect on possible processes and outcomes:  Students were open to discussion and feedback and willing to retrace their steps/redo the work in order to advance to a solution.  They were willing to “trust” each other’s knowledge (implicit or not, technical or not), accepting the multidisciplinary nature of the skills and


Table 9. Questions and answers addressed Question 1

How useful is the knowledge generally included in tertiary institution curricula for the practicalities of being an IT professional?

Answer

Practitioner studies indicate a mismatch: profession-specific knowledge is generally addressed adequately within model curricula. However, practitioners emphasise affective qualities and generic intellectual abilities and skills. “Lip service” is more likely to be paid to these within formal education.

Question 2

Do alternate learning models address any mismatch identified?

Answer

Learning models based on construction of knowledge within a collaborative active learning environment appear to address issues raised by practitioners, especially if problems tackled are complex, ill-structured, and authentic.

Question 3

Can these be applied successfully within a formal (tertiary) education environment?

Answer

This research shows it can, at least in the context in which it was applied. In addition, the model developed—studio learning—has been successfully applied to all disciplines of engineering at 3 rd and 4 th Year within this university. Long-term success, however, is based on employer reaction and graduate career prospects. These require further research.

•

knowledge required to achieve the learning objectives Be challenged  Students were motivated by the (increasing) complexity of the task and were able to focus on cognitive and interpersonal skills to adapt to the changes required.

Within the context of IT learning within Murdoch Engineering, this research goes some way to answering the questions posed at the commencement of this chapter (see Table 9). As noted previously, within the SE programme, additional research has been undertaken to evaluate student ability to transfer the skills and competencies gained to subsequent units and to a workplace-learning environment (in the context of an internship). While that work is discussed only briefly here, preliminary results, and in particular, employer reaction within the IT discipline are encouraging, to say the very least. As an example of employer reaction, a global software development organisation with a workforce of over 60,000 accepted a lone SE intern in 2003. In 2004 this was doubled to two

students—in 2005 the request was for 10 students who had participated in studio learning in SE. More revealing, this demand was not matched at other universities in the state offering engineering programs for software. A further indication of employer satisfaction is provided by graduate career prospects. While empirical evidence is in the process of being accumulated, (there are still too few SE graduates to provide statistically significant results), the anectodal evidence is also encouraging. Where one (20%) 2004 graduate SE was employed by the same global software development organisation noted in the previous paragraph, of the 2005 cohort 50% (six graduates) are now employed there. Both 2006 graduates (100%) are also with the same organisation.

conclusIon Industry requires professionals who integrate into the organisational structure, and rather than cope specifically with today’s perceived problems, have models, skills, and analytical techniques that allow them to evaluate and apply appropriate emerging


technologies. More broadly, software technology is seen as a rapidly shifting landscape: new methods, tools, platforms, user expectations, and software markets underscore the need for education that provides professionals with the ability to adapt quickly (Garlan et al., 1997). As we learn more about how students learn and what they need to learn in order to practice as competent professionals in their chosen discipline, we move further from traditional teaching and closer to the concept of learning as a reflection on professional practice undertaken by both teachers and learners. This view of professional education has implications for the design of teaching (Laurillard, 1993): •

•

Academic learning must be situated in the domain of the objective—the activities must match that domain. Academic teaching must address both the direct experience of the world and the reflection on that experience that will produce the intended way of representing it.

The progression to studio learning has been a journey undertaken by academics of this university. In empowering graduates to be industry-ready IT professionals, staff benefit from a double-loop approach as the espoused theory of teaching becomes aligned with the theory in practice. It provides learning situations to examine and experiment with our theories of action (Argyris & Schön, 1974). For the student, the collaborative nature of the learning environment that has evolved transcends the classroom, fostering self-directed learning and reflective practice that integrates class and work experience. Although results are positive and promising, their future will test the long-term wisdom of our approach.

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endnotes 1

2

3

Within the environment of this university a unit is equivalent to a course. Within a defined programme of study (e.g., BE(SE)), a prescribed set of units must be completed successfully. These codes are inserted purely to assist in identifying the units being discussed. Quantitative—based on assessment components and the reduced Approaches to Study Inventory confirmed by Richardson’s (1990) work to possess adequate internal

4

5

6

consistency and test-retest reliability; qualitative—based on surveys, interviews, and personal journals. Since SE students must also complete generic engineering units. A full-time load was defined as enrolment in two design studios, requiring 40 hours. This has been the case throughout the study. While questions differ, the outcomes being assessed and the form of the question did not. In addition, students always had access to previous exams.

195

Chapter IX

Relevance of Computing Programmes to Industry Needs in Jordan’s Higher Education Institutes Ala M. Abu-Samaha Amman University, Jordan

Abstract This chapter aims to articulate the concerns and issues surrounding the relevance of computing programmes of higher education institutes in Jordan to market/employer needs. The information technology (IT) industry in Jordan has directed many criticisms to Jordanian institutes of higher education regarding the structure and content of programmes offered by IT faculties and departments, despite relentless effort to fulfilling shortages in the local and regional markets for adequate IT graduates. The chapter presents the findings of a local survey to assess the relevance of computing programmes to market/employer needs in Jordan. The survey identifies many of the skill gaps that exist and in acute need to be covered by a new breed of computing curricula in Jordanian institutes of higher education. Also, the survey emphasises the three most relevant areas of knowledge in computing programmes to industries’ needs: (1) systems/software development/engineering and management; (2) electronic business development and management; and (3) system/software development tools and languages.

INTRODUCTION To be responsive to market needs and changes is a value of great importance for business entities; commercial and noncommercial alike. However, being market led is a great danger to quality of education in institutes of higher education whether on the graduate or undergraduate level. Researching

the relationship between market needs and academic excellence, two business models emerge. The first business model is entirely based on the promise that students themselves are the customers. The second business model is based on the employers as the customers and consumers of the end product of such institutes of higher education. Using either business models as an enabler


Relevance of Computing Programmes to Industry Needs

of program structure and content is capable of producing two divergent products for market consumption. Davis, Siau, and Dhenuvakonda (2003) indicate that “Universities would benefit by creating courses more relevant to industry and students needs, and industry would benefit from hiring graduates that are more fully prepared to meet their needs.” Despite the increasing numbers of IT graduates from the 21 undergraduate universities and two postgraduate universities in Jordan, the Information Technology Association of Jordan (INTAJ) shows that “Companies are hindered by the quality and variety of skills available in the marketplace” (REACH1.0, 2000) where “Computer science graduates are trained only in (dated) programming languages, and lack critically required skills in marketing, technical writing, project management, graphics, creativity, etc” (REACH1.0, 2000). This misalignment between IT programmes’ structure and content and market/industry needs is perceived to be damaging and restraining for local and regional IT firms to fulfil their declared objectives and sought competitive position. In order to assess the market value of current computing programmes offered by Jordanian institutes of higher education, it is important to analyse Jordan’s strategic IT plan. The chapter starts by discussing what is meant by “relevance to market needs” and how it can be achieved via universal knowledge areas in contrast to local market needs. This section identifies what is meant by evaluation and the major challenge to any evaluation effort; selecting the “right” indicators of success or failure. Then the chapter describes the Jordanian strategic IT plan (REACH: Regulatory framework, Enabling environment infrastructure, Advancement of national IT programmes, Capital and finance, and Human resource development) as advocated by the IT industry leaders. The main objective of such plan is to transform the local nascent IT industry to an export-oriented software development and IT

service industry. The role of the higher education sector in fulfilling the stated aims and objectives of the strategic IT plan is then investigated as professed by the leaders of the local IT industry. The market value of computing/information systems (IS) programmes is then researched locally reflecting on the gap that exists between universal knowledge areas and local market needs and how to bridge such a gap.

ProgrAMMe structure And MArKet vAlue The market value of offered curricula structure and content is a worldwide problem. Many universities face the issue of market needs and its relationship to the offered core knowledge areas of study programmes. In a study carried out in the U.S. to define the market value of e-business programmes of study offered by a number of top institutes of higher education, Davis et al. (2003) identified 391 different e-commerce courses on the undergraduate level and 339 courses on the graduate level; eight career tracks related to e-business professionals. Using job listings in the U.S. as a tool to carry out an extensive content analysis, Davis et al. (2003) carried a fit-gap analysis to identify industry needs that are being met by the e-business curricula and those industry demands that are not covered. The fit-gap analysis led to the conclusion that few academic programmes have addressed the particular needs of the market, as very few courses focus on vertical industry specialisation and the majority has overlooked mobile commerce. Davis et al. (2003) offered a number of actions to bridge such a gap, a summary follows: 1.

Increase training in specialised software applications in the areas of supply chain management (SCM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and enterprise application integration (EAI)


2. 3. 4. 5.

Integrate e-commerce into traditional business courses Embrace wireless technologies Emphasise training in e-business security Remain current in e-commerce technologies

Lowry and Turner (2005) criticise the current structure and assessment modes of computing programmes stating that “… we deliver the information systems curriculum in small, byte- sized, semester-long ‘chunks’ that resemble buckets containing defined areas of knowledge suitable for related study,” which lacks the simulated environment of real life, project-based development initiatives. They suggest that employers “often indicate that they want new graduates who can be immediately productive in their environment.” Khalil, Strong, Kahn, and Pipino (1999) identified a mismatch between the needs of organisations for delivering high-quality information-to-information consumers and what graduating IS professionals are equipped with. Wong (1996) and Westfall (2000) noted the need for graduates who can address the technology-related (hard skills) and interpersonal/management (soft skills) in computing curriculum. While Lowry and Turner (2005) presented a simple model for development of an “IS graduate” that serve graduates “by working in a project environment, learning and practicing how to identify problems, frame questions, locate information and resources, work with and serve clients and colleagues, to ascertain and locate the knowledge and resources needed, to successfully plan and complete projects, from the beginning and throughout their period of study.”

computing Programmes core Knowledge Areas The Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) (2001) has identified a number of core knowledge areas in both computer science (CS)

and IS higher education programmes to be used as a guideline in constructing computing curricula. The core knowledge areas in CS higher education include: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

Discrete structures Programming fundamentals Algorithms and complexity Architecture and organisation Operating systems Net-centric computing Programming languages Human-computer interaction Graphics and visual computing Intelligent systems Information management Social and professional issues Software engineering Computational science (ACM, 2001)

While the following have been identified as core knowledge areas in IS higher education: 1. 2. 3.

Personal productivity with IS technology Fundamentals of IS E-business strategy, architecture and design 4. IS theory and practice 5. IT hardware and system software 6. Programming, data, file and object structures 7. Networks and telecommunication 8. Analysis and logical design 9. Physical design and implementation with database management systems (DBMS) 10. Physical design and implementation in emerging environments 11. Project management and practice (ACM, 2001)

More locally, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MOHE&SR) in Jordan has issued a number of modular computing programmes’ structures to define the areas


of knowledge in each computing concentration. In the IS programme, the ministry defined a number of theoretical areas of knowledge including: programming languages, data structures, system programming, operating systems, IS and databases, electronic applications (e-business, e-markets, and e-government), mathematics, statistics, and field training; and a number of supporting knowledge areas including: principles of management, economics, finance, accounting, and interpersonal skills. In the CS programme, the ministry advocates the following theoretical areas of knowledge: data structures, algorithms programming languages, operating systems, databases, simulation, software engineering, computer networks, information security and IS basics and a number of supporting knowledge areas including: mathematics, statistics, and field training. In addition to the aforementioned knowledge areas in CS and IS; the Joint Task Force for Computing Curricula (2005) has recently published varied lists and weights of different knowledge areas in software engineering (SE), computer engineering (CE), and IT concentrations. This new effort articulates the needed knowledge areas in each study programme and the weights of each knowledge area to reflect the differing natures of every computing concentration. The knowledge areas proposed to be reflected in computing programmes concentrate on the strong theoretical basis while at the same time emphasise the importance of developing applicable personal and technical skills. In the IS areas of knowledge more weight has been given to the applicability of theoretical knowledge areas in an organisational context as compared to CS. Tables 1 and 2 provide a summary of the recommended core and supporting knowledge areas in IS, CS, and SE programmes as professed by the Joint Task Force For Computing Curricula sponsored by ACM, The Association of Information Systems (AIS), and IEEE Computer Society (IEEE CS) (The Joint Task Force for Computing Curricula, 2005).

The ACM and AIS recommended a number of guidelines for structuring an IS curricula along two dimensions: (1) IS foundations (fundamentals of IS; IT hardware and software programming; and data and object structures), and (2) business foundations (financial accounting, marketing, and organisational behaviour) (ACM and AIS, 2000). While, the recommended IS core knowledge areas consist of five courses: data management, analysis, modelling, and design, data communication and networking, project and change management, and IS policy and strategy (ACM and AIS, 2000).

the need to Assess the relevance of Knowledge Areas to Market need In order to assess the relationship between such universal lists of knowledge areas and local market needs, it is evident that an empirical evaluation effort is needed. Such evaluation will assess the gap that exists between programme structure and content and the needs of local markets in terms of skills and knowledge areas highly sought by employers and employment agencies. St. Leger, Schnieden, and Walsworth-Bell (1992) explain that evaluation is “the critical assessment, on as objective a basis as possible, of the degree to which entire services or their component parts fulfil stated goals.” In such activity, instrumentation is highly appreciated and particularly chosen (Abu-Samaha, 2003). Rossi and Freeman (1982) advocate that “evaluation research is the systematic application of the practice of social research procedures in assessing the conceptualisation and design, implementation and utility of social intervention programmes.” One of the major challenges in evaluating any intervention is choosing the “right” criteria of evaluation or measures of success or lack of it (Abu-Samaha & Wood, 1998, 1999a, 1999b). A fact emphasised by Ezingeard (1998) and Willcocks (1992) where selecting inappropriate measures and neglecting intangible benefits


Table 1. Recommended core knowledge areas in computing curricula (The Joint Task Force for Computing Curricula, 2005) CS

IS

SE

Knowledge Area min

max

min

max

min

max

Programming fundamentals

Integrative programming

Algorithms and complexity

Computer architecture and organisation

Operating systems principles and design

Operating system configuration and use

Net centric principles and design

Net centric use and configuration

Platform technologies

0

0

Theory of programming languages

0

Human-computer interaction

Graphics and visualisation

Intelligent system (AI)

0

0

Information management (DB) theory

Information management (DB) practice

Scientific computing (numerical methods)

0

0

0

0

0

Legal/professional/ethics/society

Information systems development

0

Analysis of technical requirements

Engineering foundations for SW

Engineering economics for SW

Software modelling and analysis

Software design

Software verification and validation

Software evolution (maintenance)

Software process

Software quality

Comp systems engineering

0

0

Digital logic

0

Distributed systems

Security: Issues and principles

Security: Implementation and mgt

Systems sdministration

Systems integration

Digital media development

0

0

Technical support

0

0


Table 2. Recommended non-computing/supporting knowledge areas in computing curricula (The Joint Task Force for Computing Curricula, 2005) cs

Knowledge Area

Is

se

min

Max

min

max

min

ma

Organisational theory

0

0

0

0

Management of info system organ’ ion

0

0

0

0

Decision theory

0

0

0

0

Organisational behaviour

0

0

0

0

Organisational change management

0

0

0

0

E-business

0

0

0

General system theory

0

0

0

0

Risk management (project, safety risk)

Project management

Analysis of business requirements

0

0

Embedded system

0

0

0

0

Circuits and system

0

0

0

0

0

Electronics

0

0

0

0

0

0

Digital signal processing

0

0

0

0

VLSI design

0

0

0

0

HW testing and fault tolerance

0

0

0

0

0

0

Mathematical foundations

Interpersonal communication

contribute heavily to failing evaluation practices. Brown (1994) and Chan (1998) distinguish between two types of measures, hard and soft measures. Hard being tangible and direct, while soft being intangible, indirect, and strategic. The latter is more difficult to obtain evidence of its expected benefits or outcomes are harder to measure using whatever agreed instrumentation (Abu-Samaha, 2003). Chan (1998) explains the importance of bridging the gap between “hard” and “soft” measures in evaluation realising that “this in turn requires the examination of a variety of qualitative and quantitative measures, and the use of individual, group, process and organisation-level measures.” Another important aspect of choosing indicators or measures of performance is to choose the relevant measures that add value to

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a particular person or group of persons (Smithson & Hirschheim, 1998). Such chosen measures will be related to a certain person, group, institution, or community; that is, stakeholder(s).

JordAn’s strAtegIc It PlAn “reAch” Jordan’s strategic IT plan came to life as a response from the local IT industry to His Majesty King Abdullah The Second’s directive to the private sector to formulate a realistic strategy and action plan that would launch Jordan’s Information Technology sector. In an address to the members of the IT forum, his majesty articulated the objective of such a plan:


“I hope that in the next few days, we can identify together possibilities for investments in a sector that holds considerable promise for all. Certainly, for you, leaders in the Information Technology field, who continuously search for adding value to your companies and products; and equally for the young and educated Jordanians who are eager to embrace change and adapt to the fast moving pace of the new digital economy.” (His Majesty King Abdullah the Second of Jordan, personal communication, March 22, 2000). The result was a comprehensive strategic IT plan that was called REACH. REACH1.0 was available to the public in March 2000; followed by REACH2.0 in January 2001, while REACH3.0 was released in 2003. REACH stands for Regulatory framework, Enabling environment infrastructure, Advancement of national IT programmes, Capital and finance, and Human resource development. These five areas of concern are perceived to be the most vital and important to the success of such an initiative. The long-term goal of the Jordanian strategic IT plan is to position Jordan favourably within the knowledge economy (REACH1.0, 2000). The Jordanian IT plan is foreseen to be led by the private sector in partnership with the government, where the government role is perceived to be of a supporting nature in the legal and national senses (REACH1.0, 2000). While on the short to medium terms, the Jordanian strategic IT plan aimed by the end of 2004 to create 30,000 IT and IT-related jobs, generate revenue of $550 million per year in exports, and attract $150 million in foreign direct investment (REACH1.0, 2000). Of these jobs, 20,000 were expected to be directly related to IT, ranging from software/system development to IT consultancy, while 10,000 jobs were expected to be indirectly related to IT as supporting jobs, ranging from lawyers to intellectual right property experts (REACH1.0, 2000). The current financial figures show an escalating improvement in both the size of the industry and its export. The figures of INTAJ for the year 2001 showed that at

least 10,000 Jordanians were recruited in the IT services and software sector. The reported annual revenue from local and foreign sales in 2001 was estimated at $106.586 million while the total size of the industry was estimated to be $176.959 million (REACH2.0, 2001). INTAJ estimated that this number rose to $270 million by 2002 in both domestic and export revenue. Six areas of concern are identified by the strategic IT plan to realise the projected figures and to aid in achieving the stated objectives and aims. Here follows a summary of the most significant facts of each area of concern.

It Industry development The strategic IT plan aims to accelerate the growth of the local IT industry and to develop healthy industry structures and support mechanisms that will allow greater competitiveness and performance. INTAJ was established in May 2000 for such a purpose. INTAJ is a voluntary nonprofit, private organisation that has more than 150 members ranging from IT firms to lawyers and consultancy firms. INTAJ plays a pivotal role as an advisor for the government of Jordan to establish appropriate policies and strategies for the advancement of the software and IT industry. Among other issues, REACH has called upon joint collaboration among IT companies, to improve capabilities of Jordanian IT companies through technical assistance and economic funding, to develop employee stock ownership programmes and to develop industry quality certification programmes (REACH1.0, 2000).

regulatory Framework strengthening The strategic IT plan has called upon the government of Jordan to build on the recent successful liberalisation and reform efforts to establish Jordan as the most competitive country in the Middle East in terms of IT policies and regulatory

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systems. The IT plan has identified a number of actions, these being: to reduce indirect taxes on all IT-related products, to streamline customs clearance procedures, to continue and formalise policy of no censorship of IT media and products, to adopt more competitive taxation policies, to enhance access to investment promotion incentives (IPI), to remove constraints to employee’s stock ownership plans, to sign IT and customs valuation regulations of the World Trade Organisation, to develop e-commerce legislation, to enforce intellectual property rights, and to amend labour law (REACH2.0, 2001). The REACH initiative identified 25 laws, bills, and articles of urgent need for amendment or ratification by the upper and lower Houses of Representatives of the Jordanian House of Parliament. The government of Jordan has recently succeeded in getting 11 of those 25 legislations to be ratified, among of which labour law, e-commerce legislation, e-signature, and private corporation and stock option law. According to these laws computer print outs and e-mails electronically signed will be held as legal evidence in court of justice. Although the government of Jordan has passed a law for the protection of intellectual property, this law is perceived by the IT sector to lack severe punishment for those who unlawfully copy software or systems (REACH1.0, 2000).

human resource development The IT plan has identified the importance of an integrated program of activities to be initiated in cooperation with universities and primary and high schools to produce the kind of IT graduates that are highly sought by employers in the local and regional markets. The plan identified the following actions: to work with universities to focus on critical skill areas; to strengthen IT-industry ties with universities through funded research and certification programmes; to promote collaboration with overseas universities and software/hardware training centres; and to establish a model “centre

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of excellence” training institute or software and IT services (REACH1.0, 2000).

government support The government of Jordan is the largest employer and the largest consumer of IT products in the Jordanian local market. The strategic IT plan is designed to focus government support efforts in appropriate areas that will stimulate private sector IT development while improving the delivery of government services. The plan identifies the following actions: to establish a high-level body for the Jordanian software and IT services industry; to initiate e-government initiatives; to focus export and investment promotion efforts to the IT sector; and to develop and implement an IT incubator program (REACH1.0, 2000).

capital and Financing One of the most obvious reasons behind the low capitalisation of most IT services is the difficulty in securing debt and equity funding. To tackle this major hurdle the strategic IT plan has identified a series of actions: to develop and attract foreign venture capital funds; to make funding available to software development and other IT services at preferential terms; and to facilitate IT firm initial public offerings on Amman Stock Exchange (REACH1.0, 2000).

Infrastructure Improvement The high price of both hardware and telephone calls and the low quality of telecommunication services are perceived to be one of the major reasons for the lack of IT proliferation in both households and businesses. The IT plan had identified a number of actions to establish Jordan as a regional leader in information and telecommunication infrastructure, these being: to provide high-speed lines to software developers’ ad IT service companies on a priority basis; to provide


competitive pricing on high-speed telecommunication connections for software developers and other IT service firms; and to plan and develop an IT park (REACH1.0, 2000).

huMAn resource develoPMent Jordan is leading the Middle East region in terms of private higher education. Jordan has 21 universities, 8 of which are state funded, while 13 are private and self-funding universities through tuition fees. In addition to two postgraduate studies universities and another two universities recently licensed and expected to start functioning very soon. Businessmen or private investment entities own the majority of these private universities. The figures of INTAJ in 2001 and 2002 show that Jordan has an undergraduate student body of 83,506 and a postgraduate student body of 1,787 (REACH1.0 2000, REACH2.0, 2001). Human resource development in the shape of bachelor, diploma, and training courses is perceived by the strategic IT initiative to be of paramount importance to realise the strategic plan’s stated aims and objectives. With the acute shortage of skilled and knowledgeable employees worldwide—mainly the U.S. and Europe—the plan calls upon the educational sectors in Jordan to invest properly in human resource development to match the local as well as the regional and hopefully international need for highly skilful and knowledgeable IT specialists. The strategic IT plan has identified the importance of an integrated program of activities to be initiated in cooperation with universities and primary and high schools to produce the kind of IT graduates that are highly sought by employers in the local and regional markets. Twelve of the 21 universities in Jordan offer degrees in different engineering fields. While 17 universities offer degrees in CS, CE, and telecommunications. In addition to university graduates, community colleges

and vocational training institutes also contribute to mid-level educated labour in similar fields (REACH1.0, 2000). More recently, the majority of private universities in Jordan started offering bachelor degrees in management information systems (MIS) and SE, while the postgraduate universities provide masters and doctorate degrees in CS, MIS, computer information systems (CIS), SE, and e-business. It is worth mentioning that the majority of Jordanian private and publicfunded universities were only offering CS study programmes up until the year 2000. Afterwards, many universities started to offer a diversity of study programmes in MIS, CIS, SE, and other IT concentrations. Despite these numbers, INTAJ directs attention to a number of escalating weaknesses in the higher educational sector of Jordan in terms of the quality of produced output of the various bachelor degrees in Jordanian universities. REACH described CS programmes offered by Jordanian institutes of higher education as “unconnected in terms of its value to the IT industry.” REACH initiative has come to many conclusions regarding the market value of the offered university degrees in IT, these can be summarised as follows: Computer Science Education at Jordanian Universities Does Not Meet the Needs of Industry INTAJ indicates that the CS curricula of Jordanian universities have “a traditional focus on theory and conceptual understanding, not linked to the needs of the marketplace” (REACH1.0, 2000), where programming languages “focus on outdated languages like COBOL and FORTRAN, rather than Visual Basic and C++” (REACH1.0, 2000). More importantly “Students do not have exposure to Project Management, Technical Writing, Graphics, Internet Development, Web Applications, and numerous skill areas demanded by industry” (REACH1.0, 2000). On the other hand, REACH points out that needed skills outside the programming arena are under stressed by cur-

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ricula design and content, where “Most students are not interested in marketing, management, technical writing and other areas that are not regarded as central parts of ‘computer science’” (REACH1.0, 2000). Furthermore, INTAJ pointed attention to the limited and lacking resources of the Jordanian educational system, where computer departments in universities and technical colleges “are reliant on outdated computer technology and other resources” (REACH1.0, 2000). This lack of resources is foreseen as an important factor behind “the general limited awareness and literacy in the country” (REACH1.0, 2000). Limited Interaction Between Universities and the IT Industry INTAJ indicates that “There is virtually no interaction between universities and business in general, unlike the dynamic industry university linkages established in other countries” (REACH1.0, 2000). There are few programmes to support faculty development and professional enhancement where “Computer Science departments in most universities are deeply reluctant to enter into partnerships with the IT industry as these could damage the academic integrity of programmes” (REACH1.0, 2000). Absence of Specialised Institutes in the IT Area INTAJ indicates that “Jordan currently lacks a university- or corporate-sponsored ‘centre of excellence’ in software processing or engineering” (REACH1.0, 2000). Such centres have been established in other countries as a way to jump start training in relevant IT-skill areas and to serve as a model for reform of traditional IT education in universities (Box) (REACH1.0, 2000).

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recoMMended strAtegIc And oPerAtIonAl ActIons REACH 2.0 reflects on experiences of changes introduced in the year 2000 to the Jordanian educational sector. For example, the government of Jordan is making intensive investments in educating the 120,000 new high school students graduating each year to ensure students receive the proper training to meet the high demand for qualified IT experts in Jordan. As well as the Ministry of Education plans to introduce computer learning countrywide through installing 20,000 computers in schools over the next 2 years. Furthermore, the plan reflects on higher education institutes by pointing out that all college students are now required to learn one computer language such as Visual Basic or C++. On the other hand, a $34 million loan from the World Bank plus $30 million in matching funds from the government of Jordan are being used to sponsor a build-out of Jordan university and community college computer LANs and WANs (REACH2.0, 2001). REACH 2.0 identifies a number of actions to be incorporated over the next few years to bring human resource development closer to its market expectations. Action 1: Initiate program by IT industry to benefit IT students; calling upon the IT industry to initiate year-round, extended internship programmes placing students in IT companies to gain practical experience (REACH2.0, 2001). Action 2: Work with universities to focus on critical skills; where the IT industry has begun working closely with universities to develop curricula and set standards relevant to its human resources needs in “critical skills” areas including personal skills developmental programmes such as analysis; critical thinking; decision making and


communication; and accountability (REACH2.0, 2000). Action 3: Strengthen IT industry-universities ties; where ties between local IT industry and universities are to be strengthened through industry-based collaborative projects to allow university staff to develop professionally, while improving the quality and relevance of research and teaching and enabling companies to benefit from the expertise of the universities (REACH2.0, 2000). Universities were called upon to create measurable standards and targets for quality in their curriculum (REACH2.0, 2000). Action 4: Promote collaborations with overseas universities; “universities were encouraged to gauge in collaborations with overseas universities and software/hardware training centres” (the likes of Cisco, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, Oracle and IBM) as means of accessing IT knowledge (REACH2.0, 2000). And action 5: Establish a Centre of Excellence for software industry; the initiative called for the establishment of “A Centre of Excellence-style training institute for software development” as a mean to set standards and criteria for evaluating the best and latest training available globally (REACH2.0, 2000). The actions proposed by INTAJ and the Jordanian Computer Society explained earlier are valid but such measures do not guarantee the effective delivery of market-valued programmes of study. Quality assurance and quality measurement at institutes of higher education should be a way of life for such institutes. Yet being market responsive in terms of “what markets do require from their prospective employees” is pivotal for the survival of local faculties of IT both on the national and regional levels. Such change in the practices and cultural environment of local universities is important to embrace quality and to link its curricula structure and content to market needs.

cAse studY: MArKet vAlue oF coMPutIng ProgrAMMes At FIt The Faculty of Information Technology (FIT) was established in 2001 as a new independent entity of Al-Ahliyya Amman University. The faculty was conceived as a regional centre to offer a new breed of academic programmes to the local and regional IT communities. Though the CS and CIS programmes have been offered since 1990 and 1992 respectively under the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Al-Ahliyya Amman University was founded in 1990 as a self-funding institute of higher education marking the first private institute of higher education in Jordan and the Middle East. Since then other Middle Eastern countries have followed suit in establishing private institutes of higher education in Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Syria. The majority of such institutes of higher education are owned and operated by business entities under the close supervision of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in terms of accreditation and quality management. The programmes of FIT are carefully studied and updated within a clear framework of objectives and commitment to turn out distinguished graduates to cover the ever-changing dynamic needs of the IT market in the region. The faculty currently offers two programmes: an undergraduate major in CS and an undergraduate major in CIS. The faculty is planning to offer a third undergraduate major in SE by the forthcoming academic year (2006-2007). In addition, the Faculty of Economics and Managerial Sciences started offering an undergraduate major in MIS in 2004. The aim of the CIS program is to train students as IS specialists within a business organisational context for planning, developing, and managing information systems investments. The business

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subjects included within the programme structure (marketing, management, and accounting) provide graduates with solid but basic business orientation, while the IT/computing subjects provide the generic elements that build into the business IS. The degree program is planned to satisfy the increasing demand in industry and commerce for graduates who are able to apply and manage IT in a business environment. This program was designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills required by graduates entering employment, and the emphasis is on the application of IT in an organisational context.

the survey In order to evaluate the market value of the CIS programme structure and content, a survey was devised. The survey aimed to evaluate the appropriateness of the CIS bachelor programme structure through measuring its relevance to industry needs. The simple and short questionnaire (two pages long) was intended to be filled out by IT managers, project managers, team leaders, or lead developers. The survey contained a list of all offered modules in the CIS programme of study. The list of modules contained currently offered modules and would-be offered modules in the third programme of SE. The respondent was anticipated to indicate the appropriateness of the offered module on a scale of 6 (where 0 means not needed, 1 least needed, 2 would be needed, 3 needed, 4 highly needed, 5 essential). A sample of 60 organisations was chosen. The random sample was compiled from the database of INTAJ and the city of Amman’s Chamber of Commerce database. INTAJ’s database contains 130 organisations that specialise in IT provision. The sample consisted of organisations that specialise in software/system development or organisations that have a sizable IT/IS department. Sixty copies of the questionnaire were distributed either by e-mail, post, or by person to the chosen sample.

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Forty-three filled out copies where returned either by post or by e-mail, a return average of 71.7%.

study demographics The list of respondents includes: 13 public entities (ministries and governmental agencies), 12 system/software development companies, 4 international and nongovernmental agencies, 3 banks, and 1 service-based organisation. In terms of respondents, the list included: 9 IT managers, 4 project managers, 7 team leaders, 6 lead developers, 5 programmers, 2 software engineers, 2 system administrators, 1 coordinator for resource development, 1 chief operating officer/PMO director, 1 office manager, 1 vice president, 1 business development director, 1 business/ERP consultant, 1 operations manager, and 1 business development manager. Thirteen of the respondents came from organisations with IT departments of less than 10 people, 7 of the respondents come from IT departments of more than 10 and less than 25 people, 4 of the respondents come from IT departments of more than 25 and less than 50 people, 6 of the respondents come from IT departments of more than 50 and less than 75 people, and 10 of the respondents come from IT departments of more than 75 people. This shows an equal distribution of the sample regarding the size of the organisation/IT department.

survey Findings The modules that scored the highest (an average importance rate of greater than 4) were: Internet application programming; computer network; information and computer security; systems analysis and design; and database design and management. While the modules that scored a good rate (an average importance rate of 3.5 to 3.99) were: technical writing; logic design; field training; data structure; IT ethics; object-oriented programming (Java & C++); project management; visual programming; structured programming; operating


systems; software architecture and design; software testing and quality assurance; IS concepts and management; and Internet technology. Those with moderate rates (an average importance rate of 3.00-3.49) were: human-computer interaction, computer graphics, computer architecture, graduation project, knowledge management, e-business, distributed software development, real-time systems, and RE. While the courses that can be considered less than moderate (with an importance rate of 2.5-2.99) were: financial resources management, marketing principles, accounting principles, human resources management, operations research, modern European languages, artificial intelligence, introduction to management, information retrieval systems, algorithms design and analysis, and MIS. Those courses that can be considered weak (with an importance rate of 2.00-2.49) were: numerical analysis and discrete mathematics/structures. While only one module scored an importance value less than 2 and that was computer organisation and assembly language. Table 3 provides a detailed list of modules and their importance rates grouped according to their score. Three groups of knowledge areas can be identified in terms of the three most relevant categories of areas of knowledge in IS Programme to industries’ needs, these being:

Table 3 shows a great conformity between market needs and universal IS core knowledge areas. On the other hand, the table shows a great disparity between market needs and typical ACM’s CS core knowledge areas. Core knowledge areas like: discrete structures; algorithms; computer architecture and organisation; humancomputer interaction; and social and professional issues have scored lower than expected on the industrial needs importance scale. Another unexpected finding of the study is the low score of the business-oriented knowledge areas. Such areas of knowledge are perceived to be less important than academically thought; these include: (a) financial resources management, (b) marketing principles, (c) accounting principles, (d) human resources management, (e) business management, and (f) operations research. Such topics were always perceived to be of great relevance as supporting topics. As well, IT ethics, Field training, and technical writing scored a higher relevance rate than the graduation project. This in general shows a migration from conventional CS areas of knowledge to more applicable, hands-on skills of software/system engineering and management areas of knowledge.

1.

needed Knowledge Areas

2.

3.

Systems/software development/engineering and management: (a) database design and management, (b) systems analysis and design, (c) project management, (d) software architecture and design, (e) software testing and quality assurance, and (f) IS concepts and management. E-business development and management: (a) Internet technology, (b) computer networks, (d) Internet application programming, and (e) information and computer security. System/software development tools and languages: (a) structured programming, (b)

visual programming, and (c) object-oriented programming (Java & C++).

In the second section of the survey, the respondents were asked to list any area of knowledge that has not been mentioned in the first table and thought to be of importance to their industrial needs. A scale of 5 importance rate was adopted, where 1 means least needed, 2 would be needed, 3 needed, 4 highly needed, and 5 essential. Table 4 provides a list of proposed areas of knowledge that the current structure lacks. Table 4 shows a change of heart in terms of industrial needs. Enterprise resource planning; research skills; business process analysis and

0


re-engineering; systems integration and auditing; and creative thinking are of an increasing importance to local industries’ needs. This migration from typical CS areas of knowledge to areas of knowledge that concentrate on industries’ needs makes it important for universities to reconfigure their study plans, and moreover, newer breeds of programmes of study are of a paramount importance to provide future employees that are more prepared to working life.

conclusIon In general, Jordan has a number of hurdles to overcome in order to have its educational system matching its overall vision for the future. Such hurdles surpass the usual cultural and legislative issues to more pressing concerns like market needs and curriculum structure. The REACH initiative has identified the following shortcomings in teaching IT-related programmes at local universities: CS education at Jordanian universities does not

Table 3. Modules importance rates

Rea of Knowledge

Value

Rate

Computer organisation and assembly language

.

Numerical analysis

.

Discrete mathematics/structures

.

Financial resources management

.

Marketing principles

.

Accounting principles

.

Human resources management

.

Operations research

.

Artificial intelligence

.

Introduction to management

.

Algorithms design and analysis

.

Information retrieval systems

.

Multimedia information system

.

Computer graphics

Weak

.

Modern European languages

Human-computer interaction

Weakest

Less Than Moderate

.

Computer architecture

.

Knowledge management

.

Graduation project

.

Real-time systems

.

E-business

.

Distributed software development

.

Requirements engineering

.

Moderate

continued on following page

0


Table 3. continued Technical writing

.

Logic design

.

Data structure

.

Field training

.

Information technology ethics

.

Object-oriented programming (Java & C++)

.

Visual programming

.

Project management

.

Operating systems

.

Structured programming

.

Software architecture and design

.

Software testing and quality assurance

.

Information systems concepts and management

.

Internet technology

.

Computer network

.0

Internet application programming

.0

Information and computer security

.0

Systems analysis and design

.

Database design and management

Good

Strong

.

Table 4. Needed areas of knowledge Area of Knowledge

Frequency

Value

Research skills

Enterprise resource planning

Statistics

Online database design and concurrency

Applied design

Business process analysis and re-engineering

Systems integration and auditing

MIS applications in several industries, such as in trading, construction/contracting, real estate, distribution/logistics, manufacturing, hotels, hospitals, and so forth

Business ethics (not just IT ethics)

Communication skills (reporting, presentations, public speaking, and so forth)

Creative thinking

Problem solving—Real-life problems

Image processing

Team work

System programming

0


meet the needs of industry; limited interaction between universities and the IT industry; limits on the commercialisation of research; absence of specialised institutes in the IT area; and limited computer resources and awareness in all aspects of the educational system. Unless such concerns are addressed and properly handled, such futuristic visions will not survive to fulfil its promises. On the other hand, REACH’s vision of Jordan has established a number of actions needed to overcome the previous hurdles over the foreseeable future; these include a pressing need to work with universities to focus on critical skills to strengthen IT industry-universities ties. The chapter reported on a survey used to evaluate the market value of the offered CIS programmes structure and content. The survey aimed to evaluate the appropriateness of IS bachelor programmes structure through measuring its relevance to industry needs. The respondents’ list included 43 respondents as: IT managers, project managers, team leaders, lead developers, SEs, and resource development/operations/business development manager. The survey points out three major areas of knowledge identified as the most relevant areas of knowledge in computing programmes to industries’ needs: (1) systems/software development/engineering and management, (2) e-business development and management, and (3)system/software development tools and languages. This in general shows a migration from conventional CS areas of knowledge to more applicable, hands-on skills of software/system engineering and management areas of knowledge. On the other hand, the survey results show that the more business-oriented areas of knowledge have been perceived by respondents to be less important than academically thought; these include: (a) financial resources management, (b) marketing principles, (c) accounting principles, (d) human resources management, (e) business management, and (f) operations research. Also, IT ethics, Field training, and technical writing scored

0

a higher relevance rate than the usual fourth year graduation project. The survey points out a number of areas of knowledge that the current structure of CIS programmes lack, mainly: research skills and enterprise resource planning; online database design and concurrency; applied design; business process analysis and re-engineering; systems integration and auditing; MIS applications; business ethics; communication skills; creative thinking; problem solving; team work; image processing; and system programming. For IT faculties to be more customer responsive, an urgent need exists to restructure the current CIS programmes of study to include the areas of knowledge most relevant to industries’ needs, while preserving the integrity of universally accepted knowledge areas prescribed by the ACM, IEEE, AIS, and other international and local bodies of governance. There exists an acute need for an alignment between CIS programmes of study (in Jordanian institutes of higher education) and the skills sought by employers and employment agencies. This alignment of programme structure/ content and industry/market needs is expected to create a better alliance between universities and the local and regional IT communities; to save small and medium size enterprises funds dedicated for urgent training of newly hired employees and help the IT industry fulfill its declared objectives and aims for the coming future.

reFerences Abu-Samaha, A. (2003). Soft evaluation: A systematic approach for postimplementation review. In J. J. Cano (Ed.), Critical reflections on information systems: A systematic approach (pp. 136-158). Hershey, PA: Idea Group. Abu-Samaha, A., & Wood, J. R. G. (1998, June 7-9). Evaluating interorganisational systems: The case of (EDI) in general practice. In Proceedings of the 11th Bled Electronic Commerce Conference (pp. 174-190).


Abu-Samaha, A., & Wood, J. R. G. (1999a, March 6-9). GP/provider links: Who benefits? Healthcare Computing Conference (pp. 114-120). Abu-Samaha, A., & Wood, J. R. G. (1999b, November 4-5). Soft evaluation: A performance measures identification method for post-implementation reviews. Proceeding of the Sixth European Conference on Information Technology Evaluation (pp. 221-228). Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). (2001). Computing curricula: Computer science. Retrieved from www.acm.com Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and Association for Information Systems (AIS). (2000). MSIS 2000: Model curriculum and guidelines for graduate degree programs in information systems. Retrieved from www.acm.com Davis, D., Siau, K., & Dhenuvakonda, K. (2003). A fit gap analysis of e-business curricula vs. industry needs. Communications of the ACM, 46(12), 167-177. Ezingeard, J.-N. (1998). Towards performance measurement process for manufacturing information systems. Fifth European Conference on the Evaluation of Information Technology, Reading University Management Unit, UK. Khalil, O., Strong, D., Kahn, B., & Pipino, L. (1999). Teaching information quality in information systems education. Informing Science, 2(3), 53-59.

Lowry, G., & Turner, R. (2005). Information systems education for the 21st century: Aligning curriculum content and delivery with the professional workplace. In Information systems education for the 21st century (pp. 171-202). Hershey, PA: Idea Group. REACH1.0. (2000). Information technology forum. Retrieved from http://www.reach.jo/ REACH2.0. (2001). Information technology association of Jordan (INTAJ). Retrieved from http://www.reach.jo Rossi, P. H., & Freeman, H. E. (1982). Evaluation a systematic approach (2nd ed.). Sage. Smithson, S., & Hirschheim, R. (1998). Analysing information systems evaluation: Another look at an old problem. European Journal of Information Systems, 7(3), 158-174. St. Leger, A. S., Schnieden, H., & Walsworth-Bell, J. P. (1992). Evaluating health services effectiveness. Open University Press. The Joint Task Force for Computing Curricula. (2005). Computing curricula 2005. Retrieved from www.acm.com Westfall, R. D. (2000). Metaskills in information systems education. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 40, 69-74. Willcocks, L. (1992). Evaluating information technology investments: Research findings and reappraisal. Journal of Information Systems, 2(4). Wong, E. Y. W. (1996). The education and training of future information systems professionals. Education + Training, 38(1), 37-43.


APPendIx A. coMPuter InForMAtIon sYsteMs bAtchelor ProgrAMMe evAluAtIon Purpose of Questionnaire: This questionnaire aims to evaluate the appropriateness of CIS Batchelor Programme structure through measuring its relevance to industry needs. The questionnaire and its output will be used for academic research only. This simple and short questionnaire, 2 pages, is to be filled by IT Managers, Project Managers, Team Leaders, or Lead Developers. Q1: Your Company’s Name:______________________________________________ Q2: Your Position: a) IT Manager b) Project Manager c) Team Leader d) Lead Developer e) Other, please specify ____________________________ Q3: Size of Your Company’s IT Staff: a) Less than 10 b) 10- Less than 25 c) 25- Less than 50 d) 50- Less than 75 e) 75- 100 f) Other, please specify _______________ Q4: Please, place a number from (0-5) in the importance box, where 0 means not needed, 1 least needed, 2 may be needed, 3 needed, 4 highly needed, 5 essential. Topic

Importance

Information Technology Ethics Technical Writing Structured Programming Visual Programming Object Oriented Programming (Java & C++) Data Structure Logic Design Computer Organisation & Assembly Language Operating Systems Information Systems Concepts and Management Operations Research Database Design and Management Systems Analysis & Design Requirements Engineering Project Management Human-Computer Interaction

continued on following page


Internet Technology Internet Application Programming Electronic Business Computer Network Information & Computer Security Graduation Project Introduction to Management Accounting Principles Marketing Principles Human Resources Management Financial Resources Management Field Training Modern European Languages Discrete Mathematics/structures Numerical Analysis Algorithms Design & Analysis Computer Architecture Computer Graphics Information Retrieval Systems Artificial Intelligence Multimedia Information System Knowledge Management Software Architecture And Design Software Testing & Quality Assurance Distributed Software Development Real-Time Systems

Q5: Please, add any area of knowledge or skill in the following table that has not been mentioned in the previous table. PLEASE mark this area with an importance indicator using a number from (1-5) in the importance box, where 1 means least needed, 2 may be needed, 3 needed, 4 highly needed, 5 essential. Topic

Importance

Thanks for your time and co-operation Dr. Ala Abu-Samaha, Faculty of Information Technology, The University of Amman [email protected]

214

Chapter X

Professionalism and Ethics: Is Education the Bridge? Zeenath Reza Khan University of Wollongong in Dubai, UAE Ghassan al-Qaimari Fujairah College, UAE Stephen D. Samuel Mittal Steels (IT Services), UAE

Abstract In today’s fast-paced world, where more and more emphasis is being placed on ethics and ethical behavior in the workplace, the IT industry remains such an area where little or no evidence has been presented to sustain claims by employees on whether preconceived notions of ethics lead to professionalism among employees. To this effect, this chapter tests the knowledge of IT professionals on ethical issues such as usage of e-mail, net surfing, net privacy, copyrights, and others as recognized by professional societies such as Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE), and Australian Computer Society (ACS). The study further investigates the root cause of unethical behavior at workplaces as pre-knowledge, or knowledge gained through high school and university education. The chapter follows a grounded surveying approach to find out students’ extent of awareness towards ethical issues such as cheating, plagiarism, fabrication, software piracy, misusing the telephone, or Internet access; thus correlating the findings to suggest causality between “student education and consciousness of ethical issues” to the “awareness of ethical issues among future IT professionals.” Among others, the chapter also proposes suggestions to school and university curricula to include subjects that highlight ethical issues in the workplace.


Professionalism and Ethics

IntroductIon Any organization in any industry emphasizes the need for “ethics in the workplace” among their employees to build and maintain “professionalism.” Ethics are standards or codes of conduct that define right from wrong and form the basis of civil societies; whereas, “professionalism includes integrity, courtesy, honesty, and willingness to comply with the highest ethical standards” (Oregon State Bar, 2005) among others. However, how do employers ensure the employees they hire have a grounded sense of ethics that they will be able to apply to their workplace in order to maintain professionalism? In this chapter, we consider the problem to be two tiered. In the first tier, we look at the future employees of the IT industry—the students; their understanding and exposure to ethical issues such as plagiarism, cheating and software piracy. In the next part, we look closely at IT professionals’ awareness to organizations such as ACM, IEEE, and ACS; and to ethical issues in the workplace such as misuse of telephones, e-mail, and software piracy. We then consider through grounded survey method how education of ethical issues at high school or tertiary level might increase awareness among young adults to help them develop into employees who can carry themselves with utmost professionalism in the workplace.

ProFessIonAlIsM And ethIcs: hoW theY Are PerceIved And WhY theY Are so IMPortAnt In today’s world, professionalism and workplace ethics go hand-in-hand. Professional and prestigious societies such as ACM (1992), IEEE (1990), and ACS (2005) all have their own sets of codes that they expect their members to follow and adhere to. However, “computer ethics” in the workplace are not the discovery of the 21st century, despite popular beliefs. It can be dated to as far back as

the World War II in the 1940s when MIT professor Norbert Wiener helped build an anti-aircraft canon to shoot down fast planes (Bynum, 2001), which ultimately led him to some revolutionary “insightful ethical conclusions” about information and communication technology (for further readings see Wiener, 1948, 1954). However, it was not till the 1960s that this concern took the shape of Code of Professional Conduct when Donn Parker began to examine unethical and illegal uses of computers by computer professionals. Parker’s work eventually grounded into the codes of conduct for members of the ACM in 1973 (Bynum, 2001). By the 1990s, computer ethics was a full-blown topic of discussion at conferences, workshops, universities, journals, and such. Today, individuals and businesses alike, view ethics as something synonymous with religious beliefs. Although ethics can be seen as value management, misconceptions exist that have filtered into the field of computer ethics. Often enough, ethics is viewed as a “matter of religion,” “discipline best led by philosophers and academics,” “good guys preaching to the bad guys,” “new concept,” “not in trouble with law,” and “being of little practical relevance” (McNamara, 1999). Other beliefs include “being a matter of following one’s feelings,” “is the same as following the law” or “doing whatever the society accepts” (Velasquez, Andre, Shanks, &, Meyer, 2006). Despite these perceptions of ethics in the workplace, more employers are becoming aware of the competitive advantage of hiring and retaining ethically “aware” employees. A survey by the Aspen Institute and management consulting firm gives evidence that highlights the “focus on ethics and values [especially after] the business scandals [surrounding the] dot-com market” (Verschor, 2005). It also shows that “…of 89% of the companies that have a written corporate values statement, 90% specify ethical conduct as a principle” (Verschor, 2005). Other statistics show that companies lose over $20 billion a year


from thefts by employees (Mansueto Ventures, 2005). Hacking, e-mailing, net surfing, downloading, and sharing customer details are all forms of stealing that add to the cost of retaining an employee. Statistics such as “…internet misuse at work is costing American corporations more than $85 billion annually in lost productivity”; or “1 in 3 companies have detected spy ware on their network”; or even “although 99% of companies use antivirus software, 82% of them are hit by viruses and worms” (Web Content Filter, 2005)—help to establish employers’ insistence on professionalism among its workers. However, the critical question remains: How does one ensure that workplace ethics have been instilled in an employee so he/she can maintain a certain degree of professionalism?

WhAt Is the root oF the ProbleM?

[it] refers to well based standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans out to do, in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues… [example] refrain[ing] from rape, stealing, murder, assault, slander and fraud… …ethics [also] refers to the study and development of one’s ethical standards. …feelings, laws and social norms can deviate from what is ethical; so ethics [also stands as] the continuous effort of studying own moral beliefs and moral conduct, and striving to ensure that the person and the institutions person(s) help to shape, live up to the standards are reasonable and solidly-based. (Velasquez et al., 2006) A professional, on the other hand, is popularly defined by the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language as: adj.

understanding the Importance of education in building ethically correct Professionals

1a. Of, relating to, engaged in, or suitable for a profession: lawyers, doctors, and other professional people.

The Computer Ethics Institute and the National Computer Ethics & Responsibilities Campaign (NCERC) have briefly highlighted that the answer lies in “education.” According to Nick Routledge, co-chairman of NCERC, “a lot of the unethical behavior we see is a product of ignorance more than anything else…[hence] NCERC is pushing for computer ethics becoming part of standard school curriculum” (FREEDOM, 2004) . However, before we launch into the task of finding the root of the problem, we must consider some definitions of ethics and professionalism, particularly in terms of students and employees. Although it has been and continues to be a ground for debate, the commonly referred to definition of ethics falls into two parts:

1b. Conforming to the standards of a profession: professional behavior.

2. Engaging in a given activity as a source of livelihood or as a career: a professional writer. 3. Performed by persons receiving pay: professional football. 4. Having or showing great skill; expert: a professional repair job. n. 1. A person following a profession, especially a learned profession.


2. One who earns a living in a given or implied occupation: hired a professional to decorate the house. 3. A skilled practitioner; an expert. (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 2000) Gotternbarn (2000) has gone the extra mile to define a “computing professional” in the following manner: …when I present myself in the role of a computer professional to you, I say that I have the skill, the talent and the experience to do this job well and I say that I have the moral commitment to a set of moral values and a derivative commitment to a set of standards about software development. (Gotternbarn, 2000) Gotternbarn (2000) also emphasizes that the computer ethics is no different from any other ethics. Although no extensive research has been carried out on ethics in the workplace that should govern IT professionals, Gotternbarn argues that the concept by itself can not be considered something new or unique. He further argues that, to date, major research has only highlighted the use and abuse of computers but not the individuals handling them, or as he puts it, “the domain of professional ethics—the values that guide the day to day activities of computing professionals in their role as professionals” (Gotternbarn, 2000). This can also be extrapolated to the world of students, where many courses and subjects are dedicated to teaching students on how to ethically conduct themselves in typical situations, say robbing a bank or using an office car to run personal errands; but there are no formal definitions of computer ethics that should be the focus of students’ learning in the 21st century, where information and technology is abundant and everyone is a literate (Forcht, 1991, pp. 56-67).

For the purposes of this chapter, therefore, we bring in set definitions of issues we consider to be ethical for students and employees. Where students are concerned, ethical issues today include but are not limited to plagiarism and fabrication, software piracy, misusing the telephone, or access to Internet. Plagiarism, as described by Smith (2005), “is simply using someone else’s words or ideas and claiming them as your own.” Fabrication is the process of “making up data.” Software piracy follows the standard definition of copying/downloading and using software/programs developed by authorized personnel/companies without due permission and/or license. Misusing telephone or access to Internet, in this context, refers to students in internships/summer jobs/parttime jobs, and will be defined as “actions using official services for personal interest.” For employees, the ethical issues include usage of e-mail, net surfing, net privacy, copyrights, and others as recognized by professional societies such as ACM, IEEE, and ACS. Defining these issues, this chapter considers usage of e-mail and net surfing as “actions using official services for personal interest”; net privacy is defined as security of individual and organizational information via e-mail, letters, phone, fax, or other media; copyrights follow the same definition as presented previously (for students); and finally the actual recognition of the societies and their codes of conduct such as ACM (1992), IEEE (1990), and ACS (2005). Having defined the scope of this chapter through the definitions of the ethical issues when looking at students and employees, we can see that the issues are similar. What students face as ethical issues now; become issues for employees in the future. The void that seems to be carried forward from student-level, hits organizations despite their codes of conduct, laws, and regulations that are in place to curb such behavior. Why so? Firstly, there have been extensive research and study on ethics among lawyers (for further reading see Oregon State Bar, 2005), doctors, nurses


(for further reading see Lofton, 2004), and many other professions. However, very little in the form of academic evidence exists on the issue of information technology (IT) and ethics (as defined in this chapter) besides hacking and viruses. Harvey (2005) talks extensively of hacking and ethics as do Wilson (2004), Palmer (2001) and many others. However, as the case of American online (AOL) and its ex-employee shows, there are other issues besides hacking such as, “stealing 92 million email screen names from the Internet company and selling them to a spammer” that cost the company an “estimated $300,000 from employee time spent dealing with the issue, as well as hardware and software expenses” (Kearney, 2005). Although due importance has been given to software piracy (for further reading see Intuit, 2006), other forms of unethical behavior such as e-mail or net misuse, reading others’ e-mails, and so forth have fallen out of focus. Secondly, according to Sackson (1996), trying to reform employees through various codes and rules is a reactive approach . It may reduce unethical behavior for a while, but it is not a long-term solution to the problem. “A proactive approach is teaching students about the need for ethical standards of behavior for computer professionals and users in classrooms” (Sackson, 1996). This outlook is supported by an IEEE and ACM proposal for Computing Curricula 2001 (that some accredited universities follow when introducing or revaluing their degree programs to streamline them). The curricula dedicate a chapter to defining and rationalizing the necessity to incorporate professional practice into teaching (IEEE & ACM, 2001). Ethics issues related to the IT industry surface and affect organizations because of employees who fail to maintain professionalism in the workplace. Since most of the problems root from a certain degree of ignorance to the knowledge of these issues actually being “crimes,” the core is the system of education that the professionals go through as students. Therefore, it is considered

that the schools/universities play a major role in making successful professionals. The findings reported in this chapter present a snapshot of students’ extent of awareness towards ethical issues such as cheating, plagiarism, fabrication, software piracy, misusing the telephone, or Internet access. It then highlights IT professionals’ extent of awareness of the ethical issues such as usage of e-mail, net surfing, net privacy, copyrights, and others as recognized by professional societies such as ACM, IEEE, and ACS; and whether their education has had any effect on their knowledge. The chapter argues a correlation of these two studies and anticipates a possible causality between student awareness through education of ethical issues and its affects on professionalism.

MethodologY, lAYout, And structure oF the studY The authors prepared two sets of questionnaires, after dividing the respondents into two categories: professionals and students. For the professionals, the questionnaire (Appendix A) is divided into three parts. The first part begins by explaining the relevance of the questions and the confidentiality of all respondents’ answers. It then moves on to use demographic information questions. The questions include the respondents’ occupation, the organization they work in, and the number of years in service they have completed. The purpose of this section is to examine if any demographic information is related to how the respondents react to ethics and ethical issues. All the responses are provided anonymously in order to protect the respondents’ privacy. Throughout the survey, the question layout varies. This is done in order to accurately collect data. The first type of question layout was Likert items. Likert items were used for a variety of questions pertaining to ethics definitions and theory concepts. The Likert items gave the


respondents an option to categorize how they viewed ethics attributes and various definitions of ethics and professionalism. Each Likert item provided a value from 1-5, categorized from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Each item explained how the participants rated the ethics attribute and presented the respondent with a range of options to respond. It also structured the choices that could be made. Ten statements on ethics definitions and perceptions are presented to the respondents. The participants are asked to indicate how strongly they agree or disagree with the statement on a 5-point Likert scale. For example, they are given a Likert item that “Ethics is a collection of values.” They had the option to check strongly agree, agree, neither agree nor disagree, disagree, or strongly disagree. All ten statements are positively worded to minimize the respondent’s confusion. Each scale point is coded as strongly agree, agree, neither agree nor disagree, disagree, and strongly disagree. Later a numeric value for statistical analysis will be allocated such that a value of 5 is given to strongly agree and 1 to strongly disagree. Next, the respondents are asked to rate nontechnical characteristics of an employee on a numeric Likert scale. On characteristics such as “Interacting with others effectively, be it boss, colleague, or team” or “Honesty,” the respondents are asked to indicate how strongly they agree or disagree with the characteristic being a part of a professional employee. Each scale point is coded as a numeric value for later statistical analysis. A value of 5 is given to strongly agree, and 1 to strongly disagree. The second part begins by giving a formal definition of ethics and then asks the respondents to rate the 14 statements that reflect on various workplace behaviors, which may or may not be ethically correct on a Likert scale. The Likert items gave the respondents an option to categorize how they viewed the statements regarding various ethical and nonethical issues. The participants are asked to indicate how strongly they agree or

disagree with the statement on a 5-point Likert scale. For example, they were given a Likert item that “If a colleague’s e-mail is open, it is okay to read his/her e-mails.” They had the option to check strongly agree, agree, neither agree nor disagree, disagree, or strongly disagree. All 14 statements are not positively worded, in order to ensure validity of the respondent’s answers. Each scale point is coded as strongly agree, agree, neither agree nor disagree, disagree, and strongly disagree. Later a numeric value for statistical analysis will be allocated such that a value of 5 is given to strongly agree and 1 to strongly disagree. The next types of questions that follow consist of a mix of YES/NO and open-text fields. The YES/NO questions measured whether respondents were previously taught about ethics or corporate social responsibility. Depending on the respondents’ answer (Yes or No), they continue to the text field format that allows them to give personal choice instead of choosing from a list of items. If they have chosen YES, the participants are asked to name the educational institute that taught them about ethics and to what extent they thought it was helpful in their work life. If they have chosen NO, they move on to the next YES/NO question that measures whether the respondents considered prior knowledge in the form of education to be useful before becoming professionals. The final part of the questionnaire was in the form of multiple choice, where answers to a number of “in practice” statements are requested from the respondents. All four questions were borrowed from the ACE Practice Online Test Bank (e-businessethics.com, 2006) in order to maintain validity of computer ethics and test the respondents’ knowledge of standard issues as prescribed by professional committees. The questions all pertain to on-the-job ethical dilemmas that employees may face and ask the respondents to choose the answer that best suits what they might do in that situation. Questions such as, “Your coworker is copying company purchased software


and taking it home.” You know a certain program costs AED 2500 and you have been saving for a while to buy it. “What do you do?” are asked with possible answers ranging from “You figure you can copy it too since nothing has ever happened to your coworker,” “You tell your coworker he can’t legally do this,” “You report the matter to the ethics office,” or “You mention this to your supervisor,” to choose from. Depending on the questions, each answer is later given a numeric value to aid in statistical analysis. A value of 4 is given to the most appropriate answers (as prescribed by ACM standards) and a low point of 1 is given to the most inappropriate answers. For the students’ questionnaire (Appendix B), the survey contains only two sections which correspond to the first and second part of the questionnaire for the professionals. The demographic information questions for the students include the respondents’ grade/year in college, the high school/university they study in, and their career interests. The purpose of this section is to examine if any demographic information is related to how the respondents react to ethics and ethical issues and to filter out students who are not veering into IT fields. All the responses are provided anonymously in order to protect the respondents’ privacy. Some of the statements vary depending on which group is being targeted. The first part for the students has only seven statements with Likert scale choices. It also has an additional question that allows respondents to choose from the given statements which ones they find to be ethical (respondents are allowed to choose more than one statement to ensure validity and increase the boundaries of the research). This part does not include the question that asks professionals to identify characteristics of an employee as they are students and are not expected to choose an answer from experience. The second part on applications has statements such as “It is okay to download MP3 or movies from peer-to-peer websites,” on a Likert scale response system which are different

0

from some of the statements in the survey for the professionals.

questionnaire design This study was conducted using survey methodology and follows the pre/post no control group format. The survey, which was conducted by the authors, was intended to examine student and employee awareness of ethics and ethical issues. The 219 students and 50 professionals filled out paper questionnaires; 19 questionnaires from the student depot were rejected as their career interests were not in the IT industry. Through the different sections in the questionnaire, the respondents were tested to see if they recognized attributes of ethics and professionalism. The next part gave the formal definition of ethics and then the respondents were asked to scale the varying ethical issues. There were also many other variables that were tested to determine levels of awareness towards ethics attributes that may also affect respondents’ behavior to ethical issues (as described in the previous section). Those answers that were qualitative in nature were assigned numerical values to quantitatively analyze the results. The questionnaire was designed specifically to collect initial and post-ethical issue exposure opinions. There was no control group; each participant in each set answered the same questions in the same order.

data collection Process and Procedures Upon an individual respondent’s completion of a survey, their answers were collected through the use of a Microsoft Excel file. Upon completion of the surveys, data were transferred into an SPSS file for analysis. Manual encoding was avoided in order to minimize error. Fifty professionals and 219 students filled out a paper questionnaire. The questionnaire itself was built using a word processor. Data were collected manually. The data


Table 1. Demographic distinction in employees company category

company type

Software house

Multinational

Advertising agency A

Local

Advertising agency B

Multinational

0

Bank

Local

Government subsidiary

Local

IT retail chain

Local

entered into the questionnaire were captured and ultimately exported into SPSS (a statistical software package for the social sciences) for analysis. The data entered was rechecked by the authors that minimized error as the respondents’ exact answers were transferred directly two times by two persons in two separate occasions and then correlated.

resPondent descrIPtIon And level oF ethIcAl AWAreness Due to time and monetary constraints, this study opted for a nonrandom, convenience sample. It was decided that a sample size of at least 50 employees and 219 students would be sufficient for statistical analysis. These sample sizes also allow for enough representation so that if statistical significance is found, projection can be made in more samples within the same population as these were drawn we would find results of the same magnitude. The questionnaires were distributed in high schools and companies and handled personally by the authors. Of these, as shown in Tables 1 and 2, the employee depot had a good mix of respondents from beginner level to those who had completed over 8 years in service at various positions from programmers to system administrators, documentation officers and analysts. The six companies that were chosen included multinational and local organizations.

number of respondents

As for the student depot, 219 students from five high schools were selected from grades 11 and 12. The schools chosen represented the Indian CBSE syllabus, London-board GCE, GCSE, and IGCSE syllabi. As shown in Tables 3 and 4, most of the respondents chosen to sit for the survey were interested in pursuing career in IT; however, 19 questionnaires were rejected as, although the respondents were taking IT courses in their final year in school, they were not interested in going further in that field.

student Awareness of ethical Issues The first part of the questionnaire, as described in the previous sections, extensively tests student awareness to the definition of ethics and its attributes. A 5-point Likert scale (5 = strongly agree to 1 = strongly disagree) was used to measure the response for each statement. For the entire first section (consisting of seven statements) the mean percentage and the weighted average was calculated as shown in Table 4. Table 4 shows the respondents’ views as collected through the surveys. The data clearly indicates a sufficient knowledge of ethics and its attributes as perceived by the students. The strongly agree (30.84%) and agree (29.30%) items for all the seven statements indicate a high enough understanding of the concepts of ethics and its definitions. Although there is a good 26.07% response that falls under neither agree nor disagree,


Table 2. Respondent occupation and years in service occupation

1-3 yrs

4-7 yrs

8 yrs and above

Programmer

IT manager

0

System administrator

Documentation officer

0

IT support

0

Table 3. Demographic representation of respondents syllabi

Frequency

Percentage

CBSE

.00%

GCE

0

.00%

GCSE

.0%

IGCSE

.0%

Total

00

00.00%

Table 4. Student awareness and response to ethics and ethical issues Part I

Part II

What does ethics mean to you “In Theory”

Ethics “In Practice”

n=00

n=00

Strongly agree

0.%

.%

Agree

.0%

.%

Neither agree nor disagree

.0%

0%

Disagree

.0%

0.0%

Strongly disagree

.%

.%

3.7

2.61

Weighted average (using likert scaling)

with a weighted average of 3.7 (3 being the mid value for the Likert scale considered neither agree nor disagree), the score for the students is high enough to suggest a skew towards agreeing with the definitions of ethics and its attributes. Looking at the question that asks the respondents to distinguish between ethical and nonethical

issues, however, there is a significant variation from the previously thought-of perception that students have of ethical issues. As shown in Graph 1 and Legend 1, the respondents’ answers to the question of what makes an issue ethical veer towards morality and what is right or wrong. Whenever the word “morality” is used to describe


a situation, the number of respondents to pick that answer dramatically increases. The statements “involves a matter of right or wrong” (87%), “involves morality, a code of morals, or morals questions” (93%), “[does not] involve violations of rights, freedom, justice, or morals” (95%), all have a high selection rate. This clearly shows that students are not actually aware of ethics, but rather of what they perceive to be ethics. This reestablishes what has been previously stated in this chapter and proven by McNamara (1999) and Velasquez et al. (2006) that the definition of ethics as perceived by students is shaky and not always accurate as the following statements show Ethics has to do with what my feelings tell me is right or wrong Ethics has to do with my religious beliefs Being ethical is doing what the law requires Ethics consists of the standards of behaviour our society accepts (Velasquez et al., 2006)

The second part of the questionnaire focuses on the response of students to various practical situations that may or may not be perceived as ethical by them. Once again, a 5-point Likert scale (5 = strongly agree to 1 = strongly disagree) was used to measure the response for each statement. For the entire section (consisting of 15 statements) the mean percentage and the weighted average was calculated as shown in Table 4. Referring back to Table 4, the results show the respondents’ choices as collected through the surveys. The findings tend to support the previous deduction that the students’ perception of ethics has less to do with its attributes and more to do with how they feel about morality, religion, and the law. The Likert items neither agree nor disagree (20%), disagree (20.8%), and strongly disagree (29.93%) have the highest scores on selection (keeping in mind that the negative wordings have been rephrased and the findings reversed for statistical analysis). Looking closely at the statements themselves, the students seem to agree with what they have been explicitly taught as right or wrong, for instance, for statements such as “copying from textbooks for assignments without citation” were

Graph 1. Bar chart representing student recognition of characteristics of ethical issues 0 00 0 00 0 0 a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

N/B: All the negative statements (marked with shaded boxes in Legend 1) have been reversed along with the answers to give a positive response in the graph. continued on following page


Graph 1. continued Percentage a

‘involves harm/hurt/adverse effects on others’,

98.00%

b

‘affects people’s lives or well-being’

36.00%

c

‘involves a matter of right or wrong’

87.00%

d

‘involves morality, a code of morals, or morals questions’

93.00%

e

‘involves violations of rights, freedom, justice, or morals’

95.00%

f

‘involves moral responsibility and is outside the law’

33.00%

g

‘is interpretable in multiple ways, ‘has no correct solution to it’

45.00%

h

‘is decidable only by appeal to morals,’ etc.

86.00%

strongly disagreed by the students. This is because most schools teach students about referencing and citations such as the Harvard Referencing System which states “All statements, opinions, conclusions etc. taken from another writer’s work should be cited, whether the work is directly quoted, paraphrased or summarized” (Holland, 2005). On the other hand, statements such as “It is okay to download music, movies and such” had high scores of strongly agree to agree. Although the mean percentage for neither agree nor disagree is almost the same as disagree, the weighted average for this section, which is a 2.61 is considered to be low when compared to the mid value of the Likert scale of 3. Therefore, it is fair to deduce that students’ awareness of ethical issues is low although they may appear to know what ethics and its attributes are.

employee Awareness of ethical Issues As described previously in the chapter, the questionnaire targeted at the employees was divided into three parts. Looking at the first part, as described in the previous sections, the statements extensively test employee awareness to the definition of ethics and its attributes, and professional-

ism. A 5-point Likert scale (5 = strongly agree to 1 = strongly disagree) was used to measure the response for each statement. For the entire first section (consisting of 10 statements) the mean percentage and the weighted average was calculated as shown in Table 5. Table 5 illustrates the respondents’ views as collected through the surveys. The data clearly indicates a good understanding of ethics and its attributes as perceived by the employees. The strongly agree (42.5%) and agree (32.75%) items for all 10 statements indicate a very high understanding of the concepts of ethics and its definitions. Although there is a 14.88% response that falls under neither agree nor disagree (which is high in comparison to the other items: disagree [5.75%] and strongly disagree [4%]), with a weighted average of 4.04 (3 being the mid value for the Likert scale considered neither agree nor disagree), the score for the employees is high enough to suggest a strong skew towards agreeing with the definitions of ethics and its attributes. However, looking at the question that asks the respondents to rate nontechnical characteristics that should be a part of being an “employee/employer,” the result varies significantly to the previous section, as can be seen in Graph 2 and Legend 2. The question asked the respondents to rate the


various characteristics on a Likert numeric-value scale of 1 to 5 (1 = lowest and 5 = highest). Each value can be distinguished as least important, slightly important, neither important nor unimportant, important, and very important. From Graph 2, it is easy to see that the characteristics such as integrity (76% rating 2) and honesty (94% rating 2), which are attributes of ethics, scored low on the rating scale. The majority of the respondents argued “slightly important” as nontechnical characteristics of an employee. Also, the scores for courage (66% rating 3), fairness (52% rating 3), and loyalty (44% rating 3) illustrate a majority unsure of whether these characteristics (which are typically ethical attributes) should be a part of being an employee. On the other hand, characteristics such as technical writing (58% rating 5), communications (72% rating 5), negotiating (82% rating 5), interacting with others effectively, be it boss, colleague or team (78% rating 5), and open mindedness (86% rating 4) are all rated as “important” and “very important” characteristics to have as an employee. It can be deduced from the findings that employees view professionalism slightly differently from ethics. To most of the respondents, employees need to have more visual qualities such as communications and interactions, characteristics that can

be “seen” rather than ethical traits such as loyalty, fairness, honesty, and integrity. This could be attributed to the misperception of ethics, especially in the workplace. As mentioned previously and supported by McNamara (1999) and Velasquez et al. (2006), the employees seem to understand the concepts of ethics based on their prior knowledge, which stem from beliefs, feelings, and laws (McNamara, 1999). Henceforth, they do not see the ethical attributes as necessary characteristics of being a professional employee. The second part of the questionnaire focuses on the response of employees to various practical situations that may or may not be perceived as ethical by them. Once again, a 5-point Likert scale (5 = “Strongly Agree” to 1 = “Strongly Disagree”) was used to measure the response for each statement. For the entire section (consisting of 14 statements) the mean percentage and the weighted average was calculated as shown previously in Table 5. Referring back to Table 5, the results show the respondents’ choices as collected through the surveys. The findings tend to support the deductions from the first part that the employees do have a good sense of ethics and ethical issues and how to react to them. The Likert items strongly agree (29.29%) and agree (21.43%) have the highest scores on selection (keeping in mind

Table 5. Employee awareness and response to ethics and ethical issues Part I

Part II

What does ethics mean to you “In Theory”

Ethics “In Practice”

n=0

n=0

Strongly agree

.0%

.%

Agree

.%

.%


.%

%

Disagree

.%

.%

Strongly disagree

%

.%

Weighted average (using likert scaling)

4.04

3.25


Graph 2. Employee rating of nontechnical characteristics of an “employee.” The series represent the Likert scale (1 = least important to 5 = most important).

00.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% Percentage rating

0.00%

Series Series

0.00%

Series Series

0.00%

Series

0.00% 0.00% 0.00% a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

i

j

characteristics

Technical writing

a

Communications - speaking

b

Negotiating

c

Interacting with others effectively, be it boss, colleague or team

d

Courage

e

Integrity

f

Honesty

g

Fairness

h

Open-mindedness

i

Loyalty

j

Common sense

k

Legend 2. Horizontal axes table from graph 2.

k


that the negative wordings have been rephrased and the findings reversed for statistical analysis), showing that employees tend towards ethically correct actions. However, looking closely at the statements, the scenario changes dramatically. The 14 statements in the second section were grouped into five further categories to give: “Ethical issues at work,” “Ethical issues at home,” “Ethics and the use of Internet,” “Ethics or aesthetics,” and “Ethics and copyright” for further analysis. Then the mean frequency of each was calculated along with the percentage as shown in Table 6. From Table 6 it can be seen that when the ethical issues relate to the work environment, such as “In my organization we are encouraged/rewarded for being professional in our workplace” or “Ethics and professionalism are two sides of a coin,” the employees rigorously score for the correct action; giving a collective score of 48.29%. But, when the issue is brought home with statements such as “It is okay to download MP3 or movies from peer-to-peer websites while at home,” the respondents “strongly agree” to it also. Further findings show that when the issue is relating to Internet use, such as reading others’ e-mails, net surfing, or using e-mail for personal use, an equal percentage of the respondents chose strongly agree (28%) and agree (28%). Looking at the next category, it supports the previous findings that employees seem to value aesthetic attributes over ethical ones. The respondents scored a high percentage on strongly agree (82%) for statements such as “It is more important to be a state-of-the-art technical expert than to be a good professional.” Finally, the last category that looks closely at ethics and copyright support the deductions from the first part. Employees tend to strongly disagree (27%) when asked if “It is okay to download MP3 or movies from peer-to-peer websites while at work.” But, they also tend to disagree when they are asked if “It is okay to install copyright

software that a friend has,” which could relate to the home or work environment. The questions following part two in the questionnaire asked the respondents if they were taught about ethics in their years of education across secondary or tertiary levels. The respondents had to answer either yes or no. Graph 3 illustrates the findings that show only 19 out of 50 respondents (38%) actually had formal education in ethics. Table 7 summarizes the countries where these 19 employees were educated (however, this will not be a focus for this chapter). With these results, and looking at the findings from part two, it can be deduced that the strange variation in respondent scores to various ethical issues can be attributed to prior knowledge or education in ethics or ethical behavior in the workplace. Along with McNamara (1999) misconceptions of ethics as proved by the results from part one, these results are a clear indication that the majority of employees lack a solid background knowledge of ethics and therefore seem to perceive ethics to apply only to “professional” environments. It also goes to show that issues relating to Internet usage are unclear to the respondents for the same reason. However, the results for ethics and copyright highlight the fact that because copyright is a major concern worldwide and widely publicized (for further reading see “What is copyright,” 2003), employees are well aware of the issue and therefore are able to distinguish right action from wrong due to prior knowledge. Part three of the employee questionnaire had four application multiple choice questions that were borrowed from the ACE Practice Online test bank (e-businessethics.com, 2006). The results from these were first tabulated and then rearranged to order them according to the ACE scale (1 = least correct possibility to 4 = most correct possibility) for further statistical analysis. The result for each possibility is shown in Graph 4. Graph 4 shows the skew of respondents’ choice towards unethical behavior when practi-


Table 6. Employee response to ethical issues at various tiers Ethical issues at work

Ethical Issues at home

Ethics and the use of Internet

Ethics or aesthetic?

Ethics and copyright

n=50

n=50

n=50

n=50

n=50

Strongly agree

48.29%

38%

28.00%

82%

12%

Agree

21.71%

46%

28.00%

18%

16%


8.57%

10%

16.67%

0

24%

Disagree

16.29%

6%

23.33%

0

27%

Strongly disagree

5.14%

0

4.00%

0

21%

cal situations are presented to them. The lowest point choices—1 and 2—are the most common choices for the employees. For questions such as “You work in the mailroom and suspect a colleague is using the Federal Express service for personal mail. What do you do?” “You ignore the situation” was chosen by 82% as opposed to “You contact ethics.” This shows an unusual tendency among employees towards unethical behavior, although the respondents showed a considerably high weighted average of 4.04 on the knowledge of ethics and its attributes, and 3.25 on the “in practice” statements from the previous parts (Table 5). This may be attributed to the previously stated reasons such as no prior knowledge of ethical concepts or how and where they should be applied. Without formal education in corporate social responsibilities, it is seen that employees find it hard to differentiate between ethical and nonethical issues when personal interests come to play. When closely looking at the statements in part two, one particular statement “As an IT professional, I should follow standards set by professional organizations such as ACM, IEEE or ACS” that scored 46% seems void when looking at the findings from part three where the questions are borrowed from the ACS bank. The deduction can

then be made that employees may have heard of or know such professional bodies exist but do not or have not been exposed to or made aware of the standards set by these societies where ethics in the workplace are concerned. Once again, the fact that 62% of the respondents had no ethics component as a part of their formal education is taken as a major factor for such poor choice of behavior in ethical situations.

comparison between student and employee Awareness Referring back to Tables 4 and 5, when comparing the weighted average in the area of knowledge in ethics and ethic attributes, there does not seem to be a very large difference between students (3.7) and employees (4.04). Both agree to the definitions provided. However, the difference comes when looking at “in practice” results. The students score a low 2.61, whereas the employees score a 3.25. Although there may not seem a large gap between the two figures, since the Likert scaling system was in place, the mid average for the scale is considered 3. Therefore, the students are in the lower hemisphere of the scale, leaning towards disagreeing, whereas the employees are in the upper hemisphere skewing towards agreeing.


Graph 3. Measuring prior education involving ethics in employees

0.00%

0.00%

Percentage

0.00%

0.00%

0.00%

0.00%

0.00%

0.00% Yes I took Ethics Course during my studies

No I took Ethics Course during my studies

Table 7. Frequency of countries where respondents took ethics course during formal education (n = 19) Frequency

Percentage

United States of America

.%

Canada

.%

India

0.%

UK

.0%

UAE

.%


Graph 4. Respondent application result (Legend value corresponds to the multiple choice questions from Part III of Appendix A) 0

Frequency

0

0

0 0

Weight (1 - least to 4 - most appropriate)

Graph 5. Employee opinion on effects of prior knowledge on application of ethics 0.00%

0.00%

percentage

0.00%

0.00%

0.00%

0.00%

0.00%

0.00% Would make a difference

0

Would NOT make a difference


However, it is deduced that the overall difference in the results is not significantly large as only 38% of the employees that were surveyed had been exposed to ethical issues and behaviors during the course of their education.

ProFessIonAlIsM And ethIcs: so Where Is the lInK? Ethics in the workplace have been topics of concern for many decades. As established previously, ethics in the field of IT is nothing new. However, the growing problem of unethical practices in the workplace is costing organizations worldwide. In the same instance, the lack of awareness to ethical issues in student communities across nations is also adding to the costs (Internetnews.com, 2003). From across corporations and governments, people are introducing new rules and standards that are meant to limit the damages. But the results are obviously not satisfactory. So what can be done to curb such behavior? How can the world community at large increase both employee and student awareness to issues in the field of IT that can be perceived as ethical or unethical? What active actions can be taken? This chapter has presented a simple research into the area that has not been highlighted much—education. When asked if they thought it “would have made a difference to have been taught about ethics or corporate social responsibilities before the employees entered the job market, the respondents’ scores rated over 50% who agreed it would.” As shown in the Graph 5, the YES/NO question gives a clear indication that even the employees realize the gap that exists between their education and their professional life. The chapter also highlights the misconception that students and employees harbor about professionalism and ethics, often merging the two and relating them to religion, feelings, law, and the work environment, rather than to every-day life usage of IT. It is therefore obvious that education is needed to

reduce the gap between students’ and employees’ perception of professionalism and ethics.

toWArds An ethIcAllY enlIghtened Future… As the 21st century roles into full swing, students are being exposed to new discoveries and the latest technologies through the ever-changing and evolving curricula to keep up with the industry. At the same time, the IT professionals are getting to try their hand at these technologies. So what is the issue? Technologies such as intelligent agents or “bots” that are a “piece of software that can autonomously accomplish a task for a person or other entity” (Tavani, 2004) are the next generation intelligence that can “be sent out on a mission, usually to find information and report back” (BotKnowledge, 2006). This can lead to security issues because, often enough, it is dealing with people’s personal information. Leaks in the information can lead to spamming, loss of privacy, and identity theft (Mowbray, 2005). Other major technologies of concern such as surveillance and privacy have a fine line diving them. Information privacy is defined as “an interest held by individuals regarding the control, and handling of data about themselves” (Clarke, 1997), which leads to the matter of confidentiality—a situation where information has been imparted to another person in circumstances where the confidant is aware of the special nature of the communications and secrecy—a blanket term used when disclosure of information is forbidden. Surveillance, on the other hand, is a technology that is primarily used to protect people and their belongings, but can often breach the privacy line. “The development of information technology and the Internet has dramatically increased the quantity of information available in digital form. This has resulted in a proliferation of uses of personal information. Some of these have major implications for the privacy of individuals”


(privacy.gov, 2006). To this effect, “In late 1980, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development issued a set of Guidelines concerning the privacy of personal records. Although broad, the OECD guidelines set up important standards for future governmental privacy rules” (CDT.org, 2000). This is because discovery and introduction of such technology in the hands of ignorant users can be potentially harmful. This should then obviously be backed by education in the line of ethics pertaining to issues such as net usage, e-mail privacy, data security, piracy, and such starting from high school and followed through with in-depth courses dedicated to teaching computer ethics. The courses can not just be confined to IT students. In today’s world, literacy and usage of IT is no longer looked on as limited to computer students or IT professionals (Sackson, 1996). Managers at all levels in any organisation are dealing with vital and sensitive data and need to be ethically aware of how to handle them without breaching any privacy laws. Students and employees, regardless of their background or future interests, should be made aware of the international guidelines that have been drawn up to curb unethical behavior and thus reducing cost to organisations and peoples’ lives. This chapter recommends a focus on and introduction of ethics as a part of formal education starting from high schools, where the students are first introduced to the world of IT, and the education should intensify when the students move on to tertiary level, detailing various aspects of corporate social responsibilities and making them aware of ethical issues. In the end, we are equipping students with powerful weapons that have the capacity to mass destruct, and so we should equip them with the ethics to use them rightly for the good of mankind.

reFerences Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). (1992). ACM codes of ethics and professional conduct. Retrieved from http://security.isu.edu/ acm_ethics.htm Australian Computer Society (ACS). (2005). Australian computer society code of ethics. Retrieved from http://www.acs.org.au/national/ acsregs.html#4 BotKnowledge. (2006). BotKnowledge. Retrieved from http://www.botknowledge.com/bkfaqs. html Bynum, T. (2001, August 14). Computer ethics: Basic concepts and brief overview. Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethicscomputer Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) (2000). Privacy basics: OECD guidelines. Retrieved from http://www.cdt.org/privacy/guide/ basic/oecdguidelines.html Clarke, R. (1997). Introduction to Dataveillance and information privacy, and definitions of terms. Retrieved from http://www.anu.edu.au/people/ Roger.Clarke/DV/Intro e-businessethics.com. (2006). ACE practice tests. Business ethics (4th ed.). Retrieved from http:// college.hmco.com/cgi-bin/SaCGI.cgi/acelapp. cgi?FNC=AcePresent__Apresent_html___business_ferrellethics_01 Forcht, K. A. (1991). Assessing the ethical standards and policies in computer-based environments. In Ethical issues in information systems (pp. 56-69). Boston: Boyd & Fraser. FREEDOM. (2004). Introducing ethics into the computer world. Freedom Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.scientology.org/goodman/ethics.htm


Gotternbarn, D. (2000). Computer ethics: Responsibility regained. Retrieved from http://csciwww. etsu.edu/gotterbarn/ Harvey, B. (2005). Computer hacking and ethics. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved from http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bh/hackers.html Holland, M. (2005). Citing references. Academic Services, Bournemouth University. Retrieved from http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/academic_services/documents/Library/Citing_References.pdf IEEE & ACM. (2001, December 15). Computing curricula 2001: Computer science. Retrieved from http://www.computer.org/portal/cms_docs_ ieeecs/ieeecs/education/cc2001/cc2001.pdf IEEE Board of Directors. (1990). IEEE code of ethics. Retrieved from http://www.ieee.org/ portal/site/mainsite/menuitem.818c0c39e85ef17 6fb2275875bac26c8/index.jsp?&pName=corp_ l e vel1& p a t h = a b o u t / w h a t i s & f i l e = c o d e . xml&xsl=generic.xsl Internetnews.com (2003, September 17). Study: Colleges a gateway to software piracy. Retrieved from http://www.internetnews.com/article. php/3078651 Kearney, C. (2005). Ex-AOL employee sentenced to 15 months in spam case: Stole 92M e-mail screen names and sold them to a spammer. Computerworld. Retrieved from http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/privacy/ story/0,10801,103991,00.html?source=x2105 Lofton, L. (2004, July). Teaching ethics a growing need among healthcare professionals. Mississippi Business Journal. Retrieved from http:// www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go1584/ is_200407/ai_n6558454 Mansueto Ventures. (2005). Employee theft still costing business. Retrieved from http://www.inc. com/articles/1999/05/13731.html

McGinn, R. R. (1999). Expectations and experiences of ethical issues in engineering: A survey of Stanford engineering students and practicing engineers. International Conference on Ethics iN Engineering and Computer Science. Retrieved from http://onlineethics.org/essays/education/ mcginn.html McNamara, C. (1999). Complete guide to ethics management: An ethics toolkit for managers. Retrieved from http://www.managementhelp. org/ethics/ethxgde.htm Mowbray, M. (2005, February 28). Ethics for bots. International Institute for Advanced Studies in Systems Research and Cybernetics. Retrieved from http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2002/ HPL-2002-48R1.pdf Oregon State Bar. (2005). Statement of professionalism. Retrieved from http://www.osbar. org/rulesregs/professionalism.htm Palmer, C. C. (2001). Ethical hacking. IBM Systems Journal, 40(3). Retrieved from http://www. research.ibm.com/journal/sj/403/palmer.html Privacy.gov. (2006). Information technology and Internet usage. Retrieved from http://www. privacy.gov.au/internet/ Sackson, M. (1996). Computer ethics: Are students concerned? Retrieved from http://www.cs.luc. edu/ethics96/papers/sackson.doc Smith, L. (2005). Plagiarism policy and procedure. University of Wollongong in Dubai. Retrieved from www.uowdubai.ac.ae/pelt Tavani, H. T. (2004). Ethics & technology: Ethical issues in an age of information and communication technology. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language. (2000). Definition of a professional (4th ed.). Houghton Mifflin Company.


Velasquez, M., Andre, C., Shanks, T. J. S. & Meyer, M. J. (2006). What is ethics. Retrieved from http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/thinking.html Verschoor, C. C. (2005). Is there financial value in corporate value? Strategic Finance, 87(1), 7. Web Content Filters. (2005). Internet usage statistics. Retrieved from http://www.cfsalesinc. com/employee-internet-usage.html

computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/ story/0,10801,91549,00.html

endnotes 1 2

What is copyright protection? (2003). Retrieved from http://whatiscopyright.org/ Wiener, N. (1948). Cybernetics: Or control and communication in the animal and the machine. Technology Press. Wiener, N. (1954). The human use of human beings: Cybernetics and society (Rev. ed.). Doubleday Anchor. Wilson, M. J. (2004, March 24). Is hacking ethical? Computerworld. Retrieved from http://www.

3 4

Source: McGinn (1999). Peer-to-peer (P2P) Web sites/applications run on a personal computer and share files with other users across the Internet. P2P networks work by connecting individual computers together to share files instead of having to go through a central server. Source: McGinn (1999). P2P Web sites/applications run on a personal computer and share files with other users across the Internet. P2P networks work by connecting individual computers together to share files instead of having to go through a central server.


APPendIx A. ProFessIonAlIsM And ethIcs (ProFessIonAls) Please take a moment to fill in the below questionnaire as it is a part of a research study into professionalism and ethics in the IT industry. The survey maintains a level of confidentiality through anonymousness. Thank you Personal Details Occupation: ______________________________________________________ Organization: _____________________________________________________ Years in Service: __________________________________________________ Part I: “In Theory” (For each of the following statements, please indicate the extent of your agreement or disagreement by placing a tick in the appropriate column.) Strongly agree 1

Ethics is a collection of values.

2

Ethics is a process of rational thinking aimed at establishing what values to hold and when to hold them.

agree

Neither agree or disagree

disagree

Strongly disagree

Ethics attributes include courage. Ethics attributes include loyalty. Ethics attributes include justice. 3

Ethics attributes include respect. Ethics attributes include hope. Ethics attributes include honesty. Ethics attributes include love.

4

Ethics demands a willingness to change. continued on following page


5

Poor ethics can be extremely damaging to organizational performance.

6

The key to good organizational ethics is awareness and real-time detection (before the fact, not after).

7

Organizations need ethics not only to prevent unhealthy behavior but to inspire superior reasoning and performance.

8

Professionalism can be defined as attitude.

9

Professionalism is the way an individual conducts oneself in certain situations.

10

Good ethics gives rise to good professionals.

11.

How important are the following nontechnical characteristics for an employee/employer? How would you rate the following characteristics on a scale from 1 to 5 (1 being the lowest and 5 being highest)?1

(Please tick one number per characteristic.) 1 A

Technical writing

B

Communications— Speaking

C

Negotiating

D

Interacting with others effectively, be it boss, colleague or team

E

Courage

F

Integrity

G

Honesty

H

Fairness

I

Open mindedness

J

Loyalty

K

Common sense

2

3

4

5


Part II: “Concept Application” If ethics is the study of fundamental principles that defines values and determines moral duty and obligation… (For each of the following statements, please indicate the extent of your agreement or disagreement by placing a tick in the appropriate column.)

Strongly agree 1

Ethics and professionalism are two sides of a coin.

2

It is more important to be a state-of-theart technical expert than to be a good professional.

3

It is okay to use the company Internet facilities to send and receive personal emails.

4

It is okay to use the company Internet facilities to “surf the net.”

5

If a colleague’s e-mail is open, it is okay to read his/her e-mails.

6

It is okay to install copyrightable software that a friend has.

7

It is okay to download MP3 or movies from peer-to-peer2 Web sites while at work.

8

It is okay to download MP3 or movies from peer-to-peer Web sites while at home.

9

My organization promotes ethical behavior in the workplace.

10

As an IT professional, I should follow standards set by professional organizations such as ACM, IEEE, or ACS.

11

In general when I face ethical situations at work I handle them with professionalism.

12

In my organization we are encouraged/ rewarded for being professional in our workplace.

13

In my organization colleagues/bosses have tried to deter/punish me for acting unethically.

14

I think IT students should be exposed to ethical issues during the course of their education to better equip them for their professional life.

Agree


Disagree

Strongly disagree


15. Have you had any course that has taught you about ethics or corporate social responsibilities during your schooling (undergraduate/graduate level)? ___ YES

___ NO

(If you have answered YES to question 15, please move on to question 16, otherwise, move to question 17.) 16. What was the name of the course and where was it taught? 17.

In your opinion, would it have made a difference to have been taught about ethics or corporate social responsibilities before you entered the job market? ___ YES

___ NO

Part III: “In Practice” Here are some real-world situations borrowed from the ACM test bank. Please tick the answer that is the most appropriate according to you. 1.

Your coworker is copying company-purchased software and taking it home. You know a certain program costs AED 2500 and you have been saving for a while to buy it. What do you do?



A. You figure you can copy it too since nothing has ever happened to your coworker. (x1) B. You tell your coworker he/she can’t legally do this. (x2) C. You report the matter to the ethics office. (x4) D. You mention this to your supervisor. (x3)

  

2.

Your supervisor invited a group of employees and friends, you among them, out to dinner as his personal treat. Since you work in the finance department, you observed his petty cash voucher stating the same amount as reimbursement for purchase of a work-related item and noting that the receipt was lost. What do you do?



A. Inform your supervisor’s boss. (x2) B. Do nothing. (x1) C. Explain the situation to the chief financial officer and let him investigate. (x3) D. Notify the ethics officer. (x4)

  

3.

You work in the mailroom and suspect a colleague is using the Federal Express service for personal mail. What do you do?



A. You ignore the situation. (x2) B. You start using Federal Express for personal mail, too, but only in an emergency. (x1)




 

C. You contact ethics. (x4) D. You notify your supervisor. (x3)

4.

While working for your company, you develop software that has a potential for making you wealthy. You used the company’s software and test facilities but did the work on your own time. What do you do with your invention?



A. Take it to the legal department for determination of ownership rights and appropriate disposition. (x4) B. See a local attorney and have him file for a patent in your name. (x2) C. Submit your program for consideration for award in your company’s “ideas count” program. (x3) D. Contact those companies who would have interest in your program and sell it to the highest bidder. (x1)

  

Thank you for your time. (Source: e-businessthics.com. (2006). ACE practice tests. Business ethics (4th ed.). Retrieved from http://college.hmco.com/cgibin/SaCGI.cgi/ace1app.cgi?FNC=AcePresent__Apresent_html___business_ferrellethics_01)

APPENDIX B Professionalism and ethics [Students] Please take moment to fill in this questionnaire, as it is a part of a research study into professionalism and ethics in the IT industry. The survey maintains a level of confidentiality through anonymousness. Thank you

Personal Details Grade/Year:______________________________________________________ High School/University:_____________________________________________ Career interests: __________________________________________________

Part I: “In Theory” (For each of the following statements, please indicate the extent of your agreement or disagreement by placing a tick in the appropriate column.)


Strongly agree 1

Ethics is a collection of values.

2

Ethics is a process of rational thinking aimed at establishing what values to hold and when to hold them.

3

Ethics attributes include courage.

agree


disagree

Strongly disagree

Ethics attributes include loyalty. Ethics attributes include justice. Ethics attributes include respect. Ethics attributes include hope. Ethics attributes include honesty. Ethics attributes include love. 4

Ethics demands a willingness to change.

5

Poor ethics can be extremely damaging to organizational performance.

6

The key to good organizational ethics is awareness and real-time detection (before the fact, not after).

7

Organizations need ethics not only to prevent unhealthy behavior but to inspire superior reasoning and performance.

An issue is considered to be ethical if it3 … (Please tick the answers you think fit best—there can be more than one answer.) _______ “involves harm/hurt/adverse effects on others” _______ “affects people’s lives or well-being” _______ “involves a matter of right or wrong” _______ “involves morality, a code of morals, or morals questions” _______ “involves violations of rights, freedom, justice, or morals” _______ “involves moral responsibility and is outside the law” _______ “is interpretable in multiple ways, has no correct solution to it” _______ “is decidable only by appealing to morals, and so forth” Part II: “Concept Application” If ethics is the study of fundamental principles that defines values and determines moral duty and obligation…

0


(For each of the following statements, please indicate the extent of your agreement or disagreement by placing a tick in the appropriate column.) Strongly agree 1

It is okay to share information among friends during tests or exams.

2

It is okay to copy from the Web site that has the required information for an assignment.

3

It is okay to copy from a textbook that has the required information for an assignment.

4

It is okay to write in the information from what someone else says for an assignment.

5

It is okay to copy from another friend who has the information for an assignment.

6

Consider points 2-5, but with due citations and reference list.

7

It is okay to install copyrightable software given to me by a friend.

8

It is okay to download MP3 or movies from peer-to-peer4 Web sites.

9

It is cool to buy pirated movies from vendors on the streets for AED 5/- instead of the original for more than AED40/-.

10

If I got a job/internship, I would have the right to use the office telephone to make personal calls.

11

If I got a job/internship, I would have the right to check my personal e-mails on the office computer.

12

My college studies are preparing me to behave ethically in my future professional life.

13

I believe that ethics is a concept that differs from country to country, race to race, and religion to religion.

14

I believe teachers have taught me that there are clear and uniform standards of what is right and what is wrong.

15

“Anything goes” is a sure attitude to success.

agree


disagree

Strongly disagree

Thank you for your time.

242

Chapter XI

Experiential Group Learning for Developing Competencies in Usability Practice Phil Carter Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand

Abstract This chapter provides an overview of usability and reflects on a number of years of experience in a usability lab. Over this time, an approach to usability testing called situated co-inquiry was developed. Situated co-inquiry also became a very useful way to structure the teaching of usability. This chapter illustrates this teaching and some of the ways an experiential learning approach has been used in a group setting. I hope that some of this will be new and appealing to you and so assist you to generate fresh ideas in your teaching of the different areas of information systems (IS).

INTRODUCTION Some years ago I brought a large present home for my 4-year-old daughter. She ripped off the wrapping, tipped out the toy, and played with the box. I tried to entice her with the toy I was sure she would love, but she continued playing with the box; climbing into it, putting it over herself, peaking out through a crack. I let go, I made the shift to her world. How could I resist? Software developers have also seen the systems they have made manifest get used in ways they never imagined. Immediately they begin the development process, analysts are creatively generating structures, designers’ designs, and programmers are giving them implemented life.

They are all intimately involved. It becomes very difficult—perhaps even impossible—for them to put themselves into a novice user’s perspective. So a specialisation has emerged: the usability person. The usability person is commissioned to establish and keep firm contact with the end user and communicate that to the software development team. This is not trivial. It involves appreciating both the software development culture and the end user’s culture and finding ways for workable communication to occur between the two. In addition, IT is no longer being designed for the achievement of tasks but has expanded into the areas of communication, entertainment, and learning. The usability specialist must not only assess effectiveness and efficiency, but now must


Experiential Group Learning for Developing Competencies in Usability Practice

also attune to such things as human satisfaction, enjoyment, and engagement. So the successful usability person does well to draw on life experiences as well as learned competencies in usability methods and techniques. Many industries are seeking effective usability specialists to be part of their system development and maintenance teams. So far, the bulk of these specialists appear to have come from non-IT backgrounds—psychologists, teachers, and public relations (PR) people—and not from graduates explicitly trained in usability by educational providers. The challenge to tertiary institutes is to deliver appropriately trained people. What teaching approaches will deliver the range of competencies needed? Could industry even benefit during the training process? This chapter will present an experiential group learning approach that has been applied to these challenges over the last few years in a postgraduate setting. Illustrations will be given so that the reflection and investigation of this approach can be grounded in what occurred. Consideration will be given to difficulties. I hope you the reader will be able to imagine how the approach might be expanded, improved, and applied to other student groups and to other areas of IT. First, the chapter will continue with an outline of the usability field and our experiences with a usability lab. Consideration of the important tensions that occupy the area will highlight the challenges facing the teaching in this area and will inform what learning approaches may work. Our group experiential approach to teaching will be described and the results outlined.

usAbIlItY The section will give an overview of some of the current dynamics and tensions within the wider field of usability. This will mainly occur through a reflection on our experiences in a usability lab.

How we built up a set of principles and techniques will be described in some detail because these became the foundation for the content of the teaching of usability and also the guidelines for teaching it.

overview Since Nielson’s (1994) book, Usability Engineering, put usability on the software development map, usability has become more visible in North America, Europe, and Australia and is present and emergent in other places such as South Africa (Barnard & Wesson, 2003), Russia (Burmistrov, Kopylov, Dneprovsky, & Perevalov, 2004), and China (Wang, 2003). There have been a large number of books concerned with usability and user-centred design (UCD) and a number of contributors from different countries on different aspects of usability to international journals, most notably Interactions and Communications of the ACM. Within the initiated, the value of usability has become increasingly apparent, especially with the expansion of information technology (IT) from specialist internal systems into universal, Web-based, communications, entertainment, and government systems (Shneiderman, 2000). However, it appears that usability has still a minor impact in the software development industry and has not been integrated into the business model (Venturi & Troot, 2004). Usability and UCD remain “the province of visionaries, isolated usability departments, enlightened software practitioners, and large organisations, rather than the everyday practice of software developers” (Seffah & Metzker, 2004, p. 72). Out of this dissatisfaction, a subgroup within usability work—often called strategic usability—aims to make usability a central, orientating focus of system development (Rosenbaum, 1999). Schaffer (2004) has written a useful book on the politics of institionalising a usability focus within an organisation. Seffah and Metzker (2004) argue that one reason for the diluted and weak influence of us-


ability is differences in formal definitions given by standards organisations. They say this has lead to “a very confusing concept” from which it is “very difficult to specify precisely the measurable usability attributes.” They list the three definitions as: •

•

•

The capability of the software product to be understood, learned, used, and attractive to the user, when used under specific conditions (ISO 9126). The extent to which a product can be used by specific users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use. (ISO/DIS 9241-11). The ease with which a user can learn to operate, prepare inputs for, and interpret output of a system or component (IEEE 1061).

There is also ISO/IEC 13407 (1999) which gives a larger and more comprehensive set of guidelines for user-centred design. However, it is ISO 9241-11 (1998) that is emerging as the most popular with usability folk. One element of this definition emphases the ability “to achieve specified goals” and so seeks to expand usability out from its beginning focus on ease of use. Siegal and Dray (2005) probably represent the emergent view that “utility and usability are interdependent and necessary for product success. Utility requires usability, and usability is meaningless unless it is usability for something worthwhile” (p. 58). Some go further and advocate re-focus on usefulness as the primary criteria (Dicks, 2002). Perhaps it sets up a bit of a territory clash with quality assurance (QA) which IEEE/EIA 12207 (1996) defines as “providing adequate assurance that the software products and processes in the product life cycle conform to their specific requirements and adhere to their established plans.” The relationship of utility to usability is a very interesting dynamic that will be revisited throughout this chapter from different perspectives.

Another approach to obtaining a clear and distinguishing description of usability is to generate it from its practice. However, this can quickly lead to frustration if one really wanted such a description. This is because usability is emergent; it is still expanding in its theory and practice and it has not settled into a clear identity or well-accepted role within the larger software development arena. There are closely related “fields” and subgroups—user-centred design, user experience, usability engineering, participatory design, quality assurance—where overlaps and jostling for position is occurring. In a panel looking at the future of usability, Spool and Schaffer (2005) see a future where super experts in usability educate and inspire developers that will integrate it into their practices. Whereas, Schaffer (2004) sees that UCD will soon be as common as QA; usability work will be done in mature “usability factories” by specialists, and practitioners will take over from gurus. A look at who the usability practitioners are also indicates a wide range of concerns within usability. Table 1 shows the different job titles of people considering themselves to be usability professionals or responsible for usability within an organisation in a survey done by Gulliksen, Boivie, Persson, Hektor, and Herulf (2003) in Sweden. Other analysts reveal a broader background. For example, Borgholm and Madsen (1999) detailed analysis of six Danish and U.S. companies showed usability professionals came from six main backgrounds: (1) human factors, (2) psychology, (3) visual design, (3) engineering, (4) anthropology, and (5) computer science. The professional background of a panel in the CHI 2002 conference (Gobert, 2002) discussing “What the best usability specialist are made of,” further reveals the breadth there is, as the actual panel included a graphic designer, software developer, clinical psychologist, and two engineering psychologists. This diversity ripples throughout the different aspects of usability. When usability exists in an


Table 1. Job titles of people responsible for usability (Taken from Gulliksen et al., 2003) No of people

Job title Usability expert/architect/designer/engineer

32

Interaction designer/architect

17

Owner, manager, supervisory position

17

IT consultant, consultant

17

Project managers

15

PhD students, university teachers, professors

13

Software/system designer/developer

11

Web designer/master/editor/etc., info master

8

Administrator, investigator

7

System administrator/engineer/architect/mgr

6

Designer/UI designer

5

IT strategist/employee/engineer/investigator

5

Business analyst/developer

5

User experience analyst/designer/manager

3

organisation it can be central, distributed, or within a matrix (Borgholm & Madsen, 1999). Where usability is done in a software development process, differs. Gulliksen, et al. (2003) found that being part of the project plan from the beginning was one of the three most considered success factors, yet usability evaluations are often done near the end when major modifications are not possible. At times a tension exists between software engineering (SE) and usability. Many have tried to create usability as engineering yet it appears to have become more a craft dependent on the skills of practitioners (Spool & Schaffer, 2005). Perhaps UCD techniques have been developed independently of the SE community (Seffah & Metzker, 2004). Certainly there can be a tension as illustrated by these two stereotypes created by Seffah and Metzker (2004):

We, the engineers, the real designers of software, can build reliable and safe software systems with powerful functionalities. The usability people, the psychology guys, can then make the UI more user friendly. We, the usability professionals and interaction designers, should first design and test the interface with end users. Then, developers—the functionality builders—must implement the system that supports the user tasks. (p. 73) Ways to involve the users also differs in usability practice. Broadening usability testing to have more user dialogue has been advocated (Buur & Bagger, 1999). Usability testing can be discovery as well as evaluative (Hackos 2002, 881). “Engaging the users in dialogue sessions enables us to move beyond product critique to a more innovative engagement in new design possibilities” (Buur &


Bagger, 1999, p. 66). It is interesting to ponder the finding of Hornbaek and Forkjaer (2005) that “few usability problems were new to developers.” Their study revealed that developers found redesign proposals of higher utility, giving them new ideas for tackling well-known problems. But it appears that very few usability groups involve users to evaluate proposals or act as designers (Borgholm & Madsen, 1999). Even in Sweden with 30 years tradition in participatory design, 30% of usability professionals considered themselves as “autodidacts” (Gulliksen et al., 2003). There are also a broad range of methods used, typically; heuristic evaluations (a specialist follows established guidelines), cognitive walkthrough (simulates step-by-step user behaviour), questionnaires, usability testing, field observation (see Rosson and Carroll (2002) for a good summary). Many variations and syntheses such as engaging users in dialogue in field observation occur and are important (Holzinger 2005). Creating accurate user descriptions; personas; scenarios; and task and environmental analyses are also within the experienced usability person’s toolbox. These tensions and dynamics that are in action within the usability world impact on what should be taught and how. But before we look at the teaching of usability, I think it will be interesting to further illustrate the dynamics and make them come alive by describing our experience in a usability lab over the last few years. The core team consisted of myself, Andrew Zimmer, Stephen Thorpe, Tim West-Newman, Keong Wong, Tracey Sellar, and Blake Lough. This reflection will also create a useful entrance into usability testing—the core competency that is aimed for in the training of effective usability professionals—and illuminate the approach to teaching it.

our experience in a usability lab Initially, the conventional usability testing approach we started using in the laboratory in the

1990s was generating long lists of codes which consumed too much time in post-testing analysis. In addition the output was not always precise enough to be usable for the developers. So we engaged in more dialogue with users and sought to get to the heart of the usability factors in vivo. At the same time we saw that usability was something being done to developers. Their intelligence, the design options they were weighing up, and the deep and extended thinking that they were throwing into the work were not part of the mix. So we involved them more with the users. It appeared that for academia and practitioners, usability testing was a problem-solving exercise. Even Hornbaek and Frokjaer (2005), who argue strongly for redesign proposals as input, appear to see usability as identifying problems. Borgholm and Madsen (1999) describe output test reports as documenting errors and problems and suggestions for overcoming such errors. Most stakeholders in systems development also expect that usability’s job is to discover problems with ease of use. We too had become fixated on finding problems. The parts of the system that were actually working were not being identified and the reasons why were not being highlighted. Without this, extensions and enhancements to what was working well were not so possible, and software designers and developers were not getting the praise and appreciation they deserved. It still astonishes me that the usability field does not explicitly embrace the identification of things working well as of equal importance to the identification of problems. Perhaps this is a reflection of the widespread habit of identifying problems and the satisfaction of solving them; might I call the jigsaw effect. At the same time, the types of systems we were involved in expanded. There was a plethora of things we were becoming involved with, such as digital whiteboard use in classrooms and boardrooms; the design of computer games; automated check-in kiosks at an airport; a voice editor for word documents; a genealogy system for use by indigenous peoples; and so on. User experience


became a key area for investigation and such things as satisfaction, enjoyment, and engagement had to be added to the other measurements of effectiveness and efficiency. We continued to gradually awake to the intimacy between utility and usability. For example, in assessing the usability of a system to assist learning, we discovered the benefit of adding in criteria to assess learning. Our usability work became much more interesting. We were becoming more involved in the real value of the system and that woke us up to our work having greater meaning. Seeing more value in our work, we put more imagination and careful thinking in. And this of course created more positive impetus and motivation for the teaching of the area and for formulating guidelines for practice. We made changes and refinements to our practices and approaches. We put many things into practice and so over time integrated new methods and techniques. However, at many times in this process, we found good value in coming back and appreciating the common-sense essence of usability testing. In that way we did not become dominated by the details and specifics of different methods and instead maintained an orientation on our knowing and actual experiences. There was therefore more room for our minds to do the crucial work of attending to what was happening and freedom for our imaginations to generate creative solutions. We became fascinated with the different movements that occurred between expression and experience during usability testing. We made an intensive study of this. The next section will describe this in some detail, because the principles and things we found that worked became the foundation for the teaching of usability.

usability testing Usability testing aims to get at the user’s experience of using an artefact (software product) by getting the user to use the artefact. The inquiry is

with the artefact of use, in the context of use, with person of use, or some conditions approaching these. Research in cognition highlights the situativity of knowledge (Brown, Collins, & Duguid 1989; Greeno, 1998), which says that when the conditions in which the knowledge needs to be used are present, then the relevant knowledge comes more into the field of consciousness. In usability testing it is hoped that the user’s experience—the cognition, the affect, and the actions—are immediately related to the use of the artefact. The method aims to be direct. From the users’ point of view, they simply relate to their own thinking and experience at the time of using the thing. Direct inquiry can be compared with the abstractions or distances from the object of inquiry that occur in the typical application of other methods. For example, in a questionnaire the respondent is relating to someone else’s cognitive structure (the framework of the questionnaire designers), and it is reflective consciousness; that is, they are thinking about an event that occurred in the past. Recall is evoked while the simpler process of recognition fades to the background. In addition, generalisation is typically required; even in the most detailed of instruments, users must generalise a particular thing—such as clarity of error recovery—across the whole system. The direct and grounded aspect of the method of usability testing has not been adequately appreciated and because of that its application and the teaching of skills in it can become overly formalistic, complex, and even misguided. The astonishing thing is that no one in the usability field appears to have made explicit the actual mechanism that is at play in the direct inquiry. Even in field ethnography, the behaviour occurring in the immediate use of the artefact has not been highlighted. Inquiry within experience is the heart of usability testing and it is a very familiar thing. Everyday, in every area of our lives, in many different ways we seek understanding in the midst of our experience of using things. In buying a headset for our telephone; I try it on in the store;


I buy it; I take it home and use it; I play with it; I think about it while I use it; and I reflect on its use afterwards. I notice my wife using it in different situations. I talk about it with her and we play with it. We wonder if our daughter will use it? How? I think that it might not be so good for us because we will be encouraged to do other things while we chat and that will make us less present and more fragmented. We throw these questions into action and find out the answers in real experience.

Inquiry within experience Perhaps the most well-practiced technique in usability testing and what Nielsen (1994) called “the single most valuable usability engineering method” is think aloud. Nielsen, Clemmensen, and Yssing (2002) give a good description of the research origins of think aloud in the Ericsson and Simon’s (1984) work, who in turn built on Nisbett and Wilson’s (1977) work in introspection, who in turn built on a long tradition of introspection work within psychology. However, really, the whole area—reflecting on experience—is central to the identity and actions of the human being. Perhaps one could say that the emergence of self-reflective consciousness, as described in many foundation mythologies such as Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, defines the human being. It is surely a marvel of the universe to bring forth such a capability. We currently know of no other physical life form that has it. It would therefore be surprising if we had a clear understanding of this astonishing capability given its deep origins and the fact that we continue to mutually evoke further uses for thinking within experience. Consider the recent emergence of the empirical and experimental sciences. Who knows to what ways the evolving human mind may be directed into next? Perhaps ironically, and certainly unforeseen, the empirical sciences have evoked a reverence for life that is freed from any kind of dependency,

emotional fusion, or religious limitation (Swimme & Berry, 1992). The empirical sciences have revealed the deep complexities of life emerging within irreversible evolutionary phases. And in an inevitable and desirable move this scientific mind has turned its methods and instruments of precision upon the human brain itself; which is now considered to be the most complex thing known. And here the plot thickens for our consideration of think aloud. In usability, the expectation is that the talking out of the “internal dialogue” will reveal more of the user’s motivations, decisions, and thinking processes. But does it? Is thinking aloud accurate? Does thinking aloud interfere with the experience? Neuroscience has discovered the existence of several types of mental maps, originally called body image by two English neurologists, Lord Russell Brain and Henry Head. There are over 30 different mapping areas for vision alone. This demonstrates the universal principle that something external is only known because there is a corresponding internal structure to which it can be mapped. The increasing sophistication of social consciousness has occurred with expansion of the right parietal lobe into a landscape of the “self” interacting with other “selfs”; called the social self. Not only is nothing external known directly, but the internal perceptions and experiences can be impacted upon and changed by any number of feedback and feed-forward mechanisms within the brain. Mesulam (1998) gives a good flavour of these discoveries: Sensory information undergoes extensive associative elaboration and attentional modulation as it becomes incorporated into the texture of cognition…Connections from one zone to another are reciprocal and allow higher synaptic levels to exert a feedback (top down) influence upon earlier levels of process. Each cortical area provides a nexus…Attentional, motivational and emotional modulations, including those related to working


memory, novelty-seeking and mental imagery, becoming increasingly more pronounced…help to create a highly edited subjective version of the world. (p. 1013) Many of us have done the simple exercise with a piece of paper with a cross and circle printed on it. We close one eye, focus on the cross and move the page away or towards until the circle disappears. The circle is over the optic nerve. What is so interesting is that the area that was the circle is now filled in with the neighbouring background texture and colour of the paper. We do not pretend to see the filling in, we actually perceive it. There are now many simple demonstrations of perceptual filling in. Similar effects occur in language. The Stroop Effect reveals the feed-forward effect of language on the reading of words for colours when the colour of the font of the word is not the same as the meaning of the word. Many neuropsychological studies have demonstrated that the narrative self, typically resident in the linguistic left side of the brain, can override the direct perceptions of the right brain; the maintenance of a coherent self being more important than “truth.” Experiences of certain victims of strokes have exposed some of the complexities of the workings of the brain and language (Ramachandran & Blakeslee, 1998). Some right-brain stroked people whose left side is paralysed have anosognosia, a denial or neglect that the left side is paralysed. They confabulate in response to the request to lift their left arm, such as; “I’ve been prodded and poked at by medical students and I’m sick of it, I don’t want to move my arm.” “Doctor you know I have severe arthritis in my shoulder.” “I’ve never been very ambidextrous” (pp. 138-139). Interestingly, there is some linguistic awareness of the paralysis. In response to the question, “Did you tie your shoelace?” a patient replied, “I tied the shoelace with both my hands.” This may indicate that there are layers of awareness with associated language sets. These findings should alert us to

examine and think carefully about the use of think aloud in usability. But not to lose sight that in most cases it is the user’s internal experience that is aimed for and not the accuracy of the internal experience to the outside world. Perhaps more pertinent is the question: Does talking about it interfere with the experience? Stern (2004) thinks that “obviously, we cannot get a verbal account of experience as it is happening without interrupting the experience” (p. 10). But is it obvious? Does a “verbal account” of a strong emotion such as anger or love, “interrupt” that experience? Perhaps a more useful question is how thinking and expression can occur so that concurrence with experience is increased. Or the opposite, what types of cognitive processes increase the dissonance? For example, analysing reasons has been shown to “focus people on nonoptimal criteria” and “reduce the quality of preferences and decisions” as Wilson and Schooler (1991) demonstrated with people’s ratings for different brands of strawberry jams. There is much useful research work that can be done in these areas. Meanwhile there is a usability job to be done and that job involves a communication between the user and typically some kind of moderator or facilitator. We therefore must consider the impact of a relationship; as though one human being was not complex enough.

co-Inquiry During our work in the usability lab, we focused a lot on the nature of the working relationship between the participants in the testing: the test user, the facilitator, and the logger. In the conventional laboratory set-up, the user is in a room alone and the facilitator and logger are in a separate room observing the user through a one-way mirror. Intervention is minimal and may amount to no more than invitations for the test user to continue to “think aloud.” However, this often left the facilitator and logger guessing to what was actually going on for the user. For example, the


test user may be frowning, yet their “thinking aloud” did not sufficiently differentiate whether this was true because of the colour contrast on the screen, incomprehension of a button icon, indecision about navigation, or simply they were uncomfortable because they had been staring at a computer screen for 20 minutes nonstop, very keen to complete the usability-testing tasks to be done. So typically, the facilitator engaged the test user in a process of reflection and clarification, which may have involved the user rewinding a bit. However, we often struggled to do this effectively. It seemed to us that this laboratory set-up rather than removing interferences was creating more. The test user was alone in an artificial situation being observed. We also found the logger was having difficulty creating precise codes and descriptions of behaviour that were immediately sensible to developers and did not consume a deal of posttesting analysis time. We found “logger” was the role people least wanted to take, and the logger was left alone to do the best job possible, a lot like the note taker in a meeting. Yet the logs were the core foundation for the output of the testing. Could note taking and logging be a more collaborative effort? We brought the facilitator and logger out into the testing room with the test user and we played around with lots of different set-ups in terms of seating and also in how to involve the different participants in description as well as action and reflection. We applied usability’s key question to our own process: what was useful and what was not. In terms of physical arrangement, we found a triangle set-up most useful. The facilitator sits beside but slightly behind the user and the logger sits across on an angle so that each person can easily see each other but the user is still directly in front of the screen. Having a dual monitor output, as most computers now have, is very useful because then the logger can easily follow the users actions on a second monitor. We found the active engagement of all par-

0

ticipants in the inquiry much more satisfying and as we refined our practice, we realised a number of other advantages. One area was in the output of the testing; the logging record and report. No longer did the logger have to grind out descriptions on their own. We have found it very worthwhile for the logger to take initiative and offer their description of what has just occurred and ask for confirmation or clarification. The facilitator and logger paid particular attention to creating descriptions that were precise and detailed enough for the readers (system analysts, designers, developers, programmers, project managers, etc.) to understand. We have found the process of creating descriptions very useful in assisting the thinking about the usability phenomenon. Through this process, the need for post-event analysis diminished. The amount of logs was considerably reduced through in vivo analysis of what events were critical. And most ambiguity could be dealt with during the testing, removing the threat of post-testing guesswork. We also tried introducing system developers into the room and despite many people’s beliefs that this would not work, we were very pleasantly surprised to find that this often worked very well. Typically, people were very respectful of each other. A clear and explicit group commitment to the importance of identifying the usability pluses and minuses encouraged most test users to be authentic and to value both their joys and difficulties and to express them. We realised the value of spending a good amount of pre-and intesting time, engaging the test user as a participant in the inquiry, so that we all could move between action, reflection, and description. This movement between action, reflection, and description was critical to our endeavour. The usability literature was of almost no use to us; the treatment of this area was mostly nonexistent or superficial. Rosson and Carroll (2002), a very good problem-based textbook that covers many current usability practices, gives almost no guidelines on inquiry during use of an arte-


fact. Kuniavsky (2003) probably offers the most comprehensive guidelines on interviewing during testing but suffers from the common problems of emphasising neutrality and offering a large set of guidelines. We needed to become fine grained about the interplay between experience and language. How could we reflect on an experience and derive useful descriptions without diverting or corrupting that experience? As an initial step in this investigation, we looked at the possible effects of different ways of languaging an intervention. Table 2 gives an example of the type of thinking we did and the typical results we observed. In this case, different facilitator interventions are given in response to

a test user frowning but saying nothing. This type of microanalysis creates a fresh perspective on the effects of language. For example, Kuniavsky (2003) gives an example of how to follow up a nonverbal cue as: “You frowned when that dialog box came up. Is there anything about it that caused you to do that?” (p. 119). This introduces a cognitive process of finding reasons which the user will seek to satisfy. Perhaps the timing is all right. People are very accustomed to making these shifts. But perhaps it is pre-emptive. In addition, it requests the specific cognitive process of finding out why. This may well be productive, but then it may not. The important thing is that the facilitator be aware of these effects. That is, what appears

Table 2. Typical user responses to different facilitator interventions Facilitator intervention Possible user response What are you thinking? The user’s experience may still be affective/kinesthetic. Requesting a cognitive process may interfere with this. What you are experiencing? Use of the word “experiencing” removes the threat of not being in line with affective or cognitive focus of the test user; however, the question still requires a cognitive process that may be premature. What is it? What’s happening? More informal and more neutral than the previous two statements and so likely to give the user more room to continue to use the system and give feedback when ready. You’re frowning… Offers information from an external source that may assist the user to increase their self-awareness. However, this may also be presumptuous and be argued against by the user. You’re wrinkling your brow. More observational and less processed than the previous statement. However, the user may feel exposed. Something’s up, eh? Bit of a pain…? If said with similar emotive tone and force as the user is displaying, this statement may assist the user to stay with their experience and feel invited to express it in their own time. Nothing… Something may eventuate. If not and the moment is lost and the user becomes involved with another aspect of the system, then a pause may be used for reflection or the user may be invited to back up.


to be a noninvasion intervention, can create quite a shift in the respondent to satisfy it. While the preceding analysis did wake us up more to the precision of language, we also realised there were other factors that had significant impacts, namely; tone, tuning in with the perceptual channels, levels of easiness and friendliness, and the attitude of the facilitator. It was the attitude of the facilitator that we found to be fundamental and it was also something we could work on and change. The result of a lengthy, and still on-gong, investigation into this was the cultivation of an attitude that could be simply stated as: getting alongside. We wanted a simple expression so that it would not occupy and dominate the thinking space that was needed for the investigation. This can be compared with the complexity of guidelines typically given to facilitators. Look at this list as an example (from Kuniavsky, 2003): do not force opinions; restate answers; follow up with examples; use artefacts to keep people focused on the present and to trigger ideas; be aware of your own expectations; never say the participant is wrong; listen carefully to the questions that are asked of you; keep questions simple in language and in intent; probe expectations; ask why a lot; investigate mistakes; probe nonverbal cues; respect the evaluator’s ideas; and focus on their personal experience. These are all good but can you remember them? We also needed the expression of the attitude to be accessible and effective for people with a range of roles and backgrounds. In getting alongside, the facilitator simply gets alongside the test user. Simple? Perhaps in its actuality it is, but getting there requires work. We found many things that assisted the generation of this attitude. First, establishing a commitment to the work was important. If there was some value in the product, we sought it out and made it explicit. Second, we wanted to generate respect for the test user. The pretesting, warm-up phase was a great opportunity. The warm-up phase involved the welcome and the offering of tea or coffee and a

friendly tour of the set-up. This is usually seen as being for the benefit of the test user. However, we also found it a great opportunity for the facilitator to inculcate experiences of respect for the test user and generate inquisitiveness within themselves. For example, the facilitator would come to see that the user had come along out of a sense of generosity and wanting to contribute. We also found that the common advice of “It is not about you...” to the user was not that helpful as it might negate the user’s experience especially when more negative emotive experiences such as feeling dumb, vulnerable, or tentative arose in the testing. Authenticity was critical, and we believed the best ethical position and the one most likely to actually result in safety was to deal respectfully with any disturbances as they arose and not think things were going to be all right just because some comprehensive “ethical” procedures had been done in the beginning. Interestingly, engaging a cooperative interest in the work diminishes concerns with safety because the attraction of discovery becomes stronger and the sense of companionship in this journey is experienced. I work to get friendly with a person. Perceiving friendliness as a work rather than something requiring some kind of emotional precursor has opened up this area much more to me. Friendliness uplifts me and creates a sense of ease and enjoyment that stimulates my intrigue and curiosity and my readiness to be surprised. These are very useful, if not critical, attitudes in testing. Users, or any person in an inquiry, benefits enormously from the inquirer being naïve. Naivety destroys distrust and getting it right and authority relating. We have found such naivety also assists the facilitator to not revert to certain habits a techno-centric environment tends to foster. That is, there is less anxiety to seek to understand before experiencing; less pressure to categorise and summarise before the data set is in; and less pressure to try to help the user and be a fix-it person. So this aspect of getting alongside might be called being open and


naïve; but it is not a passive state, it is one where curiosity and respect are generated. Next thing contained within getting alongside could be called following the warm-up of the user. Warm-up is a construct that psychodramatists (Clayton & Carter, 2004) frequently use to identify where the experience is, where it is going, and the level of energy in it. A person can be seen to have a predominant warm-up to either thinking or feeling or action. A person can be seen to be warming up to something, reaching a peak, and then dropping away. There may be a warm-up to more than one thing at a time and these may be conflicting. This construct therefore aims to be as observational as possible. It is also nonjudgmental, in that there is no right or wrong. For a beginning facilitator, “following the warm-up” will mean matching the affective level and tone, being coherent in either action, affect or thinking with the user, noticing the full completion of a warm-up without cutting across, and identifying concurrent motivations as warm-ups. After practice when these practices have been integrated in the facilitator, then refinements can occur. This is one of the fundamental aims in the teaching. One way we found particularly useful to practice the following of a person’s warm-up was to take on their body posture and tone and see what that tells the mind. Achievement of this initially involves an explicit practice because the culturally inculcated habit is to want to first work something out. Practice of having the body inform the mind is a work. It is not fashionable and also somewhat at odds with the current bias towards thinking that beliefs underlie behaviour, or even that beliefs “create” the world. The facilitator can further practice this ability away from the testing situation by magnifying someone’s experience and seeing what affect this has on understanding. In testing if a friendly atmosphere has developed, the facilitator may also engage the imagination and be playful with good effect. It is useful for the facilitator to be active at times. So, getting alongside, is not such a simple

thing in its entirety. At one moment, stillness and openness are useful, at another moment generating ideas and experience are called for. Both states are fruitful. Perhaps it is possible to do both at the same time—there can be a lot happening in stillness—but moving crisply between them can certainly be practiced. As we tried these things out and assessed the effects, we also found another perspective extremely helpful: assessing the learning style of the test user. And we did this by looking at the relationship “the learner” or user was relating to. We made an assessment about whether the user was learning predominantly by fighting, anxiety, pleasing, dependency, or cooperation. This analysis informed the types and frequency of our interventions. For example, a test user who learned by pleasing required a keen alertness by the facilitator to assess whether the user’s experience was authentic or more aimed to please their perception of what was required. A user, learning by dependency, required great care in what suggestions were put forward. A user who learned in a cooperative way benefited from, and would not be derailed by, suggestions and ideas from the facilitator. A user who learned by fighting, could benefit by having a facilitator who robustly held an argument. Once practiced, in most cases it was clear what main learning style a user was using. Getting alongside focuses on the relationship and the attitudes that drive the interventions by the facilitator and logger. It is not prescriptive but is precise enough to be a guideline. For example, if we look at the frowning situation, rather than focus on what to say, the focus is on what comes more naturally from the relationship. The language has a much better chance of being easy for both people. In tune and alongside the user, the facilitator might say something like; “Something painful here, eh?” or “What’s up?” In another situation, a test user may be smiling, clearly enjoying themselves. The facilitator also experiences enjoyment and can say, “This is enjoyable, eh?”


an easy opening for the test user. We are after a conversation which is like two friends having a chat. There is no dominant or sustained concern about authority, control, taking turns, or safety—anything to do with threat—but there is a warm-up to friendliness and being, and from this, the inquiry becomes informed by all the dimensions human beings generate; the intellect can be informed by the affect and the imagination, as well as what the eyes see and the brain thinks. This is crucial if usability testing is to be effective for the wide range of purposes computer systems are being implemented for now, and if usability is also to build on what works as well as help correct what does not. I have formulated the term situated co-inquiry to signpost the overall approach described here; an inquiry that is both with the artefact of study and another person. Situated co-inquiry is a usability approach that aims to be simple—simple so that the focus can remain on the user; simple so that it can be used in any system development methodology; simple so that the different players in a system development can use it to be involved with and informed by the user. The essence of usability testing is inquiry in the midst of experience of using an artefact. Highlighting this essence has an immediate advantage. The method is humanised. It is made simple. It is liberated from any prescriptive, dogmatic, or complex methodology. This is a relief because usability techniques are “still relatively unknown, under-used, difficult to master, and essentially inaccessible to common developer and small and medium-sized software development teams” (Seffah & Metzker, 2004, p. 72). Usability is liberated so that it can be used by anyone, at anytime, and anyway, creatively thought up in response to the emergent and specific needs of a software development endeavour as it is now. This was the type of generous attitude Norman (2005a) was hoping usability people would have so they were not so precious but would invite other people with general skills and sensibilities to be involved. This

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is important because human factor specialists are often not available (Borgholm & Madsen, 1999). Also, the people from engineering backgrounds who have started doing fieldwork (Borgholm & Madsen, 1999) can build on their expanding skills so that there is greater appreciation and awareness of the needs and desires of users. From the experience of using the whole system down to micro things such as selecting wording for a button, “usability tested” can be used. Perhaps this everyday nature of usability testing explains how resilient it has been. In the absence of clear guidelines on how to do it, no matter whether the facilitator is well skilled or not, no matter how much they may interrupt the user’s experience, it does seem quite difficult to muck up. The user recovers. The user gets some part of their experience expressed and recorded, and together with other users, patterns emerge.

Teaching Usability To teach the approach of situated co-inquiry described previously, guidelines can be divided into attitudes and techniques. The attitudes are: •

•

Authenticity: The facilitator must value their experience as well as the user. Being neutral—as is often put forward as a core attitude (Kuniavsky, 2003; Norlin & Winters, 2002)—destroys authenticity and is as satisfying as a therapist who only gives you reflective listening. Getting alongside: Involves naivety and generating friendliness and respect. Respect and friendliness are not necessarily things that are there to start with that need to be maintained but qualities that can be explicitly worked at. Getting alongside involves a valuing of the work and each other. It gives the work dignity so that it is not just considered a work of extraction.


The techniques can be summarised as: • • • •

Movement between openness, experience and language Precision in language Identifying and following warm-up Identifying learning style

The challenge for a teacher aiming for students to become practiced in being authentic and getting alongside is that the teacher must live those qualities themselves as they teach. The learning approach must be congruent with what it is aiming to teach. The curriculum needs to be authentic and the teachers need to achieve naivety and friendliness. Within this, the specific techniques can be taught and practiced. These are big challenges. But before I reflect on the teaching approach, we have developed in our attempts to achieve these aims, let us look at what the literature has about teaching usability. The thing that stands out above all else is the emphasis on the central importance and value of case-based methods (Hackman, Ferratt, & Kerckaert, 1994; McCrickard, Chewar, & Somervell, 2004). Real cases change attitudes to usability (Koivunen, Nieminen, & Riihiaho, 1995). Hands-on project experience addresses meaningful issues and motivates (Rosson, Carroll, & Rodi, 2004). In the September/October edition of Interactions which focused on the teaching of human-computer interaction (HCI) and usability, many institutes outlined their programs, including; Pennsylvania State, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, and the universities of Texas, Michigan, Missouri, Salzburg, Hamburg, and Eindhoven. Most indicated a foundation on real cases, for example Stanford had “a substantive project serve as a focus,” Salzburg had real world, and Hamburg was scenario based. Unfortunately, there was little detail on the educational approach to teaching at these institutes. Norman (2005b) points out that “experience alone is not enough—one must be good at reflecting on those experiences,

distilling principles from specific cases. Here is where a mentor is so valuable” (p. 51). How, and even if, this is done at the different institutes is not outlined. A teaching approach that will encompass SE and usability professionals and encourage their cooperative working relationships has been called for (Seffah & Metzker, 2004). Others stress that getting into the mindset of the person who will be using the software is important (Beltramo, 2005). The IS 2002 Model Curriculum and Guidelines highlights the area of interpersonal, communications, and team skills as one of the four main areas for the IS student. Yet, looking at the specific paper outlines, there is nothing in any paper that explicitly focuses on this area. Perhaps it is no wonder that when UCD can not fit into a pure engineering discipline box it then gets perceived—perhaps somewhat frustratingly—as a craft dependent on the skills of practitioners with no repeatable results (Spool & Schaffer, 2005). Another challenge I have faced in teaching usability has been the wide variety of cultures and countries of origin in the students. They differ in culture, gender, age, industry experience, computer competencies, English competency, research experience, learning styles, attitudes to learning, perceptions of the role of the teacher, and motivations for studying. This has been rich and enormously stimulating and rewarding. The main challenge could be expressed as how to build an internal locus of authority. How to foster a valuing of previous life experiences to perceive that the skills learned in life contain many valuable research attitudes and skills. Many students were habituated to subjugate to an external authority and this was perhaps accentuated if they were recent arrivals in the country and so were already facing many uncertainties. The challenge has been to foster the student as independent and self-directed. One area has been to highlight their motivations. Often their main motivation is to get a job and this has been most fortuitous because the other focus of our approach to teaching usability is to deliver useful practitioners to 255


industry. Industry has been getting its usability people from ex-teachers, PR people, managers, and psychologists. Now let us get serious about training people up for the role of usability specialist in the software development industry.

A grouP exPerIentIAl APProAch As a reflective practitioner, I will present my experiences of using a group experiential approach to teaching usability competencies as clearly as I can. I hope this will stimulate you and provide some fresh ideas for you to try out. In this way, the practical form can be further developed and the different aspects of validity can be illuminated. My main purpose here is not to create another theoretical model but to encourage our creativity so that we become effective educators who enjoy ourselves. In this paper teaching usability consists of each student completing a precise part of a usability project that is being undertaken or would be useful to be undertaken in an actual research, incubator, or commercial endeavour. Students are guided to propose their individual projects according to their interests, current job situations, connections with industry, or anticipated career areas. This choice has always resulted in a range of projects that covers not only most aspects of usability, but also amounts to an interesting assortment of research and industry situations. For example, a set could include: creating a strategy for the institionalisation of usability in a medium-sized corporate, quantitative testing of the efficiencies of new voice recognition software; creating user personas for the design of genealogy software; assessing the usability of automated airport checkin kiosks; and formulating recommendations for improved design. These projects form the main structure of the paper. That is, content is introduced at times most relevant to the needs of the different projects.

The group benefits from the detailed focus of an individual and the individual benefits from the group’s attention. These experiences provide more evidence for the psycho dramatic maxim that the spontaneity of the individual begets the spontaneity of the group. The freedom of the individual is not at the cost of the safety and well-being of the group and vice versa.

Week one In the beginning various things can be done to set up the learning situation so that group experiential learning occurs. A clear outline of the paper and the assessments is essential to begin to establish the safety that is necessary for real learning to occur. Typically, I would then invite students to introduce themselves. I encourage group members to continue a friendly conversation with each other in which backgrounds, interests, and motivations are evoked. The self-presentation needs to be fresh and not following some kind of habitual pattern of taking turns where students do not really wake up and tune in with each other. There are many other ways this can be achieved and most of you would have ice breaking exercises that have worked well in the past. One way is to form pairs and give them the task of getting to know each other. After that, each pair finds another pair and there is a new question, such as, why have you come to this class and what do you expect to learn. After this, this group of four people, then join with another four and there is a new question; and so on. An alternative is to keep one question going up through the expanding groups—such as, what are the three most important skills for a software developer. Group members in each successive larger group have to do quite a bit of work to communicate with each other and settle on the three most important things. Whatever method or exercise is used, it is important that any expression by a group member to the whole group is valued by the lecturer.


The lecturer must make something of it within themselves and that this to be authentic. The twin core attitudes of usability testing—being authentic and getting alongside—must be immediately modelled. I have found the ISO 9241-11 (1998) description of usability an excellent mechanism for introducing the different elements of usability—“the extent to which a product can be used by specific users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use.” Using an example such as a text messaging system for car pooling, students can be invited to flesh out the different elements of the description. For example, who are the different users? What tasks? Where would it be used? And so on. They typically need the depth of inquiry to be modelled; the ability to keep delving into and expanding things. It is especially useful early on to get students to work on the different bits in different arrangements of groups so that they get to interact with different people. The collective findings can be expressed on the whiteboard. This can now be a good time to also introduce the different methods of usability evaluation and to make some initial observations of their comparative strengths and weaknesses. If, as happened two days ago, over halfway through the first class, a student who has not said anything responds to my inquiry, how is it going?, with “I’m lost. I’m confused.” Then I enter that, I accept that with friendliness, I get inquisitive. At another time in the same class, another student said, “This is so slow.” I also enter into that. I wonder why they have missed the richness of what was occurring. Perhaps they are not seeing the connection of “this chat” with the work of usability. These things can certainly be challenges. We do not quite know what will pop up. One thing that has assisted me quite a bit is to realise that the safety and success of the group is actually the responsibility of the whole group, not just me the group leader or teacher. Of course, I have a special and important role, but I can not

guarantee the safety or success; it is not in my power. I can not protect one group member from being offended by another group member. I can encourage a group environment where difficulties can be brought out. In fact, the first emergence of a difficulty is a fantastic opportunity for the actual skills of dealing with difficulties to be worked with. This is a crucial area for software development projects where the different stakeholders are often running strongly with different expectations and work habits. It is not the job of the lecturer to solve those problems in class—and one should be alert to any movement towards being a fix-it person—but to create an environment where the individuals can have the chance to get to know each other and perhaps move towards a resolution. It is critical that a premature solution is not arrived at. We are in the area of group leadership and these things can get very tricky. This type of group leadership is not an area that can be ignored for the usability specialist. Playing it safe and avoiding or suppressing real difficulties can not be done. We are required to take risks and to test things out. And learning to discern what risks are worth it and what will result in good things for yourself and others can only occur with practice. A group leader who has gone through these types of experiences will be of great help in assisting flexible movement between experience and expression and of having expression with emotive content. This movement and expression is a critical skill in usability testing. We want expression and experience to be coherent and integrated. So really there is nothing that happens in the first group that is not relevant. The job of the lecturer is to make the link and express the relevance to usability testing. Having a clear grasp of simple guidelines has been invaluable. For me, those are the ones that were presented earlier in the chapter in the second section on usability, namely; being authentic, getting alongside, and all the techniques associated with situated co-inquiry. I imagine each teacher


should build up their own set of fundamentals and techniques that are relevant to them and to formulate them in a language that gives them and the teaching the desired dignity and clarity. Once again, valuing the here and now endeavour of teaching, models the work of creativity in finding value in anything. In this class, I want students to really value the work they are going to do, to value the purpose of the application they are going to do usability on, and to value the users. All these things are not learned in one go, but must be revisited repeatedly, again and again. Do not be surprised when a student gets it and then the next week appears to have lost it. Attitudes such as these are first learned in one situation and area of life and social setting and then will be transferred and need to be learned in a slightly different situation. So, these things are best repeated throughout the duration of the paper.

Week two In week two, students bring initial options for a project and these are discussed for feasibility and goodness of fit. Once again, an approach of inquiry is modelled and not one of extraction. The student does not necessarily know what project will work for them; it is a process of discovery and it is a co-inquiry. Framing it this way tends to wake me up—I do not know exactly what is going to happen—and it wakes students up. Typically, in this early stage the majority of input and group leadership is coming from, me, the lecturer, but I am looking to engage cross-student engagement too. I do not want the group interaction to just be student A to me, then student B to me, and so on. If this is occurring, I can do various things; one is that I can point it out, but that often that is not provocative enough to change the pattern. A more successful way is to notice who is the most warmed up to a particular student’s presentation and to then look at that person and say something

like, “You look interested. You find that interesting, eh? How about you express that to so and so, let her know your response, eh?” This needs to be done repeatedly throughout the paper. The resulting interaction is then also fuel for further coaching on the nuances of how to sustain inquiry; a necessity for effective usability testing. In this second week, I also typically give a detailed demonstration of usability testing. I might be a facilitator and have a student be the evaluator, and another the logger. Roles are swapped and other students introduced. When enough of an idea has been understood, they then work in threes. I stay free to observe their progress and then we have a debriefing and reflection session as a whole group. At this point, I find most students are quite excited by the usefulness and power of usability testing. They begin to orientate more towards learning than survival and threat. Their imaginations are freed up and they see ways usability can be done in different areas. This is a good time to have some further discussion on what they might do for their projects. It is also an appropriate time to emphasis that the skills they have built up in their lives to learn things are the same that are used in research. So I might say something like this: Each of you has had an experience in investigating something, of inquiring about it, thinking about it, and reaching some conclusions. It might be buying a car, how to get going with a person you want to be friends with, or how to survive a difficult family situation. Through these life experiences you have already built up attitudes and skills that can be called research. It is the human condition to learn. When we learn, we wake up, we become more satisfied. I can not give you those skills. I can model some things. I can teach some techniques, but mainly it is the work of each of you. My job right now is to assist you to recognise the skills you already have and to refine them and apply them in usability. It is essential that you can develop an internal locus of authority, rather than


just relating to external authorities. This is part of the apprenticeship of an applied scientist, of a research-informed practitioner. The journey is to become a self-directed learner. But you are not on your own. That is the other main thing we are working on—developing cooperative working relationships. You thought you came here to learn a couple of good techniques and some useful information, but what is actually required for you to achieve your goals is larger and requires more work. So I invite you to be fully involved, each of you will be involved in different ways. How about we get into pairs and reflect on the skills of learning and inquiry you have built up in your life and do an analysis about what you are good at and what you need to work on…

the different elements such as political necessities, appreciation of the software development team, need for a killer report that is practical, and so on. Relevance of the literature and applicability to the actual student project is done repeatedly. This type of approach to learning benefits a lot from the lecturer having an intimate knowledge of the different areas of usability. The types of projects that students have undertaken include: •

•

Week Three By week three, students are firming up their proposals. I have found recently, especially in bigger class sizes, that it works best to make the proposal an assessed item. Inclusion of a pilot usability test has also had excellent results. Often the pilot test opens up the whole area for the student; they get to see so many of the details and dynamics. It comes to life. From now on, students check in week by week with the group as to their progress on their projects, the challenges they are facing, and the thinking they are engaged in. From the check in, typically one or more projects are chosen for focus in detail. It might be that I have already got an idea of one project to focus on for the class. It might be that the class chooses which ones they want to focus on. There is no formula for this. However, there is a principle at work and that is, once again, the warm-up, or the level of interest. Another way to put it is to say, the group theme, or what is the motivating force of the group, what thing engages the most interest of the group. For example, an hour could be spent looking at the different aspects relating to institutionalisation of usability, namely; existing research and literature,

•

• •

•

•

•

Development and initial implementation of a usability institutionalisation program within a large corporate company, where departments were quite isolated from each other. An internal business report clearly illustrating the value of careful usability testing of interface use and workflow to appreciate the need of information and working interface surfaces. This was done in retrospect after the new system had been implemented and resulted in multiple work problems because of a bias to seeing knowledge as a thing that can be created and stored and not as a process needing different flexible arrangements of information within different contexts. Comparing the different ways of building user descriptions to be used as a basis for design of a system for genealogy use by indigenous peoples. Usability evaluation of automated check-in kiosks at an airport. Usability testing of voice recognition as part of developing a voice editor for word documents. A set of guidelines for the solo software developer wanting to do usability evaluations in software developments that have small budgets. Corporate boardroom and school classroom usability testing of a prototype digital whiteboard. Usability testing of online medical advice.

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In this way, by the end of the paper, the student group has covered all the main areas of usability in a detailed and industry-relevant way. For example, the voice recognition project involved easily quantifiable measures of accuracy. The class saw the advantages of working with empirical methods. A project focusing on the usability of new parking meters that could be paid for using a cell phone was an illustration of the differences between “real” users and invited participants. The student initially waited around the parking meters for real users to use their cell phone but when that did not happen they introduced it to their friends to try it out. This was similar to another student who invited friends to use an online medical advice system. The students discovered through their own inquiries that the closer the users and the testing tasks were to actual users and tasks, the more accurate and in-depth the usability investigation could be. The project, testing the check-in kiosks at an airport, was an excellent investigation of the difference between observation and inquiry. Another project on computer games where user experience was at times intense provided many opportunities for the class to try out inquiry in the midst of strong emotional experiences. This group inquiry process has provided multiple opportunities for the nurturing and development of the attitudes and personal skills that are necessary to be a successful usability professional. For example, the ability to communicate well; ability to enter into a range of scenarios and develop working relationships with a range of people and roles; to engage curiosity; to build reflective thinking in with experience so that the experience is not lost; grounding the investigation in phenomena; the ability to formulate precise descriptions of usability that are of immediate accessibility to the recipients of the usability report; and so on. From an industry perspective, many advantages have been gained from this learning approach:

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•

•

•

•

•

The use of actual projects results in multiple opportunities for the current and emergent needs of industry to be recognised, reflected upon, and even met. The projects provide an excellent opportunity for initial connections to be built between a tertiary institute and industry, and for existing connections to be furthered because the focus of the student’s work is of real value to industry. Providing career opportunities. Sometimes, the student has the opportunity to show an organisation their attitudes and abilities and the organisation gets to see the prospective employee in action. Building status in the organisation. Careful thought is put into devising a project that will be of benefit to an organisation that the student may already be working for. There are several instances where the success of the project has lead to deep employer satisfaction, increased status of the employee, and promotion. In one case, the project has lead to a significant change in the software development process such that the developments are much more cooperative efforts. Building professional authority. Students within an existing organisation build an internal locus of authority.

CONCLUSION Skills in usability testing immediately useful to current industry needs have been successfully taught using a group experiential approach. This approach is found on modelling the attitudes of being authentic and getting alongside that have been formulated from several years of practical experience in a usability lab. Other subject areas in IT may also benefit from this teaching approach but teachers will need to be strongly attracted to this in order to have the motivation to learn


and enhance the required group leadership and coaching skills needed.

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Chapter XII

Industry-Academic Partnerships in Information Systems Education Mark Conway Hyperion, USA

Abstract Several thousand universities worldwide participate in industry-academic partnerships as a way to expose their students to “real-world” issues and technologies and to provide them skills that will facilitate their transition from the university to the workplace. This chapter highlights several of the leading IT-focused, industry-academic programs such as Hyperion’s Academic Alliance Program, the Teradata University Network, and SAP’s University Alliance Program; and references similar initiatives from Cisco, SUN, and IBM. The focus of the chapter is from an industry practioner’s perspective; it covers what motivates companies to launch these types of programs, what the programs’ goals are, and what benefits accrue to the participating company and university. Information systems and technology (IS&T) are evolving so quickly that universities are continually challenged to keep abreast of the latest developments to ensure that their curricula and programs are current. On one hand, IT programs are pressured by various stakeholders—deans, incoming students, parents, businesses recruiting on campus, and so forth—to keep their programs current and relevant to these constituents’ needs. On the other hand, faculty and IT programs cannot chase the latest fads and each new innovation, if they are to offer a stable learning environment. The significant costs—in terms of time, training, technical support, curriculum revisions, and so forth—involved in deploying commercial software in an academic setting makes selecting which partnerships to pursue an important and far-reaching decision. The benefits can be significant, but the faculty need to understand up front, the expectations and level of commitment needed to make these kinds of collaborations successful. By gaining a better understanding of how industry views these programs, academics will be better able to assess these alliances and determine which best support and align with their programs’ goals and learning objectives. Developing students


Industry-Academic Partnerships in Information Systems Education

who can join companies as new employees and IT leaders and quickly contribute to a firm’s success is something that both universities and businesses strive for. But, it requires a mutual understanding of the skills that will be needed, vehicles for developing those skills within the students, and a buy-in from faculty to develop the necessary curriculum and teaching resources. This chapter contends that successfully managed industry-academic partnerships can be a vehicle for developing these capabilities, while enriching learning opportunities for students.

IntroductIon In a 2006 report based on a survey of 1,400 chief information officers (CIOs), Gartner (2006) reported that the business intelligence (BI) market had grown 6.2% over the previous year, would hit $2.5 billion in 2006 and that “business intelligence has surpassed security as the top technology priority this year.” For companies selling into the BI space, these findings seem to be a clear affirmation of the business opportunity. But, what if, there are no employees at prospective client firms that understand the concepts around business intelligence or know how to use the tools available? At the 2005 Gartner Business Intelligence Summit, Gartner released findings that “Large businesses will need three times as many business intelligence personnel in 2008 as they did in 2004,” but that, … “A lack of user skills and knowledge of best practices form the most important barrier to business deployment”(Gartner, 2005). How can a company grow its market and business if there are not users educated on the value of their solutions? What if, you were Sun Microsystem’s new chief executive officer (CEO), and you saw that almost every student in every IT program around the world was using Microsoft products day-inand-day-out? Where would your customers find the Solaris and Java gurus that they will need to run a SUN environment? What if you were John Chambers, the CEO of Cisco, selling your networking equipment in over 150 countries around the world? What kinds of investments and collabo-

rations could you make with academia to develop a pipeline of Cisco-savvy network engineers and administrators to ensure that your customers worldwide had the technical talent available to deploy and manage Cisco products? In the sections that follow, this chapter will highlight some of the business drivers that motivate IT firms to develop collaborations with institutions of higher education. Further, it will provide examples of specific programs and their goals and offerings. Research findings on the impact of IT-focused collaborations will be reviewed along with suggestions—from an industry partner’s perspective—on how faculty and universities can gain the best learning opportunities and benefits for their students.

IndustrY-AcAdeMIc collAborAtIons And enlIghtened selF-Interest In March 2006, the University of Nebraska – Lincoln announced that IBM, as part of its expanding IBM Academic Alliance, was providing approximately $1 million worth of its iServer systems to outfit a new lab in the College of Business Administration. This is an important donation to the management information systems (MIS) program and a generous investment by IBM as indicated by Chancellor Harvey Perlman’s comments: “The University recognizes that to offer an innovative MIS program that continues to attract the best and brightest leadership and student talent, we


need to collaborate closely with the business community to provide greater resources and research opportunities” (Haikes, 2006). Is it good corporate citizenship or pragmatic business sense that motivates a firm like IBM—the world’s largest technology company—to make these kinds of contributions? Tom Cypher, the CEO of ITI, a local banking software firm that will partner with the University of Nebraska project was clear: “Our company and our clients have a growing need for people with System i skills and experience. We look forward to working with IBM and the University to train the next generation of IBM System i talent through our involvement with students in various educational settings” (Haikes, 2006). Based on the comments of the key stakeholders, this initiative exemplifies a true partnership—one where both parties benefit. Michael Porter, of the Harvard Business School, and Mark Kramer, his co-author of the seminal Harvard Business Review article “The Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy,” contend that social or educational good and corporate goals are not incompatible, and that when managed correctly can align and be a strategic asset. “Corporations can use their charitable efforts to improve their competitive context—the quality of the business environment in the location or locations that they operate. Using philanthropy to enhance context brings social and economic goals in alignment and improves a company’s long-term business prospects …” (Porter & Kramer, 2002). Corporations of all sizes invest in and fund colleges and universities. The Council for Aid to Education reported that contributions to colleges and universities in 2005 reached $25.6 billion of which some 17%, or $4.4 billion came from corporations (Kaplan, 2006). When businesses invest $4 billion dollars in something, they expect a return on that investment. Leading technology firms, like IBM, Hyperion, Teradata, SAP, and Sun Microsystems have all developed formal “academic alliances” or

partnership programs to direct their investments and manage their collaborations with colleges and universities. Most of the firms acknowledge that there is an enlightened self-interest component to their programs. As suggested by Porter and Kramer’s (2002) idea of developing “competitive context,” a firm can help keep a university’s MIS program current; they can help to provide the students skills and experiences that will make them more marketable at graduation; they can help the dean or chancellor attract and retain leading academics; and all the while help to drive their long-term, business prospects by growing market awareness and developing a pipeline of talented graduates for their customers to recruit. The market drivers and interest in industry—academic partnerships do not just reside with businesses looking to grow their “mindshare,” colleges and universities, and schools of business, particularly in the area of IS education, are keen observers of the IT marketplace. They are continually challenged to keep pace with the rapid developments in IT in industry and look to innovative partnerships as a way to infuse resources and current technology into their programs. In 2003 Reisel and Watson highlighted how many universities have worked (and struggled) to deploy commercial SCM software from firms like PeopleSoft, Oracle, and SAP into their courses. “Business educators are under enormous pressure to remain relevant to the business community that they serve. Deans at many of the top business programs in the United States have mandated top-to-bottom revisions of curriculum in order to better prepare students of the challenges of global management assignments” (Reisel & Watson, 2003). The pressure to keep programs relevant—and therefore attractive and marketable to students and business learners—is heightened by the fact that enrollments at many business schools are declining. “In 2005, 80% of the 129 business schools sampled by the Graduate Management Admissions Council reported a drop in full-time


applications—the third consecutive year that most schools reported a downturn” (Kladko, 2006). But, there seems to be a disconnect when IT firms are in such need of talent that they are investing significant resources in developing academic alliances—and students (and parents) who often evaluate the value of a business degree by its impact on job prospects, yet enrollments are dropping? One perspective was offered by Bennis and O’Toole (2005), who, in their hotly debated article “How Business Schools Have Lost Their Way,” contend that business school programs are increasingly irrelevant due to their emphasis on the scientific model rather than practical, business skills. A review of the research topics presented at events such as AMCIS, DSI, and ICIS might tend to confirm Bennis and O’Toole’s argument—particularly for IS industry representatives. Obviously a balance of cutting-edge research and practical education is needed, but this debate is particularly germane when schools are assessing whether one of the hands-on focused, industry-academic programs can fit within their programs and add educational value. Schools that have an especially strong focus on faculty research seem to have less interest in these types of corporate collaborations (except as a research sponsor) than do those schools that place an emphasis on teaching. In many ways, embracing an industry-academic partnership that provides students hands-on practical skills is at the opposite end of the academic spectrum from esoteric research; however, this is not an either or choice, they do not need to be mutually exclusive. In fact, a great IS research project could be one about the impact of industry-academic partnerships on student learning! Regardless of where they fall in this debate, schools must differentiate themselves and be able to show that their degree, and the skills and experiences that the students gain will make them attractive to employers at graduation. In a recent AACSB eNewsLine article, John J. Fernandes, the President and CEO of the Association to Ad-

vance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), rebutted some of Bennis and O’Toole’s (2005) arguments citing: Around the world, business schools are changing their curricula and forming corporate partnerships to imbue their students with practical knowledge. In fact, AACSB International requires the more than 500 schools it accredits to develop programs with corporate leaders and managers to make their curricula relevant to today’s business environment. And, in a recent AACSB survey, more than 40% of B-school respondents said that curriculum revision and program development were among the top three changes planned for the next three years. (Fernandes, 2005) With this confluence of pressures, IT firms needing skilled graduates to go out into the marketplace and schools of business needing to infuse practical, real-world learning into their programs, the idea of industry-academic collaboration for mutual benefit is a natural development. No school or faculty want to be perceived as “vendor advocates” delivering vendor-specific training—this would undermine their academic mission and credibility—but to gain access to the latest (and often very expensive) systems being used by businesses, institutions need to work closely and collaborate with the vendor community. And any initiatives that provide graduates with skills in much demand in the marketplace is bound to help fuel enrollments over time. The scope or depth of these collaborations run along a continuum—from cursory references of a company or a product screen shot in a lecture, to semester-long, lab-based, hands-on capstone projects. In a May 2003 Richtermeyer and Bradford found that: “Integration of information technology into business curricula is a challenge for many colleges and universities. As technology rapidly evolves in the business world, many schools find themselves lagging practice when it concerns teaching technology and related concepts used in


the classroom. It is commonly a balancing act for faculty to determine what types of technologies will best prepare their students for the working world and how to structure their curriculum to better support these technologies.” This last point—how to structure the curriculum to support these technologies—can spin both ways in that a key question one needs to ask when assessing whether or how to utilize one of the academic alliance programs is, how can this technology (or program) support my course’s learning goals? This question needs to be asked whether one is teaching management IS, BI, accounting IS, or data mining… How can I use this commercial software to demonstrate the concepts covered in my course and enhance the learning opportunities for my students? Certainly one way access to technologies like Hyperion’s BI tools or SAP applications can impact curricula is by enabling student-centered, problem-based learning. Breaking a class up into teams; offering them access to enterprise-class commercial software; challenging them to learn the tools; run some queries and reports; and come back and present their findings to the class is exactly the type of unstructured assignment they are likely to get in business. These skills will be relevant and useful on day one of any new job! The vendors highlighted in this chapter are eager to work with faculty, that is why they have invested significant resources and developed formal programs and academic use licensing. And while the vendors can provide products; technical resources and documentation; and training and technical support it is the “faculty champion” who needs to translate these commercial resources into teaching tools that support their specific course. Understanding the scope of work to leverage these programs and having realistic and consistent expectations among all of the participants, as to who will do what, is one key for a successful collaboration. The program profiles that follow should help in developing that understanding further.

IndustrY-AcAdeMIc ProgrAMs: cAse exAMPles hyperion Academic Alliance Program In May of 2005 Hyperion, the “global leader in business performance management (BPM)” announced a program to provide their BPM and business intelligence tools and applications to colleges and universities, to prepare students for the growing field of business performance management. The program was designed to support faculty to use Hyperion solutions in the classroom as a way of demonstrating the business performance-related concepts they would be covering in lectures, cases and text books, not to have universities “train” their students on Hyperion products. One goal of the program was to create a formal mechanism to respond to and support the many requests Hyperion was receiving from their higher education customers and schools of business about Hyperion “academic use” licenses for teaching purposes. Certainly, another goal for any of the companies that make their solutions available to colleges and universities for teaching purposes is branding or market awareness. However, unless the company has a formal mechanism to assess the requests; process the licenses; deliver or monitor installation; provide ongoing faculty training; and technical support—along with some curriculum resources—a well-intentioned donation to a local business school can flounder and end up providing a very negative impression of the company and its products. In their presentations to faculty members Hyperion identified several other program goals: • •

Advance the theory and teaching of BPM within schools of business Enrich business and management courses by providing students hands-on access to commercial BPM software and BI tools


• •

Increase the pipeline of university graduates’ knowledgeable about BI and BPM Strengthen ties with Hyperion’s higher education customers and the academic community11

To jump start the program, Hyperion partnered with the Teradata University Network (http://www.TeradataUniversityNetwork.com), an existing, online, academic resource for data warehouse, DSS/BI and database-related teaching materials. The Teradata University Network had been up and running for 3 years and at the time, had over 800 faculty members from some 400 academic institutions. It also had a formal faculty advisory board in place that strongly encouraged Hyperion to make their software and teaching resources available online, at no charge for faculty or student use. Whether working to integrate enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, data warehousing software, or BI tools into their courses, faculty face many “barriers

to adoption”—training, technical support, curriculum revisions, program or faculty inertia, and so forth. By making their teaching materials available online and at no cost, firms like Hyperion and Teradata were removing two of the main barriers to getting their software adopted into IS courses. Working with the Teradata University Network, Hyperion took a phased approach to making resources available for faculty use. The first step was to organize much of their existing “static” resources such as white papers, flash demos, product brochures, and Web casts that could be used for teaching purposes into a “portal” that could be easily navigated by faculty. Figure 1 is the “landing page” faculty would see when connecting to Hyperion from the Teradata University Network portal. The next phase involved curriculum development. Often times when software firms make their “vanilla” commercial software available for teaching purposes, there is a “translation” pro-

Figure 1.


Figure 2.

cess that faculty have to go through to learn the software, determine how and where it fits within their courses, and to develop exercises for classes and labs that will support the courses’ learning goals. Here again, if a firm can eliminate these hurdles and barriers to adoption, faculty are more likely to use the materials in class. One initiative that Hyperion undertook was to work with a faculty advisor to the Teradata University Network to prepare a set of teaching materials and classroom exercises based on a successful BPM demo Hyperion had developed for customer events and trade shows. The BPM Workshop Demo was a 15 minute, Flash-based, case-study-like demo, showing role-based executive dashboards and decision making in a fictitious, manufacturing company. Many management and IS professors were looking for ways to infuse materials around balance scorecards, KPIs, and executive dashboards (as shown in Figure 2), which were be used increasingly in business. The demo was a quick and effective tool for conveying the concepts of BPM to Hyperion’s

0

customers, and when bundled with classroom lecture notes, student exercises and supplemental student reading assignments, it proved to be a very effective classroom tutorial on BPM. The tutorial included two easily downloadable files—the demo and the teaching materials such as: • • •

A custom case study on the Eden Company profiled in the demo Teaching notes and suggested prep assignments Background reading materials including: ° BPM: Current State of the Art: A survey by Cranfield University ° Managing Master Data Management for BPM: An IDC white paper ° Real-time Dashboards at Western Digital: University of Minnesota, MISQE ° Dashboard Development and Deployment: A methodology white paper by Noetix.


Figure 3.

The availability of the demo and teaching resources was promoted to several faculty list. servs, such as ISWorld, DSS SIG, and the Teradata University Network’s membership. In the first 90 days that the materials were made available, faculty from some 45 institutions, representing over 20 countries, registered and downloaded the tutorial. Feedback from professors using the tutorial indicated that the “packaging” of a professional demo, with a teaching roadmap, exercises, and reading assignments made it very easy to incorporate into their courses. It also did not require them to revise their whole semester—as the teaching materials constituted 4-5 hours of class-time content and were easily plugged in to many types of courses. The faculty that registered to download the materials were primarily from MIS departments but taught courses ranging from database management and decision sciences to enterprise architecture and even marketing. From Hyperion’s perspective this was a very successful offering that allowed professors to easily integrate Hyperion content into their courses. Moving forward this

packaging approach was a model that Hyperion planned to continue and expand. However, while most of the feedback was positive, many professors indicated that while the demo was a great introduction for their more advanced classes, particularly in masters’ level IS programs, the students wanted hands-on access to the capabilities and software highlighted in the demo. This model of providing hosted access to software for teaching purposes was espoused by Teradata and had been proven successful by firms such as SAP and PeopleSoft. Hyperion worked with the Center for Remote Enterprise Hosting (CRESH), a commercial, academic-ASP that had actually spun out of Dakota State University’s College of Business and Information Systems, to put some of their software and training materials online. The Hyperion portal at CRESH went live in early 2006. With the addition of Web-based software and training materials, Hyperion could now offer faculty and schools of business a continuum of content and resources, that ran from semi-static content such as white papers and archived Web


Figure 4.

casts, to both Flash and interactive demos packaged with teaching materials, to Web-based, enduser training and full-blown BI software tools. Response from the academic community has been extremely positive and Hyperion is planning to add additional applications and curriculum resources over the 2006-2007 academic year. Of course, once talented students have access to products like Hyperion’s Performance Suite’s query and reporting capabilities they want to “do something” with the tools. One of the key areas for Hyperion moving forward will be on integrating data sets so that students can create reports and dashboards and work on projects that are not just esoteric exercises but ones with real world relevance!

the terAdAtA unIversItY netWorK The Teradata University Network is “A premier, free on-line educational resource for university professors around the world who teach classes on data warehousing, DSS/business intelligence, and databases” (Wixom, 2005). Launched in

2002, the network has grown to include some 1,000 faculty users from over 500 universities in 55 countries. Its mission is: • •

•

To be a premier resource for knowledge about data warehousing, DSS/BI, and databases. To build an international community whose members share their ideas, experiences, and resources with each other. To serve as a bridge between academia and the world of practice. (Watson, 2006)

The success of the Teradata University Network is built on a couple of premises—the fact that it is directed by leaders of the academic community (in concert with Teradata management and the program’s software partners) keeps its focus on the user, the professor and students in the classroom. The other growth driver is the breadth and quality of the content and resources that it makes available to faculty and students—all at no charge. The content includes actual software such as Teradata’s SQL Assistant, MicroStrategy’s BI tools and courseware, and business performance management software from Hyperion. In addition to the software itself, resources such as data


sets, course syllabi, cases, projects, power point presentations, and Webinars are all available to professors working to build course content. The program Web page (see Figure 5) highlights the breadth of the content offerings with a dozen “content categories” listed down the left hand side of the page. The value of the content resources was outlined by one of its early faculty users: As an educator it is always difficult to keep up with current IT developments, particularly in data warehousing and business intelligence. In addition, even if I am knowledgeable in an area, it is often difficult to know how to communicate it in a classroom context. While I have an informal network of colleagues, it takes considerable time and effort to find out what textbook and case study materials they are using, what assignments they use and how they use them… The Teradata University Network provides a wide range of materials for classroom use including syllabi, case studies, teaching notes, exercises and their solutions. These

are invaluable to me as I plan and prepare my own courses. (Watson & Hoffer, 2003) To join the Teradata University Network and access the Web-based resources faculty apply for membership online. Because the resources available on the Web site are restricted for academic or teaching purposes only, applicants must be authenticated as being a faculty member at an institution of higher education. There is a companion Web site for students called the Teradata Student Network. Individual students or whole classes of students can register and gain access to live software and a subset of the materials that are made available to faculty. One of the guiding principals of the Teradata University Network is to foster the sharing of materials and resources among the members. Members are encouraged to submit content for possible inclusion on the Web site. The advisory board has established a review process to ensure that all of the materials posted on the site are complete, valuable, and of high quality.

Figure 5.


The growth and expansion of the Teradata University Network program, the development and expansion of its advisory board, and the ongoing refreshing of new content and resources, are testimony to Teradata’s commitment to higher education, and to the fact this resource is seen as valuable by faculty in the IS community. As with all of these programs, the vendor sponsors are often looking for ways to measure the success of the program and their return on investment (ROI). Watson and Hoffer (2003) cite issues that all of the corporate partners in these programs are interested in, metrics and ROI: “The vendor’s interest in ROI may not be stated, but it exits nonetheless. As stated earlier, it is important to always remember that companies make investments for business reasons. At some point, the vendor will be interested in metrics that show return on investment for the initiative. The metrics may not be financial, but they should indicate the initiative’s impact.” (Watson & Hoffer, 2003) As with the impact on student learning, assessing vendor ROI could be a research topic that vendors of all types would be very interested in. How does a firm measure the impact of these types of investments and collaborations? What are appropriate KPIs? Do you need to do pre and post surveys? What are quantifiable measures? Many companies cite the number of schools participating, the numbers of students reached, the numbers of courses or departments or disciplines in a given institution, and so forth. Others look to new hires, business or sales influences, links with their customer and partner ecosystem, and so forth; But having additional qualitative and quantifiable metrics would be useful. Somewhere within the sponsoring company a program manager is being asked to justify their budget, to document the impact of their efforts, and to show the ROI on the company’s efforts and investments. Any work

by program participants to capture and highlight these areas would be invaluable.

sAP unIversItY AllIAnce ProgrAM Launched in 1988, the SAP University Alliance Program is one of the oldest and largest industryacademic partnership programs of its kind. The program works with over 500 universities, and SAP estimates that there are some 130,000 students participating worldwide. “The overall SAP investment in the University Alliances program is approx. $150 million in 2005” (SAP Investor, 2005). This is a significant investment, even for a firm the size of SAP. The goals for this investment and the University Alliances Program are: • Develop graduate and undergraduate learning programs that enable teaching and understanding of integrated business processes. • Encourage technically sophisticated graduates who can apply SAP solutions and technology to pursue careers in real-world business environments. • Create a network of university researchers who contribute to the body of knowledge and innovative applications of SAP solutions. • Provide the needed resources to help ensure a successful integration of SAP into the classroom, including curriculum materials and functional experts. (Boykin, 2005) Like the IBM and Hyperion efforts cited earlier, one of SAP’s key goals is to infuse their content and concepts into curricula in order to ensure that they and their customers have appropriate “technically sophisticated graduates” to recruit. The fact that SAP is ready to invest $150 million to collaborate with universities shows the importance of an educated workforce.


As an aside: A similar initiative, the Cisco Networking Academy, was launched in 1997 and by 2002 Cisco estimated that they too had invested $150 million, over the program’s life to educate students to be network administrators and engineers. This was the classic case of Porter and Kramer’s (2002) investing for competitive context…. “as Internet use expanded, customers around the world encountered a chronic shortage of qualified network administrators, which became a limiting factor in Cisco’s—and the entire industry’s—continued growth” (p. x). This is exactly the same scenario that Gartner was flagging in 2005 for firms in the BI space—there is a huge market opportunity but one possibly restricted by lack of technical personnel to use the technology! SAP however, did not just make software available to university faculty members and tell them to “have at it.” Integrating ERP solutions into businesses is a highly complex and technically demanding process as is integrating ERP into business school curricula. Studies by Bradford, Vijayaraman, and Chandara (2003) and Reisel and Watson’s (2003) cited earlier, highlight many of the challenges in deploying ERP for teaching purposes—in terms of cost, technical complexity and requirements, training, lack of curriculum, and so forth—as well as some of the critical success factors around planning, training, technical support, and faculty buy-in. As the University Alliance Program grew and evolved, SAP took many of these issues into consideration in developing a comprehensive network of support and services for institutions participating in the program. By 2005, in the United States, there were at least 120 member schools. SAP offered much of the access to its software to these members through five, university-based, hosting centers called university competency centers (UCCs), which hosted SAP software and training materials, and provided curriculum and technical support as well as faculty training workshops,

delivered by other faculty. One of the earlier major hurdles, or barriers, to adoption of ERP software like SAPs was the technical infrastructure and expertise needed to install, deploy, and support the software. With the advent of the UCCs, schools were able to access the full mySAP Business Suite, get their faculty and student accounts set up, and get curriculum support through help centers at the UCCs. While participant schools did have to pay a service fee—and enter into a formal service agreement with their hosting site—the costs in terms of technical expertise and infrastructure were greatly reduced. SAP’s program Web site (see Figure 6), highlights some of the resources that they provide, as well as the benefits to the participating schools. SAP offers a very comprehensive set of resources to participating schools including course materials; a curriculum and technical help center; faculty training and workshops; certification for students; and select research collaboration opportunities. The SAP software is used in a wide number of departments and disciplines ranging from human resources management and accounting and finance to key areas for SAP such as supply chain management, logistics, and operations management. Perhaps even more important or useful to the participating faculty members are the efforts SAP undertakes to foster collaboration and sharing of materials and ideas among the participating schools. SAP sponsors an annual Innovation Congress that “brings together leading educators to exchange ideas, explore educational innovation and learn about new technology that may be used in the classroom” (Boykin, 2005). At the 2005 Innovation Congress over 300 attendees participated in hands-on workshops, discipline-focused sessions, and curriculum strategies roundtables. SAP’s model of running faculty workshops, for faculty, by faculty has been very successful and allows for the exchange of ideas and approaches that have been tested in the classroom. The Innovation Congress allows for similar kinds of


Figure 6.

information exchanges and networking among faculty dealing with like issues. One area that SAP has been able to develop to expand its “academic ROI” is around university-based, sponsored research. SAP has built on many of the relationships with universities moving beyond just classroom teaching collaborations to more formal research partnerships. At an earlier Innovation Congress, SAP highlighted university projects on the ROI of SAP implementations (Wharton and Drexel), Flexible Workflow for CRM (University of Queensland), and Advanced Customer Interfaces (CEC Karlsruhe) (Pantaleo, 2003). These kinds of technical collaborations provide unique research opportunities for the faculty and provide SAP with outside perspectives that can be so important in developing new products and innovation.

conclusIon Often times, deploying ERP, data warehousing, or BI software into an academic setting can be

as complex as a real commercial implementation. Technical issues and resources need to be assessed; training and technical support needs to be planned for; curriculum development and end-user (student) training and support has to be thought out; and a change management and communication plan—explaining to all the stakeholders why the institution is deploying such “disruptive” technology—is critical for success. And, there is almost always “organizational inertia” that has to be overcome. From having observed well over 100 of these industry-academic engagements, one common critical success factor has stood out: the role of a “faculty champion.” Invariably, in successful projects there is a lead faculty member who is passionate and enthusiastic about the benefits these kinds of collaborations can bring to the schools and their students. Regardless of all of the support and resources that the vendors can make available, some one on the university’s side is going to need to “make the case” for the collaboration. There is funding to be secured; deans and colleagues to be convinced; syllabi


and curricula to be updated; lab exercises need to be developed; and so forth. Ironically, the review and reward structures at many universities are such that faculty are often penalized for these leadership efforts as they take away from their research and publication cycles. A cursory review of the research and literature in this area provides a wealth of anecdotal examples where students and faculty testify to the value of working with “real-world” technologies and processes. If business schools and MIS programs are going to demonstrate their relevance to their key stakeholders—students and the business community—it only goes to reason that they need to work closely and be aligned with industry. Lowry and Turner (2005) state this very clearly: “Identifying the skills sought by employers of new IS graduates is critical for educators in designing curricula and advising students” (p. x). As mentioned earlier, most schools of business are keen observers of industry trends, and through various types of advisory boards, faculty engagements and research projects are able to stay abreast of—or in some cases ahead of—the trends in industry. But as the professor using the Teradata University network indicated, being aware of the trends and issues and then being able to translate them into the classroom setting are two separate issues. Used wisely, the industry-academic partnership programs can provide a bridge to bring current, cutting-edge technologies into the classroom with sound pedagogical methods and learning objectives. In summary: •

•

Assessing academic programs and vendors’ offers in terms of how they align with your program’s goals is key, as is the recognition up front that implementing and managing one of these projects will entail a bit of work. Managed wisely, these industry collaborations can provide you the foundation for pedagogically sound, student-centered,

•

•

technology-based, learning opportunities that you otherwise could not bring into the classroom. These projects can lead to unanticipated relationships from intern and co-op slots and research projects to links with the sponsoring vendors’ customers and partners. There is a potential multiplier effect above and beyond the classroom content. The vendors are looking for ways to quantify and document the impact of these projects and investments. Think about and propose metrics that can show the benefits and ROI—they will be well received.

resources: exAMPles oF vendor AcAdeMIc PArtnershIP ProgrAMs Cisco - http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/netacad/ Hyperion - http://www.hyperion.com/solutions/ industry _solutions/higher_ed/academic_alliance.cfm Microsoft – MSDN Academic Alliance - http:// msdn.microsoft.com/academic/ Oracle Academic Initiative - https://academy. oracle.com SAP University Program - http://www.sap.com/ usa/company/citizenship/education/university. epx SAS Academic Programs - http://www.sas.com/ govedu/edu/programs/index.html Sun Microsystems - http://www.sun.com/products-n-solutions/edu/programs/sai/ Teradata University Network - http://www.teradata.com/t/page/137474/index.html


reFerences Access Economics PTY Limited. (2005, June). Economic value of university business education. A report for Australian Business Deans Coucil. Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). (2005, September). Why management education matters. A report from an AACSB international task force on issues in management education. Bennis, W. G., & O’Toole, J. (2005). How business schools lost their way. Harvard Business Review. Boykin, R. (2005, August). Hosting & the SAP university alliances program. Paper presented at Academy of Management Annual Meeting. Bradford, M., Vijayaraman, B. S., & Chandra, A. (2003). The status of ERP integration in business school curricula: Results of a survey of business schools. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 12.

Porter, M. E., & Kramer, M. R. (2002). The competitive advantage of corporate philanthropy. Harvard Business Review. Quelch, J. (2005, November 29). A new agenda for business schools. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved December 2, 2005, from http://chronicle.com.weekly/v52/il5/15b01901. htm Reisel, W. D., & Watson, E. F. (2003). The case of the ERP enabled business school programs. (2003). In C. Wankel & R. Fillippi (Eds.), Educating managers with tomorrow’s technologies: Vol. Research in management education and development. Richtermeyer, S. B., & Bradford, M. (2003). PeopleSoft on campus: Benefits of incorporating ERP systems into business curricula. A PeopleSoft White Paper Series. Rodek, J., & Hyperion editors. (2004). On the up & up—Achieving breakthrough performance through insight. Hyperion.

Conway, M. (2005). Hyperion academic alliance program—Infusing BPM into your curriculum. Program presentation Q2 FY06.

SAS Academic Program University Newsletter – (Second Issue 2005). Retrieved September 29, 2005, from www.sas.com/news/newsletter/academic/University/current.html

Gartner: BI market to reach $2.5 billion this year. (2006). Retrieved February 9, 2006, from http:// www.bizintelligencepipeline.com/179101462

Sun academic initiative. (2006). Retrieved February 27, 2006, from www.sun.com/products-nsolutions/edu/programs/sai

Lowry, G., & Turner, R. (2005). Information systems education for the 21st century: Aligning curriculum content & delivery with the professional workplace. In D. Carbonara (Ed.), Technology literacy applications in learning environments (pp. 171-202). Hershey, PA: IRM Press.

Watson, H. J. (2006, February). Teradata University Network. Program review presentation.

Pantaleo, D. C. (2003, September 29-30). Touch the future with innovation . Paper presented to the SAP Innovation Congress EMEA ’03.

Watson, H. J., & Hoffer, J. A. (2003). Teradata University network: A new resource for teaching large data bases and their applications. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 12. Wixom, B. (2005, September). Forging a link between the Teradata University Network and Terdata customers. Paper presented at Partners conference panel presentation.

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Chapter XIII

Industry-University Collaborations in Research for Information Systems: An Exploratory Study of a Management Model Tom O’Kane Motorola Labs, Ireland

Abstract Research collaborations between industry and the academic community are now commonplace and continuing to flourish. While both entities are involved in problem solving, their motivations and objectives appear to be quite different; industrial research being primarily driven by business needs to improve cost, quality, and so forth, academic research ostensibly driven by the desire to push the boundaries of knowledge but in reality driven by the need to “publish or perish.” Recognising the differences, and indeed the complementary aspects of these respective motivations and objectives, has been repeatedly cited in the literature as a critical success factor for such collaborations. While much has been written especially from the academic perspective on various aspects of research collaborations, there is relatively little from the industrial perspective, especially with regard to a management model, that could be used to guide such research project collaborations. This chapter is written from an industry perspective and it explores such a model specifically for managing information systems (IS) research projects. Nowadays, and increasingly so, the business of software production will follow a defined software process to provide good management of projects and to guide both the management and engineering aspects of development. This chapter suggests an extension of these principles to produce a process management framework that software companies can use for research project collaborations with universities.


Industry-University Collaborations in Research for Information Systems

IntroductIon Industrial collaborations with universities go back a long way and are exemplified by the establishment of “redbrick” universities in the industrial heartland of Britain in the mid to late 19th century. These universities were founded on the principle of industry and academia working together not only for scientific and technical advancement in an academic sense, but also for the benefit of the local industry and the economy (Howells, Nedeva, & Georghiou, 1998). Around the same time in the United States, the Morill Act of 1862 established land-grant universities to meet the growing demand for agricultural and mechanical education to benefit economic development. This was followed by the Hatch Act of 1887 and the Smith-Lever Act of 1914 which initiated and further authorised ongoing federal support for experimentation and applied research (Allen, Aldredge, & Burkhalter, 1989). The industry-university collaborations that emerged from these early beginnings have traditionally been informal, and it is only since the 1970s that their true significance has been fully recognised and formal linkages have been established (Alam, Jayakumar, & Balakrishnan, 2003; Howells et al., 1998; Mead et al., 2000). It is suggested that these formal linkages resulted from four main mechanisms and sources: • Informal contacts and spin-outs from university departments • Through contracts and collaborative research • Property-led initiatives in the form of science or technology parks • Through the management and licensing of intellectual property rights (IPR) In the period since the 1970s, and particularly during the 1980s these collaborations have continued to develop. They are nowadays an accepted part of the wider research remit and are actually

0

increasing (Amabile et al., 2001; Burnham, 1997; Pollitt & Mellors, 1993). While collaborations between industrial, pharmaceutical, and medical research organisations with universities are perhaps the most prevalent and best known, collaborations have also spread to IS research, and to many other industry sectors. Many universities have gone so far as appointing specialised personnel to industry liaison roles with the express purpose of managing the interface with industry, while some have created autonomous technology transfer organisations to facilitate transfer of the know-how generated to industry (Alam et al., 2003). On the industrial side some (larger) corporations have established specific training and/or dedicated resources which are intended to address the sourcing and management of these special relationships with academia. They are referred to as special relationships because, unlike industry-industry collaborations, there are apparent dichotomies in industry’s and academia’s motivations to engage in collaborations in the first place. Hence, it has been observed that successful cooperation between industry and academia requires a special kind of synergy (Fassin, 2000). Consequently, to achieve successful cooperation both parties need to be aware not only of these dichotomies, but of each other’s complementary strengths (Brannock & Denny, 1998), and this applies to IS research collaborations just as much as any other research collaboration. Commentators have indicated that the management of engagements between industry and academia is a crucial factor for success and have pointed to the lack of familiarity with project management techniques among some academic researchers (Hurmelinna, 2004; Martin, 2000; University of Melbourne, 2003). Other commentators speculate whether an academic research environment is in fact compatible with industry in collaborative R&D (David, 2001). Hence, realising and appreciating the motivations for industry and universities to engage in research projects generally and IS research in particular,


and the need to provide good management of such collaborations, forms the rationale for the IS research management model which is explored in this chapter.

MotIvAtIons & consIderAtIons Prior to engaging in a research project collaboration, a fundamental consideration for both industry and academia is to examine the motivations of the other party to engage in research in the first place. As a result of such analyses each can be aware not only of these motivations, but also the other parties’ strengths when engaging in the collaboration. Brannock and Denny (1998) suggest there are four main principles that form the core of all types of agreements between industry and its academic partners: • • • •

Publication rights Intellectual property rights Confidentiality provisions Indemnification of the university and its faculty and staff

These are extremely important considerations and they must be incorporated within any broader process for establishing and then managing research projects in which the two parties wish to collaborate. Classically, the academic motivation for engaging in research was characterised as the desire to push the existing boundaries of knowledge by explaining phenomena, or from a need to confirm or refute hypotheses. Nowadays, it may be more accurate to state that a primary motivation of academic institutions to engage in collaborations is related to their financial situation caused by increasing constraints in university research budgets (Powers, Powers, Betz, & Aslanian, 1988). For academic institutions generating publishable work and thereby improving their reputation and competitiveness are all to the good when

it comes to securing further research funding (Hurmelinna, 2004). In the case of industry, the motivation for engaging in research is usually attributed to the need to enhance growth, or to gain some competitive advantage for the business (Gomes, Hurmelinna, Amaral, & Blomqvist, 2005). However with the emergence of “knowledge-based economies,” where knowledge and technical acumen form the key foundations of economic success, the need to access specialised knowledge, and to minimise both financial risk and infrastructure costs, also becomes a leading imperative (Howells et al., 1998; Kock, Auspitz, & King, 2000; Universtiy of Melbourne, 2003). These motivations lead to restrictions on each party that have to be considered by their prospective partners, if the research collaboration is to be successful. As Beckman, Khajenoori, Coulter, and Mead (1997) stated, “The key to successful partnerships is for each partner to understand the other’s needs and constraints.” But to date while much has been written of universities’ needs and considerations, there is relatively little written from an industrial perspective including IS. These motivations (needs) and considerations (constraints) are summarised in Table 1, and while this is not intended to be an exhaustive list it does illustrate some of the factors that will influence the relationship. Under the Motivations column in Table 1 we see some of the drivers for both academics and industrialists engaging in research in the first place. For academic research we see it is motivated by the need to explain phenomena, prove or disprove hypotheses, or to extend the boundaries of knowledge. But increasingly, it is to continue to secure sponsorship for carrying out adequate research. For industry, the stimulus usually arises from commercial needs: customer demands or the need to realise improvements in quality, cost or delivery. However, the need to create new business opportunities and/or gain competitive


Table 1. Research motivations and considerations for other parties Motivation

Academic Research

Industrial Research

• Explain phenomena • Reinforce or refute hypotheses • To push existing frontiers of knowledge • Secure sponsorship for future research

• It must be rigorous • Has to be significant work • Must enhance the reputation of the institution • Improve likelihood of further funding and further opportunities for collaborations

• Customer demand • Quality improvement • Cost reduction • Improved timeliness of delivery • Creating new business opportunities • Realise a competitive advantage

• Deals with problems that exist now • Commercial sensitivity • Usually time constrained • Must be relevant • Must realise improved bottombottom-line results for the business

advantage is also frequently cited as major reasons for engaging in research projects. Under the Considerations column in Table 1 we see some of the constraints that impact academic research and some of those that impact industrial research projects. These illustrate what potential industrial/academic partners need to be aware of with regard to the other’s situation when it comes to engaging in a research project. Industry for example, needs to be aware that academic research must be substantial, rigorously conducted, and ultimately publishable. Prior to publication in any of the leading scientific journals, research submissions will most likely have to pass a formal selection procedure and undergo peer review. This process is intended to assess the merit of submissions and preserve the reputation of the journal. Furthermore, the academic research needs to preserve, or better still, enhance the reputation of the academic institution; for example, by furthering its reputation as a centre of excellence for research and thereby securing its future through further work and attracting continued funding. It has been recognised in many countries that for

Considerations

For Industry

For Academia

universities to engage in research, public funding alone will not meet the total resource requirements, therefore other sources of funding must be found (David, 2001; Kock et al., 2000; University of Melbourne, 2003). By way of contrast, academic researchers need to be aware that industrial research is usually grappling with problems that exist in the “hereand-now,” or that the business has identified opportunities where the problem solution “window” is time-bound and must be seized ahead of the competition. This is especially true for IS research projects where the pace of development outstrips many other industry sectors. This frequently results in industry developing “good enough” fixes, but these may be a far cry from comprehensive solutions. To quote an industry source: A lot of good science does not come into our sphere because of our interest in commercial applications. Doing things efficiently is not necessarily consistent with the approach for getting a scientific paper together…. (University of Melbourne, 2003)


In a similar vein, Pavitt (1998) suggests that while simplification and reduction of the number of variables to achieve analytical tractability are typical of academic research, industry knowledge is more often gathered through trial and error. Regarding the commercial sensitivity of industrial research, academics need to be aware that the sensitivity of the research may not just lie with the research outcomes. In fact the research may have been initiated because of deficiencies a business has identified in its current product offerings or its business processes. Awareness of these deficiencies may not be in the public domain and consequently the company will regard this information as commercially sensitive. Finally, while the conduct of the research project must be rigorous it must also be relevant. As Susman and Evered (1978) commented, much research is only remotely related to the real world of practicing and to the actual issues with which members of organisations are concerned. Others have made similar observations (Cyert & Goodman, 1997; Lee, 2000; Robey & Markus, 1998; Senn, 1998; Zmud, 1998). Ultimately, however, the key consideration has to be that the research project must positively impact business results in terms of quality, on-time delivery, reduced costs, or improved customer satisfaction, or other commercial measures. Despite these concerns, bringing the two parties together is generally perceived to be enormously beneficial for all concerned. Industry gains access to quality research services at subsidised costs, as well as to potential future employees. Universities benefit from such partnerships through research grants that compensate for cutbacks in government funding, which in some countries have been very severe, but they also benefit from student exposure to “real-world” problems and issues (Beckman et al., 1997; Hurmelinna, 2004; Kock et al., 2000; Nissani, 1997). However, while there are benefits to collaboration, there are also real barriers to cooperation

(Hasselmo & McKinnell, 2001). For instance Katz, Ferrara, and Napier (2002) observe that: Colleges and universities, sometimes described as “adhocracies”, are loosely coupled organizations that often must undergo difficult cultural adjustments to accommodate the organizational needs and idiosyncrasies of their partners. However, Van Dierdonck and Debackere (1988) identified three types of barriers to collaboration: (1) cultural, (2) institutional, and (3) operational. •

•

•

Cultural differences: May be manifest in divergent goals, approaches to time management, language and terminology Institutional barriers: May be apparent through differing policies or interdisciplinary boundaries Operational barriers: May become apparent due to differing approaches to planning and prioritisation of tasks, physical separation of researchers and their industrial colleagues, or the use of incompatible software packages

Siegel, Waldman, and Link (2003) reported that it was the lack of understanding between industry and universities regarding corporate, university, and scientific norms and environments that formed the most significant barrier. While Hall, Link, and Scott (2001) concluded that IP issues between firms and universities can represent major barriers with the likelihood of these becoming insurmountable if the research is relatively short term with greater certainty in terms of the research outcomes, or if it is likely to lead to less appropriable results, that is, a more public nature for the results, or if the lead participants have been involved with university research partners in the past. For IS research project collaborations in particular, additional complications may arise from the use of open source.


Some commentators have speculated that hiving off both basic and applied research to specialised institutes would do much to overcome these barriers (David, 2001). However, the status quo remains and research collaborations between industry and universities continue to develop. With the awareness of these issues, successful collaboration in research projects between industry and academia would seem to be in need of an engagement process to provide some degree of control over the planning and management of the research. This is a view shared by Beckman et al. (1997), who have observed that defining common goals and sharing expectations, planning activities, measuring outcomes, and accommodating feedback are key factors in successful collaborations. But an engagement process is especially important from the industry perspective as illustrated by the following comment extracted from University of California (Irvine) Handbook on Collaborations (2003), which states, “A private corporation views a research collaboration with a university as a business arrangement” . And so there appears to be a very good case to be made for industry applying a project management framework to such collaborations. However, any management framework that is developed must be domain specific to handle the particular needs of the domain and designed to manage the special relationships between industry and academia, it also must be amenable to tailoring and enabling it to handle differing degrees of research project engagement. While the research project management model explored in this chapter is specifically designed for IS research projects, other domains may find its approach useful too.

bAcKground to the ProPosed Is reseArch ProJect MAnAgeMent Model The aforementioned literature review illustrates that while both academia and industry stand to

gain much from collaboration, and much has been written on the benefits to both, there remain significant issues surrounding the management of the research projects that stem from decisions to collaborate, but unfortunately these aspects have received less attention. The following observation was recorded in an issue paper for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (CERI/OECD, 2001) it states: …it appears that the “why questions” (why university and industry should co-operate and work together?) are more documented than the “how questions” (how university and industry can come up with organisational devices and incentives in order to make the relationships workable and beneficial for both partners?...) Corporations and universities are not natural partners. Their culture and their missions differ (Hasselmo & McKinnell, 2001). So, it is important to point out that the IS research management model explored in this chapter, is not attempting to address all the “how” aspects of industry-university relationships. There are so many facets and types of collaborations and engagements between industry and academia for IS that it is extremely unlikely a single model could address all of them adequately. The model proposed in this chapter is exploring the situation where a firm has decided to engage with a university in conducting IS research to solve some specific problem or explore a particular phenomena, and how that engagement can be managed. The model is based upon selected elements from a commonly used software process standard. There are many models, tools, and advice available on the subject of project planning and management. Many of the models are very complex and would far exceed what is required for this application. There are also a number of quality standards that could be used in the development of a research management model, for instance ISO 9001:2000 and Malcolm Baldrige.


While these are excellent models, they are also general models; they cater to a wide variety of industrial applications. By contrast, the simple IS research collaboration management model explored in this chapter draws upon selected elements of the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMIsm) (Software Engineering Institute [SEI], 2002). The CMMIsm is software industry specific. By examinng elements from it we can describe a management model which is not only focussed upon IS but is congruent with the other management systems many software organisations have already institutionalised. The CMMIsm (SEI, 2002) and its predecessor the Capability Maturity Model (CMMsm) (SEI, 1993) were developed by the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. They are the most widely used models for guiding software process improvement and for assessing software process maturity. Therefore, examining elements from the CMMIsm as a basis for a model for managing research project collaborations with universities—is a logical choice. Software organisations use CMMIsm to improve different Process Areas (PAs), for instance, requirements management, configuration management, validation, organisational training, and so on. Each PA, of which there are 25 in total, is located within a hierarchy of capability or maturity levels. The premise being that PAs located at the lower maturity levels need to be improved and performing well before the PAs that are assigned to the higher maturity levels can be successfully enacted.1 The PAs are in turn supported by specific goals (SGs) and generic goals (GG): • SGs address the unique characteristics within each of the PAs that must be implemented to satisfy the PA. SGs are supported by specific practices (SPs), which are important activities to be performed in achieving the SGs.

• GGs describe the institutionalisation that the organisation must achieve for PAs and signifies improved control in planning and implementation indicating whether these processes are likely to be effective, repeatable, and lasting. GGs are supported by generic practices (GP’s), and these are activities designed to institutionalise the practices and assure the effectiveness of the processes associated with the PA. GG 2 seeks to institutionalise a “managed process.” A managed process is defined as one that is: planned and executed in accordance with policy, employs skilled people having adequate resources to produce controlled outputs, involves relevant stakeholders; is monitored, controlled and reviewed; and is evaluated for adherence to its process description. (SEI, 2002) It is from the GPs that are associated with GG 2 that the proposed management model is derived. GP 2.1 through to GP 2.10 describe the fundamental principles for managing a process. The GPs are summarised below, along with a brief description of their primary purpose(s): • GP 2.1 Establish an organisational policy ° To define the organisations expectations for the process and to make these expectations visible. • GP 2.2 Plan the process ° Identify what is required of the process. ° Determine what is needed to perform the process and achieve the established objectives. ° Prepare a plan for performing the process. ° Prepare a description of the process, including relevant standards and pro-


•

•

•

•

•

•

cedures (may be part of the overall plan). ° Get agreement on the plan from all relevant stakeholders. GP 2.3 Provide resources ° These are all resources necessary to perform the process as defined by the plan including funding, facilities, people, and equipment. GP 2.4 Assign responsibility ° To ensure there is accountability throughout the life of the process for performing it and achieving the specified results. ° Those assigned must have the appropriate authority for performing the process. GP 2.5 Train people ° To ensure the necessary skills and expertise are available to perform or support the process. GP 2.6 Manage configurations ° To establish and maintain the integrity of the designated work products of the process throughout their useful life. GP 2.7 Identify and involve relevant stakeholders ° To establish and maintain the expected involvement of stakeholders during the execution of the process. ° Ensure that interactions necessary to the process are accomplished. GP 2.8 Monitor and control the process ° To perform the direct day-to-day monitoring and controlling of the process. ° Provide appropriate levels of visibility into the process. ° Take corrective action when necessary. ° Measure appropriate attributes of the process or work products produced by the process.

• GP 2.9 Objectively evaluate adherence ° To provide credible assurance that the process is implemented as planned and adheres to its process description, standards, and procedures. ° Usually performed by people not directly responsible for managing or performing the activities of the process. • GP 2.10 Review status with higher level management ° To provide higher-level management with the appropriate visibility into the process. ° The higher-level management includes those levels of management in the organisation above the immediate level of management responsible for the process. These are the GPs that have been examined in this paper for the development of a simple 7stage management model for university-industry collaboration (Figure 1).

the MAnAgeMent Model The management model that is being explored is illustrated in Figure 1. A mapping between the phases in the model and the CMMIsm GPs is also provided. The 7-stage model is designed to bring a degree of rigour to the industry-university research collaboration process by applying some basic project management practices to it. It must be stated explicitly that the model must be tailored to match the particular requirements, magnitude, and complexity of the specific research engagement. This means that if it is applied judiciously it will provide rigour and control over the research project without being overly constraining. How the model should be tailored is dealt with more fully later on in this chapter.


Figure 1. Management model with mapping to CMMIsm generic practices

As the reader will observe, the model consists of seven distinct phases, some of which will have much greater time-spans than others. Each stage in the model will now be described and related back to the generic practices in CMMIsm.

establish the collaboration Policy for the research Project The first stage in the model maps to CMMIsm GP 2.1, and it is for the organisation to establish a research collaboration policy. The policy is designed to set the expectations for engaging in research projects with academic institutions and to specify the general guiding principles the organisation will follow. The policy is not specific to any one research project, nor is it a contractual document. The purpose is to provide overarching direction for research engagements with academia and to facilitate contractual and other discussions. As such it should include, among other things, the

organisation’s general position regarding its commitment to quality, intellectual property, information disclosure, royalties, and licensing. It has been reported that industry partners generally find contract negotiations with universities long, multilayered, and complex (Cripps, Yencken, Coghlan, Anderson, & Spiller, 1999), so the availability of such an artefact in advance would be extremely useful in setting and managing expectations. This is especially true when it comes to dealing with issues concerning intellectual property rights (IPR). Hall et al. (2001) report that above any other concerns vis-à-vis the relationship between industry and academia, the issue of IPR takes precedence; the conflicting objectives in some cases represent an insurmountable barrier that prevents the research partnership from ever coming about. So having a declared position which, for example, could relate funding with expected intellectual property appropriation would be a very valuable asset.


Because the collaboration policy is not specific to any particular research project it can be developed as a “position statement” well ahead of any actual engagement taking place. The organisation may choose to make the policy publicly available or available to an academic institution upon request. Alternatively, it may choose to treat the information in the policy as proprietary and not share it at all. The research project collaboration policy should be developed under the direction and sponsorship of the firm’s senior management. It must be approved by the senior management in the first instance, and in the event of it being amended. The policy should be communicated to all relevant staff (i.e., those people who are likely to be involved in setting up the collaboration or will play an active part in its management or execution) prior to their engaging with prospective academic partners. Deviations from the policy, where the particular exigencies of a specific collaboration require it, should be reviewed with senior management for prior approval. The procedures for handling policy deviations should also be communicated with relevant staff.

Proposal development and review

product or service specification. It is intended to understand what has to be created, what has to be solved, or what has to be researched and to provoke questioning and negotiation. The intent of this document is to avoid some of the more commonly reported pitfalls of industry-university collaborations by discovering and addressing disconnects in understanding between the parties earlier in the process. Hence, this document is much more than a simple statement of work. Rather, it is designed to identify early on, issues that could derail or seriously affect the collaboration and ultimately result in financial costs, damaged relationships, or other negative impacts. The research project proposal document is likely to contain detailed information about the issue that has motivated the industrial partner to consider collaboration with academia. The issue could be due to a new market opportunity the company has identified or it could be due to a weakness, for instance, lack of functionality, lack of flexibility, or a similar deficiency in a current product offering. Therefore it will likely require a potential academic collaborator to sign a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) prior to negotiations commencing. The topics to be covered should include:

The second stage of the model is to develop and then review with prospective university partners a research project collaboration proposal document, which partially maps to CMMIsm GP 2.2. The research proposal document, unlike the collaboration policy, is project specific and should be drawn up by the industry champion who will be responsible for managing the research project. The purpose of this document is to set expectations for the industry-university research project; clearly stating the requirements from the collaboration prior to drawing up any contracts or specific plans. The research project proposal document can be thought of as being analogous to an industry

• Describing the problem or the opportunity to be researched and the background to it • Assessing what will be required from the research team to address the issues • Identifying specific IPR, royalty, or licensing considerations • Describing the possible scenarios for how the collaboration could work: All researchers on one site, physically separated teams, academic representatives at the industry partners’ site, or industry representatives working on the university campus • Clarifying if this is a “true” research opportunity, or consultancy masquerading as research


• Communicating the urgency of the problem and the impact that it is likely to have on the research timeframe or other parameters • Describing the criticality of the problem to the business and the implications this may have for the research validation timeframes • The extent (or the spread) of the problem within the organisation and the implications for the number of industry participants required • Assessing the size/magnitude of the problem or opportunity and any implications for the research team size • Identifying the degree of domain knowledge that will be required to deal with the issue effectively • Identifying the critical success factors by which the results of the collaboration shall be measured • Describing the research environment. Is it available, suitable, and sustainable • Any applicable standards to be followed • Identifying the types of funding available. In its broadest sense this can include financing, facilities, staff, and equipment. • The expected outcomes from the collaboration, including the possibility of ambiguous or indeterminate results • Rough budgetary estimates for the total cost of the research • Likely publication outputs and the approval/ release mechanism • How much time the researchers can be expected to commit to the research • Identifying issues concerning the indemnification of the university • The amount and type of support that will be required from the university partners when transitioning the research into practice The previous list serves to illustrate some of the expectations, constraints, and potential risks

of the collaboration so that both sides can make informed and timely decisions whether to proceed with the engagement or not. The research project proposal should not be a big, unwieldy document, nor is it necessary for all of the items on the previous list to be included in it. What actually gets included in the research project proposal document must be considered in light of the specific needs of the engagement including the degree of collaboration, the scope of the research, and experiences from prior engagements. In other words the document should be tailored: customised to fit the needs of the research collaboration and then used as the basis for performing further tailoring of the subsequent steps in the model. Of course there is the possibility that an organisation may want to engage with multiple academic partners to deal with different facets of an engagement, or may want to engage with a combination of academic and other industry partners. With these added complexities the research proposal document would be an invaluable way of identifying the majority of constraints and the various interdependencies that are likely to impact the project. At this point it is also important to think beyond the research period and discuss implementation issues. Discussing implementation early on can address items such as likely adoption costs or impacts, the roles involved in adopting the research outcomes, the implementation strategy, and implementation risks (Börjesson & Mathiassen, 2004). Having gone through the proposal review stage the potential partners now have to decide whether to proceed or not. If the decision is to proceed with the collaboration and draw up the necessary contractual documents, then the outcomes from this stage should mitigate against protracted contract negotiations. If the decision by either party is not to proceed then relatively little time or money will have been spent, and in fact a great deal more may have been saved.


The outcomes from these discussions will result in better understanding of the totality of the costs, effort, time, and so forth in making the research commercially useful and with the decision to proceed, will form the basis for an implementation plan.

Plan the research engagement The third stage of the model focuses on planning the research project engagement. This completes the mapping to CMMIsm GP 2.2 and also addresses the mapping to CMMIsm GP 2.3. The purpose at this stage of the management model is to establish reasonable and comprehensive plans for performing and controlling both the technical and nontechnical aspects of the research project collaboration. The research project engagement plan will essentially mark out the future course of actions to be followed for the engagement, and as industry partners have criticised university researchers for their lack of project management focus and expertise, this is an area where industry needs to take the lead (Hurmelinna, 2004; Martin, 2000; University of Melbourne, 2003) and plan for the collaboration. But the planning activity must involve the academic leads as major stakeholders and therefore as an integral part of the planning team. The engagement activities should be overseen by a governance council, which is composed of senior managers drawn from both parties. In anticipation of project collaboration with academia, the industry partners should consider developing a template for planning the collaboration, prior to the actual engagement taking place. The template is essentially a “skeleton” document for the research project engagement plan and consists of the major headings that need to be covered during the planning stage. It will identify key factors such as estimates, risks, roles, and so forth for which plans must be made. The template will provide a focus for the planning activity. It will set out, in advance, the topics that need to

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be addressed and enable the entire planning team to appreciate the overall scope of the project and the consequent need for planning. Hence, if the research proposal was the “what” document, then the research project engagement plan is the “how” document. The plan needs to state the work that has to be performed in order to meet the research objectives discussed during the proposal review stage and should consider the following: •

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The goals and objectives of the research: This may be thought of as a general statement of the work to be performed by the research. The goals and objectives would have emanated from the proposal review discussions. Specific research requirements to be addressed: This is a much more detailed breakdown of what is to be researched. The requirements are kept consistent with the aforementioned goals and objectives, but they identify at a lower level of granularity exactly what is needed. The research approach that shall be followed and the steps involved: This describes how the overall research project will be conducted, the scope of the project, and the research environment. The research methodologies to be employed: Describing the specific research methodologies that shall be employed by the project (e.g., experiments, surveys, case studies, action research, etc.). The data collection methods to be used: This describes the type of data to be collected, how it will be collected, and how it will be validated. The collaboration roles and responsibilities: This is describing the roles of those who are involved in the project and covers both the technical and nontechnical participants. It is also describing their responsibilities and what their expected deliverables will be.


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The interdependencies between the academic and industry partners: These interdependencies can be artefacts (for example, documents, data, records, software, etc.), project control signals (for instance, management approvals, review board recommendations, etc.), or it could be the availability of key personnel between the two parties. The overall research schedule: The schedule may be developed as a separate artefact and referenced from the research project engagement plan. It could utilise a commercially available software package, if the scope of the engagement warrants it. Alternatively it may be a simple Gantt chart described using a spreadsheet. Keeping the research schedule as a separate artefact would enable it to be updated frequently without having to generate new versions of the overall plan each time. The program status measurements: This information will describe how the industryuniversity partners shall measure actual research outcomes (i.e., product) vis-à-vis the schedule. The cost estimates: These need to cover all aspects of costs associated with the research including those associated with people, overheads, and equipment. Facilities, equipment and other resource estimates: This describes the research needs in terms of a physical location and environment (office space, laboratories, etc.). The reporting and verification milestones: This states when progress shall be reviewed and by whom. Note there may be multiple levels of reviews, for instance, technical level, program level, and management level. Some reviews may be regularly scheduled while others may be triggered by an event. Risk analysis: This is to identify and man-

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age risks over the lifetime of the research. This part of the plan should also address contingency planning should risks to the research project be realised. The communication channels and management approval requirements: These will have been agreed previously and are now explicitly stated as part of the plan. The training schedule:This is identifying any training needs for the collaboration and when and how those training needs will be met. Interim research deliverables or product configurations Required validations or presentations: To other third parties not directly involved with the research, for example, the industry partners’ customers, government sponsors, university auditors, and so forth The prevention measures: Will be taken to ensure security and data preservation, including disaster recovery

This is not intended to be an exhaustive list, nor is it suggested that every item in the previous list be included in a research project engagement plan. It is important to recall that the prevailing culture in universities is one of academic freedom and longer time spans between project initiation and final results (Hurmellina, 2004). Consequently, this would suggest that while industry partners will want to exercise a degree of rigour over the collaboration through good planning, they must be careful not to overly constrain their academic partners, so, above all, common sense must prevail in the creation of the plan. The plan may be produced subsequent to contract negotiations or in parallel with such negotiations in the interests of accelerating the engagement. Naturally the research project engagement plan, and subsequent changes to it, must be reviewed and approved by both parties before work commences. It is to be expected that


the plan will evolve as the engagement proceeds and as more information becomes available. The outcome from this stage will be a workable plan that both industry and academia are happy to subscribe to. It is an essential document that, if prepared carefully and in collaboration with the academic partners, will positively benefit the research collaboration.

Allocate roles The fourth stage in the model is to allocate roles for the collaboration. This stage maps to CMMIsm GP 2.4, and its purpose is to ensure that the people who are assigned to specific roles in the collaboration are accountable for those roles and understand what they are expected to deliver. So having made the plans in the previous phase, we are now going to assign staff to the collaboration and get the project underway. The following roles are not mandatory. The number of roles actually created is going to depend on the scope and content of the research project. The roles that will play an active part in the collaboration may include the following: • The project manager or champion who has responsibility for overall management of the research project collaboration—this person will have already been appointed before planning the engagement and will have participated at the earlier proposal review stage. This is considered a crucial role and key success factor (Cripps et al., 1999) • The funding manager, if different from the project manager • The key academic contact who was already identified and has been involved during the proposal review and planning stages shall continue to work closely with the project manager • The academic researcher(s) who are charged with performing the research

• The industrial (technical) contacts for the academic researchers. These are people who can provide support or technical information the academic researchers may require throughout the course of the project • Liaison personnel who will be responsible for managing the technology transfer • A joint governance council made up of senior representatives of both parties who shall oversee the research and will have already been involved at the proposal review stage • Those who are likely to be involved in receiving the research outcomes and transitioning them into the industrial partner’s products or processes The outcome from this stage is a fully staffed research project which barring any outstanding training issues is ready to start. As a precaution it is worth reconfirming that the participants agree with their roles and understand what is required of them.

Provide training Stage 5 in the model is to provide training and orientation, which maps to CMMIsm GP 2.5. At Stage 3 the training needs were identified and scheduled. Now we need to ensure the training has actually been provided and taken and that any outstanding training is scheduled to take place well in advance to it’s actually being needed on the project. This is training in its broadest sense. It not only ensures that the researchers have the necessary technical skills and expertise on products or domains to effectively conduct the research, but that all those people who have an active part to play in the research collaboration, whether from industry or academia, are trained on the conduct of the research collaboration. Consequently, the training which should be bi-directional may include:


• Technical skills training • Product and domain training • Orientation on how the project will be managed • Making the team aware of the mechanisms and the schedule for reporting progress • How the senior academic and management sponsors will gain oversight of the research collaboration • The planned progress reviews and technical reviews • The planned schedules and milestones • Planned configurations and how they will be managed, if applicable • Orientation on the development environment including steps for security and disaster recovery • How the collaboration will be validated • Commercial implementation and adoption The methods for providing training are many and varied including formal presentations, mentoring, demonstrations, self-study, walk-throughs, and computer-based training. It could be the case that no specific training, apart from orientation on the purpose of the collaboration, is thought to be necessary. If such is the case then the industry partners should satisfy themselves that they are happy with the experience levels of the academic partners before waiving any training requirements.

Monitor and control research Project collaboration This is the sixth stage in the model and it embodies the elements of CMMIsm GP 2.6 (manage configurations), 2.7 (identify and involve relevant stakeholders), 2.8 (monitor and control the process), and partially 2.9 (objectively evaluate adherence), and 2.10 (review status with higher level management). At this stage it is envisaged that the actual research will start. The expectations for the research

project are clearly understood and prepared for; research planning is completed, and the plans are approved; those involved in the research understand their roles and responsibilities, and the appropriate training and orientation has been provided. Separately, and only if applicable, any remaining legal/contractual issues will have been addressed and approved. The research can now proceed to the direct day-to-day monitoring and control of the project. The single most important artefact at this stage is the research project engagement plan, and the research collaboration is now managed according to the plan. It should be expected that the plan will continue to evolve and will be reviewed. The attributes of the plan: schedule, milestones, goals, costs, estimates, risks, and so forth are monitored and appropriate actions are taken when: • Significant deviations from the plan take place or are forecast to take place • When milestones or deadlines are missed or are forecast to be missed • When deliverables fail to materialise or are forecast to be late • Risks look like becoming issues The research project manager will also ensure that planned communications take place, and regular (e.g., weekly) e-mails to stakeholders are issued or a Web site is available where updates on progress with the collaboration are posted. An executive summary report may also be produced for higher level management. The research project manager should also ensure that progress and technical meetings to review accomplishments, happen as scheduled, with the attendance of the relevant stakeholders. Where applicable, the research project manager should also ensure that the integrity of the research products (code, documentation, etc.), and how they are controlled over the lifetime of the collaboration is maintained. This is especially true for situations where there are multiple asyn-


chronous deliverables from the research, which interface with each other and ultimately contribute to produce some end product. It may be useful at some particular points in the collaboration to get an independent validation of the research being performed. This must be done by a skilled practitioner or an academic representative who is independent of the research project. The purpose here is to get an objective assessment of the adherence with the research process and validation of any findings that are produced. It would provide credible assurance, especially for senior management, that the research is being conducted as planned and is yielding results. This phase of the model will continue throughout the lifetime of the research engagement and measurements of the status of the research project should also be collected and maintained.

review research outcomes The final stage in the model is to review the research outcomes and this stage covers the outstanding aspects of CMMIsm GP 2.9 and 2.10. Reviewing the outcomes of the research will, to a degree, have been carried out during the lifetime of the research project both periodically (e.g., monthly reviews) and on an event-driven basis, as research outcomes become available (e.g., at milestones). However, the review of the final research outcomes is where the team can assess the success of the collaboration, and if it actually achieved its goals and objectives. It is important to note that even though the research may have been judged a success the team now needs to review and, if necessary, update the research adoption plans that were developed early on and evolved over the research period. Adopting the outcomes of software research is arguably more complex than for other types of product research. This is mostly because software by its very nature is complex and has, as Brooks (1987) described “essential difficulties”:—it is complex, it needs to conform to other system elements, it

is subject to frequent change, and it is not only invisible but “unvisualisable.” The adoption of the research may or may not require the direct involvement of the university partners, or may require their participation in an advisory capacity. These and other considerations for adoption costs, resources, and so forth will have been planned and refined over the course of the research. It is also an opportunity for both academics and their industry partners to look back over the research project and to discuss, from a process perspective, what worked well what should consequently be carried forward into future collaborations, and what could have worked better and therefore will be done differently in future collaborations. These observations need to be recorded and used in future planning activities. The research results should also be presented to the joint governance council. As the industry and academic sponsors they have a major stake in reviewing the results, since funding for future collaborations will largely depend on their recommendations. Hence, identifying future joint research opportunities is another consideration for this phase.

tAIlorIng the Process One criticism that could be laid against the proposed management model is that “the map could be as large as the territory.” In other words just taking the model “as is” and applying it to any university-industry collaboration, without considering specific characteristics of the engagement, could lead to an enormous amount of unnecessary management activity, vis-à-vis the actual amount of research work being carried out. This would be totally unacceptable for many different reasons: it would delay the research, inject a layer of no-value-added bureaucracy, frustrate the researchers, increase overall costs, and most likely result in the whole collaboration dying of inertia. This must not be the case. Hence, there


is an absolute to tailor the model to fit the actual needs of the research. During the proposal review stage the team should consider each subsequent phase, assessing the activities and project artefacts that will actually be needed. These must be customised to match the needs of the research, thereby only performing activities or creating artefacts that are going to add value or will prove useful. This means that while retaining the structure and the approach that this model proposes, the actual implementation of it needs to be customised to suit the specific needs of the particular research opportunity that has brought the parties together. Hence the degree of control to be exercised over a long-term, critical research project, involving many people, and huge investment, will be much greater than a short-term research opportunity, involving a small team, and a small amount of investment. But the underlying structure of the management model will still apply.

conclusIon

Many software organisations use “devices” such as the CMMsm and CMMIsm models (SEI, 1993, 2002) to provide, among other things, good management of software projects. So, the argument advanced in this chapter is that software organisations could consider some of the principles espoused by these models, to provide good management of university-industry collaborations in information systems. The chapter proceeded to describe the basic structure of the CMMIsm model, before concentrating on describing the GPs (activities) associated with GG 2. It is through this goal that an organisation will seek to implement a “managed process.” Thus, with the background described, the chapter proceeded to propose a 7-stage model that could be used to control industry-university research projects. A mapping from the various stages in the management model to the GPs was also provided. Beginning with the establishment of a collaboration policy for the organisation as the first stage, each stage in the management model was then described in detail:

This chapter began with a literature review; considering why industry and universities want to collaborate on research projects. It examined the motivations of each party, and the considerations that their prospective partners needed to be aware of, if the collaboration was to be a success. The benefits accruing from successful university-industry collaborations were identified, but so too were some of the major barriers that could doom a joint research project, unless the engagement was well managed. This posed the question; how do organisations and their academic partners manage research collaborations? It seems the “why” questions (why university and industry should work together) are more documented than the “how” questions (how university and industry can come up with organisational devices to make the relationships workable) (CERI/OECD, 2001).

• At the proposal review stage the model stresses the need to describe what is required of the research project collaboration and to identify early in the engagement process those issues that could potentially de-rail the research project. A selection of topics that could be considered during this stage was provided, with a caution that the contents of the research proposal document should be tailored to match the needs of the engagement. • Planning the engagement was the third stage in the management model. The planning stage focuses on how the research collaboration is to be realised. So this section is very much focussed on the contents of the research project engagement plan, again with the caution that the contents of the


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plan must be tailored to match and serve the actual needs of the research project. The fourth stage of the model covers role allocation. So while the plan describes how the research collaboration will be done, this stage identifies the roles to be filled and who will fill them. Providing training is the fifth stage of the model, and it seeks to ensure that all of those who have a role to play in the research project are adequately trained to do so. Stage 6 is concerned with the monitoring and controlling of the research over the lifetime of the engagement. It is focussed on managing the collaboration in accordance with the plan. It also seeks to ensure that the integrity of outcomes from the research is maintained and that progress with the collaboration is reported. At stage 7 the outcomes from the research collaboration are reviewed, adoption plans are refined, and the lessons learned are recorded with a view to improving the process. Reviewing opportunities for future research project collaborations conclude stage 7, and the engagement.

The penultimate section in the chapter again stressed the absolute need to tailor the process to fit the specific needs of the engagement. Failure to tailor the process could easily result in overloading the engagement with non-value-added activities, plus creating and maintaining artefacts which serve no useful purpose. What has been advanced in this chapter is the exploration of a model for guiding the planning and management of industry-university research project collaborations. The overriding consideration for this model to be applied successfully is that it must balance the need to exercise control over research engagements without stifling creativity or overly constraining the researchers.

reFerences Alam, M. S., Jayakumar, R., & Balakrishnan, D. (2003, April). Management of University Industry Science Partnership (UNISPAR): A Case Study of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Allen, M., Dayne Aldredge, M., & Burkhalter, B. (1989). The evolution of university and industry research relationships. Engineering Education, April-May/June. Amabile, T., Patterson, C., Mueller, J., Wojcik, T., Odomorik, P., Marsh, M., et al. (2001). Academic-practitioner collaboration in management research: A case of cross-profession collaboration. The Academy of Management Journal, 44(2). Beckman, K., Khajenoori, S., Coulter, N., & Mead, N. (1997). Collaborations: Closing the industryacademia gap. IEEE Software. Börjesson, A., & Mathiassen, L. (2004). Successful process implementation. IEEE Software. Brannock, J., & Denny, A. (1998). Basic guidelines for university-industry research relationships. Society of Research Administrators (SRA) Journal. Brooks, F. (1986). No silver bullet—Essence and accidents of software engineering. In H.-J. Kugler (Ed.), Information Processing ’86. Burnham, J. (1997). Evaluating industry-university research linkages. Research Technology Management, 40(1). Centre of Educational Research and Innovation at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (CERI/OECD) (2001). Managing university/industry relationships: The role of knowledge management. Issue Paper for the OECD/Japanese High-level Forum, GakujutsuSougou Centre, Tokyo.


Cripps, D., Yencken, J., Coghlan, J., Anderson, D., & Spiller, M. (1999). University research: Technology transfer and commercialisation practices (Commissioned Report No. 60). Canberra: Australian Research Council. Cyert, R. M., & Goodman, P. S. (1997). Creating effective industry-university alliances: An organizational learning perspective. Organizational Dynamics, 25(4). David, P. A. (2001, July). From keeping “nature’s secrets” to the institutionalization of “open science.” Discussion Papers in Economics and Social History (No. 23). UK: University of Oxford. Fassin, Y. (2000). The strategic role of universityindustry liaison offices. The Journal of Research Administration, 1(2). Gomes, J. F. S., Hurmelinna, P., Amaral, V., & Blomqvist, K. (2005). Managing the relationships of the republic of science and the kingdom of industry. The Journal of Workplace Learning, 17(1/2), 88-98. Hall, B. H., Link, A. N., & Scott, J. T. (2001). Barriers inhibiting industry from partnering with universities: Evidence from the advanced technology program. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 26(1-2), 87-98. Hasselmo, N., & McKinnell, H. (2001). Working together, creating knowledge. The UniversityIndustry Research Collaboration Initiative Task Force. Business-Higher Education Forum. Howells, J., Nedeva, M., & Georghiou, L. (1998, December). Industry-academic links in the UK. Report sponsored by the Higher Education Funding Councils for England, Wales and Scotland and conducted by PREST (Policy Research in Engineering, Science & Technology). (Ref. HEFCE 98/70). UK: University of Manchester. Hurmelinna, P. (2004). Motivations and barriers related to university-industry collaboration—Ap-

propriability and the principle of publicity. Seminar on Innovation, University of California Berkley, Haas School of Business. Katz, R. N., Ferrara, E. M., & Napier, I. S. (2002). Partnerships in distributed education. Distributed education: Challenges, choices, and a new environment. Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education & EDUCAUSE. Kock, N., Auspitz, C., & King, B. (2000). Using the Web to enable industry-university collaboration: An action research study of a course partnership. Informing Science, 3(3). Lee, A. (2000). The social and political context of doing relevant research. MIS Quarterly, 24(3), 5-7. Martin, M. (2000). Managing industry-university relations: A study of institutional practices from 12 different countries. (Working document in the series Improving the managerial effectiveness of higher educational institutions). Paris: International Institute for Educational Planning—UNESCO. Mead, N., Unpingco, P., Beckman, K., Walker, H., Parish, C., & O’Mary, G. (2000, March). Industry/ university collaborations. Software Technology Support Centre (STSC)—Crosstalk. Nissani, M. (1997). Ten cheers for interdisciplinarity: The case for interdisciplinary knowledge and research. Social Science Journal, 34. Pavitt, K. (1998). The social shaping of the national science base. Research Policy Journal, 27(8). Pollitt, D., & Mellors, C. (1993). Making knowledge work: Through closer ties between town and gown. European Business Review, 93(4). Powers, D. R., Powers, M. F., Betz, F., & Aslanian, C. B. (1988). Higher education in partnerships with industry: Opportunities for training, research and economic development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.


Robey, D., & Markus, M. (1998). Beyond rigor and relevance: Producing consumable research about information systems. Information Resources Management Journal, 11(1). Senn, J. (1998). The challenge of relating IS research to practice. Information Resources Management Journal, 11(1). Siegel, D., Waldman, D., & Link, A. N. (2003). Assessing the impact of organizational practices on the productivity of university technology transfer offices: An exploratory study. Research Policy, 32(1), 27-48. Software Engineering Institute (SEI). (1993). Capability Maturity Model (CMMSM) (Version 1.1) [Computer Software]. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Mellon University. Software Engineering Institute (SEI). (2002). Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMISM) (Version 1.1) [Computer Software]. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Mellon University.

private sponsorship. Faculty handbook: Collaborations with industry. Irvine, CA: Author. University of Melbourne. (2003). Report: Research collaboration between industry & universities. Australia: University of Melbourne, Faculty of Science, Industry Advisory Group. Van Dierdonck, R., & Debackere, K. (1988). Academic entrepreneurship at Belgian universities. R&D Management, 18(4). Zmud, R. (1998, December 10-13). Conducting and publishing practice-driven research. Keynote Address, IFIP Working groups 8.2 and 8.6, Joint Working Conference on Information Systems: Current Issues and Future Changes, Helsinki, Finland.

endnote 1

Susman, G., & Evered, R. (1978). An assessment of the scientific merits of action research. Administrative Science Quarterly, (23). University of California (Irvine). (2005). Industry research sponsorship—The characteristics of

CMM and capability maturity model are registered in the US Patent and Trademark Office by Carnegie Mellon University. CMMI and CMM Integration are services marks of Carnegie Mellon University.

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Chapter XIV

Ethics for the Graduating Class: Issues, Needs, and Approaches Theresa M. Vitolo Gannon University Barry J. Brinkman Gannon University

Abstract Teaching ethics is not about teaching right versus wrong, but is about teaching informed discernment, conscientious decision making, and balanced living. So should teaching these behaviors be the domain of higher education? For many years and in many institutions—even today—the teaching of ethics has not been embraced as part of the charge of higher education. However, as society has had to assimilate technology and as it has had to face the repercussions of unethical and illegal behaviors, one questions the ethical training of the professionals making the decisions. Since these professionals are the products of higher education, many institutions and accreditation boards are requiring their students to have exposure to ethical philosophy.Students in the technical fields may not benefit from a purely philosophical presentation of ethics. In fact, introducing the ethical dilemmas associated with real-life decisions about technology can be very formative and revealing to the student. While institutions have always been teaching students how to debug technology problems, institutions also need to teach students how to debug ethical decisions—to become aware that ethical decisions are also technology problems to be analyzed, understood, and appropriately resolved.Challenges to the goal of presenting ethical decisions as technical dilemmas arise from a variety of factors, however. The students and professors may be from different generations, from different cultural backgrounds, and from different professional experiences—and simply are of different points in personal development. Teaching ethics needs to identify these differences and develop the common ground for a shared, ethical perspective enabling a healthy stance for the profession. The arena facing the teaching of ethics in the technical professions and approaches to utilize are identified and described. The on-going challenges limiting the effort are explained. Altogether, a composite of the ethical dimension of graduating college students in the information systems and information technology (IS&T) fields is developed. Copyright © 2008, IGI Global, distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Ethics for the Graduating Class

IntroductIon Teaching ethics at the university level to technology majors poses several challenges. Teaching ethics is not about teaching right versus wrong, but is about teaching informed discernment, conscientious decision making, and balanced living. The challenges to achieving these teaching goals range from delineating relevant and significant content to setting a classroom tone allowing debate and openness. Coupled with these challenges, which are typical for the structuring of any course, are the difficulties in promoting buy-in to the concept and objectives to teaching ethics. The course dynamic can become confounded if students are not sympathetic to the goal of teaching ethics. The range of perspectives from students can be, “I am paying for an education about technology—I do not want to pay for soft stuff like ethics” to “I was raised with ethical discernment and am ethical—I do not need this component from an outside source” to “I will not encounter situations requiring ethical resolution; I will be working with systems.” Along with the class structure challenges are the difficulties in identifying faculty to conduct the classes. Too often, faculty express the concern, “I am not qualified to teach ethics,” which may mean anything from, “I am not comfortable with confrontation” to “I do not see why one bothers teaching ethics” to “I am a technology guru not a philosopher.” Regardless whether the faculty feel comfortable with the subject matter, and regardless of whether the students accept the concept of the course, the teaching of ethics in technology curriculums is becoming more prevalent. Accreditation boards and model curriculum designs prescribe ethics instruction. Industrial advisory boards to technical departments are expecting their hires to have exposure to ethics. The public questions the lack of ethical responses by professionals to episodes as revealed by the media. With such broad impetus for including the teaching of

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ethics in curriculums, the question becomes not whether to include the course, but rather how to address adequately the topic.

Issues surroundIng the teAchIng oF ethIcs The first students of the 21st century are from the demographic group termed, generation Y, born from 1980-2000. They are reaching higher education and the workforce during the span of years, 1998-2018. Generation Yers express the best of the past: confident attitudes like Veterans (1922-1942), teamwork and interpersonal skills like baby boomers (1946-1960), and technology know-how like generation Xers (1961-1979). They are a secure, competent, and educated population that once again embraces reading. (see Strauss & Howe, 1991, for the hallmark formulation of the generations relative to the population of the United States.) A generation defines a shared cohort experience by tying a set of experiences to a time period, “Because cohort experiences have such a profound impact on generational norms, it seems reasonable that learning styles and preferences as well as other perceptions and values, are affected” (Coates, 2003, p. 13). Cohorts share a cultural consciousness that tempers their expectations and beliefs. Against this consciousness, other factors such as family patterns or individual temperaments are enmeshed. Without forced isolation and purposeful extraction, an individual shares a commonality of experience with strangers. The sharing bonds the strangers into a group, a cohort. These multiple sets of the population do not necessarily share the same perspective on ethics—possibly not even seeing situations as being in the realm of ethical dilemmas. Disparity and disagreement about the recognition, recourses, and ramifications of decisions surrounding ethical points exists. Since the generations span the mem-


bers of a society, the perspectives and expectations of the members of a society are in counterpoint to each other. This variety of perspectives is the backdrop for defining a university-level course in ethics in a technical curriculum.

Milieu of the student Generation Yers (net generation, n-generation, echo boomers, or millennials) are products of the ubiquity of digital technology. Although the most diverse generation in U.S. history, they are united in their shared competency, ease, and acceptance of digital environments. Often the product of latestage baby boomers, they are better educated, more individualistic, and more secure than generations before. Their parents viewed having children as a form of achievement and would invest time, energy, and talent into those children, providing them with digital conveniences as expressions of the achievement of the parents’ society. That said, for one-third of this population, they grew up in single-parent families headed by women, aging in the teens to middle age. This aspect also lends to the intense individualistic and confident nature of the group. They grew up in households where they were wanted and were accepted (Tapscott, 1998). Generation Yers place a high value on choice, informality, and personal expression. They are realists identifying that enabling their choices and personal expressions require being monetarily secure. To this end, they embrace education and learning as a way to reduce their stress about their wealth and to increase their ultimate marketability. They will define how to achieve this security and not be lulled along conformist lines. They are more accepting of difference not because it is mandated, but because they value personal expression. Hence, they are more tolerant of races, religions, and sexual preferences. Along each of these cultural elements, they accept a person’s right to explore, to experience, and to choose.

needs statement of society and of students Generation Yers have parents and guardians from the other generations, are taught by individuals from the other generations, and join the other generations in the workforce. The mix of generations needs to share their various perspectives and reach an understanding of the other segments’ views in order to adequately address developing situations. While this is a difficult effort, the current business arenas require diligence to the endeavor (Lancaster, 2002; Longenecker, McKinney, & Moore, 1989). While the general demographic surrounding generation Yers casts a positive image, inequities are present in the United States. The “digital divide,” the gap between those who have access to computing and Internet capabilities and those who do not have access, separates populations in terms of information availability, knowledge access, and subsequent political and economic benefits stemming from being a well-informed and participating member of a society (Compaine, 2001; Tavani, 2004). The digital divide is typically cast as an issue within the current young generation being educated. The disparities of the divide among those youths have the potential to cascade into increasing economic disparities as the generation matures. Moving beyond the U.S. borders, the digital divide can also be seen globally as different countries possess different ranges of computing and Internet competencies, awareness, and acceptance. As corporations and national economies transcend borders to be global enterprises, the global presence of computing inequities has the potential for restricting certain countries’ economic progress. Future citizens of the global economic society will need to understand how economic disparities have drivers and consequences—economic and political—that will affect their lives.

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Further, corporations need their employees to be aware of ethical diversity and the underlying cultural nuances driving the different perspectives (Mendes & Clark, 1996). As companies expand their enterprises, their awareness of ethical concerns relevant to their scope and goals changes. As the companies become more global, their employees will need to demonstrate ethical savvy in order to adequately resolve situations and to interact competently in global arenas. Essentially, companies exhibit a staged progression of ethical capability as their global presence changes, and their employees will need to exhibit similar maturity about ethical issues. Not only do corporations need their employees to express ethical savvy but also do societies expect their professionals to operate ethically. The notion of professionalism has a history in the work ethos of America (Sullivan, 1995). Inherent in the notion is a trust relationship between the society and the profession. Societies expect members of a profession to be able to weigh the nuances of situations on all dimensions, technically and ethically. Emulating other social contracts such as the one between citizens, laws, and police forces, societies grant respect and confer decision-making authority to individuals of professions whenever questions arise relevant to the domain of the profession. In exchange, societies expect professionals to provide expertise to the questions (see Rest, 1986; Rest & Narváez, 1994 for how the notion of professionalism transcends into morality aspects because of these underlying nature of the contract). The basis for the contract is trust. The trust defines an obligation on the members of the profession to educate future members about the expectations, to educate them regarding the difficult issues requiring expert understanding, and to educate them concerning the profession’s normative perspective about the issues and decisions. So not only does a society expect the current members of a profession to honor the contract, but it also expects the profession to perpetuate

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the contract and its understanding to subsequent generations of the profession. Since the up-coming members to professions are generation Yers, much hope resides in the possibility of the contract being easily embraced and executed. Generation Yers seem more “traditional”—almost akin to Veterans (1922-1942)—in expressing respect, manners, and politeness. The rationale driving these behaviors is not based on an authority figure dictating or overseeing the behavior. Rather, individuals of generation Y express these behaviors because they see good interaction skills as a valid response for “getting along.” In other words, as a group they express a high level of emotional intelligence. With this bias to their behavior, generation Yers may be very willing to embrace and to participate in the social contract of professionalism as defined by the current status quo of the profession. Their societies expect the professional to have competency, breadth of exposure, and depth of understanding on topics germane to their profession. Their societies are expecting professionalism from leaders and all participants of organizations building the future of these societies (Lloyd & Kidder, 1997).

content of an ethics course Leading the drive to incorporate ethics into technical curriculums are the various model curriculums advocated by professional organizations (for example, Cohen, 2000; Gorgone, et al., 2002). In examinations of desirable content to technical curriculums sought by industry, both students and employers identify ethics as a highly valued, nontechnical topic to be included in curriculums. The third element to this drive is realized by accreditation organizations. The inclusion of ethics is a standard by which the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Computing Accreditation Commission (ABET/CAC) evaluates a computing curriculum as being worthy of receiving accreditation status: Section IV


Curriculum, Additional Areas of Study: “IV-17. There must be sufficient coverage of social and ethical implications of computing to give students an understanding of a broad range of issues in this area” (ABET/CAC, p. 4). Cyber-technical curriculums are behind other technical curriculums such as medicine, teaching, nursing, and psychology in emphasizing ethical deliberation as an aspect of professional growth (Rest & Narváez, 1994). Consequently, many technical-based professors have reservations regarding the teaching of ethics. Yet, providing the content of an ethics course in a technology curriculum need not require a philosophy degree. In fact, the analytical skills of a technology-based faculty member are invaluable tools for separating out the facts, fallacies, and fiction in an ethical case. Currently, many texts are available which address the nuances of technological ethical dilemmas see Baase, 2003; Spinello, 2003a, 2003b; or Tavani, 2004 for typical texts in the domain. These texts present the basic concepts of descriptive and normative ethics as well as introducing professional codes of ethical behavior and case studies of actual and fictional ethical scenarios. The introduction to descriptive ethics gives students familiarity with the range of philosophical perspectives accompanying the description of behavior. Understanding descriptive ethics gives students the awareness that they can analyze, catalogue, and compare behaviors to other responses and circumstances. Students operating from an absolutist’s perspective gain the understanding of relativism; students operating from a relativistic perspective can model reasoning from an ethically and morally absolute stance. The goal to presenting descriptive ethics is to show the variety of dimensions used when describing behavior. Describing behavior removes any judgmental or evaluative aspects. Hence, the classroom dynamic can begin in a problem-solving mode, encouraging open and candid dialog. By including both descriptive and normative ethics, students can appreciate the cause-and-ef-

fect nature of decision making. Many have understood and embraced this concept on a personal basis; now they also see it as a reasoning construct embraced by their professions. Normative ethics adds to the content with the introduction of professional codes of ethics. Multiple codes of ethics are available to technology majors, stemming from different professional domains. By reviewing the different codes, the students begin to see the commonality expressed among them. In this manner, examination of behavior can begin to move from a historical review—a reporting of behavior’s motivations by description—into a prescriptive view to guide decision making. The key phrase here is “guide.” Just as behavior could be described emphasizing a variety of dimensions, so can expectations of future events govern the elicitation of behavior. Descriptive ethics allows the students to understand how different choices can lead to different ultimate outcomes. With normative ethics, the inverse perspective is achieved. Students can appreciate the role of their choice in the situation with their choice leading to different future states. Many of the students are familiar with the traditional areas of deviant and criminal behavior associated with computer systems such as hacking, software piracy, and digital fraud. The previously defined illegality of these behaviors removes any ambiguity for the students. The content of cyber-ethics needs to extend into the areas of information ethics such as information acquisition, information access, and information stewardship (Spinello, 2003a). Many technical majors are less aware of the possible abuses that are possible, conducted, and legal with situations involving information ethics. Freeman and Peace (2005b) discussed the areas of privacy, accuracy, property, and accessibility to be significant now and related the areas of Mason’s (1986) writing, which had identified the same areas as being significant for the information age. The inclusion of both computer and information ethics into the content of cyber-ethics incorporates all

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systems-and-technology based ethical situations into the content of the course.

lAPses In ethIcAl AnAlYtIcAl AbIlItY Students exhibit lapses when applying ethical analysis. This behavior has its roots in three areas: (1) an inadequate recognition of ownership and privacy rights, (2) a resistance to employing technology controls and codes for regulating behavior—coupled with a general passivity for any self-regulating behavior, and (3) a previously enacted decision-process involving ethical situations. First, students exhibit lapses in applying ethical analysis when the problem scenario involves ownership and privacy. Cassidy, Chae, and Courtney (2005) examine this inability from a market, production, and consumption perspective. Crowell, Narváez, and Gombery (2005) address the lapse as a flaw in the individual’s perception of defining the psychological distance from the owner. In personal discussions, students do not exhibit a clear operational definition of ownership. For instance, the phenomenon of software piracy is not a new one; it has been observed, is well-documented, is global, and is resilient (Siegfried, 2004; Stylianou, Winter, & Giacalone, 2004). Further, in self-reports, the current students reveal they first began pirating software in early adolescence, between the ages of 11-13. Ang and Lo (n.d.) probed the relationship between the attitude about software piracy and age, gender, computer ownership, study area of concentration, and history of software copying to the attitude. They conclude: “...male students and those who have experience in illegal copying are most likely to allow illegal software copying irrespective of whether it is for gaining a favour [sic], repaying a debt, perceived as an altruistic act, or will result in some negative consequence...” and that students

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in technical majors tend to be more tolerant of the behavior. This lack in understanding ownership as a concept is also revealed in their lack of appreciating intellectual property issues. Academics often wrestle with students about intellectual property issues such as cheating and plagiarism. These classroom offenses are surface manifestations of much deeper problems associated with intellectual property. Librarians have raised many concerns about the “disconnects” between the role and domain of libraries and the average student’s comprehension of the role and domain (Thomas & McDonald, 2005). Property rights and the expression of those rights in U.S. society and in other societies is not well understood and may require revision in the 21st century as new understandings by societies develop (Kimppa, 2005; Wolf, 1995). Without acknowledging the ownership of intangibles—such as software—other ownership domains are in jeopardy, such as privacy. The concept of owning one’s personal data and by analogy being in a stewardship role for another’s data requires the individual to personalize a situation and hence “shorten” the psychological distance between the participants in an ethical situation of privacy. Business concerns emphasize this need by focusing on stakeholders and their values (Introna & Pouloudi, 1999). While developing professionals are introduced to the concept of stakeholders, the direct subsumption of the stakeholder’s perspective by the students requires practice. Further, technology trends confound the ownership conundrum. For instance, open source developments cloud the concept for the students. (See Lessig [1999] for a discussion of how open source code and other technology trends such as virtual spaces and software pests may require further inspection before simply passing them through current, legal filters; see McLeod [2005] for a presentation of the evolving nuances of cur-


rent laws and customs regarding aspects of intellectual property and modes of expression.) Second, students exhibit a resistance to selfregulate behavior according to principles and codes, preferring laws and market controls to social norms and codes. Lessig (1999) identifies four mechanisms for ethical control: (1) laws, (2) norms, (3) market behavior, and (4) architecture/codes. A typical student perspective is that laws define acceptable behaviors and individuals can realize any behaviors that are not restricted by laws. Lessig identifies the structural, that is, built-in constraints of hardware and software analogous to the constraints of architecture. Passage into a space cannot occur if a wall is present; passage into a Web site cannot occur if a firewall is present. Technology approaches to regulate behavior within ethical boundaries are seen as the responsibility of the manufacturer to define and incorporate. Once again, this reluctance on students’ part can be understood in terms of passivity and in terms of being a receiver of others’ decision making. Students use functional specifications for technology as an absolute rule, which governs not only the technology’s behavior, but also the users’ behavior. For instance, if a company does not welcome a behavior and wishes to thwart it, then the company should specify the conditions to restrict the behavior and develop restricting technology. If a company does not want its system to be hacked, then the company should have sufficient security to limit hacking. Third, when teaching technical topics, instructors usually have the instructional luxury of working with closed systems of learning: the students do not have prior exposure to bias their learning and reasoning and the instructor provides the appropriate reasoning structures for manipulating the content. Teaching ethics is different. Once descriptive and normative perspectives on ethics have been introduced and the problem domains have been identified, students should be able to assess scenarios in an ethically guided fashion—if

they were closed systems under the control of the ethical instruction. Rather, the students are bringing to ethical analysis external training on morality, previous decisions regarding ethics, media-biased presentations on ethical behavior, and personal behaviors and beliefs. Students can easily articulate how to respond to situations so that the response would be acceptable to the law and to their profession. Electing to enact legal and code-guided behaviors for themselves does not always occur. An obvious instance of such behavior is the classical Napster court case (A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, 2001) and students’ involvement in the situation. Models such as those developed by Peace, Galletta, and Thong (2003) and used by El-Sheikh, Rashed, and Peace (2005) describe the factors influencing an individual’s behavior when making ethical decisions such as those regarding software piracy (see El-Sheikh et al., 2005, p. 90). The factors involved with software piracy are attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, punishment severity, software cost, and punishment certainty. These models do not explain why these factors do participate in the behavior nor do they explain the discernment process involved with weighing the set of factors in the decision. While such models are a contribution to understanding ethical decision making in technology domains, they do not complete the picture. The discernment process may be “buggy.”

debuggIng ethIcAl decIsIon MAKIng Part of the approach to teaching ethics requires moving the student from a receiver of ethical consequences determined by others controlling their society and lives into the realm of a producer of ethical consequences where they control and determine events. Various classroom techniques for achieving this change have been suggested ranging from games to case study analysis to

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debates. Norfleet (2005) presents an overview of various active-learning instructional strategies to be used in teaching ethics. Crowell et al. (2005) propose that the aim of teaching ethics is to achieve four outcomes: (1) to develop ethical sensitivity, (2) to develop ethical judgment, (3) to develop ethical motivation, and (4) to develop ethical action. These four objectives are built on a model of ethical decision making developed by Rest (1986). While these objectives may be fine for structuring the class activities and progression through them, they do not address the underlying problem that the students have not been closed systems, but are actually evolving, dynamic, open systems. Stead, Worrell, and Stead (1990) emphasize in their model factors of the individual such as Machiavellianism, locus of control, age, and religion. (Machiavellianism is a personality-orientation spectrum defined by Christie and Geis [1970] to measure sensitivity of an individual to the ethical dimension of a scenario; essentially it is a measure of an individual’s ethical empathy.) Students’ decision-making systems are conglomerates whose precursors may not be available for modification. Along with this, students have internalized their personal processes and explanations for ethical decisions into a belief structure. One can modify a student’s ethical decision making as long as the lapse is rooted in a lapse of content. Personality factors such as degree of ethical empathy (e.g., Machiavellianism) are not available for modification. Other factors can also confound ethical decision-making practices. Individuals tend to respond to situations based on tendencies shared by others within their generation (Vitolo & Coulston, 2005). Similar factors to the concept of generation are nationality and gender. For instance, international nuances modifying ethical decisions have been noted and attributed to broad cultural tendencies shared by a national ethos (Martinsons & So,

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2005). All of these factors are out-of-the-control of the student, but insidiously bias one’s behavior. Furthermore, the instructor and the faculty of the department, each, have their own complex of factors contributing to their ethical reasoning processes. The difference in generations between the instructor and the students is not a trivial factor. A hallmark concept of the generation research is the ingrained bias governing one’s perceptions and analysis of situations. Essentially, the instructor wears one set of blinders and the students wear a different set. Because of these various individual-based factors, debugging individuals’ ethical decisionmaking process can be a challenge. Furthermore, attempting to increase their ethical sensitivity, to improve their ethical judgment, to enhance their ethical motivation, and to modify their ethical action truly becomes a questionable set of outcomes. By employing student-based activities rather than teacher-based activities, the students’ understanding of their direct role in ethical deliberations is required. Moving students to practice “moral imagination”—at least ethical imagination—and to identify, to characterize, and to delineate the complexity of tightly woven aspects of an ethical situation in a form of “dramatic rehearsal” would add a pragmatic base to understanding ethical deliberation (Fesmire, 2003). To facilitate this pragmatic approach into the teaching ethics, one can deploy a risk-assessment approach. Huff and Martin (1995) proposed similar aspects by emphasizing the consequences associated with behaviors in the digital arena. With a risk-assessment approach, the instruction can rely upon the rational and objective elements of the students’ technology-based inclinations. The students can grasp cost-benefit-loss analysis associated with different ethical decisions. In this manner, the instruction focuses on increasing the students’ awareness about ramifications and repercussions associated with different choices and less on the soul-searching, introspective


nature of improving their individual ethical responses. The approach does not embrace ethical egoism as a default ethical reasoning mode nor utilitarianism. Rather, the risk-assessment instructional approach relies on the student accepting the role of steward for the situation and practicing the skill of ethical deliberation from various standpoints, various rationales, and from the influence of various constraints. A simplification of this approach is to incorporate the notion of operating ethically as part of one’s job responsibility. Just as organizations expect their software engineers to know how to program for a software engineering position, then a corollary work responsibility would be to know and to act ethically. Framed in this manner, the students’ motivation to understand and to approach the ethical material is enhanced. While they personally may not have a high degree of ethical sensitivity and instruction may not change their ability to recognize ethical situations, they can become aware of their weakness in this area and exercise effort to be conscious of their weakness.

conclusIon Teaching ethics to a graduating class in the 21st century is a fact for many curriculums, departments, and schools. Not only are institutions motivated to complement their students’ education with ethical discourse to handle complex employment situations, but our stakeholders in the education process are also interested in seeing a greater fluidity of reasoning in the graduates. While the goal is valid and laudable, the process and components to achieving the goal are not uniformly defined. Instruction needs to be more than simple coverage of descriptive and normative ethics and must include techniques to expose students to the broad implications of ethi-

cal decisions. Support of ethical decisions in any area associated with ownership and privacy needs attention. Using interactive and dynamic teaching strategies, the students’ ethical sensitivity, ethical judgment, ethical motivation, and ethical actions can be modified. Modification of these aspects in the students is a challenge itself. The students are not blank slates, but come with many previously established biases—some of which are culturally determined and some of which are personally experienced. In conjunction with the students’ biases, professors also have their own biases confounding the perception and resolution of ethical situations. The challenge to teaching ethics is to reveal and to highlight the various aspects involved in any ethical decision. From the decision-making perspective, the aspects to emphasize are the constraints of the situation, the stakeholders, the long- and short-term repercussions, the variety of possible actions to take, the variety of repercussions to the actions, and the underlying explanations connecting courses of actions and repercussions. In order to proceed with the goal of increasing the students’ ability to process ethical situations according to a set of constraints, various modes incorporating student-based activities can be used to deliver the course content. The focus of the course’s content is on both definition of ethical issues as well as increased awareness of the need for ethical deliberation. Regardless of the degree of modification achieved within each student, the time has come to address ethics in technical curriculums. Students represent many diverse backgrounds, experiences, and comprehensions. Since universities own the gating function for these individuals into the working environment, then the universities need to contribute to the acculturation of the students to ethical work, professional standards, and societal expectations.

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Vitolo, T. M., & Coulston, C. (2005, June). Generational ethics. In Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Ethics and Technology Conference (pp. 281-291). St. Louis, MO. Wolf, C. (1995, July). Contemporary property rights, Lockean provisos, and the interests of future generations. Ethics, 105(4), 791-818.

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Chapter XV

Tomorrow’s Workforce Today:

What is Required by Information Systems Graduates to Work in a Collaborative Information Systems Workplace? Kathy Lynch University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia Julie Fisher Monash University, Australia

Abstract Over the last 100 years, technological advances have changed our lives in our homes and society and have continually impacted on the way we work, where we work, how we work, and with whom we work. Our work and workplace is changing through the use and reliance of information systems. It is therefore critical to develop information systems (IS) professionals who can manage the change but also have the skills to adapt to the changes.Within the IS development domain, the changing environment is driven by two key factors; collaboration and technology. An IS professional is one who designs, develops, and implements services and products for an organisation, and for the dissemination of information. Today the design and development of IS not only relies on the technical skills of the individual, but relies heavily on effective teams. The personal and interpersonal skills of people in the team have become just as important (and in some cases, more important) as the development of the IS. These personal and interpersonal skills are what is commonly coined the “nondiscipline skills,” “soft skills,” and in some arenas “emotional intelligence." The research reported in this chapter identified the needs of today’s IS workforce in terms of the nondiscipline skills required to work effectively in collaborative teams. The outcome of the research is a list of collaborative skills, identified from the literature and extended and confirmed by key IT industry professionals. The research identified that there are two sets of skills, individual skills and group skills that are important for our IS graduates to have obtained to work effectively in today’s information technology (IT) workforce. These results suggest that curriculum developers need to carefully consider how such skills can be taught to properly equip our graduates for tomorrow’s workforce.


Tomorrow's Workforce Today

IntroductIon In an ever-changing workplace the skills of workers must also change. The work, workers, and place of work are altering, as are the interactions between the workers and the technology used to conduct their work (Bijker & Law, 1997; Castells, 2001; Wajcman, 2004). Work is shifting from the individual worker in the office to a change in the location of its workers, the type of work conducted, the way the work is done, the tools used to engage in communication, and the work itself. These changes are occurring rapidly and extensively in the IT workplace. For many workers, going to the same office the same time every day, working with the same colleagues, and working in the same time zone (temporal space) is coming to an end. One of the responsibilities of educationalists is to prepare the next generation with the skills to be an effective member of these new workforces. To do this, there needs to be a close examination of what skills will be required to ensure graduates are appropriately equipped. IS practitioners recognise the need for continual review of the education of its workforce, specifically in updating the skills and knowledge required to perform the job at hand. Educationalists responsible for preparing undergraduates for the professional workforce need to closely examine and address what we are teaching in terms of meeting the current needs of industry and society and to ensure that this is aligned with the rapid advances in technology.

studY MotIvAtIon And bAcKground The catalyst for the study discussed in this chapter was anecdotal evidence from IT professionals working with IS graduates, who found that the new recruits do not know how, nor have the skills to work collaboratively on projects. Similar issues have been reported in the literature by researchers

such as Trauth, Farwell, and Lee (1993). Evidence from the literature indicates that recruits have some of the skills, but they are unable to participate fully in their work environment through inexperience, lack of confidence, and more importantly, a lack of an understanding of the skills required for working effectively in a team. Given the importance of effective teamwork, a major issue is therefore, that new IT graduates are not ready to engage in the workplace of the 21st century. With the advancement of technology comes the expectation that IT professionals are proficient, adaptable, and amenable to using new technologies not only in their domain but in the way they work in teams. Educators need to equip beginning IT professionals with these skills to enable them to be effective in the new workplace. Universities have a responsibility to the development of employable IT professionals. The soft skills that are actually taught and learned in undergraduate programs often do not include all of the skills that are encompassed by the three areas—employability, graduate, and the discipline-specific skills. Studies (for example, Bailey & Stefaniak, 1999; Hurst et al., 2001; Lidtke, Stokes, Haines, & Mulder, 1999; Toleman, Roberts, & Ryan, 2004; Wong, Von Hellens, & Orr, 2000) have shown that IT practitioners are not satisfied with current IT graduates; the graduates are seen to be lacking the aptitude and skills to work effectively in collaborative teams. Other studies such as that conducted by Turner and Lowry (1999) explored the fit between university study and professional practise of IS practitioners, with respect to technical knowledge, academic knowledge, and personal attributes. However, there have been few studies that have explored the issues relating to soft skills in so much as how to work collaboratively in a team, or even studies that have identified what those skills are. The focus of this study was primarily on preparing the (IS) undergraduate for a place in the IT workforce. The IS profession is a subset of the larger IT community and has a focus on


the business and social end of IT. IS encompasses the development, acquisition, deployment, and management of IT within an organisation to deliver efficient information and communication services (Gorgone et al., 2002).

reseArch desIgn The research presented in this chapter sought to identify skills and attributes required by beginning IS graduates to work effectively on collaborative IS projects. However, there is a caveat to this aim, in that (for the purpose of this research) the required technical or discipline-specific skills are considered to have been acquired by all IS graduates, and therefore are not included in this study. The approach of excluding the discipline skills and focussing on the soft skills has been taken by similar studies, for example, Snoke and Underwood (1998, 1999, 2000); Snoke, Underwood, and Bruce (2002); Bailey and Stefaniak (1999); and Wong, Von Hellens, and Orr (2000). The principal methodology used in this study therefore is qualitative and has been adopted in response to the open and inquiring nature of the research intentions, leading to an interpretative orientation. This is accepted practice and common in social science and qualitative research due to the need to infer meanings from participants’ statements, and the need to understand their roles and responsibilities in the context under study (Miles & Huberman, 1994; Neuman, 2000). The research for this project was undertaken in four stages. The first stage of this research was an in-depth analysis of the current literature to establish the key skills required by IS graduates with respect to working on collaborative projects. An industry focus group was the second stage and was used to collect data from IS professionals. The purpose was to confirm the collaborative skills identified through the literature and establish if there were other collaborative skills required to work effectively on information systems projects

that senior members of the IS profession could identify. The identified skills were extracted and grouped together in an endeavour to develop a coherent and succinct list of required skills, attributes, and knowledge. This list was then sent to other IT professionals for confirmation. A purposive sampling technique (Neuman, 2000, p. 196; Williamson, 2002, p. 231) was used to determine the criteria for targeting potential participants. The sample criteria were that the participants were senior executives from Melbourne offices whose companies employed IS graduates and worked on collaborative IS projects. The participants were purposely selected to create a homogeneous sample of employers of IS graduates. The choice of participants was also based on their interest and willingness to contribute to the research. The selection of the sample was grounded in the premise that such people would be able to identify the skills required for a successful collaborative work environment. The third stage was the design of the curriculum framework, incorporating the skills identified through the first and second stages. Stage four involved a survey and focus group of recent graduates and educationalists to confirm the content, structure, and appropriateness of the curriculum framework. A focus group was held with six educationalists. During the focus group the draft curriculum framework was discussed and the changes recorded electronically at the time. Five recent graduates also contributed to the draft framework, responding to a survey. The last two stages are dealt with only briefly in this chapter.

stAge 1: coMPArIsIon oF grAduAte collAborAtIve sKIlls For many disciplines, skills relating to the ability to work in a team are required. To ensure all skills were identified it was important to also


Table 1. Attributes of law, engineering, and medicine graduates Law A law graduate will have

Engineering

Medicine (Healthcare and Dentistry)

Intellectual

Intellectual (thinking) skills

Problem solving

• The cognitive skills to analyse, evaluate, and synthesise information

• Use a range of thought processes to identify problems and formulate a number of possible solutions

• An ability to draw reasoned conclusions and sustainable judgements

• Critical thinking and problem solving skills which enable effective analysis, evaluation, and creative resolution of legal problems

• Able to discuss design from various viewpoints and be able to summarise, synthesise, and express these viewpoints from an engineering perspective

• The ability to deal with complex issues in diagnosis and planning treatment; make sound judgements, sometimes using incomplete information; and communicate those decisions to patients and professional colleagues

• Oral and written communication skills of a high order, including the use of appropriate modern communication technologies • Information literacy: Graduates will be able to use current technologies and effective strategies for the retrieval, evaluation, and creative use of relevant information as a lifelong learner. • Be familiar with and proficient in legal research techniques, including in the appropriate use of modern research technologies Ethical Attitudes and Values • A capacity to be informed, responsible, and critically discriminating • A commitment to the highest standards of ethical and professional behaviour • A commitment to the rule of law, ethical standards of personal and professional behaviour, and social justice through the operation of law • Be socially responsible and inclusive • Graduates will possess a sense of community and professional responsibility and be able to offer proper solutions to ethical dilemmas. • Interpersonal and social capabilities

• Apply numerical skills in the collection and recording of data, interpretation, and presentation of data and the solving of problems Team Skills • Ability to function effectively on multidisciplinary teams comprised not only of engineers but also of members from other allied fields, such as computing and business • Graduates must assume responsibility as an individual or as a member of a team for the management of resources and/or guidance of technical staff. Communication skills • After designing, analysing, and predicting process/system performance, an industrial engineer must be able to clearly articulate and communicate all findings or results in a suitable format (oral, written, electronic, etc.). • Actively participate in human and industrial relations • Utilise information technology in the preparation, process, and presentation of information Professional and ethical responsibility attitudes • An understanding of professional and ethical responsibility implies an awareness of the contributions that one’s engineering specialisation makes to society, as well as being aware of the responsibilities that come with these contributions. Personal Skills • Manage own roles, responsibilities, and time in achieving objectives, learning, performance, new and changing situations, and contexts

• Graduates will be able to work both independently and as a productive member of a team and be able to work effectively and sensitively within the global community

• The ability to evaluate critically the health care system in which they will work and to assume responsibility for oral health promotion of individual patients and social groups Team skills • Operate effectively as an individual practitioner while recognising the need for multidisciplinary approaches and the need to build relationships with other professional, technical, and support staff Communication • Effective skills in communicating information, advice, instruction, and professional opinion to colleagues, patients, clients, their relatives, and carers; and, when necessary, to groups of colleagues or clients • Generate effective channels of communication with those agencies relevant to the practice of prosthetics and orthotics Information technology • An ability to engage with technology, particularly the effective and efficient use of information and communication technology Professional ethics • Show an awareness of the boundaries of practice covered by the prosthetic and orthotic disciplines including professional, ethical, and legal considerations • Initiative and personal responsibility; making decisions based on sound ethical, moral, and scientific principles; and applying an independent learning ability • Work as a reflective practitioner and exercise judgements based on awareness of key issues in prosthetics and orthotics Information gathering • An ability to gather and evaluate evidence and information from a wide range of sources • An ability to use methods of enquiry to collect and interpret data in order to provide information that would inform or benefit practice • Information appraisal and technology

SOURCES:

SOURCES:

SOURCES:

http://www.law.adelaide.edu.au/degrees/ attributes.html (University of Adelaide)

http://www.ie.eng.fsu.edu/academics/abet2000/iii.html (Florida State University)

http://www.ltsn-01.ac.uk/external_files/bdameeting/Benchmarking.pdf (UK)

http://www.library.cqu.edu.au/conference/papers/Christensen_Cuffe.pdf (Central Qld University)

http://fie.engrng.pitt.edu/fie99/papers/1600.pdf (Pittsburgh University)

http://www.qaa.ac.uk/crntwork/benchmark/phase2/healthstudies. pdf (UK)


examine the skills required in other disciplines. An examination of the literature on the graduate attributes or skills expected of university, non-IT graduates in the disciplines of law, engineering, and medicine (dentistry and health care) was conducted and is presented in Table 1. Through an examination of the literature as presented in Table 1, it can be seen that the ability to engage in the use of IT is very distinct in medicine; it is not so clearly distinguished in engineering or law. For engineering this could be attributed to the requirement of IT literacy as a core discipline skill and therefore covered in the discipline skills, rather than the soft skills. However, this was not clear in the literature examined. In the graduate attributes for law, IT falls within

the intellectual skills area and is covered under oral and written communication and information literacy. Collaboration and team work per se are omitted from all the graduate attributes listed in Table 1. This does not imply that they are not considered as important graduate attributes for the discipline, as it can (and may) be covered in the more institutional graduate attributes, and therefore not covered in the specific skills. An IS graduate is expected to have obtained particular skills during their course of study, and they should have acquired the “exit characteristics” expected of an IS graduate (Gorgone et al., 2002). These skills or characteristics are embedded into a benchmark curriculum guidelines from which IS educators develop curriculum. This benchmark

Table 2. Information systems curriculum guidelines IS’97 (IS’97 Curriculum Taskforce, 1997)

IS’2002 (Gorgone et al., 2002)

Communication • Accurately observe, note, and explain • Actively listen and express complex ideas in simple terminology • Written, oral, and presentation skills

Communication • Listening, observing, interviewing, and documenting • Written, oral, and presentation skills

Interpersonal relationships • Effectively work with people of diverse backgrounds • Effectively work with people at all corporate levels • Lead and facilitate teams in a collaborative environment • Empathetically listen and seek synergistic solutions

Interpersonal • Listening • Encouraging • Motivating • Operating in a global, culturally diverse environment

Problem Solving • Formulate creative solutions to simple and complex problems

Team Work and Leadership • Building a team • Trusting and empowering, encouraging • Developing and communicating a vision/mission • Setting and tracking team goals • Negotiating and facilitating • Team decision making • Operating in a virtual team environment • Being an effective leader Organisational problem solving • Problem solving • Personal decision making • Critical thinking

Professionalism • Apply personal goal setting and time management techniques • Apply personal decision-making skulls • Articulate a personal position and respect the opinions of others • Adhere to ethical standards • Assess organisational and societal impacts of IS

Ethics and professionalism • Code of conduct • Ethical theory • Leadership • Professional—self directed, leadership, and time management • Professionalism—commitment to and completion of work


curriculum is continually being refined and redeveloped by a substantial group of academics and practitioners, with the most current version being IS’2002 (Gorgone et al., 2002). An outline of the main features of the previous and the current IS curriculum are presented in Table 2. It is difficult to make a direct comparison between the graduate skills and attributes of a lawyer, an engineer, a medical practitioner, and an IS professional. However, what comparison can be made illustrates there is an overlap. The purpose of this comparison is to identify those skills that could be regarded as generic graduate collaborative skills and those that are specific to the IS professional. Regardless of the discipline, there is an overlap and therefore a relationship between employability skills, graduate attributes, and discipline-specific attributes is presented in Figure 1. Figure 1 shows that each of the skills sets build on each other, and hopefully, no skill be omitted from the undergraduate experience.

stAge 2: IdentIFYIng sKIlls sPecIFIc to Is&t grAduAtes It was critical to identify, from IS practitioners, the skills and attributes relating to collaborative team work that are deemed important for IS&T graduates. To obtain this information, a focus group was conducted with senior IT professionals. The participants were selected to create a homogeneous sample of employers of IS graduates. They were from large well-known information and communication technologies companies that were known to work on collaborative projects and employ recent IS graduates. The six participants were all senior executives and/or had extensive experience on collaborative IS projects. The demographics of the participants are presented in Table 3 and shows the homogeneity of the participants in their position in companies that undertake IS projects. The table includes an identification code for each focus group participant. A facilitator directed the discussion, the researcher acted as an observer, and the session

Figure 1. Progression of soft skills

Discipline-specific skills Graduate skills

Employability skills


Table 3. Demographics of focus group participants Gender

Job Title

Type of Company

IFG1

F

IT project manager

Large international consultancy company, offices in Melbourne, Australian staff of 4000

IFG2

M

Managing director

Independent consulting company; Melbourne-based, 60 staff members

IFG3

M

Managing director

Independent national consulting company, offices in Melbourne, 20 staff members

IFG4

M

Project manager

Very large national telecommunications company, tens of thousands of staff members

IFG5

F

Managing director

Independent consulting and development company; Melbourne-based, 4 contract and 2 permanent staff

IFG6

M

Project manager

Large Australian university; Melbourne campus with a staff of approximately 500

was both audio and video taped. The observer’s notes were summarised, and a partial transcription of the audio recording was undertaken to produce a consolidated summary of the focus group discussion.

Focus group results and Findings One of the dominant issues that surfaced from the focus group session was the multiple descriptions of the word collaboration. Words and phrases such as sharing accountability, “beyond project management, trust, communication skills, and interpersonal skills were commonly used to describe what the participants understood by the term collaboration. Often the terms communication and collaboration were used interchangeably. When the participants were asked for further explanation of their understanding of the terms, the group agreed that: collaborative skills are really the interpersonal stuff—the communication within the team and how the team then communicates with the client. A representative sample of the comments made by participants is presented in Table 4. The selected quotes are representative of the areas that were repeated or generated intense discussion throughout the focus group session.

The focus group participants identified a number of skills and attributes that they considered IS professionals require. A summary of the discussion was e-mailed to the focus group participants for checking that appropriate interpretations had been made of what was said. All responses indicated agreement that the summary was a fair representation of the discussion. From the summary, a pattern coding exercise was conducted to extract and group trends across the discussion that could lead to the identification of key terms that explained the skills, attributes, or knowledge identified by the industry focus group. For example, using comment number two from IFG5 in Table 4, the key words that were extracted were accountability, responsibility, understanding, and sharing. These were then refined into terms or phases that gave a succinct meaning or a specific skill that did not require additional explanation. A list of key terms or phrases was reduced to a list of 27 skills and attributes. A sample of this data reduction can be found in Table 5, bold is used to signify a term, phrase, or skill that repeatedly emerged during the discussion or generated considerable discussion among the participants. The development of key terms lead to a list of identified skills, Table 6. The skills have been expressed in the phrases in which they were generated by the focus group. During the focus


Table 4. Sample comments from the industry focus group participants Comment

Participant

Collaboration worked well? It must have otherwise it wouldn’t have been a good project

IFG1

Accountability and responsibility loop within the collaborative environment, understanding the requirements and expectations of clients and colleagues, sharing the responsibilities and accountability for the deliverable

IFG5

The key word is teams; if the collaboration is working effectively then there should be no need to differentiate between the customer or vendor and the consultant. The team is critical to collaboration.

IFG4

At the end of the day, I won’t measure on your individual ability in meeting the objectives, I’ll measure you on your ability to work effectively in a team. The strength of the business is working in a team.

IFG4

Recognise where each team member fits into the team

IFG5

If there was one thing that I would like out of any graduate coming in, it would be obtaining a good sense of themself and how they and others fit and interact with each other. They cannot achieve the goal by themselves; they have to work with people.

IFG5

Part of effective collaboration is being able as a team to work within the boundaries that have been set and still be able to work with each other.

IFG6

There are a bunch of rules, constraints, and expectations surrounding collaboration, more than just the work.

IFG1

Collaboration becomes much more complex when sections of the work are outsourced.

IFG3

Collaboration within the workplace changes all the time—the support networks change as the teams change.

IFG6

Skill-set changes due to change in project or requirements, the need to up-skill, even if in your own time, this is a hard ask of younger people, but in pressure-cook situations it is necessary—taking accountability for ones own skill level.

IFG2

What is more important is how to get the job done rather than the end product, and members representation (that is how they work within the team) is lasting—not just in achieving outcomes, but how we achieve them. What are the focus for our ethics as an organisation and personally.

IFG5

To accept challenge, to welcome ambiguity, to be delighted with overcoming challenges (not problems) and to enjoy that in other people too

IFG2

Industry is full of ambiguity and change ... The group needs to be flexible enough to cope with the constantly changing status of the project.

IFG5

People are supposed to be multiskilled; technical skills are going to be much smaller, and interpersonal skills are going to be much greater.

IFG1

What makes a project successful is not the technical things, it is more the success of the collaboration.

IFG5

Separating out the technical stuff, the collaborative skills there are coming in are really the interpersonal stuff. It’s the things to do with the communication within the team and how the team then communicates out to the client—again its looking for those specific “people skills.” We use to call them people skills/communication skills rather than collaboration skills … far more people miss out in interviews due to lack of those [communication skills] rather than technical skills.

IFG1

group session, participants felt that there was a division of skills—individual or personal skills and skills of the team as a whole. Individual skills have been identified by the personal nature of the skill and that the skill first needs to be acquired for oneself prior to being used with others. The team skills have been grouped according to the requirement that more than one person is needed for the skill to be apparent. The number alongside a skill indicates the order in which the skill emerged in the focus group discussion.

Table 6 indicates that skills and attributes related to the relationships between clients, colleagues, and the organisation as a whole emerged first and were quite frequent (skill numbers 1 to 6). The next skills to emerge (skill numbers 7 to 12) are more centred around the individual and their relationship to the operations of the team. The third set of skills (skill numbers 13 to 18) seem to have the individual as the central focus, though ability to interact with others is involved.


Table 5. Sample of coding used for the industry focus discussion data Quote

Key term /specific skills

Accountability and responsibility loop within the collaborative environment, understanding the requirements and expectations of clients and colleagues, sharing the responsibilities and accountability for the deliverable [IFG5]

Accountability for own skills set

Skill-set changes due to change in project or requirements, the need to up-skill, even if in your own time, this is a hard ask of younger people, but in pressure-cook situations it is necessary—taking accountability for ones own skill level. [IFG2]

Change

People are supposed to be multiskilled; technical skills are going to be much smaller, and interpersonal skills are going to be much greater. [IFG1]

Interpersonal skills

Separating out the technical stuff, the collaborative skills there are coming in are really the interpersonal stuff. It’s the things to do with the communication within the team and how the team then communicates out to the. [IFG1]


Formalised internal communication process within the team—required a structure, but allow being able to work on the fly and adapt to change rapidly. [IFG3]


Position in team

Accountability for own skills set


Change/flexible/adaptable

Note: bold has been used to signify a key word/phrase that re-occurred

Table 6. Individual collaborative skills Skill no.

Skill/attribute

1

Ability to work with clients

2

Ability to work effectively with colleagues

3

Ability to interact with others

4

Ability in managing people

5

Ability to fit in and move with the organisation’s vision

6

Ability to work with common objectives—team rather than individual

7

Ability to work “on the fly” and rapidly respond to change

8

Accountable for own skill set and how they and others fit into the team

9

Ability to see how they and others fit into the team

10

Recognition of and respect for the skill sets of others in the team

11

Has trust in other members of the team—knows when to let go and pass onto others

12

Ability to recognise their position (role/responsibilities) in the team, and the position (role/responsibilities) of other team members

13

Personal skills (people related), such as good work habits, attendance, cultural and social sensitivity, respect, social confidence

14

Personal skills (thinking related), such as critical thinking, problem solving strategies, initiative, self-management

15

Communication skills, such as effective reading, writing, speaking, listening, body

16

Communication skills, such as use of information resources and technology

17

Interpersonal skills, such as cooperating, negotiating, directing, confronting, questioning, adapting

18

Interpersonal skills, such as networking

19

Ability to understand the context in which the project is situated

20

Ability to recognise when the group is off track

21

Ability to recognise when the team is not working together

22

Ability to negotiate and renegotiate


The final set of skills (19 to 22), in this table, is based on the individual’s place in the team and recognition of the constraints that can affect the team’s success. The skills presented in Table 7 emerged during the closing stages of the focus group discussion. As can be seen, most of them relate to the skills presented in Table 6 and are specific to the team as a whole. That is, these skills cannot exist alone, and as such the skills listed in Table 7 should be viewed in conjunction with Table 6. The final list of agreed skills and attributes was then sent to five other leading senior IT professionals for confirmation. Specifically, they were asked to examine the list and provide feedback. It was also important to identify from the literature the skills and attributes relating to collaborative teamwork deemed to be important for IS&T graduates. Table 8, presents those key attributes and skills. References from the literature include only a selection of authors working in the area, the focus has been on selecting references from high-quality publications and well cited authors.

stAge 3 And 4: currIculuM desIgn And conFIrMAtIon For reasons of space we will briefly present an example from the curriculum framework and how this was confirmed. The framework has

been developed as a matrix. This is to make both understanding of the matrix per se and its implementation easier. The matrix (see Table 9) is divided hierarchically into domain areas, followed by a number of skills under each domain that are loosely divided into levels; intermediate and graduate. Alongside each of these levels are the intended outcomes for a student in the acquisition of the related skill. The final column contains examples for implementation of each skill. It is not intended that the framework prescribes how the skills are to be taught, however the examples are presented to illustrate how the outcomes might be achieved. The domain cell is the overall category of the skills, attributes, and knowledge. The skill cell contains the individual skills, attitudes, and knowledge that emerged from the industry input. This is followed by a short description of the skill to aid understanding. Following this are the outcomes and examples of implementation. These are listed according to the student’s progression in the course—either intermediate or prior to graduation. There is no duration dictated or indicated for each skill, nor at each level, as an outcome at the intermediately level could be within the first few months, by the end of one year of study or before the final semester commences. This is due to the individual nature of learners and the institutions in which they learn (Tyler, 1949, p. 83). Table 10 presents an excerpt from the framework and illustrates how the skills identified

Table 7. Team collaborative skills Skill no.

0

Skill/attribute

23

Good formal internal communications

24

Recognition of the completion of a group task, knowing when “enough is enough”

25

Ethics—understanding the need to not criticise the team (or members) in public

26

Flexible

27

Supportive environment from within the team and the company


Table 8. Attributes and skills identified from literature Identified skills and/ or attributes

Summary of findings from the literature examined: IS&T graduate skills

Ability to interact with others

(Within the literature examined, it was difficult to distinguish between others—who are others; team members, clients, the organisation? Therefore this skill could be merged with a number of the following skills)

Ability to work effectively with colleagues

Van Slyke, Kittner, and Cheney (1998) Hurst et al., (2001) Murdoch University-Engineering (2001)

Communication skills, such as effective reading, writing, speaking, listening, body

Denning (1992) Van Slyke et al., (1998) Bailey and Stefaniak (1999) Orr and von Hellens (2000) Snoke et al., (2002) Turner and Lowry (1999)

Interpersonal skills, such as cooperating, negotiating, directing, confronting, questioning, adapting

Agada (1998) Trauth et al., (1993) Van Slyke et al., (1998) Bailey and Stefaniak (1999) Orr and von Hellens (2000)

Ability to work with clients

Trauth et al., (1993) Van Slyke et al., (1998) Murdoch University-Engineering (2001)

Accountable for own skill set

Snoke et al., (2002) Turner and Lowry (1999)

Personal skills (thinking related), such as critical thinking, problem solving strategies, initiative, self-management

Trauth et al., (1993) Van Slyke et al., (1998) Bailey and Stefaniak (1999) Snoke et al., (2002)

Ability to see how they and others fit into the team

Denning (1992) Turner and Lowry (1999)

Communication skills, such as use of information resources and technology

Bailey and Stefaniak (1999) Monkvold and Line (2002)

Ethics—understanding the need to not criticise the team (or members) in public

Murdoch University-Engineering (2001) Orr and Von Hellens (2000) Snoke et al., (2002)

Recognition of and respect for the skill sets of others in the team

Denning (1992)

Has trust in other members of the team—knows when to let go and pass onto others

Fisher, Rayner, and Belgard (1995)

Ability to recognise their position (role/responsibilities) in the team, and the position (role/responsibilities) of other team members

Fisher et al., (1995)

Personal skills (people related), such as good work habits, attendance, cultural and social sensitivity, respect, social confidence

Denning (1992)

Supportive environment from within the team and the company.

Denning (1992)

Note: italicised text indicates a practitioner, business, institutional, commissioned, or governmental article or report continued on following page


Table 8. continued Identified skills and/ or attributes

Summary of findings from the literature examined: IS&T graduate skills

Ability to work with common objectives—team rather than individual

Denning (1992) Orr and Von Hellens (2000)

Ability to work “on the fly” and rapidly respond to change

Bailey and Stefaniak (1999) Orr and Von Hellens (2000)

Good formal internal communications

McGinnes (1994) King (2000)

Flexible

Orr and Von Hellens (2000)

Ability in managing people

Southam (n.d.) Right Track Associates (n.d.)

Ability to fit in and move with the organisation’s vision

Right Track Associates (n.d.)

Note: italicised text indicates a practitioner, business, institutional, commissioned, or governmental article or report

Table 9. The model used to develop the curriculum framework DOMAIN: SKILL: Description: Outcomes The student should be able to ….

Examples of implementation and learning experiences

Intermediate Graduate

from the earlier stages were incorporated into the curriculum framework. It should be noted that the point of the research was not to develop curriculum per se but to provide a framework that could be used by educationalists to develop curriculum. Input from educationalists and recent graduates was sought regarding the structure and appropriateness of the curriculum framework. This input confirmed that the framework was appropriate and pedagogically sound, only minor changes were made as a result of this input.

dIscussIon This research has established a comprehensive list, confirmed by industry, of the skills and/or attributes required by IT graduates to work and collaborate effectively in teams. Twenty-one skills or attributes were identified. These were confirmed by another group of senior IT professionals. In addition to the 21 skills identified the research established that there were six other skills or attributes that are important for effective collaborative team work not identified in the literature. Those skills were:


Table 10. An excerpt from the curriculum framework DOMAIN: Personal SKILL: Communication skills Description: Communicate effectively with individuals or groups of people with and without the use of artefacts such as visuals, audio, film, and text (words, images, etc) Outcomes. The student should be able to

• • • • • •

Implementation /classroom examples:

Intermediate

(i)

Achieve a professional stance/image/presence in, posture, language, speech and choice of artefacts, when orally presenting content (ii) Appropriately respond to nonverbal communication signals in the context of an oral communication (iii) Effectively convey information in a format appropriate to the audience and the situation (iv) Efficiently transform content into multiple formats or media

•

Graduate

(i)

•

Synthesise content from numerous sources and media and orally present it to a variety of audiences (ii) Professionally respond to the atmosphere generated by an audience (iii) Develop coherent, accurate, and succinct professional documents (iv) Create summations and present in the most relevant format or manner

Recognition of completion of group tasks Ability to understand the context in which the project is situated Interpersonal skills, such as networking Ability to recognise when the group is off track Ability to recognise when the team is not working together Ability to negotiate and re-negotiate

As we have seen through the results of this study, the literature has not identified all the required skills. Employers, the people in the relevant workforce, are the ones more likely to know what skills make one collaborative effort work where another collaborative effort fails or is less successful. Comparing the skills identified by the focus group to what has been found in the relevant literature has identified gaps between what is required and what is being taught to IS

•

Prepare and present an oral presentation to class peers taking advantage of a range of technologies (these could be radio microphone, microphone, data projector + computer/laptop, video conferencing, video/audio, wireless devices, PDA)

Research a complex topic and present it orally to an audience other than peers. Topic examples: The role of metadata in Web development: SQL and dynamic Web content; XML, SOAP, and UDDI and their role in B2B; Collaborative work technologies across special and temporal dimensions Write a critique on the development process undertaken by the development team in a supplied ISD scenario

undergraduates (Table 8). This gap may be due to the phrases used in the literature, limited understanding or realisation of the skills, or a timing issue (it takes time to have work published). Nevertheless, there is a gap between what is delivered to IS undergraduates and what is required by the IS workforce; just as there was a gap identified by Trauth et al. (1993). Our concern is that the gap is still evident today.

conclusIon And Future WorK Developing curriculum for any academic discipline is a task that requires careful consideration and consultation with the various stakeholders. Where a discipline such as IS has, at its core, technology that is frequently changing, maintaining a relevant curriculum takes on new challenges. Academic literature and industry stakeholders


are two extremely important sources that can inform, direct, and influence what is delivered in an IS undergraduate curriculum. This is evident through the list of contributors and consultants to the development of international benchmark curriculum guidelines such as IS’2002 (Gorgone et al., 2002). Even so, this study has found a disparity between the needs of industry and the skills that IS graduate have as they emerge from university. It can be said that some of the “soft skills” required for the 21st century workforce could be acquired through experience and maturity, but there are no guarantees that all the required skills will be obtained. The gaps are real and have been identified during this and other research (such as that conducted by Trauth et al., 1993). Identifying and then recognising these gaps will increase the likelihood that specific soft skills and attributes are brought to the forefront of curriculum development for IS undergraduates. Current literature reporting on nondiscipline skills and attributes required in the IS workforce leads the authors to believe that any research relating to curriculum, and consequently implementation, requires industry input. Consultation with IT professionals is essential for a discipline where the skills required by graduates will change as technology does. The soft skills such as managing people, trust in a team environment, and ability to respond quickly to change are all skills required by the IS professional. These and the other soft skills need to be identified, more strongly emphasised, and purposely taught to undergraduate IS students. For IS educators this means that the curriculum must include content covering, in particular, the “gap” skills rather than relying on the skills being acquired on an ad hoc basis or acquired through informal education. This research focused specifically on IS nontechnical graduate skills. The research through an examination of curriculum from a number of disciplines identified skills specific to the IS discipline, not contained in other disciplines. The involvement of industry people with specific ex-

pertise and knowledge of the IS domain and who employ IS graduates helped refine and build on this list. The authors acknowledge the applicability of this work to other IT areas of study such as computer science (CS) and software engineering (SE). Many of the skills identified are likely to be applicable to both CS and SE, however, these were not the focus of the study. It would be interesting to investigate this further using similar methods employed in this study. The importance of identifying these skills is so that it can inform curriculum design. This brings to light the second phase of the project not discussed in this chapter, and that is to develop a curriculum framework to accommodate the identified skills and attributes required by IS graduates to work in collaboratively teams in the development of IS projects.

AcKnoWledgMent The authors would like to thank Professor Dick Gunstone, Faculty of Education, Monash University for his tireless contribution to this research.

reFerences Agada, J. (1998). Teaching collaborative skills in library and information science education (LISE). ASIS Midyear ‘98, Collaboration Across Boundaries: Theories, Strategies, and Technology, Milwaukee, WI. Bailey, J., & Stefaniak, G. (1999). Preparing the information technology workforce for the new millennium. Retrieved October 2004, from http:// portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=571476 Bijker, W., & Law, J. (1997). Shaping technology/ building society. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Castells, M. (2001). The Internet galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, business, and society. Norfolk, UK: Oxford University Press.


Denning, P. (1992). Educating a new engineer [Electronic version]. Communications of the ACM, 35(12), 83-97. Retrieved April 2003, from http://portal.acm.org Fisher, K., Rayner, S., & Belgard, W. (1995). Tips for teams: A ready reference for solving common team problems. Retrieved May 2003, from http:// opm.gov/perform/articles/072.htm Gorgone, J., Davis, G., Valacich, J., Topi, H., Feinstein, D., & Longenecker, H. (2002). IS2002: Model curriculum and guidelines for undergraduate degree programs in Information Systems. Retrieved March 2003, from http://192.245.222. 212:8009/IS2002Doc/Main_Frame.htm Hurst, J., Carbone, A., Eley, M., Ellis, A., Hagan, D., Markham, S., et al. (2001). Teaching ICT. Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DETYA). IS’97 Curriculum Taskforce. (1997). Model curriculum and guidelines for undergraduate degree programs in information systems: IS within degree programs of a school. Retrieved March 2002, from http://www.is2000.org/is97/rev/review1.html King, M. (2000, November 29). Communication makes sense. The Age, p. 5. Lidtke, D., Stokes, G., Haines, J., & Mulder, C. (1999). Program guidelines for educating the next generation of information systems specialists, in collaboration with industry. Retrieved August 2002, from http://www.iscc.unomaha. edu/TableOfContents.html McGinnes, S. (1994). Communication and collaboration: Skills for the new IT professional. Retrieved August 2002, from http://www.ulst. ac.uk/cticomp/mcgin.html Miles, M., & Huberman, A. (1994). Qualitative data analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Monkvold, B., & Line, L. (2002). Training students in distributed collaboration: Experiences from two pilot projects. Journal of Informatics Education Research, 3(2). Retrieved May 2003, from http://iaim.aisnet.org/jier/ Murdoch University-Engineering. (2001). Graduate attributes. Retrieved May 2003, from http:// wwweng.murdoch.edu.au/courses/Engp19.htm Neuman, W. L. (2000). Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Orr, J., & Von Hellens, L. (2000). Skill requirements of IT&T professionals and graduates: An Australian study. (ACM SIGCPR). Retrieved March 2004, from http://portal.acm.org/citation. cfm?id=333385&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&CF ID=31516853&CFTOKEN=71552430 Right Track Associates. (n.d.). Soft skills are hard to find. Retrieved May 2003, from http://www. ITSkillshub.com.au Snoke, R., & Underwood, A. (1998). Generic attributes of IS graduates—A Queensland study. 9th Australasian Conference on Information Systems, University of New South Wales, Sydney. Snoke, R., & Underwood, A. (1999). Generic attributes of IS graduates: An Australian IS academic study. 10th Australasian Conference on Information Systems, Wellington, New Zealand. Snoke, R., & Underwood, A. (2000). Generic attributes of IS graduates: A comparison of Australian industry and academic views. PACIS, Hong Kong. Snoke, R., Underwood, A., & Bruce, C. (2002). An Australian view of generic attributes coverage in undergraduate program of study: An information systems case study. Annual International Higher Education Research & Development Society of Australia (HERDSA) Conference, Perth, Australia.


Southam, K. (n.d.). Employers want IT workers with strong communication skills. Retrieved August 2003, from http://www.itskillshub.com.au Toleman, M., Roberts, D., & Ryan, C. (2004). Retrofitting generic graduate attributes: A case-study of information systems undergraduate programs. Issues in Information Science and Information Technology, Rockhampton, Australia. Trauth, E., Farwell, D., & Lee, D. (1993). The IS expectation gap: Industry expectations versus academic preparation. MIS Quarterly, 17(3), 293-307. Retrieved March 2003, from http://ist. psu.edu/cis/eileentrauth/publications/the%20IS %20expectation%20gap.pdf Turner, R., & Lowry, G. (1999). Educating information systems professionals: Towards a re-approachment between new graduates and employ-

ers. 10th Australasian Conference on Information Systems, Wellington, New Zealand. Van Slyke, C., Kittner, M., & Cheney, P. (1998). Skill requirements for entry-level IS graduates: A report from industry. Journal of Information Systems Education, 9(3), 7-12. Retrieved March 2003, from http://www.jise.appstate.edu/09/3007.pdf Wajcman, J. (2004). Technofeminism. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Williamson, K. (2002). Research methods for students, academics and professionals. Wagga Wagga, New South Wales: Charles Sturt University. Wong, S., Von Hellens, L., & Orr, J. (2000). Nontechnical skills and personal attributes: The soft skills matter most. WIC 2000.

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Chapter XVI

COCA:

Concept-Oriented Course Architecture Towards a Methodology for Designing and Teaching Information System Courses Youcef Baghdadi Sultan Qaboos University, Oman

Abstract This chapter introduces the concept-oriented course architecture (COCA); an architecture that utilizes IS concept as a fundamental building block to guide a methodology for designing and teaching IS courses. COCA aims at supporting rapid composition of IS course/curriculum out of a sound and complete set of IS concepts provided by well-specified business models, market or standardization organizations such as ACM and IEEE. COCA is defined, composed of three roles: (R1) concept providers, (R2) a concepts registry, and (R3) IS course/curriculum designers. These roles interact through four operations in order to design/teach an IS course/curriculum: (O1) publish, (O2) consider, (O3) validate, and (O4) teach. This methodology, based on a flexible, scalable, well-specified architecture of the IS concepts and their organization, will assist the complex and resource-consuming task of designing and teaching IS courses in the information age, where the IS tools, including management information systems (MIS) and information technology (IT) are rapidly evolving.

INTRODUCTION In the information age, businesses are becoming more and more customer centric, and their main role is to serve customers at their moment of value. They are focusing on information that describes the customer moment of value, that is, the delivery information related to: time (when to deliver), location (where to deliver), and form (form and quality of delivery) (Haag, Cummings,

& Dawkins, 1999). The information becomes then a key resource to gain competitive advantages (Laudon & Laudon, 2005). This has changed the way we view the concepts of information, information systems (IS), and the function of MIS, which mainly consists of planning for developing IT in order to capture, store, use, communicate, and manage the information (Haag et al., 1999; Kaplan et al., 2004). Accordingly, setting IS concepts and courses, composing flexible curricula out of them, and


COCA: Concept-Oriented Course Architecture

teaching these curricula needs to be flexible and even dynamic, which is a complex activity, yet of paramount importance to both education and market (Martin & Deans, 1994; McGinnis & Slauson, 2003). This requires a methodology based on a flexible, scalable, and well-specified architecture of the course concepts, their relationships, and their organization. This chapter introduces COCA as a paradigm that utilizes course concepts as a fundamental building block to build courses/curriculum. Course concepts are open concepts that support rapid composition of IS courses/curriculum out of a sound and complete set of IS concepts adapted to the market requirements, namely the business changing and IT innovation. They encapsulate the fundamental organization of IS discipline concepts and paradigms concepts, which are open components that support rapid composition of an IS course/curriculum. COCA is defined, composed of three roles:

• •

•

•

COCA aims at: •

• •

•

•

(R1) Providers of the concepts: They may be the instructors themselves, the standardization organizations such as the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) or the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the market; or well-recognized valid business models. However, COCA considers a valid business model as the main concepts provider. Indeed, we believe that we cannot design and teach IS courses/curriculum without having in mind a valid, flexible business model that represents the properties of today’s businesses. (R2) Registry of concepts: Where the providers register their concepts, a registry may be public or private. (R3) Designers of the IS courses/curriculum.

These roles interact through four operations in order to design or teach courses/curriculum:

(O1) Publish: Whereby the providers can publish their IS related concepts (O2) Consider: Whereby the courses/curriculum designers can look up and find the concepts in the registry in order to consider them in the composition of an IS courses/ curriculum (O3) Validate: Whereby the course/curriculum designers can validate the courses/curriculum they design against the providers (O4) Teach: Whereby the instructors can access the course/curriculum and the required tools to teach them

Providing guidance for a methodology to design and teach IS courses/curriculum as a composition out of a sound and complete set of concepts representing the business elements and their relationships. Providing IS teaching cases, where cases are steadily developed and introduced through progressive instantiations of COCA architecture. An instantiation consists of giving a real value to each element of the architecture.

Therefore, we first describe the most relevant properties of a business, with respect to the IS discipline, such as system, information, business systems, IS, and tools such as MIS and IT. Next, we develop a business model that represents the fundamental properties of the elements of today’s businesses, where the IS provides the right people with the right information at the right time. These elements are: (E1) customer; (E2) operation system and its related subsystems, which are the production system, logistics system, partners, and suppliers; (E3) management/control system; and (E4) IS (or subsystems built on top of it) and its related tools, namely MIS and IT. Then, we use the business model, as the main provider of the IS concepts, to build COCA.


Finally, we use COCA architecture as guidance for a methodology to (1) design IS courses, (2) compose IS curricula out of them, and (3) teach these courses/curricula using teaching cases, whereby the cases are steadily developed and introduced through progressive instantiations of COCA itself. An instantiation consists of giving a real value to each component of the architecture. The remainder of this chapter is organized as follows: the next section introduces what we consider a set of relevant properties of the business with respect to the IS discipline, namely the place and role of the information, IS, MIS, and IT. Section 3 develops the business model on top of which COCA is built. Section 4 details COCA architecture, namely the actors and the operations they perform to design and teach IS courses. Section 5 presents the teaching methodology. Finally a conclusion section presents further developments.

the relevAnt ProPertIes oF A busIness This section introduces the relevant properties of the elements of a business as fundamentals with respect to the IS discipline, namely the role and place of information, IS, MIS, and IT. Indeed, in the information age, businesses are becoming more and more customer centric, and their main role is to serve customers at their moment of value (Haag et al., 1999). The information describes the customer moment of value and becomes a key resource to gain competitive advantages. The information is provided by the IS, which is an IT-based representation (image) of the business (Baghdadi, 2005). Nowadays, IT does not only represent the business, but also enables it (e.g., ecommerce), which requires a specific function (the MIS) to plan for developing and managing it.

system A very simple definition of the concept of system considers it as “a set of interrelated elements seeking goals.” A minimal set of properties of a system are: • • • • • • •

Purposive, that is, it seeks a set of related goals Openness, that is, a system must be open in order to interact with the environment Reliability, that is, defects and mechanical failures are minimized Scalability, that is, a system must be extensible in terms of size Availability, that is, a system must be always available Interoperability, that is, a system must interoperate with other systems Maintenance, that is, a system must be maintainable

A system may be broken into smaller subsystems, where each subsystem is a system.

business Fundamentals Business operates in an economic, legal, social, cultural, and competitive environment that has an effect on the nature of its goods and/or services (Laudon & Laudon, 1999). This section summarizes the business fundamentals, including definitions, types, functions, and organization to further show the role and place of the IS, IT, and MIS as responsible for providing the right people with the right information at the right time.

Business Definitions Definition 1: General Perspective A business is a system (it inherits all the aforementioned properties of a system) that is concerned


with accomplishing certain goals. Its fundamental purpose is to produce and provide goods/services for its customers. Table 1 shows samples of different types of businesses depending on whether outputs are goods or services.

•

•

Definition 2: Customer-Centric Perspective Business serves it customers at their moment of value. (Haag et al., 1999)

•

Types of Businesses Businesses may be classified into traditional businesses seeking predefined goals and businesses that respond to events. The latter are event-driven businesses. An event-driven business is one that reacts to events by dynamically creating a flow of processes (Baghdadi, 2005).

•

Business Functions • To accomplish its purpose, a business must perform some functions such as manufacturing goods and products; buying and selling goods/services; managing and paying employees; recording the financial aspect of the operations; finding the required funds; doing research or developing new products; and particularly managing IS, which consists of planning for developing and managing IT.

•

Manufacturing function, also called operation, is responsible for acquiring materials, producing goods, controlling the manufacturing processes, and keeping (saving) the products. Marketing function sells goods and services. It is responsible for determining the products to sell and their prices, promoting by advertising the product, distributing, and making sales. Accounting function is responsible for recording and reporting financial data about the business’s assets, that is, items that the business owns like cash, equipment, building, and business’s liabilities, and data about revenues and expenses. Finance function is responsible for determining the best way for obtaining and planning money that the business needs. Money comes from sale of goods and services, investment, and loans from banks and other institutions. Human resources management function is responsible for hiring full-time or parttime employees (selecting and recruiting), training employees (to improve their skills), compensating employees (benefits and allowances), and terminating employees (retirement, resignation, and so on). Research and development function is responsible for developing new products or improving the processes.

Table 1. Categories of businesses Types of Businesses Goods

Examples

0

Manufacturer, wholesaler, retailer

Services Related to goods

Unrelated

Financial

After sale, repairer

Communication, transportation, hospitality, utility, government

Banking, insurance


•

MIS is the function responsible for developing IT as a support and enabler of business.

Business Organization The previous functions are realized by people who are grouped by functional areas (specific to functions); however, a business may be organized by projects or products. The arrangement of people who work for a business is often shown in a diagram called organization chart. The organization structure of a business varies for different businesses.

Information Businesses are focusing on information, which is a key resource to gain competitive advantages because it describes the customer moment of value.

2005). It mainly describes the customer moment of value. Haag et al. (1999) define the customer moment of value as “providing service when the customer wants it (time), where the customer wants it (location), how the customer wants it (form of delivery), and in a manner guaranteed to satisfy the customer (perfect delivery).” Definition 3: Technology Perspective Information is knowledge derived from data. Where data is defined as a relevant fact recorded in a certain code. Regardless of the perspective, information must have the following minimal set of properties: •

•

Definition of the Concept of Information • There are many definitions given to the term information. We consider here three definitions with respect to information science, business science, and technology. Definition 1: Information Science Perspective (Shannon definition) Information is the amount of uncertainty that is reduced when a message is received. (Slepian, 1974)

Information and Business Information supports business in different ways, basically information is needed for the aforementioned business functions (Laudon & Laudon, 1999) in order to: •

Definition 2: Business Science Perspective Information is defined as difference that makes difference. Information is used by businesses to gain competitive advantages (Laudon & Laudon,

Pertinent, that is, it must be related to business, especially the description of the customer moment of value Timely, that is, it should be neither after nor before, but at time Accurate, that is, it must be exact

•

Operate efficiently: Information related to objects and entities managed by the operations (e.g., employees, suppliers, customers, products, inventory, and so forth), and to the events that occur (e.g., absence, receiving goods, shipping goods, billing customers, and so on). Coordinate processes: Business processes (BP) and related activities (or functions) are performed by processors who are generally distributed, which implies that information


flow intra- and interorganizations. The main purpose of these information flows is to coordinate activities in order to efficiently perform the functions. Without these information flows, there is no coordination, that is the operations cannot be performed at all.

The management and control consists of making day-to-day, intermediate, or long-term decisions about issues related to the business, namely, what to do, how, who, when, and where. The management and control generally processes as follows: 1.

In addition to supporting and coordinating the BP, information is used to control them. Indeed, BP differ in their degree of structure, that is, structured or unstructured; and in the type of control on them, that is, operational control, management control, or strategic planning control, where:

2.

3. 4.

•

•

•

Operational control is the process of assuring that the specific activities are correctly carried out on a day-to-day basis. Management control is the process by which the managers assure that resources needed by the BP are obtained and used effectively. Strategic planning control is the process of deciding on the objectives of business and its BPs or on the changes of these objectives.

The degree of a process means the degree of human judgment and evaluation required in each activity of the BP. It may be structured, semistructured, or unstructured. •

•

A structured activity requires little judgment and evaluation. In this type of activity, much of decision making can be automated since all the parameters and variables of the business process are well known. An unstructured activity requires considerable judgments, evaluation, and human creativity. Unstructured activity is very difficult to automate since the values of the parameters and variables and even the formula are not well known.

choose the most relevant indicators of the business and customer moment of value. make future expectations on the states of the objects they manage by presetting the indicators values. allocate and control resources to reach these states. analyze the difference (if any) between the preset values and the realized values.

This process requires more or less summarized/detailed information depending on the level of the decision-maker. In general, they concern with the cost of business, the time of the BPs, the quantity, and the quality of the goods and services. Indicators are first estimated and set as expectations before the process starts working. After the realization, those indicators are set with the actual values and compared to the expectations in order to adjust the process. The information required by business to function effectively, to coordinate activities, and to manage and control the BPs is provided as services by an artifact called IS.

Information system IS are becoming more and more useful for all areas. Every organization needs IS to accomplish its behavior. Business is one of these areas, in which the IS is the artifact that provides BPs with the required information. This section introduces some definitions with respect to different perspectives, the types of IS, and the values added by the IS to the products/services, the BPs, and people.


Definitions of the Concept of IS

•

Definition 1: Information Science Perspective

• •

An information system is a system (it inherits all the aforementioned properties of a system) that produces information using input/storage/process/output cycle.

•

•

Open, that is, an IS must be open in order to interact with the environment Reliable, that is, defects and mechanical failures in an IS must be minimized Scalable, that is, an IS must be extensible in terms of size Available, that is, an IS must be always available to provide the right information at the right time to the right people Interoperable, that is, an IS must interoperate with other IS, namely those of the partners and suppliers Maintainable, that is, an IS must be maintainable Decomposable, that is, an IS may be broken into smaller subsystems, where each subsystem is an IS in its own

An IS consists of software, hardware, data, people, and procedures. The IS may be supported by many technologies.

•

Definition 2: Business Perspective

•

An information system is an image of the operation system used by the management/control system for an operational, managerial, or strategic planning control.

Types of IS

An IS exists only to serve the business system of which it is a component. It keeps track of the various facts, events, and objects of the business system. For instance, traditional IS are used to keep track of money or financial aspect. Definition 3: Linguistic Perspective Information system is the language of the organization. Its words and verbs are data structured to be concise, exact and accessible. (Peaucelle, 1981) Regardless of the perspective, an IS system inherits all the properties of a system. That is, it must be: • • •

Effective, that is, an IS satisfies the requirements of the organization Usable, that is, an IS is easy to use, or friendly Purposive, that is, an IS seeks a set of related goals

Since BPs differ in their structure and the type of control on them, a business does not need the same IS for each type of BP. For instance, dayto-day activities need a system that supports and processes daily transactions, whereas the management control needs a management IS that contains the fundamental measures of the process. That is, there are different types of IS that support business’s operations. Transaction processing systems (TPS) are used for an operation control of the structured processes, MIS1 are used for the management of the structured processes, decision support systems (DSS) are used for unstructured processes for any type of control, executive support systems (EIS) are used for strategic planning, control of the structured processes, and finally the office automation systems (OAS) are used anywhere. Each of these types of IS improves the BP coordination, makes the BP more efficient, reduces errors and mistakes, makes a better working environment, and particularly adds value to the BP, people, and products/services.


The Add-Value of the IS The IS can add value in many ways. They help businesses and individuals improve the product/ services that they produce, the BPs they use to produce them, and the people involved in the BP. IS can help people to solve problems and make better decisions. Add-Value to Problem Solving and Decision Making Information provided by the IS can improve the quality of decision. To do this, the IS facilitates activities in each of the stages of problem solving. The IS may be used to expand the boundaries of the problem and increase the rationality of the decision. That is the IS can provide greater intelligence on the problem, by developing more alternatives, considering more criteria in choice, reducing the risk, increasing the speed of the implementation, and providing more knowledge about the effectiveness of the implementation. The most suitable type of information systems is the OAS, which can be employed to improve communication throughout the BPs. Other types of IS such as TPS and MIS can also provide intelligence about the problem. Both TPS and MIS can be used to facilitate the monitoring of the solution; IS can be used to generate and evaluate mathematical models of alternatives. Add-Value to Products/Services The IS supports products/services by enhancing features or adding new characteristics such as documentation, mode of use, or care instructions. Products differ also in the delivery such as: delivery time, delivery location, and delivery quality (convenience in the way they are delivered). The delivery can create new levels of customers’ expectations and change the nature of the product/service. The IS not only enhance product characteristics, but also improve product

delivery such as credit card, automatic teller machine (ATM), automated organizational purchasing systems, facilitating product delivery, and delivery information. The IS then plays a role of paramount importance for the business. It is its central nerve. Its place in a business is represented in a business model. The whole picture is formalized into what we call a business model, which is introduced in the next section.

the busIness Model We believe that it is not possible to teach IS without having in mind what exactly is a business. Meanwhile, human beings cannot understand and master complexity without intellectual mechanisms, namely, decomposition, abstraction, and modeling. A business modeling aims at representing the relevant properties of business, including the structure and the behavior at different levels of abstraction such as conceptual, logical, and physical level (Zackman, 1996), or with different perspectives such as commerce, collaboration, communication, connection, and computation (Zwass, 2003). Not only a business model allows us to set the place and the role of the IS within the business (Baghdadi, 2005), but it also helps understanding the powerful tools such as implementing IT, and managing function, that is the MIS. The MIS deals with the planning for development, management, and use of IT tools to help people perform the tasks related to information processing and management (Haag et al., 1999). Therefore, a business model constitutes a framework or an architecture to steadily develop course concepts, then IS courses, and finally IS curriculum out of them. The elements of this business model will constitute the components of the architecture. Figure 1 shows the different components, which are: (E1) customer; (E2) opera-


tion system and its related subsystems which are the production system, logistics system, partners, and suppliers; (E3) management/control system; and (E4) IS (or subsystems built on top of it) and its related tools (MIS and IT).

elements of the Model We introduce a very simple business model to represent how a business functions through its backbone element, that is, the IS. We consider the fundamental structural elements at a very high conceptual level in order to capture the most common properties to all businesses, independently of the managerial, organizational, and technical perspectives. Indeed, these changing perspectives will make a difference between businesses types and performance, that is, businesses of the same type in terms of goods/services may perform differently when they are managed, organized, or use technology differently. That is why the management mode and particularly IT makes a difference. In what follows is a specification of the elements of the proposed business model, which are: (E1) customer; (E2) operation system and its related subsystems; (E3) management/control system; and (E4) IS (or subsystems built on top of it) and its related tools, namely, MIS and IT.

Customers Today, businesses are more customer centric, that is, they serve their customers at their moment of value, that is, the time, location, and quality of the delivery. Businesses are becoming more and more event driven, where events are triggered by customers. The business model captures the following customer properties: • • •

Type (individual, organization) Moment of value Behavior

Operation System The operation system consists of all the BPs (or activities) and their processors (human or machines) that are directly or indirectly involved in transforming input into output to respond to a business event such as customer order. This set of BPs constitutes what is called value chain. The operation system involves the production system, the logistics system, the partners, the services providers, and the suppliers. The business model captures the following operation system properties: • • •

Type (event driven or predefined) Value chain: The primary BPs and the secondary BPs Involved systems that are production systems, partners, suppliers, services providers, and logistic systems

Production System The production system consists mainly of business assets. It responds to business events by realizing the primary BPs of the value chain. Businesses are classified into traditional businesses seeking predefined goals, and businesses that respond to events. The latter are event-driven businesses. An event-driven business is one that reacts to events by dynamically creating a flow of processes. A goaldriven business is one that has a set of predefined goals materialized by output. It uses predefined processes to transform input into output. The production system cooperates with the logistic system, the partners, and suppliers to generate the required output. Logistics System The logistics system is responsible for providing the production system with the required logistics; its implements the secondary processes such as


Figure 1. Elements of the business model and their relationships

Information system

business Management/control system

Strategic

Uses

Built-in Subsystems

Managerial

Intra- and inter enterprise Integration

customers Operational

Uses

SS

SS i

SS n

Delivery

Uses as tools Controls

It

MIs

Order

Develops

Represents/Mirrors

operation systems: Production, logistics, Partners, suppliers

Behavior

System

Is-a relationship

Tool

Exchange

Integration

Hierarchy


development process, human resources management, and so forth. Partners The partners are the main collaborators of the business, which are directly involved with the production system. They realize a part of the primary BPs. Service Providers A service provider is a kind of partner that provides services to the production system whenever this latter deems necessary to outsource some activities of its primary BPs. Suppliers The suppliers are businesses such as parts suppliers, raw material suppliers or services providers. They provide the business with the required raw material, parts, and processes that participate to respond to events.

It is not possible for the business management/ control system to manage and control the operation system visibly because the real operation system contains a number of various elements. It needs an artifact that mirrors the operation system in terms of pertinent information (variables). This artifact is the IS.

Information System The IS is a technology-based image of all the elements of the business including business events, input, output, production system, logistic system, partners, and suppliers. This image is used by the business management/control system for mainly controlling the operation system. That is, the IS is the main information provider of the business management/control system. The business model captures the following IS properties: • • •

Business Management/Control System The business management/control system consists mainly of people who manage and control the operation system. A control may be operational, managerial, or strategic. It consists of planning the BPs activities, allocating resources to these activities, and controlling them. The business model captures the following business management/control system properties: • • •

Type of control (operational, managerial, strategic) Variables required for the control, including estimated values and real values People involved

•

Content, that is, what is represented by the information system in terms of data IT used for the representation Procedures such as security are manual procedures used by people in the information system People who perform the procedures

The IS is a technology-based representation of the operation system, the customers, and the environment. IT IT is a set of computer-based tools such as input/ output tools, software, and networks. It is used to mirror the operation system in the IS. These tools are used to capture, convey, create, store, communicate, and manage information about customers, production system, logistic system, partners, suppliers, and even competitors.


The IT itself is managed and controlled by a function called MIS. MIS MIS is the function of planning for developing, managing, and using IT tools to help knowledge workers to act efficiently with information (Haag et al., 1999). Knowledge workers participate actively in the function of MIS by developing their own systems. We consider that at a conceptual level, there is only one monolithic IS, that of the business. Actually, the IS is made up of various subsystems. Functional areas and individuals have their own IS (daily recorded information) supporting and enabling day-to-day operations. Moreover, people in the management/control system do not use all information provided by the IS to perform their activities. People involved in managerial operations use summarized information, whereas people dealing with strategic decisions use very strategic information. That is, people in the management/control system will use subsystems of the IS, which we call built-in subsystems. Built-In Subsystems The business management/control system uses some built-in subsystems such as MIS and EIS, which extract information from the IS. For instance, the MIS and EIS extract their information from the TPS, so that they are built on top of it.

Relationships Between the Elements The elements of the aforementioned model are related to each other through the following relationships, which represent how business behaves with information and related technologies.

Behavioral Relationships The behavioral relationships show the relationships between the elements of the business in 338

terms of how these elements behave using or controlling each other. There are four relationships: represents, controls, uses, and develops. Represents Relationship This relationship shows that IT is used to represent/mirror the operation system as an artifact we call the IS. Therefore, the IS is a technologybased representation of the universe of discourse (operation system). The quality of an IS, namely the services it provides (in terms of information) will largely depend on the modeler and the IT s/he uses to mirror the operation system. Uses Relationship The business management/control system uses the subsystems of the IS or some built-in subsystems to get the right information at the right time in order to manage and control all the business functions. The operational control and to a less extent the managerial control use the functional area/individual subsystems of the IS (SSi in Figure 1), whereas the strategic control uses built-in subsystems that represents the main control variables such as an executive IS or a DSS. The built-in systems extract and integrate information from the functional area/individual subsystems of the IS (SSi in Figure 1) using the intra-and interenterprise integration mechanisms. Controls Relationship This relationship shows how the business management/control controls, through the IS, all the business functions, including those of the operation system and the MIS function as well. Has Relationship The IS has two powerful tools, which are the MIS and IT. These two tools are related to each other in a relationship called “develops” as follows:


Develops and Manages Relationship The MIS function plans for developing and managing the required IT to get the right, accurate, and consistent representation of the operation system and the customers and help knowledge workers to act efficiently with information. Knowledge workers participate actively in the function of MIS by developing their own systems.

COCA aims at: •

•

Specialization Relationships The specialization relationships show how systems are specialized. For instance the business management/control system is specialized into operational control, managerial control, and strategic control. The built-in subsystems are specializations of the IS. This relationship is a powerful mechanism that is used to categorize the functionality of the system itself.

COCA architecture involves three roles as shown in Figure 2. •

Exchange Relationships The exchange relationships emphasize what the business exchanges with its customers. This relationship is of paramount importance. It concerns with the customer moment of value. The aforementioned business model will be used to build an architecture that embeds all the concepts it represents.

CoCa: CONCEPT-ORIENTED COURSE ARCHITECTURE COCA is a paradigm that utilizes course concepts as a fundamental building block for designing and teaching IS courses/curriculum. Course concepts are open concepts that support rapid composition of IS courses and consequently IS curricula out of them. Course concepts encapsulate the fundamental organization of the concepts and paradigms of the IS discipline.

Providing guidance for a methodology to design and teach IS courses and curricula as a composition of the concepts that present the business elements and the relationships between them. Providing IS teaching cases, where the cases are steadily developed and introduced through progressive instantiations of COCA architecture. An instantiation consists of giving a real value to each element of the architecture.

•

•

(R1) Providers of the concepts: They may be the instructors themselves, the standardization organizations such as the ACM or the IEEE, the market, namely, fortune enterprises, or well-recognized valid business models. However, COCA considers a valid business model as the main concepts provider. Indeed, we claim that we cannot design and teach IS courses/curricula without having in mind a valid, flexible business model that represents the properties of today’s businesses. Therefore, the providers may be specialized into instructors, business models, standardization organizations, and market. (R2) Registry of concepts: Where the providers register their concepts. The registry for the course concepts is a public or private repository of the concepts. For instance, education institutions such as universities/ministries of higher education or well recognized institutions such as ACM (Nunamaker & Jae, 1981) or IEEE can play the role of a public registry. A university may have its private registry. (R3) Designers: Of the IS courses/curriculum, these may be the instructors or the curriculum committees involved in teaching courses and curriculum. 339


This architecture requires that the concepts are semantically described in a standard way, in order to be accessible and reusable in a large community of IS. It mainly consists of: • • •

•

Concept identification Concept description Concept provider

These three roles interact according to four operations: •

•

(O1) Publish: The provider of the concepts publishes the most important concepts that he/she considers necessary to incorporate into an IS course or curriculum. If the provider is a business model, such as the one depicted in Figure1, then the courses concepts are a mapping of the business model

•

elements and their relationships. However, the provider may be the market, or a wellrecognized organization that provides a kind of “standard” concepts of IS. (O2) Consider: The course/curriculum designer/instructor considers the concepts while he/she wants to compose an IS courses/curriculum out of a set of validated concepts. (O3) Validate: This operation involves validating the composed course/curriculum against the concept providers. That is, the designed IS course/curriculum should be validated by the market or by a theory of IS before being taught to students. (O4) Teach: The designed IS courses and curriculum are mapped into courses’ syllabi which are taught by the instructors.

Figure 2. COCA architecture: Actors and operations

Concepts Registry 2. Considers concepts 1. Publishes concepts

Course/Curriculum Designers 3. Validates concepts

4. Teaches

Concepts Providers

Instructors

Actor

340

Business Model

Standardization

Operation

Market

Specialization


This chapter assumes that the main provider of the course concepts is a business model. That is, the registry will contain a set of concepts that are a mapping of the elements of the business model as shown in Table 2. Each element/relationship of the business model depicted in Figure 1 will be mapped into a set of concepts related to the IS discipline. These concepts are then registered in a public/private registry to be further used by the IS courses/curriculum developers and instructors.

METHODOLOGY FOR DESIGNING AND TEACHING IS COURSES The proposed methodology mainly consists of two parts, whereby part 1 deals with the design of the IS courses/curriculum, and part 2 deals with the teaching method.

Design of IS Courses/Curriculum The IS courses/curriculum design is guided by a COCA architecture as shown in Table 3, whereby the main provider of the course concepts is the proposed business model. A set of these concepts is shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Mapping of the business model into components Element/Component Customer

Concept  Type (e.g., individual/organization)

 B2C/B2B

 Moment of value

 Web applications (dynamic content, proactive, customization)

 Behavior  Pareto law (distribution of the customers) Operation system: Production System Logistic system

Technology

 Type of businesses (e.g., product/services, profit/ nonprofit)

 E-business:

 Characteristics of business

 Workflow systems

Input

 Business models

Output

 Type of products/services (e.g., hard, soft)  Adding value to products/services

 EAI  BPM  ERP

 Value chain  primary BP, secondary BP  Different types of BP (e.g., structured, unstructured),  Adding value to BP  BP flow  Coordination mechanisms  Resources and costs (e.g., HR)  Enterprise architecture Partners, Suppliers

 Crossing BP  BP interfaces  Extended enterprise  Virtual organizations

 E-business: B2B integration  Service-oriented architecture (SOA)  Web services continued on following page

341


Table 2. continued Management/Control System

 Different types of control (e.g., operational, managerial, and strategic)  Problem solving and decision making processes  Organization horsepower  Role of the information

Information System

 Problem solving and decision making techniques  Data warehouse  Portal

 Knowledge worker (role)

 IT

 Data as language of the business

 E~R

 Information properties

 Databases

 Information as a key resource

 Object-orientation

 Role and place within business

 Component-based

 Security of information

 UML

 Representation (e.g., modeling, formalization, language, notations, CASE tools)

 Client-server

 Built-in subsystems

 BPM, BPR

 Web services

 Types of IS (TPS, MIS, DSS, OAS, EIS)  Quality of services provided by IS (security, availability, reliability, scalability, interoperability)

MIS



Methodologies



Reverse engineering

 Organizational horsepower

 KM

 IT development

 BPM

 Alignment business-IT

 Project management

 Managing the information resource  Project management  Evaluation of IS  Budget, decision-support  Emerging technology  Knowledge worker (role)  Security of information  Privacy  Ethics IT

 Computer-based tools to manipulate information (input, output, software, storage, and communication technologies)  Role of IT as business support  Role of IT as business enabler  Role of the Internet, intranet, extranet  Wireless  Security of information, privacy and ethics

342


Accordingly, the design method consists of the following steps as shown in Figure 3:

•

Step 1: Mapping the Business Model into a Set of Concepts

Step 2: Publishing the Concepts in a Public/Private Registry

This step consists of mapping the elements of the business model into a set of concepts that IS students should learn. For instance, in the information age, any IS student should have in mind the importance of the information, namely, that information related to customer (e.g., moment of value, type, and behavior). This step results in a set of well-specified courses in term of: •

•

Concept provider: In the proposed method, the provider is an accompanying business model; however, it may be another business model, the market, or a standardization organization.

The resulting concepts from Step 1 are published in a public or a private registry. A private registry may be the education institution itself (e.g., university) or any of its related institutions (e.g., ministry of education). A public registry may be a standardization organization (e.g., ACM), or any IS organization such as the association of IS. The public registry may help in the standardization of the IS concept specification (e.g., identification, description).

Concept identification: The concepts can be identified using a kind of taxonomy. For instance, they can be identified as related to the elements of the business model (e.g., customer, operation system, control system, IS, MIS, or IT). They can also be classified with regard to some level of the students (e.g., freshman, graduate). Concept description: To be more specific, concept ontology can be used for a semantic description of the concept.

Step 3: Designing the IS Course/Curriculum Architecture The IS course/curriculum designer provides the architecture of the IS course/curriculum in terms of:

Table 3. Methodology guided by COCA architecture COCA components Actor Provider Provider/Registry

Design of IS course/curriculum

Operation

Publish

Designer

Step

Specification

Input

Output

1

Mapping the business model into a set of concepts

Business model

Specified concepts

2

Publishing the concepts in a public/private registry

Specified concepts

Registered concepts

3

Designing the IS course/ curriculum architecture

Registry + Own concepts

Courses/curriculum architecture

Designer/Registry

Consider

4

Composing IS course/ curriculum out of the registered concepts

Course/curriculum architecture

Composed courses/ cu-rriculum

Designer/Provider

Validate

5

Validating IS course/ curriculum

Composed course/ curriculum

Validated courses/ cu-rriculum

343


Figure 3. Method for designing IS courses/curriculum

Business Model

Step 1: Map the business model into a set of concepts

Provider

Specified Concepts

Step 2: Publish the concepts in a public/private registry

Public/Private Concepts Registry

Designer Vision

Designer

Step 3: Design the IS course/curriculum architecture

Course/Curriculum Architecture

Step 4: Compose IS course/curriculum

Composed Course/Curriculum Designer Step 5: Validate IS course/curriculum Provider

Validated Course/Curriculum

•

•

344

The concepts of the course/curriculum. That is, a sound and complete set of concepts related to the course or the curriculum. The relationship between the concepts. That is, the course/curriculum flows, whereby the designer sets the prerequisites for each concept involved in the course/curriculum.

Step 4: Composing IS Course/Curriculum out of the Registered Concepts After having specified the IS courses/curriculum architecture, the designer looks up in the private/ public registry to compose the IS courses/curriculum out of the registered concepts. Here,


the standardization plays a role of primordial importance to overcome any limitation caused by the heterogeneity of the concepts specification. Indeed, each designer (e.g., education institution) uses its own language to specify the concepts (e.g., identify, describe), which may differ from the registered specification.

Step 5: Validating IS Course/Curriculum The resulting IS courses/curriculum should be validated against the concept providers. That is, the designed IS course/curriculum should be validated by the market or by a theory of IS before being taught to students.

cessories, and gradually selling many brands. Figure 4 shows an instance of the business model, where the instantiations of each element and each relationship are shown in italic. Through this business model instance, students should steadily understand the different elements/relationships of the model and concepts related to them. This will help in approaching the development of an IS, after having understood its role, place, and usage, going steadily inside its main components that are: •

Teaching Method The first process has dealt with the design and validation of IS course/curriculum. In the second process, the designed IS course/curriculum will be taught having in mind that students should be introduced to the discipline of IS through a very simple instance of COCA architecture, built on top of a business model. The following steps constitute the teaching method:

•

•

Step 1: Select the Course to Teach Let us assume that we have built an IS course called “Fundamentals of IS” made up of some crossing concepts, that is, concepts that are related to different elements of the business model as shown in Table 2.

Step 2: Make the Case Study The methodology will start with a small business such as a small shop that sells mobile phones as a case study. The case will be steadily extended to consider more perspectives. The shop starts with selling only one brand of mobile phones, then its ac-

•

•

•

Data: These are records representing the relevant properties of business objects such as phones (price, brand, quantity) and their providers (phone , address), bills (date, amount), customers (phone, address, balance), and employees (ID, name, phone). Information: This is obtained after processing data recorded such as daily sales, weekly sales, daily costs, and so on. The IS provides the business management/control system (shop owner and salesperson) with information not with data. Software: These are composed of generic applications such as office applications (Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel) and specific applications implementing the business functions and BPs (e.g., selling, billing, and buying primary BP and hiring and managing activities of the salesperson, maintaining the shop and the car as secondary BP). Network: These are used to communicate data within and outside the enterprise (phones, faxes, LAN, Internet). Procedures: These are security procedures or replacement procedures if the computer system becomes unavailable or unreliable. People: They are responsible for the procedures. For instance, the salesperson is responsible for the daily operations and the watchman is responsible for the security.

345


Figure 4. A case study: An instantiation of the business model

Information System

Business Management/Control System

Built-in Subsystems Weekly Volume of sales + Cost + Brand Market

Uses

Shop owner + salesperson

Strategic: Owner planning for more brands

Customers: Shop customers

Managerial: Salesperson Weekly sales + Cost

operational: Salesperson Day-to-day Sales and purchases

Delivery: Counter Any business time order: By phone Direct Sale

Intra- and inter enterprise Integration: Windows OLE +Fax

SS 1 Purchase Record

Uses

SS 2 Sales Record & Bills

Uses as tools

Controls

MIS:

Owner planning for IT: Internet + Web server + Web Application + EC

IT:

Computer + Printer + Fax

Develops

Represents/Mirrors

operation Systems: Production, Logistics, Partners, Suppliers

Shop + Phones + Salesperson + Car + Phones Providers + (selling, billing, and buying primary BP) + (hiring and managing activities of the salesperson, maintaining the shop and the car as secondary BP) Behavior

System

346

Is-a relationship

Tool

Exchange

Integration

Hierarchy


CONCLUSION We advocated that, in the information age, the design of IS courses and curricula requires a methodology based on a flexible, scalable, wellspecified architecture of the concepts related to the IS discipline. Therefore, we have set the main objectives of such an architecture, which consists of: •

•

Providing guidance for a methodology to design and teach IS courses and curriculum as a composition of the concepts that present the business elements and the relationships between them. Providing IS teaching cases, where the cases are steadily developed and introduced through progressive instantiations of the architecture. An instantiation consists of giving a real value to each element of the architecture.

We have specified COCA architecture as composed of three roles: (R1) provider of the concepts, which may be the instructors themselves, valid business models, standardization organizations, or the market; (R2) designer of the IS course/curriculum; and (R3) a public/private registry of IS concepts. These roles interact to design and teach IS courses and curriculum through four operations: (1) publish, whereby the providers can publish their IS related concepts; (2) consider, whereby the courses/curriculum can find the course concepts in the registry in order to compose IS courses/curriculum designers out of them; (3) validate, whereby the course/curriculum designer can validate the course/curriculum he/she has designed; and finally (4) teach, whereby the instructors can access the course/curriculum and the required tools to teach them. Although the market and the standardization organizations may provide IS concepts, we have emphasized, in this chapter, that the main

concepts provider should be a business model that represents the fundamental properties of the elements of today’s businesses, where the IS provides the right people with the right information at the right time and space. These elements are: (E1) customer; (E2) operation system and its related subsystems, which are the production system, logistics system, partners, and suppliers; (E3) management/control system; and (E4) IS (or subsystems built on top of it) and its related tools, namely, MIS and IT. Finally, we have shown how we can use COCA architecture as guidance for a methodology based on teaching cases, which are steadily developed and introduced through progressive instantiations of COCA itself. An instantiation consists of giving a real value to each component of the architecture. This approach is of paramount importance to both education and market willing to educate people working with information. This work can be further extended to consider other providers of the courses’ concepts and a standardization of the IS related course concepts with a semantics specification.

REFERENCES Baghdadi, Y. (2005). A business model for deploying Web services: A data-centric approach based on factual dependencies. International Journal of Information Systems and e-Business Management, 3(2), 151-173. Haag, S., Cummings, M., & Dawkins, J. (1999). Management information system for information age. Irwin McGraw-Hill. IEEE Computer Society and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). (2001). Computing curricula 2001: Computer science. Retrieved May 29, 2003 from http://www.acm.org/sigcse/ cc2001/cc2001.pdf

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Kaplan, B., et al. (2004). Information systems research: Relevant theory and informed practice. In B. Kaplan, D. P. Truex, D. Wastell, A. T. WoodHarper, & J. I. Degross (Eds.). Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (1999). Essentials management information systems. Prentice Hall. Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2005). Management information systems: Managing the digital firm. Prentice Hall. Martin, D. G., & Deans, P. C. (1994). A comparative study of information system curriculum in U.S. and foreign universities. ACM SIGMIS Database, 25(1), 7-20. McGinnis & Slauson. (2003). Advancing local degree programs using the IS model curriculum. Information Systems Education Journal, 1(37). Retrieved from http://isedj.org/1/37/ Nunamaker, Jay F. (Ed.). (1981). A report of the ACM curriculum committee on information systems. Communications of the ACM, 24(3), 124-133.

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Peaucelle, J. L. (1981). Systèmed’information: La représentation. Paris: PUF. Pomykalski. (2003). Critical thinking through writing in information systems courses. Information Systems Education Journal, 1(38). Slepian, D. (Ed.). (1974). Key papers in the development of information theory. New York: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. Zackman, J. A. (1996). Concepts of the framework for enterprise architecture. Los Angeles: Zackam International. Zwass, V. (2003). Electronic commerce and organizational innovation: Aspects and opportunities. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 7(3), 7-37.

Endnote

1

MIS used here is a type of IS; it is not the MIS function that plans for developing IT.

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Chapter XVII

Enhancing the Employability of ICT Students with Hybrid Skills: Insights from a UK Survey with Small Business Managers Yanqing Duan University of Bedfordshire, UK Daoliang Li China Agricultural University (East Campus), Beijing Yongmei Bentley University of Bedfordshire, UK

Abstract This chapter describes an empirical study that aimed to collect UK small business managers’ views on the importance of staff skills in supporting their business operations and success. The study formed an important part of the HAPPINESS Project funded by the European Commission. The project proposed a hybrid skills model for identifying skill needs to meet the demand in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) across Europe. It is argued that a competent ICT worker should possess not only technical skills, but also other skills such as skills in communication and management, and skills to enable them to operate effectively in a business environment. This argument is discussed in the literature and supported by the empirical evidence collected in the survey conducted with UK small business managers. The hybrid training approach proposed by HAPPINESS attempts to address the problem of skills shortage in ICT by developing appropriate training needs identification methods and matching the identified personal training needs with a proposed hybrid training provision. The challenge, however, remains for higher education institutes and training organizations to prepare ICT students to respond to the hybrid skill needs of enterprises.


Enhancing the Employability of ICT Students with Hybrid Skills

IntroductIon Rapid development in emerging ICT, such as the Internet, the World Wide Web, e-commerce, and e-business has brought about enormous opportunities as well as challenges for companies of all sizes and across all sectors. The huge potential benefit of ICT, however, can only be realized by capable managers and skilled employees. As a result, managers and workers are under greater pressure than ever before. An employers skill survey showed that for the first time skills shortage has emerged as the chief worry facing directors of Britain’s leading firms (“Skill shortage,” 2001). The demand for highly knowledgeable and skilled workforces places enormous pressure upon companies to recruit more qualified and capable employees and to improve the skills of their current employees. Much of the literature on ICT skills is concerned with skill shortages and the trends of the labor market. With limited studies on skill needs analysis, a common theme emerging from the literature is the growing demand for “hybrid” ICT staff. There are a number of definitions of hybrid, but all suggest a need for more than just technical expertise. Connor (1992) and Yellowbrick (1995) describe hybrid staff as possessing a wide range of technical and “complementary” skills. Earl and Skyrme (1992) define hybrids as “people with technical skills who are able to work in user areas doing a functional job, but adept at developing and implementing ICT application ideas.” Dench, Perryman, and Giles (1998) go even further, arguing that ICT staff needs six types of skills: (1) technical skills; (2) skills understanding business needs; (3) consultancy skills; (4) management skills; (5) problem solving and analytical skills; and (6) personal characteristics and interpersonal skills. Kodz, Dench, Pollard, and Evans (1998) also suggest six key skills, but with slightly different focuses. These are: (1) communication, (2) numeracy, (3) information technology, (4) work-

0

ing with others, (5) improving own learning and performance, and (6) problem solving. This chapter presents an empirical study that aimed to investigate SME managers’ perceptions on the importance of hybrid skills of ICT staff in supporting their business success. The survey was an important part of the HAPPINESS Project. HAPPINESS (Holistic APProach to INventing European Staff Solutions) was a 2-year pilot project funded by European Commission’s Leonardo Da Vinci program. The project involved five European partners from Austria, Greece, Italy, Spain, and the UK. The project proposed a hybrid skills model for identifying skill needs for ICT staff to meet the demand in SMEs across Europe. It is argued by the HAPPINESS project that a competent ICT worker should not only possess technical skills, but also other key skills such as skills in communication and management, and skills to enable them to operate effectively in a business environment. Existing training designs seem to put too much emphasis on technical aspects, but underestimate the importance of other key skills and competence. The survey findings confirm the importance of ICT staff’s hybrid skills from small business managers’ point of view and add further empirical evidence to support the call for a change in ICT staff training design and development in education and training organizations. The proposed hybrid training approach by HAPPINESS attempts to address the skill shortage problem in ICT areas by developing appropriate training needs identification methods and matching the identified personal training needs with the proposed hybrid training recommendations. The emergence of e-commerce and e-business has brought profound impact on the ICT skills shortage and demand. As a result of the globalization, many large organizations are outsourcing ICT software and service operations to less expensive and more skilled workers in developing countries. This role of globalization seems to have less impact on ICT outsourcing among small businesses due to their different


characteristics. The study reported in the chapter focused on general ICT professions working in UK SMEs. It is believed that small business managers place more emphasis on the importance of having hybrid skills than large organizations. The term SME commonly refers to small and medium-sized enterprises but these firms can differ significantly in terms of employee numbers. The European Union’s definition of SME suggests that a small business includes 10-99 employees, and that a medium-sized business includes 100250 employees. A micro-enterprise includes less than 10 employees (Ramsey et al. 2003). In this study SME refers to Value Added Tax (VAT) registered companies in the UK with employee numbers between 10 and 250. This is a working definition defined and used by the UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). The chapter first reviews the relevant literature on changing ICT skill needs in enterprises due to the rapid development in the digital economy, the drivers for the change, the importance of possessing hybrid skills by future ICT employees, and the skills shortage in SMEs. It then describes the aims of the empirical investigation and the development of a hybrid skills model to inform the survey questionnaire design. The main argument and the research methodology adopted are discussed. A competence biography exercise based on the hybrid skills model was conducted with some future ICT employees to assess their hybrid skills gap. The chapter finally presents the findings and highlights the important implications of the study to training organizations and individual future job hunters.

lIterAture revIeW changing skills requirements and drivers of the change Sacchanand (2000) argues that society is undergoing a transformation evoked by the rapid

development and diffusion of ICT. A high degree of computerization and an increase in the volume of electronic information, coupled with global access to information via the telecommunications infrastructure, are some of the factors underlying the present process of transformation. As a result, organizations of the 21st century are increasingly dependent on ICT. This view is strongly echoed by Kakabadse and Korac-Kakabadse (2000), who claim that ICT are seen to play an increasingly important strategic role in the business of all organizations. Due to the changes in modern organizations, a new and changing role, and set of expectations have emerged for ICT workers (Evans, 2003). In addition to the rapid change in technology, other factors are also influencing the skills needed by ICT specialists. In particular, the ICT function has become more fully integrated into the business process and is facing many of the pressures experienced more generally in businesses (Dench, 1998). Kakabadse and KoracKakabadse (2000) examine the changing role of ICT professionals and highlight the need for new skills and capabilities required for the new millennium. They argue that current trends in IS/IT have not only changed the way business is conducted in the world and accelerated the trend towards globalization, but also vastly expanded the role of IS/IT departments. It is evident that although essential, sound technical skills are rarely sufficient to operate effectively in ICT (Dench, 1998), technology has to be appropriately applied to meet the rapidly changing business needs. ICT specialists need a broad base of skills to enable them to introduce technological solutions in modern organizations. Newton, Hurstfield, Miller, Page, and Akroyd (2005) revealed that 55% of the UK employers believe that the drivers of the changing skills requirement are new technologies. More specifically, Dench (1998) points out that the main changes influencing the skills required of ICT staff include:


•

• • • •

A closer relationship to business needs and the development of a client/customer focus. The emergence of the knowledgeable user Pressure on costs and delivery times The rate and nature of technological change/ A refocusing of activities—the focus is very much on providing the expertise to implement and tailor “proprietary” applications to meet the needs of end users.

Importance of technical skills The demand for professional ICT skills continues to expand in the UK—for both fundamental operating systems and programming languages and new Internet-related skills (Connor, Hillage, Millar, & Willison 2002). To operate effectively, there is no doubt that ICT specialists do need sound technical knowledge and expertise. The rate of change in ICT has a profound impact on the technical skills needed of ICT specialists. It is not just that new technologies appear, but that existing ones are constantly being adapted and updated. Furthermore, the range of applications and systems has increased. As a consequence, those working in ICT need a broader portfolio of technical skills than in the past (Dench, 1998). Connor et al. (2002) found that the top ranking technical skills sought by employers in the UK are those associated with the Windows/NT operating system. Other key areas include Microsoft applications (e.g., Access, Office, and Publisher), the Unix operating system, and, to a lesser extent, the C and C++ programming languages. Demand is growing, especially for people skilled in newer languages and operating systems such as Java, Perl, XML, and Linux and the Internet-related areas of HTML and JavaScript. It is also critical for ICT professionals to constantly update their technical knowledge and skills, as argued again by Dench (1998) that ICT specialists need the ability to keep up to

date with technical skills which might involve a totally different approach to those they are used to. The technical architecture in organizations is becoming extremely complex. New systems might be introduced alongside old ones, and these are expected to relate to each other. ICT specialists need to be technically multiskilled. A depth of knowledge is needed in some areas to enable them to develop appropriate applications and deal with deep-rooted problems. However, ICT specialists also need to understand a wider range of technologies and how they interweave within organizations (Dench, 1998). ICT specialists are expected to be able to identify the potential offered by newly emerging technologies to bring technology to the business. Therefore, sound knowledge of what emerging technologies can offer is essential. It is clear that in being a competent ICT worker it is fundamentally essential to possess the adequate technical understanding and skills. It is also a necessity to be able to constantly update their existing knowledge and skills in response to the rapid change of the ICT technologies.

Importance of nontechnical skills There are still some jobs that require “pure techies,” those who want to shut themselves away and just work with the technology. However, these types of role are increasingly rare. As Connor et al. (2002) point out that while ICT professionals need advanced technical skills, they also need to be able to apply them by working with others in a flexible way and understanding their customers’ requirements and business environment. They, therefore, also need high levels of generic skills such as problem solving, communication, team working, and numeracy skills. Many people (Brackley, 1996; Dench, 1998; Evans, 2003; Kakabadse & Korac-Kakabadse 2000; Lowry & Turner 2005; Stokes & West 2003; Turner & Lowry, 2002, 2003) acknowledge the changing needs in ICT professionals and stress


the importance of nontechnical skills. They argue that “technical skills are not enough.” There is an increasing demand on so called “soft” skills and “people” skills. ICT specialists should have a sound understanding of the business and what is required with the business, combined with a technical competence, which enables them to understand what is required in technical terms (Brackley, 1996). “The ideal IS/IT professionals of the twenty-first century will need to be multifaceted, multiskilled individuals” (Kakabadse & Korac-Kakabadse, 2000, p. 102). Oborne and Arnold (2000) also emphasize that in the new decentralized and network-oriented organizations the skill structure is changing. Good skills in numeracy and literacy as well as with computers, the ability to interact with new technology and with environmental requirements, are becoming more and more important. Dench’s report (1998) identified a range of “nontechnical” skills that enable ICT specialists to utilize their technical skills in a business context and are needed to operate effectively in a modern workplace. •

•

•

•

•

Understanding business needs. The ability to interpret business requirements and identify an appropriate ICT solution is very important. Consultancy ability. This includes communicating with clients and customers, managing expectations, negotiating, and influencing. Management skills. ICT specialists might be managing teams, staff, projects, clients, suppliers, resources, and budgets. Problem solving and analytical skills. It is argued that these abilities are of key importance. They predispose people to learn technical skills and enable them to analyze business and ICT problems, separately and in conjunction with each other. Personal characteristics and interpersonal skills. These include communication and

relating to others (both specialists using technical language and nonspecialists putting technical explanations into nontechnical language); working with others; attitude and personality (“fitting in,” flexibility, an interest in learning and the ability to pick things up quickly); also coping with pressure, taking responsibility and initiative; mobility; and career interest. The terms used to describe other skills excluded by the technical skills vary significantly. They range from key skills (Bolton & Hyland, 2003; Dench et al., 1998; Powell, Smith, & Reakes, 2003), soft skills (Lowry & Turner, 2005; Turner & Lowry, 2002, 2003;), employability skills (Smith & Comyn, 2003), and generic skills (Bloom et al., 2004; Connor et al., 2002; Oborne & Arnold, 2000; Smith & Comyn, 2003), but the essence of these differently named skills are similar. They focus on skills which enable them to understand their business needs, apply their technical skills in business applications, communicate effectively with colleagues and customers, transfer knowledge and experience into the workplace. ICT are essential enablers in modern business operations and success. They need to be fully integrated in supporting various business functions and transforming its processes. The changing role of ICT in business causes the changing skill needs and expectations from the company’s managers. It is not possible for any ICT staff to work in an isolated manner and be ignorant in their knowledge and understanding of business operations. It is also important for ICT staff to work together and communicate effectively in performing their roles. Therefore, it is evident that ICT employees need to possess the hybrid skills ranging from technical, interpersonal, managerial, organizational, and so forth.


Ict skill shortages and Importance of training in sMes The use of ICT throughout the value chain contributes to improved business performance, and trends suggest that ICT will continue to be a driver of economic growth. While the effective use of ICT can make major improvements in an enterprise’s productivity and competitiveness, it is estimated that skills shortage of ICT workers in Western Europe will reach 1.7 million by 2003 (The European E-skills Forum, 2004). Around one-third of the total workforce in the UK are employed in SMEs, and ICT skills gaps are most likely to be reported in the smallest sized SMEs (Stokes & West, 2003). Research by DTI (1999), which is a series of benchmarking studies commissioned by the UK DTI aimed at measuring UK’s progress towards the information age, shows that most SME managers were not aware of the opportunities presented to them by e-commerce and Internet business when these emerging new technologies were introduced. The surveys carried out by Spectrum indicated that closely linked to awareness, understanding and acceptance of the information society is a distinct lack of skills, and lack of skills is perceived to be the most significant barrier to uptake of ICT (Auger & Gallaugher, 1997; Duan & Kinman, 2000). Lack of expertise and skills has been seen as one of the key inhibitors for adopting e-commerce in SMEs (Duan, Mullins, & Hamblin, 2002). When e-commerce and e-business opportunities were emerged with the introduction of the Internet and the World Wide Web, a critical task, which all SME managers were facing, was how to respond to the e-commerce and e-business challenges. A skills shortage has been categorized as one of the major challenges facing global e-commerce by Bingi and Khamalah (2000). SMEs have to address the lack of appropriate skills. These can be broadly defined in two areas: (1) technology understanding and (2) ability to facilitate successful technology implementation through appropriate

strategic thinking and business planning (Duan et al., 2002). Therefore, there is a need for better education and support for SME managers and their employees. In a more recent report, Connor et al. (2002) point out that a range of evidence suggests that skills shortages are widespread but are not as severe as in previous years. Skills shortages are falling, but still exist, especially in SMEs. It is not just a shortage of technical skills that is causing problems for employers; managers also have difficulties in finding people with the necessary behavioral and nontechnical skills (Dench, 1998). In today’s knowledge-driven economy, education and training are considered major factors affecting a society’s level of economic attainment and growth. Lack of information-related knowledge and skills, in particular, is among the prime factors likely to delay a country’s progress towards the information society (Zambarloukos & Constantelou, 2002). Training and education are often seen as the most effective way to solve the skill shortage problem by providing more qualified new workers and/or updating existing employee’s skills. However, “skills shortage and training—a forgotten dimension in new technology” is a concern raised by Foley and Watts (1994) more than a decade ago. But the relationship between skills shortage and training in ICT deserves even more attention presently. Skills and training issues were often forgotten or misjudged during the new technology appraisal process (Foley & Watts, 1994). Poon and Swatman (1998) find out that research on the topic of the Internet and small business points to the importance of training and demonstrated subsequent benefits. Education and training can bridge the gap between development and successful implementation of new technology (Singh, 2002). The rate of change in ICT means that the training of IT staff is a continual challenge (Dench, 1998). Training can be delivered by initial training and on-going training (Dench, 1998). On-going


training includes updating staff knowledge and improving their existing skills. Particularly, it is essential to keep managers educated on what is going on in order to make informed decisions in today’s competitive environment. Although training has been highly regarded as an effective tool for addressing skills shortage, small businesses are particularly reluctant to provide training opportunities (Elbadri, 2001). A study on small business basic problems with computer technologies by Robert (1998) reveals that topping the list of problems is the lack of proper training and support. Considerable effort is put into training both inexperienced recruits and in keeping the skills of existing employees up-to-date. Dench (1998) stresses that it is not only technical skills that are receiving attention, the growing emphasis on a range of “nontechnical” skills means that ICT specialists are also being trained in these areas. According to Truelove (1997), training needs should be identified in three levels: (1) organizational training needs, (2) occupational training needs, and (3) individual training needs. An organizational training need is the need that applies to the entire organization. An occupational training need is one that applies to a particular category of employee. An individual training need is concerned with the specific need required by any individual. All three levels of training needs can be distinguished by two main subcategories: (1) training needs that are generated by change and (2) training needs that must be met to produce change. Findings on current training provisions by Duan et al. (2002) suggest that training is not provided regularly in SMEs. These authors have been involved in a number of European funded projects, such as TRICTSME, TRIMAR, LFEC, aiming to improve the training in SMEs. These projects attempted to identify the training needs in SMEs at a pan-European level and developed Web-based training systems for SMEs employees in helping them to embrace e-commerce, e-busi-

ness, and Internet marketing technologies (Duan, 2004; Duan, Mullins, & Hamlin, 2001; Roisin et al. 2001). Small businesses suffer most in skills shortage and resource deficit. It is suggested that Web-based training or e-learning could be more effective way to encourage small business employees to be engaged in training programs and to improve and update their knowledge and skills with minimal interruption to their jobs and low or no extra costs.

reseArch Method The research adopted a two-phased study. The first phase was a questionnaire survey to collect small business managers’ view on the importance of hybrid skills of ICT workers in supporting their business operations and success. Informed by the findings from the first phase of the study, the second phase was to pilot HAPPINESS approach with potential ICT job seekers by developing personal Competence Biography (CB) through interviews. As discussed in the introduction, there are a number of definitions of hybrid skills, but all suggest a need for more than technical expertise. The evidence from literature review suggests that hybrid skills among ICT professionals are becoming more important due to the changing role of ICT. Companies, especially small ones, are looking for competent new recruits who can demonstrate their hybrid skills. In order to help future ICT employees to work effectively in their workplace, the HAPPINESS project proposed a hybrid skills model for ICT staff competence development (see Figure 1). The model was established based on relevant literature reviewed for this project and professional observations in practice among project partners. It can be used to help individuals who would like to enter the ICT job market to analyze their skills and competence, and, therefore, to develop a more


appropriate career enhancement plan. The hybrid skills model covers: •

•

Professional skills: mainly technical skills required as essential for an ICT professional. They include: computing fundamentals, operating systems, databases, conventional programming, networking skills, and so forth. Key skills: business- and communicationfocused skills, including business applications; management and organization skills; communication and interpersonal skills; and so forth. It may be worth to note that a number of commentators have drawn attention to continuing uncertainty about the definition of key skills (Powell et al., 2003). Uncertainties arise particularly when international comparisons on the definitions of the related terms are sought. Terms such as key skills, generic skills, key competencies, and life skills are often applied to similar concepts.

•

Transferable skills: emphasize the individual’s ability to transfer the skills gathered through education and training, various jobs, or other life experiences from one workplace to another. For example, Patrick (1992) suggests that they demonstrate a positive transfer of previous skills, experience, and skill retention. Examples of these skills include problem solving and analytical skills; understanding workplace procedures; convergent and divergent thinking skills; ability to learn and keep up to date; learning to change; and so forth.

The specific skills included in each skill area in our survey are not limited to those listed previously, and they can further be amended to reflect situation-specific skills if necessary. One of the objectives of HAPINNESS project was to seek small business managers’ opinions on the importance of hybrid skills in each project partner country. So the hybrid skills model was used to inform the design of a survey questionnaire, which aimed to collect information on SME

Figure 1. A hybrid skills model

Professional Skills

Transferable Skills

�

�

Key Skills


managers’ view on the importance of hybrid skills in supporting their business operations and success. In addition to investigating small business managers’ opinions on the importance of hybrid skills, which was the primary objective of the survey, other relevant information was also collected and examined. The questionnaire was designed to gather information in the following areas:

survey sample was randomly extracted from the Financial Analysis Made Easy (FAME) database and covered a wide range of business sectors (see company profile in Table 1 of next section).

•

the respondents’ company and Personal Profile

•

•

The respondents’ company and personal profile, including the participant’s job title, computer literacy, business activities of the company, and company size. The respondent’s understanding and perception of the importance of professional skills, key qualifications, and transferable skills possessed by their ICT staff. Lists of important skills included in each category were provided to the respondents, but they were also invited to provide other skills which they thought important but were not on the survey lists. Other information, such as respondents’ intention to recruit new ICT staff and receive work placement students and their willingness to be involved in testing training material developed by universities.

In each of the three key areas, respondents were asked to rate their views on the importance of hybrid skills of their ICT staff in supporting their business operations and success with 5-point scales expressed as essential (5), very important (4), quite important (3), not very important (2), and not at all important (1). As part of the HAPPINESS project, the target group of the survey was the UK SMEs. The

surveY FIndIngs And dIscussIon

About 580 copies of the questionnaire designed for this project were sent to managers of SMEs in the UK. The companies were chosen randomly from the FAME database. The UK FAME is a database containing detailed information on UK companies for research and marketing. Seventy-seven copies of completed questionnaires were returned which represents about a 13% response rate. Table 1 provides a brief profile of the respondents and their firms. As can be seen from the table, the majority of the respondents are managers (82%), nearly half (47%) of them believe that their computer knowledge is at the intermediate level, and almost 40% of them even describe themselves as either having extensive knowledge or being experts. This shows a healthy level of computer literacy among the respondents. The participants of this survey were from a wide range of businesses, including manufacturing, wholesale, retail, finance/insurance/real estate, construction, health/medicine, ICT, other business services, and others. The size of the respondents’ firms is within the range of only 1 to over 250 employees, of which about 84% of the firms have an employee number of between 10 and 250, which is a significant representation of SMEs.


Table 1. The respondents’ personal and company profile Frequency

Percentage

Job title 1.

MD/GM/Owner

32

41.6%

2.

Finance/Accounts manager

15

19.5%

3.

IT&S Manager

11

14.3%

4.

Marketing/Sales manager

3

3.9%

5.

Production/Operation manager

2

2.6%

6.

Administration clerk

4

5.1%

7.

Others

10

13.0%

Computer literacy 1.

None

1

1.3%

2.

Novice

9

11.8%

3.

Intermediate

36

47.4%

4.

Extensive

25

32.9%

5.

Expert

5

6.6%

Business activities of the company 1.

Manufacturing

7

9.3%

2.

Wholesale

2

2.7%

3.

Retail

3

4.0%

4.

Finance/Insurance/Real Estate

2

2.7%

5.

Construction

2

2.7%

6.

Other business services

29

38.7%

7.

Health/Medical

10

13.3%

8.

ICT

11

14.7%

9.

Others

9

12.0%

Company size (number of employees)

1.

1-9

5

6.5%

2.

10-19

11

14.3.%

3.

20-49

22

28.5%

4.

50-99

21

27.3%

5.

100-249

11

14.3%

6.

>250

7

9.1%


Importance of skills in general

key skills and transferable skills are becoming more important.

Managers were asked to rate the importance of the listed skills in supporting their company’s business and management with 5-point scales, as follows: essential (5), very important (4), quite important (3), not very important (2), and not at all important (1). These data can be looked at in two ways: using the mean of scores and the spread of responses, which can be expressed by frequency and standard deviation. Table 2 provides the importance of skills in general for the business. In terms of skills in general, we can see that most of the respondents considered all three types of skills, namely, professional skills, key skills, and transferable skills (34%, 43%, and 44% respectively), as “very important,” and the mean ratings are within the range of 3.47 and 3.71, with key skills ranking as the top one. The professional skills is the relatively lowest importance with a mean rating of 3.47 and a highest level of standard deviation (0.99), which implies that the opinions on the importance for the professional skills are more variable than for the other two types of skills. The relative lower rank of professional/technical skills implies that technical competence is becoming less critical in contributing to small business successes, while

Importance of Professional skills Having technical competence and skills in using and implementing ICT is obviously of key importance, although this was not always sought in the recruitment process. A number of elements are required for professional skills, which include the need for detailed knowledge of and competence in particular platforms and software and more general technical competencies and abilities. Computing fundamentals is the most important among the 12 professional skills listed (see Table 3), with a mean rating of 3.83 (36% for essential and 29% for very important). Operating systems and Internet/intranet/extranet (both with a mean rating of 3.43), telecommunication/ networking (3.39), and computer hardware (3.25) are all rated as important skills. Graphic design (2.64), multimedia (2.84), and conventional programming skills (2.87) are rated as least important areas. Internet programming skills (3.04), databases (3.12), e-commerce/e-business (3.17), Web site design and maintenance (3.07) are all considered as quite important. The standard deviations of all the skill areas are very close, ranging from the maximum of 1.31 to the minimum of 1.15.

Table 2. The perceived importance of the skills in general (N=77) Skills in general

Essential (5)

Very important (4)

Quite Important (3)

Not very important (2)

Not at all important (1)

Mean rating

STD

Professional skills

15.8%

34.2%

32.9%

15.8%

1.3%

3.47

0.99

Key skills

17.3%

42.7%

33.3%

6.7%

0%

3.71

0.83

Transferable skills

9.3%

45%

35.7%

10.3%

0%

3.54

0.80


Table 3. The perceived importance of professional skills (n=77)

Professional skills

Essential (5)

Very important (4)

Quite important (3)



Mean

STD

Computing fundamentals

35.5%

28.9%

23.7%

6.6%

5.3%

3.83

1.15

Operating systems

22.4%

28.9%

26.3%

14.5%

7.9%

3.43

1.21

Internet, intranet, extranet

22.4%

27.6%

27.6%

15.8%

6.6%

3.43

1.19

Telecommunication and networking

18.4%

32.9%

25.0%

17.1%

6.6%

3.39

1.17

Computer hardware

21.1%

19.7%

27.6%

26.3%

5.3%

3.25

1.21

E-commerce/ E-business

18.4%

23.7%

27.6%

17.1%

13.2%

3.17

1.29

Databases, data modeling, data warehouse

10.5%

27.6%

38.2%

10.5%

13.2%

3.12

1.15

Web site design and maintenance

16.2%

21.6%

28.4%

20.3%

13.5%

3.07

1.27

Internet programming skills

17.1%

17.2%

36.8%

10.5%

18.4%

3.04

1.31

Conventional programming skills

14.5%

15.8%

30.3%

21.1%

18.3%

2.87

1.30

Multimedia

11.8%

18.5%

27.6%

26.3%

15.8%

2.84

1.24

Graphic design

9.2%

14.5%

26.3%

31.6%

18.4%

2.64

1.21

Importance of Key skills It is argued by many people that excellent technical skills are not enough. A range of additional key skills are also required for ICT specialists as these areas have become increasingly important in recent years. Table 4 displays the detailed results of the perceived importance of key skills, which cover 12 sample areas. As can be seen in Table 4, the majority of the respondents considered it essential for their ICT staff to have the ability to communicate (43%), client-facing skills (30%), and skills in customer service and understanding quality (42%). In more detail, the ability to communicate and skills in customer service and understanding quality are the most important skills with mean ratings of importance at 4.18

0

and 4.17 respectively. Client-facing skills (3.88) and interpersonal skills (3.92) are also important in supporting their business operations. The relatively lower-rated areas are business applications and understanding business needs (3.46), team leader (3.66), project management (3.70), but these areas are still regarded as important. It seems that the participating SMEs in general regard most of the skill areas listed as either important or essential.

Importance of transferable skills An important area of skills for the ICT specialist is the transferable skills, which is the ability to transfer theory and knowledge into practice, be able to act using previous experience and skills


Table 4. The perceived importance of key qualification and skills (n=77) Key skills

Essential (5)

Very important (4)

Quite important (3)



Mean

STD

Ability to communicate

42.90%

42.90%

7.80%

2.60%

3.90%

4.18

0.97

Customer service and understanding quality

41.60%

42.90%

7.80%

6.50%

1.30%

4.17

0.92


22.10%

54.50%

18.20%

3.90%

1.30%

3.92

0.82

Client-facing skills

30.30%

38.20%

23.70%

5.30%

2.60%

3.88

0.99

Intrinsic motivation

22.40%

50.00%

21.10%

5.30%

1.30%

3.87

0.87

Sales and marketing

28.90%

40.30%

18.90%

5.30%

6.60%

3.80

1.12

Management & organizational skills

19.70%

50.00%

22.40%

5.30%

2.60%

3.79

0.91

Business and commercial awareness

22.40%

47.40%

21.10%

3.90%

5.30%

3.78

1.01

Constancy ability

16.90%

49.30%

26.80%

5.60%

1.40%

3.75

0.86

Project management

25.00%

38.20%

22.40%

10.50%

3.90%

3.70

1.08

Team leader

19.50%

36.40%

36.40%

6.50%

1.30%

3.66

0.91

Business applications, understanding business needs

19.40%

33.30%

26.40%

15.30%

5.60%

3.46

1.14

learned, and be able to relate the knowledge and skills from one workplace to another. These skills include ability to solve problems, be analytical and logical, be creative, and so forth. These skills are seen as important in enabling ICT staff to operate effectively in a modern working environment. They are also related to working with ICT itself and their applications to business in general. Table 5 shows the details on the degrees of importance of each transferable skill, which covers seven key areas. Problem solving and analytical skills are the most important transfer skills with mean ratings of 3.83, and about 68% of participating companies think that problem solving and analytical skills are either essential

(26%) or very important (42%) for them. Top of the list also includes such transferable skills as learning to change (3.80) and be able to learn and keep up-to-date (3.77). Other skills rated as very important are: understanding workplace procedures (58%), improving own learning and performance (57%), and convergent and divergent thinking (45%).

other relevant Information In order to find the intention for a company to take part in the HAPPINESS project, the questionnaire survey also contained questions on the respondents’ willingness to be contacted in the


Table 5. The importance degree of each transferable skills (n=77) Transferable skills

Essential (5)

Very important (4)

Quite important (3)



Mean

STD

Problem solving and analytical skills

26.00%

41.60%

24.70%

5.20%

2.60%

3.83

0.97

Learning to change

20.00%

50.70%

21.30%

5.30%

2.70%

3.80

0.92

Learn and keep up to date

21.40%

45.30%

24.00%

8.00%

1.30%

3.77

0.92

Understanding workplace procedures

11.70%

58.40%

23.40%

3.90%

2.60%

3.73

0.82

Improving own learning and performance

11.50%

57.10%

23.60%

3.90%

3.90%

3.68

0.87

Convergent and divergent thinking skill

11.80%

44.70%

26.40%

14.50%

2.60%

3.49

0.97

Occupationally or sectorially transferable skills

6.60%

31.60%

50.00%

10.50%

1.30%

3.32

0.80

future. Table 6 shows the results of some other relevant information to the research. As you can see from Table 6, most of the participating firms were not in the position to recruit ICT staff very soon at the time of the survey in the summer of 2001. The majority of them (39%) may need new staff in the future and some of them (31%) see no need for recruiting ICT staff. Twenty-one percent of companies would like to add their company’s name to our database as potential employers, and 30% of companies would like to joining our mailing list for free training courses. The lack of enthusiasm among some companies to participate in the project and research was no surprise as most SMEs managers are busy with their day-to-day running of the business and are not keen to be involved in academic studies. However, a very positive response is that over half of the participating companies expressed their willingness to be contacted regarding their company’s skills needs. It demonstrates that although SMEs generally have a lack of interest in

participating in academic research, most of them are fairly keen to be involved in studies related to their own skills needs. Among those willing to be contacted, most of them preferred to be approached by telephone, followed by e-mail. It appears that in general managers are not very keen to meet researchers face to face to discuss their staff’s skills needs. In summary, the overall findings reveal that: •

•

The mean ratings of the importance of professional skills, key skills, and transferable skills in general are 3.47, 3.71, and 3.54. Respectively, the differences among them are rather small, and so we can say that all three types of skills are perceived as very important. The top ranking professional skills sought by employers are those associated with operating systems, Internet/intranet/extranet, telecommunication/networking, and so


Table 6. Other relevant information Frequency

Percentage

1. Immediately

8

10.4%

2. In the next 6 months

11

14.3%

3. Next year

4

5.2%

4. Maybe in the future

30

39.0%

5. No

24

31.2%

1. Potential employers

19

20.65%

2. Accepting trainee students

17

18.48%

3. Mailing list for free training courses

26

28.26%

4. None

30

32.61%

Do you need recruit ICT staff (n = 77)

Would you like to add your company’s name to our database of (n = 77, multiple choices allowed)

May we contact you further to discuss your skill needs? (n = 74)

•

•

(1)

Yes, face to face

6

8.1%

(2)

Yes, by telephone

20

27.0%

(3)

Yes, by email

12

16.2%

(4)

No

36

48.7%

forth. The standard deviation of importance of the professional skills is in general larger than that of key skills and transferable skills. This suggests that the opinions on the importance were influenced by respondents’ own business characteristics and dependence on ICT. Key skills, such as communication; customer service and understanding of quality; interpersonal skills; client-facing skills; and so forth have become the most important skills for SMEs. Problem-solving and analytical skills are the most important transferable skills with a mean rating of 3.83. Top of the list also includes learning to change (3.80); be able to learn and keep up to date (3.77); and understanding workplace procedure (3.73).

•

Findings indicate the low enthusiasm revealed by some of the SME’s managers in joining the university’s database as potential employers or for receiving trainee students. However, over half of the respondents were willing to be contacted to discuss the training needs in their company. The most favorable way of talking to them is by telephone.

Finally, caution should be exercised when applying the survey findings of this study to other countries, large companies, or the skills analysis of any other non-ICT profession. It is also necessary to point out that the survey was not focused on any specific industry sector, nor was the skills analysis based on any specific ICT jobs.


A hAPPIness APProAch to MeetIng the hYbrId sKIlls need In sMes Having confirmed from SME managers their belief in the importance of their ICT staff’s hybrid skills in the first phase of the study, it was imperative in the second phase of the HAPPINESS project to assist individual job seekers in assessing their current skills against the hybrid skills model and seek ways to improve their competence levels by participating in training and education. The HAPPINESS project was mainly concerned with the individual level of training needs identification. It aimed to assist those who might seek a career in an ICT-related area in future. To achieve this, the project firstly established the needs by proposing a hybrid skills model and confirmed the importance of these needs for the hybrid skills in business success with empirical evidence collected with UK SMEs managers. The project then aimed to help individuals, who were considering working as ICT staff in SMEs, identify their skills and competence based on the hybrid skills framework. It then developed a training needs assessment method called CB. Having identified the training needs using CB, HAPPINESS provided training guidance for the candidates on how to meet their individual needs in these three areas. To achieve the key objective of the HAPPINESS project, this second phase of the investigation was specifically targeted towards the SME managers’ mostly in two main regions in the UK, Bedfordshire and Berkshire as both are within easy access of the project’s research team. For data validity, the participants selected for this investigation covered a wide range of businesses both in services and manufacturing industries, including electronics, accounting, IT services, building services, business consultancy, travel, delivery services, DIY tools, fashion design, printing, and so forth.

The method used for analyzing personal competence and developing a competence biography was a two-step process. The first step was a self-evaluation work sheet designed for the participant to fill in with information in the following areas: • • • • • • • • •

personal data, competence biography—education, competence biography—work, competence biography—other activities/engagements, ref lection/future—learning—living— working, competence profile—professional skills, competence profile—key skills, competence profile—transferable skills, and curriculum.

Once the worksheet was completed, a face-toface, semi-structured interview with the HAPPINESS project team members was used to further explore the issues covered in the worksheet in order to analyze the participant is competence. The project researcher made an effort to approach the interviewees at their convenient locations. So the interviews were conducted in different places including participants’ company meeting room, the researcher’s office, pubs, canteen, and so forth. This was a qualitative research, which used mixed methodology, an idea drawn from critical systems thinking (Jackson, 2000). The research treated each interviewee as an individual by asking specific questions that suited their own specific background and situation. The interview followed the following steps: 1. 2. 3.

Start of the interview with warm-up questions and general background information Introduction of the participant Discussion on the participant’s vocational interests and decisions


4. 5. 6.

Hybrid skills questions to explore professional, key, and transferable skills Situation specific questions Close of interview.

Once the assessment process was completed, a competence biography profile was given to the participant with a summary of their strengths and weaknesses and advice and recommendations for their personal career development in the three areas investigated. Twenty-seven individuals were invited to participate in the competence biography development practice. The participants were a good mix in terms of their gender, geographical location, education background, ethnic origin, age group, and types of organizations. Some key findings from the HAPPINESS project on developing competence biography are as follows: 1.

2.

3.

In terms of professional IT skills, most of the participants were quite knowledgeable, either from taking courses, or from self-study. However, about half of the participants did not feel comfortable in applying these skills in practice. They were not sure that when they were looking for a job if they should count these as the skills they had mastered or not, and consequently, they might have missed some good job opportunities. Regarding key skills, two extremes were noticeable. While about a quarter of the participants were very sociable, and perhaps even over-confident with their key skills, about half of them turned out to be rather quiet and were not sure about themselves and showed a lack of sound understanding of business and communication issues. As to the third area—transferable skills, it was found that some of participants had quite rich experiences in life and had mastered a lot of skills. However, facing the rapidly changing business environment, they just

did not know how to adjust themselves and transfer their existing skills into practice. One of the participants had taught himself various advanced IT skills but had been unemployed for over 5 years. On one hand, he did believe that a formal certificate would be better than studying on his own. On the other hand, he did not think a person without a formal degree could find a professional job. So he had just stayed at home without making an effort to find a job. It was after his involvement in this project that he had the courage to have a try, and he succeeded in getting one as a database developer. A short questionnaire form for evaluating the CB method revealed that: •

•

•

•

•

The majority of the participants (over 75 %) were satisfied with the method used for the development of their CB. About two-thirds (65%) of the participants agreed that the coverage of the CB forms had been well designed. One participant felt that some of the questions designed for establishing CB were personally intrusive. Eighty percent of the participants agreed that they felt quite comfortable at their interviews and were trying to give answers that reflected their real competence and life experience. Most of the student participants agreed that the feedback from the project team provided a useful personal profile, which would facilitate their job hunting in the future, and that the brief analysis of their strengths and weaknesses and some practical recommendations would help their personal career development.

The most valuable feedback on CB practice can be demonstrated with the positive comments from some participants. They include, ”Thanks for your useful and informative feedback. This


gives me a good picture about myself and forms a base for my future career development. I am very pleased I have been involved in this project”; “These questions made me think hard about my past”; “This has provided an opportunity for me to summarise my experience in life.”

conclusIon Rapid development in emerging ICT has brought about enormous opportunities as well as challenges to companies across all sectors and sizes, but a skillful ICT workforce is essential for all companies to seize the opportunities for competitive business advantages. This chapter reported on empirical work carried out in the UK for the EU HAPPINESS project. Three broad skill areas are identified by the study within a proposed hybrid skills model. This hybrid skills model was tested with the managers in a range of UK SMEs. The following is a summary of the key findings: •

•

Professional skills: Having technical competence and skills in using and implementing ICT is obviously of key importance. A number of elements are required for professional skills, which include the need for detailed knowledge of, and competence in, particular platforms and software, and more general technical competencies and abilities. Computing fundamentals are the most important skills among the 12 areas of professional skills listed in the survey, followed by operating systems, telecommunication/networking, Internet/intranet/ extranet, and computer hardware. Key skills: As mentioned earlier in the chapter, excellent technical skills are not enough. A range of additional skills such as key qualifications are also required for

•

ICT specialists and these areas are becoming increasingly important in recent years. The majority of the respondents indicated skill needs of ICT staff in communication, client-facing skills, interpersonal skills, and skills in customer service and understanding of quality. Transferable skills: A prospective employer would expect ICT employees to be able to apply the skills learned in education and training to the work environment, so, another important area of skills employers may look for when recruiting ICT specialists was the transferable skills, which are the ability to solve problems, be analytical, creative, and logical in other roles. These skills were seen as important in enabling ICT staff to operate effectively in a modern working environment. They were also related to working with ICT itself, and their application to business. The survey findings demonstrated that managers generally believe that these skills are very important. More specifically, problem-solving and analytical skills are the most important transferable skills as perceived by SME managers.

Based on the literature review and the empirical evidence collected in the study, it is argued that the provision of hybrid skills to ICT students should be one of the objectives of education and training programs. The emphasis of SME employers on hybrid skills calls for the attention of education and training organizations to combine students’ learning with the real business environment to better prepare more employable ICT students. However, some of key skills and transferable skills may not be teachable and can only be obtained through work-based learning, practice, and experience. Therefore, it is more difficult to gain all the key skills and transferable skills solely by participating in traditional training and education. Lowry and Turner (2005) point out that while there has long been agreement that


the IS curriculum should comprise a combination of both technical and nontechnical business subjects, there is far less agreement about what the main differences are between the two and how we can better prepare the students in some areas, notably in the development of soft business skills. This, in turn, calls for the development of more innovative approaches to improve hybrid skills, such as through active learning (Lowry & Turner, 2005), workplace learning (Sacchanand, 2000), and applied and informal training (Bloom et al., 2004.) To conclude the chapter, we should stress that in order to cope with the challenges in the information and knowledge society, ICT professionals should be well trained in hybrid skills. The empirical evidence from UK small business managers strongly confirmed the need for such hybrid skills and supported the case for training and education organizations to use a hybrid skills model to improve curriculum development, and likewise for future ICT professionals to use such a model in assessing their skills gaps in order to enhance employability. The findings have significant implications for the development of ICT education and training programs in universities and vocational training organizations. They are also relevant to the in-house training of ICT staff in companies. The empirical evidence supports the claim put forward by Lowry and Turner (2005, p. 198) that “what began as a fundamentally technology-oriented discipline is, indeed, evolving into a technology-based profession.”

AcKnoWledgMent The HAPPINESS project is funded by the European Commissions Leonardo Da Vinci Programme and coordinated by zukunfts.zentrum (Future Center) in Austria. The authors would like to acknowledge Paul Schober and Martin Maier for their work in developing and refining the competence biography methodology. The authors would

also like to acknowledge other partners involved in the projects. They are Spanish Area Network, Camera Work Group in Italy, and Computer Technology Institute (CTI) in Greece.

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Foley, P., & Watts, D. (1994). Skills shortages and training: A forgotten dimension in new technology. R & D Development, 24(3), 279-290.

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Kakabadse, A., & Korac-Kakabadse, N. (2000). Future role of IS/IT professionals. Journal of Management Development, 19(2), 97-154. Kodz, J., Dench, S., Pollard, E., & Evans, C. (1998). Developing the key skills of young people (IES Report 350). Lowry, G., & Turner, R. (2005). Information systems education for the 21st century: Aligning curriculum content & delivery with the professional workplace. In D. Carbonera (Ed.), Technology literacy applications in learning environments (pp. 171-202). Hershey, PA: IRM Press. Mullins, R., Duan, Y., & Hamblin, D. (2001). A pan-European survey leading to the development of a training system for e-commerce. Internet Research: Electronic Application and Policy, 11(4), 333-340. Newton, B., Hurstfield, J., Miller, L., Page, R., & Akroyd, K. (2005). What employers look for when recruiting the unemployed and inactive: skills, characteristics and qualifications and qualifications (Rep. No. 295). Department for Work and Pensions. Retrieved February 28, 2006, from http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rports20052006/rrep295.pdf Oborne, D. J., & Arnold, K. M. (2000). Organizational change in the information society. Industry & Higher Education, 125-133. Patrick, J. (1992). Training research & practice. London: Academic Press. Powell, R., Smith, R., & Reakes, A. (2003, January). Basic skills and key skills: A review of international literature. Retrieved February 28, 2006, from http://www.elwa.org.uk/doc_bin/


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Sacchanand, C. (2000, August 13-18). Workplace learning for information professionals in a changing information environment. In Proceedings of 66th IFLA Council and General Conference. Retrieved February 28, 2006, from http://www. ifla.org/IV/ifla66/papers/109-136e.htm Singh, M. (2002, January 19-21). Electronic commerce in Austria: Opportunities and factors critical for success. In Proceedings of the First World Congress on the Management of Electronic Commerce. Hamilton, Canada. Skills shortage now key concern. (2001). Management Services, 45(5), 4-5. Smith, E., & Comyn, P. (2003). The development of employability skills in novice workers, the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). Australian National Training Authority. Stokes, E., & West, A. (2003, November). ICT learning and training: An exploration of data in the EU. Work Package 2 Report. Retrieved February

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370

Chapter XVIII

Teaching Business Intelligence in Higher Education Paul Hawking Victoria University, Australia Robert Jovanovic Victoria University, Australia

Abstract In the 1990s there was considerable growth in implementations of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Companies expected these systems to support many of the day-to-day business transactions. The growth in ERP implementations had a resultant impact on the demand for ERP skills. Many universities recognised this demand and the potential of using ERP systems software as a teaching tool and endeavoured to incorporate ERP systems into their curriculum. ERP systems have now evolved to incorporate more strategic components such as business intelligence (BI) solutions. Universities and ERP vendors are investigating ways in which curriculum can be developed to support these new solutions. This chapter discusses a blended approach adopted by a university in the development and implementation of BI curriculum.

Introduction Many companies consider enterprise systems as essential infrastructure for daily operations and a critical foundation for business transformation since they manage many of the transactions associated with core business processes. This belief was especially true during the 1990s when ERP systems became the standard replacement for legacy systems particularly in multinational

companies (Parr & Shanks, 2000). ERP systems enabled companies to integrate disparate systems enabling improved information flows within and across complex organisations. This connectivity of information flows allows managers to make timely decisions based on data that accurately reflects the current state of their business (Davenport, Harris, & Cantrell, 2004). Companies’ requirements have changed and over the years ERP systems have evolved so that the system’s focus has moved


Teaching Business Intelligence in Higher Education

from one of only supporting internal transactions to now encompassing transactions with external stakeholders. Companies are now realising the importance of this real-time transactional data, which has previously been used for tactical decision making, to support more strategic and complex decisions. This has seen the advent of various information system (IS) solutions to support this decision making. The availability and analysis of transactional information contributes to a firm’s BI and subsequently to its overall competitive advantage (Francis, 1997; Meyer, 1987). Much attention has been given to optimising business transactions and the associated processing of data; however, there is disappointment by top-level management as to the role that information technology (IT) plays in supporting decision making in organisations (Drucker, 1998). The concept of using IS to support decision making has been a goal since the introduction of computer technology to business. One type of IS with this specific goal was termed a decision support system (DSS). DSS promises to provide managers with timely and relevant information in addition to analytical capabilities to assist effective decision making.

Alter (1980) identified three major characteristics of DSS: • Designed specifically to facilitate decision processes • Support rather than automate decision making • Ability to respond quickly to the changing needs of decision makers Holsapple and Whinston (1996) more recently identified five characteristics that should be common across DSS. These are: • The inclusion of a body of knowledge that encompasses a component of the decision makers’ domain; this includes how to achieve various tasks and the possible valid conclusions for various situations • The ability to acquire and maintain descriptive knowledge • The flexibility to present knowledge on an ad hoc basis in a variety of customisable formats • The ability to derive subsets of stored knowledge to facilitate decision making

Figure 1. Classification of decision systems event

Interactive

business Activity Monitoring (bAM) dashboards and scorecards Ad hoc query olAP

data Mining

reporting scheduled

spreadsheets

What happened?

Why did it happen?

Advanced Analysis and Forecasting What will happen?


•

The flexibility to provide the user with choice in the sequence of knowledge management activities

As the demand for IS to support effective decision making have increased, so have the terms used to describe them: data warehousing, knowledge management, data mining, collaborative systems, online analytical processing, with BI tending to encompass all. Gartner (2005) has attempted to classify IS, which facilitate decision making, by the temporal nature of the decision outcome and the level of user involvement (Figure 1). In recent times there has been a consolidation of vendor BI solutions through take overs and mergers. The effectiveness of a BI solution is largely reliant on the underlying data infrastructure as reflected by McDonald’s (2004) model (Gartner, 2003). Accordingly, the major ERP systems vendors with their data warehouse solutions have become major players in the BI market (META Group, 2004).

erP sYsteMs And busIness IntellIgence ERP systems are IS that are: integrated, modular, have broad business functional scope, and are responsible for transaction processing in a realtime environment. The purported benefits of ERP systems make them essential IS infrastructure to be competitive in today’s business world and provide a foundation for future growth. The purported benefits of ERP systems make them essential IS infrastructure. A survey of 800 top U.S. companies showed that ERP systems accounted for 43% of these companies’ application budgets (Somer & Nelson, 2001). Researchers believe the growth in the uptake of ERP systems is due to several factors; the need to streamline and improve business processes; better manage IS expenditures; compete to become a low cost producer; increase

responsiveness to customers and their needs; integrate business processes; provide a common platform and better data visibility; and serve as a strategic tool for the move towards electronic business (Davenport, Harris, & Cantrell, 2003; Hammer, 1999; Iggulden, 1999; Markus, Petrie, & Axline, 2001; Somer & Nelson, 2001). Holland and Light (2001) developed a maturity model of ERP usage and then considered how cost, entropy (level of disorder), complexity, flexibility, and competitiveness would be impacted at each stage. They identified three stages. In stage 1, companies are commencing their ERP implementation while at the same time managing their existing legacy systems. In stage 2, the implementation is complete across the organisation and the functionality is being adopted. In the third and final stage, the ERP system has been accepted and companies are investigating avenues for achieving strategic value from the additional functionality available in the ERP system. In the model, proposed by Cap Gemini and Ernst and Young (2002), maximum shareholder value could be gained when an organisation efficiently and effectively adapts to its environment. This could be in relation to mergers, acquisitions, spin-offs, new markets, and improved collaboration with customers and suppliers They believe that ERP systems can assist in the goal of an adaptive enterprise through what they term the “Adaptive ERP Value Trajectory.” The model focuses on companies moving from core ERP transactions to enterprise application integration (EAI) to integrate and collaborate with business partners. This implies an increased reliance on BI solutions. Davenport et al. (2004) supported this evolution of ERP systems towards BI through three value drivers identified for ERP usage: • Integrate: Where a company is able to integrate their data and processes internally and externally with customers and suppliers


• Optimise: Where a company standardises strategic processes based on best business practice as offered by the ERP system • informate—where a company has the ability to provide context rich information to support effective decision making. The Davenport et al. (2004) study identified a list of benefits companies were expecting from their systems. The top benefits identified are related to effective decision making and BI. All the ERP usage models identify the evolutionary nature of how companies use these types of systems to gain greater business value. Accordingly, to satisfy customer demands, ERP systems have evolved from a transactional focus to a more analytical strategic focus incorporating BI functionality. As Gartner (2002) explains it “enterprises must understand the impact that BI as a strategic initiative can have on their business. It is the beginning of the search for BI enlightenment,” where BI becomes an integral part of the attempt to build a more agile enterprise. They contend the goals include: • • •

Having more insight into your market than your competitors Adapting quickly to take advantage of changing business conditions Creating new profit opportunities

Accordingly, ERP vendors are now extending their solutions to incorporate BI functionality. The first foray into the adoption of BI is the implementation of a data warehouse. The strength of ERP systems was the standardisation of business processes and consolidation of data. They provided extensive reporting within functional areas such as financials or sales and distribution but companies soon found they were limited when it came to cross functional reporting. In addition ERP systems were built on online transaction process principles (OLTP), while more advanced reporting based on

online analytical processing (OLAP) impacted on the ERP systems performance. A separate data warehouse helped address these issues. Another driving factor was that most companies, when implementing an ERP system, replaced many of their existing legacy systems, however, not all. These remaining systems contained data important for decision making. The data warehouse enables the extraction and consolidation of data from various heterogeneous systems in preparation for advanced reporting.

IMPlIcAtIons to hIgher educAtIon The IS discipline has become an essential component in the employment of IT personnel in business and government organisations. Due to the ever-changing industry, IS professionals in academia often ponder on how to best respond to developments in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry. The skill sets of employees have evolved as the level of sophistication of IS and the decisions they support have evolved. The U.S. Departments of Commerce, Labor, and Education released the 21st Century Skills report (Stuart, 1999), which described a vision of the specific competencies that will be required by 21st century workers. These included the ability to understand complex systems including social, organisational, and technological systems. Described in this report are the skill sets of the personnel that handle information within organisations. Broadbent, Hansell, Dampney, and Butler (1992) and Opie (1994) found that the numbers of users actually utilising data and information are increasing, and they proposed that the skills required by information managers included networking and project management on the technical side, and business redesign and quality management on the business side. The 21st Century Skills report (Stuart,


1999) identified basic technical, organisational, and company-specific skills as being crucial for workers into the 21st century. Accordingly, guidelines for IS curriculum have been developed to support these forecasts. The ISCC’99 submission was a collaboration between industry and academia in an endeavour to identify the skills required in developing and supporting large and complex systems. It recommended that the appropriate skills (Table 1) could be delivered using an inverted curriculum approach, which allowed students to experience and analyse real application systems from the beginning of their course (Lidtke, Stokes, Haines, & Mulder, 1999). However, by their very nature IS are designed to collect and process data to facilitate decision making. The industry now requires a broad range of skills that support the development, implementation, and maintenance of BI solutions. Due to the increased importance of ERP systems many universities identified the value of incorporating ERP systems into their curriculum. ERP systems are to be used to reinforce many of the concepts covered in the business discipline (Becerra-Fernandez, Murphy, & Simon, 2000;

Hawking, Shackleton, & Ramp, 2001). The ERP vendors, such as SAP, argue that their products incorporate “world’s best practice” for many of the business processes they support, making them an ideal teaching tool (Hawking, 1999; Watson & Schneider, 1999), while at the same time increasing the employment prospects of graduates. Universities also realised the importance of providing students with “hands-on” experience with particular ERP systems and formed strategic alliances with ERP system vendors to gain access to these systems. The ERP vendor benefited from these alliances by increasing the supply of skilled graduates that can support their product, thereby enhancing its marketability and lowering the cost of implementation. Universities who decided to introduce ERPrelated curriculum were faced with a number of barriers. For many universities getting access to an ERP system to provide a hands-on learning environment was not a major issue, however, the lack of ERP-related skills of academic staff and accordingly the development of appropriate curriculum material was and still is a major hurdle. SAP, the leading ERP vendor has established the largest ERP university alliance with more

Table 1. Skills of an industry-ready IT graduate (IS-centric curriculum) INDUSTRY-DEFINED ATTRIBUTES OF AN ISCC’99 GRADUATE

Personal skills


•

Systemic-thinking skills

•

Problem-solving skills

•

Critical-thinking skills

•

Risk-taking skills

•

Collaborative skills

•

Conflict resolution skills

•

Information abstraction, representa-

•

Enterprise computing architectures

•

Dynamics of change

and delivery systems

•

Process management and systems development

Concepts of information and systems

•

IS domain knowledge

distribution

•

Use of computing tools to apply knowledge

•

Personal-discipline skills

•

Persistence

•

Curiosity

•

Communication skills (oral, written, listening, and group)

tion, and organisation

Technical knowledge and skills

• •

Human behavior and computer interaction


than 500 universities worldwide accessing their ERP system. They have introduced a number of initiatives to facilitate the incorporation of their system into university curriculum. Initially when universities joined the alliance they were provided with free training for academic staff and access to training materials. The amount of training made available and the restrictions on how the training materials could be used varied from country to country and to a certain extent from university to university within the same country. The transporting of SAP training materials into a university environment, as many universities attempted to do, was not a simple process. The training materials were often version dependent and utilised preconfigured data that was not readily available in the universities’ systems. However, an issue many of these universities now face is responding to the evolutionary nature of ERP systems. Companies are now requiring graduates to have a more advanced understanding of these systems including customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), and BI. This demand is reflected in the “Skills in Demand Lists” report (Australian Government, 2006), which other than identifying a difficulty in sourcing staff with SAP-related skills identifies a demand for data warehouse skill sets. This skill shortage is going to be compounded as the BI usage grows. Gartner predicted that the BI market will reach $3.2 billion by 2010 (Graham, Biscotti, & Horiuchi, 2006), but many BI initiatives will be limited by the lack of relevant skill sets (Burton, 2006). Considering that many universities have struggled to develop and implement ERP-related curriculum, they are faced with the dilemma of developing BI curriculum that is built upon ERP systems. A survey of SAP University Alliance members found that very few had developed BI curriculum (Rosemann & Maurizio, 2007). The remainder of this paper will discuss how a university has attempted to modify its curriculum to address the demand for BI skills.

busIness IntellIgence currIculuM Victoria University has a strong foundation in the development and teaching of ERP systems curriculum. The Australian-based university joined the SAP University Alliance Program in 1998 and adopted a faculty-wide approach to the incorporation of ERP systems into business curriculum rather than focussing on one particular department. Since joining the alliance, the university has developed more than 20 subjects involving 15 staff. In addition a Graduate Certificate, Graduate Diploma, and Masters of Business in Enterprise Resource Planning Systems have been developed. These programs are taught in Australia, China, and Singapore. In 2005 it was decided that due to the growth of BI that it was important to develop appropriate curriculum. Initially three staff attended SAP training related to their Business Information Warehouse (BIW) solution. The purpose of this training was to educate staff on the solution’s functionality and its relevance to tertiary education. It also enabled staff to start collecting resources that would provide a foundation to curriculum development. An additional computer server was purchased and loaded with the BIW system. In 2006 a BI systems subject was offered at the postgraduate level. Due to the complexity of the subject it was only available to 20 final semester students in the ERP masters program. These students had a solid grounding in ERP systems and therefore would understand many of the concepts more readily. Also, students were aware of the demand in industry for BI skills and accordingly the subject was in demand; it was necessary to restrict numbers. The subject was conducted over a 12-week period and consisted of a 2 hour lecture and 1 hour workshop each week. The purpose of the subject was to provide students with both a theoretical and practical understanding of BI. From the theoretical perspective, students covered issues related to the design, implementation,


and use of these types of solutions. Accordingly, the assessments included data modelling and a research paper. From the practical perspective, students completed a number of SAP BIW handson exercises, which reflected a real-life BI project. This involved data model design; data warehouse structure development; data extraction; transformation and loading; reporting; and administration, including performance analysis. The workshop exercises were based on a consolidation of SAP training materials. However, as mentioned previously, this involved considerable effort and should not be underestimated. Thirty pages of SAP training materials were transformed into 250 pages of workshop exercises once concepts and processes were explained. The exercises adopted a case study approach whereby each workshop built upon previously completed tasks. This provided students with an understanding of the interdependencies of the various data warehousing activities. Data warehousing is a complex activity and involves a large number of specialist jargon to describe its various components. To assist students to understand these terms, bi-weekly multiple choice tests were conducted; these acted as revision as well as gauging the students’ understanding. The major assessment in the subject adopted a problem-based learning approach. A case study was developed based on Formula One racing. The reporting requirements and file data structures were provided to students. Students were assigned to groups of three and were required to develop the data model based on the case study. At a later stage they were expected to build the data warehouse; extract and load data; and create the required reports. This assessment activity occurred on Saturday for 6 hours. The assessment had a number of milestones that enabled staff to monitor the students’ progress and assist if a problem occurred. At the completion of the task staff questioned each member of the group about the required task to ascertain each group member’s level of knowledge.

The subject adopted a blended approach, which incorporated both online and face-to-face teaching. An online tool was used to distribute materials each week. These materials included lecture notes, relevant resources including analyst’s white papers, SAP resource materials, and Web casts. The Web casts were obtained from the SAP user group conferences and enabled students to listen to industry speakers on various aspects of BI. In addition students could access the data warehouse systems externally from the university which provided them with a more flexible learning environment. At the completion of the subject students were provide with a CD that consisted of class materials as well as a compilation of BI resources. From the face-to-face perspective, a team teaching approach was adopted to support lecturing staff. Also, the use of visiting industry speakers was well received by both students and staff. The initial offering of the subject was considered successful with all students reaching a satisfactory level. The student feedback was positive and indicated that the structure of the subject should be changed to provide more time in workshops. In the future, the time allocation will be split equally between workshop and lecture. Due to the success of the subject it will be offered to ERP students in our partnering institution in China. In terms of future development a number of changes are planned. Firstly, the workshop case study was based around cost centre accounting reporting. It is believed that many of the students found it difficult to relate to the reporting requirements due to their lack of knowledge of cost centre accounting. It is planned to replicate the exercises using sales and distribution reporting in an attempt to overcome this problem. It is also planned to extend the reporting exercises to encompass Web-based reporting including the development of dashboards. SAP BIW solution incorporates functionality to support data mining and analysis, although


very few companies take advantage of this functionality, it is planned that some exercises will be developed to give the students some exposure about what is possible with this technology.

conclusIon

Burton, B. (2006). Business intelligence and information management. Retrieved December 2006, from www.gartner.com CAP Gemini, Ernst, and Young. (2002). Adaptive ERP. Retrieved January 2003, from www.cgey. com/solutions/erpeea/media/AdaptiveERPPOV. pdf

Industry is placing greater importance on the use of BI solutions and is faced with a shortage of skilled staff who can design, build, and maintain these systems. Universities will become aware of this shortage and attempt to develop curriculum to produce industry ready graduates. However, this will prove too difficult for many. The gap between industry’s skill requirements for graduates and those provided by universities is only going to widen. This is going to place greater burden on industry to provide in-house education. But will this type of education be solution specific and narrowly focussed. This chapter provides an example of how one university is trying to narrow this gap.

Davenport, T., Harris, J., & Cantrell, S. (2003). Enterprise systems revisited: The director’s cut. Accenture.

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About the Contributors

Glenn R. Lowry is a professor of management information systems in the College of Business and Economics of the United Arab Emirates University where he was foundation executive director of MBA. He holds a PhD from Rutgers University and is a charter member of the Association for Information Systems (AIS). Lowry has held a number of senior academic posts in Australia and the U.S. His research and teaching interests include software engineering; systems development; organisational technology uptake and change management; diffusion of innovation; and research methods. He has served as an editor of the Journal of Information Technology Education and is member of the editorial board of the Journal for Information Technology Theory and Application. Lowry has authored or edited six books and more than 80 refereed papers in the discipline. Rodney L. Turner is a lecturer in information systems at Victoria University in Melbourne. He holds a PhD in information systems from Monash University, as well as master’s degrees in education from Monash and in information systems from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University. Apart from Victoria University, he has held teaching positions at RMIT and at Swinburne University. He has also worked on Australian aid projects in the Philippines and in China involving information technology (IT). His research interests are in information systems education and technology (IS&T) acceptance in developing nations. He has authored more than 20 papers.

*** Ala M. Abu-Samaha is an assistant professor of information systems, Faculty of IT, The University of Amman. Abu-Samaha has developed research interests in two major areas of the information systems (IS) discipline: IS development methodologies, and IS&T evaluation. Abu-Samaha has many publications in both of these areas, mainly in evaluating technical intervention in health provision. Abu-Samaha holds a PhD in IS from the Information Systems Research Centre (ISRC) at the Information Systems Institute, University of Salford in the UK. Abu-Samaha obtained his MS degree in the same area of interest from the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Salford. Ghassan al-Qaimari is a professor of computer science, and the CEO of Fujairah College. Prior to that, he taught at University of Wollongong in Dubai (2004-2006), where he was the chair of College of IT, and at RMIT University (1995-2003). He obtained his doctorate from Heriot-Watt University (1994),



and received his BSc in electrical engineering and MSc in computer science from the University of Detroit. Professor al-Qaimari is actively involved with major industry players, such as IBM, Telstra, and DaimlerChrysler. His research and consulting experience in the area of human computer interaction (HCI), usability and software engineering has earned him an international profile. Jocelyn Armarego worked for 10 years in industry as a requirements engineer before joining the academic staff of first Curtin and then Murdoch Universities. Her chapter in this book reflects her interests in IT education (in particular issues of nontraditional learning and student approaches to learning), requirements engineering (how we do it, how we teach it), and alignment between formal education and professional practice. She has been involved with the development of the Body of Knowledge for Software Engineering (SWEBOK) and is currently participating in a research project investigating creativity in teamwork. Youcef Baghdadi has taught in many universities abroad. He is currently research coordinator of the Department of Computer Science at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. He holds a PhD from the University of Toulouse in France. He is a member of the ACM and IEEE Computer Societies. His research aims at bridging the gap between business and IT, namely, in the areas of IS, cooperative IS, IT, e-commerce, and e-business. He has published articles in journals such as the Journal of Information Systems Frontiers, Journal of Information Systems and e-Business, International Journal of Electronic Business, Journal of Electronic Research and Applications, Journal of Informing Science and others. Yongmei Bentley is a senior lecturer in logistics at the University of Bedfordshire. She has an MSc in marketing management and PhD in information systems. Her research interests include qualitative research methods, small businesses, information management, e-learning, logistics, and supply chain management (SCM). She has worked on a few research projects funded by the European Commission in the areas of e-learning, information and communication technology (ICT), and e-supply chain management. She is a referee for a number of international conferences and journals. She teaches a range of subjects including operations management, logistics, supplies management, SCM, database design, Web site design and business computing. Barry J. Brinkman ([email protected]) is an assistant professor in the Computer and Information Science Department at Gannon University. His research interests are in the areas of computer and network security, and computer science education. He received his PhD in computer and information science from Ohio State University. Phil Carter has been involved in a number of different aspects of computing since 1981. He graduated with a PhD in information systems from Massey University in 1998 and is a senior lecturer at the School of Computing and Information Sciences at the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand. He is also a psycho dramatist. He co-authored a book with Max Clayton titled The Living Spirit of the Psychodramatic Method. Valentine Casey is completing his PhD at the University of Limerick where he has also lectured. His PhD research is focused on the establishment and operation of virtual teams in a global software development (GSD) environment. Valentine has over 20 years experience in the IT industry, including


4 years as software quality manager, and is a Software Engineering Institute trained capability maturity model assessor. He holds an MSc in software re-engineering and a BSc in economics and organisational theory. He is a researcher on GSD for SMEs within Lero, the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre, funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI). Gwyn Claxton is a senior lecturer and associate head of school (academic) at the School of Computer and Information Sciences at the Auckland University of Technology (New Zealand). She completed her masters degree at Massey University. She has supervised distance and local IT and e-business students on the Bachelor of Business Cooperative Education course and has lectured on the school’s undergraduate programmes. She has an industry background and research interests in database, systems development, and IS. . Mark Conway is director of the Academic Alliance Program, for Hyperion. With over 20 years of experience in managing industry-academic partnerships in the computing and software industries, Conway develops and manages Hyperion’s university-focused collaborations. He is a senior advisory board member to the Teradata University Network and on the Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business Center for BPM Advisory Board. Before joining Hyperion, Conway directed PeopleSoft’s academic alliance programs. He also worked as Director of Internet Service Provider (ISP) Marketing for Digital Equipment Corporation, where he was a founding member of Digital’s Internet Business Group, and led Digital’s worldwide ISP marketing programs. He served in several education-focused, marketing roles and worked in Digital’s Corporate Research’s External Research Program, sponsoring university-based research projects and leading Digital’s Education Investment Review Board (EIRB), that coordinates over $100M in hardware, research, and faculty development grants each year. Conway has a masters in Technology Strategy and Policy from Boston University, a masters in education from Northeastern University, and a BA in psychology from Merrimack College. Yanqing Duan is a reader in IS at the Business School of University of Bedfordshire. Her principal research interest is the development and use of advanced ICTs in, and their impact on, business and management, especially for improving individual and organizational decision making and performance. She is particularly interested in knowledge management, especially the ICT-based knowledge transfer, and the use of e-learning in enhancing knowledge and skills in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). She has coordinated many European Commission funded research projects and published over 80 papers in journals, books, and international conference proceedings. Julie Fisher has worked and conducted research in the IS field for the last 16 years. She has built a strong reputation in the area of usability, particularly in relation to systems development. Fisher’s other research interests include technology in education; mobile devices, particularly in health; and small business Web site design. Julie also has broader interests in IS research, including how to build appropriate and effective systems for users, with a particular focus on the nontechnical skills needed. Paul Hawking is a senior lecturer in the School of Information Systems at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. He has more than 20 years experience in education both in industry and the tertiary sectors. He is a recognised researcher and best-selling author having written six books and produced more than 90


research publications. His area of expertise relates to the implementation and adoption of ERP systems. He was past-chairperson of the SAP Australian User Group. Hawking’s knowledge is highly regarded in both academia and industry and, accordingly, has been invited to speak throughout the world. Haiyan Huang is a doctoral candidate and research assistant in the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) in the Center for the Information Society at Pennsylvania State University. Her primary research interests include global software and IS development; global virtual teams; knowledge management; and cross-cultural management. Other research interests include HCI design, computersupported cooperative work, socio-culture, socio-cognitive, and socio-technical issues in distributed collaborative work and learning. Currently, she is looking for case-study opportunities to investigate issues related to globally distributed team work in global software development settings. Briga Hynes is a lecturer in entrepreneurship in the Department of Management and Marketing and is course director for the Bachelor of Business Studies Degree Programmes at the University of Limerick. She is also actively involved in outreach activities with a range of local and regional development agencies, community groups, and small firms in the design and delivery of training and mentoring programmes for owner/managers. Hynes’ primary area of research focuses on growth and strategy development in the small firm, enterprise education, and female entrepreneurship. These research outputs have been presented at conferences and also published in journals and as book chapters. Robert Jovanovic is a lecturer in the School of Information Systems in the Faculty of Business and Law at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. He has been involved in teaching in the tertiary sector for the past 18 years. His areas of expertise are related to database design, implementation, and use. He has contributed to a number of conferences on his teaching practices. His research interests include business intelligence and Sarbanes Oxley. He is a member of the university’s ERP research group and the Australian SAP user group. Zeenath Reza Khan has been teaching at the Australian University of Wollongong in Dubai since 2001 and is currently pursuing her PhD in community informatics. She is Bangladeshi but spent most of her adult life in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). She is the receiver of the Federal Environmental Award for scientific research in the UAE and has won many other awards for her dedication to the local community and environment. Her passions include reading, writing, and singing. Daoliang Li is a professor in the College of Engineering, China Agricultural University. His principal research interest is IS for environment monitoring and agriculture management, especially for decision support systems, remote sensing, and geographic information systems (GIS) applications in revegetation/ rehabilitation of abandoned or degraded lands. He is a member of the International Federation for Information Processing and the executive director of Information Group, Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering. He coordinated many international and national research projects and has published more than 50 national-international journals and three books. Kathy Lynch has worked and conducted research in the IT and education disciplines for the last 12 years. She has built a strong reputation in the area of ICT research and development. Lynch’s other research


interests include graduate attributes, use of emerging technologies, mobile computing, usability, Webbased systems development, effective use of ICTs in teaching and learning (including e-learning and m-learning), and curriculum design and evaluation. Alan Malone is currently completing an internship with the software architecture group in the Software Engineering Department of Siemens Corporate Research, Princeton, New Jersey. He graduated from the University of Limerick, Ireland in 2004 with a BSc. in information technology and telecommunications and has just completed his MSc in software engineering at the same university. Alan was the team lead of the University of Limerick development team “Ard na Croise” in the first year of the Global Studio Project and was a Siemens central team member for the second year of the project. Mike Metcalfe is interested in strategic ideas or concepts. He finds the ideas of pluralism, pragmatism, systems, design, and argument particularly useful. Metcalfe has worked as a navigator in the Merchant Navy; a soldier in the British Parachute Regiment Reserves; a budget analyst and policy consultant in industry; a lecturer at six universities; and as a commercial advisor to governments in New Zealand and Australia. Growing up, he lived in England, Germany, Aden, and Singapore, while his father helped close the British Empire. His secondary schooling was in Wales at HMS Conway; his tertiary qualifications in business planning were mainly by correspondence course, with his PhD being from Adelaide University in 1993, on the composition of small planning groups. Metcalfe’s latest of six books is titled Critiquing Research: Science or Argument; he has supervised and examined several PhD candidates and has published over 60 academic articles. Sarah Moore is currently dean of teaching and learning at the University of Limerick. She is committed to the use of innovative teaching practices at third level, is an expert in the use of experiential learning techniques, and has developed several interactive learning exercises for use with a variety of student groups. Her academic discipline is organisational behaviour and theory, the principles of which she has also used to develop research in learning and teaching. Specific research interests include cognitive styles, team learning, and formative professional development in educational and academic settings. She is deputy chair of Ireland’s Higher Education Authority. Allison Morgan is a doctoral candidate and research assistant in the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) in the Center for the Information Society at Pennsylvania State University. She earned a BBA in computer-based information systems from Howard University in Washington, DC. She is originally from Fort Washington, MD. Her research interests include under-represented groups and accessibility issues with technology; the digital divide; the social, cultural, and societal impacts of technology; Web search engines and information retrieval; and human information behavior. She formerly worked for Accenture Consulting. Tom O’Kane is a distinguished member of the technical staff working within Motorola’s Systems and Software Engineering Research Lab. He has over 12 years experience in software process improvement and methods. Prior to this he worked in software development for over 12 years with a number of other companies, both in Ireland and the United States. Within Motorola Labs, his prime interests are in the development of software quality models for process management, global and third-party development, and agile software development practices. O’Kane maintains strong academic links and has published


and presented on a wide range of software related topics. He works in consultation with Motorola facilities worldwide and with partner organizations, helping them develop and improve their software processes for real business results. Krassie Petrova is a senior lecturer and programme leader of the masters programme in computer and information sciences at the School of Computer and Information Sciences at the Auckland University of Technology (New Zealand). She received her masters degree form the University of Sofia and has held teaching and research positions in IS&T at several universities. Her published and presented work includes papers on IT education; flexible and online learning; mobile business applications; and information assurance. Jeria L. Quesenberry is currently a PhD candidate in the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) in the Center for the Information Society at Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests include the study of the organizational aspects of IT, with a particular focus on female recruitment and retention in the American IT labor force. She has published several articles on the IT workforce including managing global IT workers, diversity, and the under representation of women with regard to work-life balance; motherhood and careers; environmental context; and social networks. Prior to her career in academia, she served as a consultant at Accenture, specializing in the implementation of ERP packages for human resource and payroll management systems. She received her BS in decision sciences and management information systems from George Mason University. Ita Richardson is a senior lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, lecturing to undergraduate and postgraduate computer systems and software engineering students. Her research includes software process improvement within SMEs and GSD. She is project leader for the GSD for SMEs project, funded by Science Foundation Ireland and operates within Lero—the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre. She is also a researcher on the B4-STEP Principal Investigator project. Richardson graduated with a PhD in computer science from the University of Limerick in 1999. Stephen D. Samuel has been interested in computers since he was seven. He received his first computer when he was 10 and has been programming ever since. He completed his graduation in computer science with software specialization and has been involved in developing solutions for multinational corporations in various fields from accounting to press printing to advertising. He is currently working on his dissertation proposal and hopes to carry on his love for computers. Ravi Seethamraju currently works at the University of Sydney, School of Business. Seethamraju teaches and researches in enterprise systems, business process management, and e-commerce. He has published several refereed articles and conference papers on enterprise systems, business education, process management, and management of professional engineers. Seethamraju has extensive curriculum development experience and has designed several courses incorporating industry-standard software solutions into the curriculum. Before his move into academe, he had several years of corporate management, training, and consulting experience in business IS and operations management. He has a PhD, a postgraduate diploma in adult education, a masters in industrial engineering, and a bachelors degree in engineering.


Eileen M. Trauth is a professor of information sciences and technology and director of the Center for the Information Society at Pennsylvania State University. Her research is concerned with socio-cultural influences on IT and the IT profession, with a special focus on the role of diversity within the field. As a Fulbright scholar, Trauth conducted a multiyear investigation of sociocultural influences on the emergence of Ireland’s information economy. She has conducted research on sociocultural influences on gender in the IS profession in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK, and the U.S. She has published nine books and over 100 research papers on qualitative research methods, global informatics, information policy, information management, and gender diversity in the IT workforce. Theresa M. Vitolo teaches in systems-related fields as an associate professor in the Computer and Information Science Department at Gannon University. She received her PhD in information science from the University of Pittsburgh. Her interests include intelligent interface design, motivated system energetics, and other issues in the field of human-computer interactions. She can be contacted at vitolo@ gannon.edu . Dolores Zage is a faculty member in the Computer Science Department at Ball State University and the research coordinator of the Software Engineering Research Center (SERC). Zage’s research interests are in software metrics and models and their application during the design and maintenance phases of software development. She has been a co-principal investigator on 27 metrics projects funded by the National Science Foundation, the SERC, Raytheon, Motorola, Telcordia, Northrop Grumman, Computer Sciences Corporation, Harris Corporation, Magnavox Electronics Systems Division, and GTE Data Services.

0

421

Index

A

C

action learning 53 research 168 agents of change 181 application integration (EAI) 372 Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) 197, 214, 328 Australia 164 Australian Computer Society (ACS) 214 authenticity 254

capability maturity model integration (CMMIsm) 285 chief executive officer (CEO) 265 information officer (CIO) 265 CMMI2sm 86–104 co-inquiry 254 cognitive apprenticeship model 172 communication 84–104 tools 85–104 competitive advantage 215 context 266 computer engineering (CE) 198 concept-oriented course architecture (COCA) 327–348 continuous learning 4 cooperation 85–104 coordination 84–104 copyright 227 CRESH 271 critical social theory (CST) 50 culture 86–104

B body image 248 business education 58 functions 330 fundamentals 329 information warehouse (BIW) 375 intelligence 370–378 knowledge 133 organization 331 performance management (BPM) 268 properties 329 types 330

Copyright © 2008, Idea Group Inc., distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI is prohibited.

Index

curriculum design 70 mapping 183 customer relationship management (CRM) 375

D database management system (DBMS) 197 debugging ethical decision making 305 decision support system (DSS) 371 demographic group 31 Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) 351 discipline 59 discussion identified skills 322 diversity 33 domestic diversity 29 double-loop learning 53

E electronic commerce (e-commerce) 43, 129, 197 legislation 202 signature (e-signature) 202 engineering 160 enterprise application integration (EAI) 196 resource planning (ERP) 58, 196, 269, 370 systems software 57–81 entrepreneurship education 106, 111 ethical awareness 221 ethics 214–241 ethnicity 34 experiential group learning 242–263

F financial analysis made easy (FAME) database 357 foreign direct investment (FDI) 108

G gender 1–26, 34 generic goals (GG) 285 skills 109 getting alongside 252 globalization 28–29 global software development (GSD) 82–104

422

H hacking 218 HAPPINESS (Holistic APProach to INventing European Staff Solutions) 350–369 higher education 195–213, 370–378 human -computer interaction (HCI) 255 resource (HR) 27, 59 hybrid 350–369 Hyperion 264

I information and communication technology (ICT) 349– 369, 373 student 105–127 system (IS) 371 definition 333 teaching methodology 327 types 333 systems (IS) 27–41 academics 42–56 and technology (IS&T) 264 education 12 professional 1 student 1 technology (IT) 159, 371 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 328 intellectual property 109, 202 interactive design model 66 interpersonal skills 2, 129 introduction 300 Ireland 105–127 item reliability 6

J Jordan 195–213

K knowledge gap 32 management 87–104

L language 85–104 precision 255 learning by doing 53

Index

environment 264 strategies 60 style 255 literature review nontechnical skills 352 technical skills 352

M majority 34 management information systems (MIS) 265, 327–348 model allocate roles 292 monitor and control research project collaboration 293 proposal development and review 286 provide training 292 research collaboration policy 287 review research outcomes 294 Middle East 203 minority 34 motivation 87–104

O online survey 5 transaction process principles (OLTP) 373 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 284

P piracy 218 pragmatism 47 principal component analysis (PCA) 6 problem-based learning (PBL) 168 process areas (PAs) 285 tools 86–104 professionalism 214–241 public relations (PR) 243

R rarity 44 REACH 196 recall 247 requirements engineering (RE) 161 risk management 88–104

S self -employment 106 -esteem 113 -interest 266 Siemens Corporate Research 82–104, 90–104 situated co-inquiry 254 skills flexibility 109 generic 109 innovation 109 interpersonal 129 practicial experience 109 project-based 109 soft 130 small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) 349–369 social self 248 soft skills 7, 130 software creation 160 developer 85–104 development 159 development globalization 82–104 engineering (SE) 198 manager 85–104 process 86–104 product knowledge 133 vendor 65 special relationships 280–298 specific goals (SGs) 285 stakeholder 51 student stakeholder 130 studio learning 182 study motivation and background graduates' field readiness 312 subject matter expert (SME) 85–104 supplier manager 90–104 supply chain management (SCM) 196, 375 survey findings 357–369 sustainability 43

T tailoring the process 294 teaching strategies 60 technology education 27 transfer 87–104, 109 Teradata University Network 269, 272 tertiary education 169

423

Index

think aloud 248 traditional learning 166 Trinity College 107 trust 83–104 -building communication 83–104

U University of Limerick (UL) 89–104, 105, 117 of Nebraska – Lincoln 265 university alliance program 65 competency center (UCC) 275 teaching 64 usability 242–263 person 242 testing 242, 246, 247–248

V virtual enterprise 129 virus 218 visibility 84–104 vocational training 62

W working conditions 10 workplace learning 131

424

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