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Well-Being, Aging, and Health (WBAH) are important aspects of life that affect us all. The requirements for WBAH systems have also become a topic of common interest for researchers from different disciplines. This is unsurprising, given that health-related expenses often represent about 10% of a country's gross domestic product, according to the World Health Organization.1

Background Digital Contact Tracing is seen as a key tool in reducing the propagation of Covid-19. But it requires high uptake and continued participation across the population to be effective. To achieve sufficient uptake/participation, health authorities should address, and thus be aware of, user concerns. Aim This work manually analyzes user reviews of the Irish Heath Service Executive’s (HSE) Contact Tracker app, to identify user concerns and to lay the foundations for subsequent, large-scale, automated analyses of reviews. While this might seem tightly scoped to the Irish context, the HSE app provides the basis for apps in many jurisdictions in the USA and Europe. Methods Manual analysis of (1287) user reviews from the Google/Apple playstores was performed, to identify the aspects of the app that users focused on, and the positive/negative sentiment expressed. Results The findings suggest a largely positive sentiment towards the app, and that users thought it handled data protection and transparency aspects well. But feedback suggests that users would appreciate more targeted feedback on the incidence of the virus, and facilities for more proactive engagement, like notifications that prompt users to submit their health status daily. Finally, the analysis suggests that the “android battery” issue and the backward-compatibility issue with iPhones seriously impacted retention/uptake of the app respectively. Conclusion The HSE have responded to the public’s desire for targeted feedback in newer versions, but should consider increasing the app’s proactive engagement. The results suggest they should also raise the backward compatibility issue, regarding older iPhones, with Apple.

Background Contact tracing remains a critical part of controlling COVID-19 spread. Many countries have developed novel software applications (Apps) in an effort to augment traditional contact tracing methods. Aim Conduct a national survey of the Irish population to examine barriers and levers to the use of a contact tracing App. Methods Adult participants were invited to respond via an online survey weblink sent via e-mail and messaging Apps and posted on our university website and on popular social media platforms, prior to launch of the national App solution. Results A total of 8088 responses were received, with all 26 counties of the Republic of Ireland represented. Fifty-four percent of respondents said they would definitely download a contact-tracing App, while 30% said they would probably download a contact tracing App. Ninety-five percent of respondents identified at least one reason for them to download such an App, with the most common reasons being the potential for the App to help family members and friends and a sense of responsibility to the wider community. Fifty-nine percent identified at least one reason not to download the App, with the most common reasons being fear that technology companies or the government might use the App technology for greater surveillance after the pandemic. Conclusion The Irish citizens surveyed expressed high levels of willingness to download a public health–backed App to augment contact tracing. Concerns raised regarding privacy and data security will be critical if the App is to achieve the large-scale adoption and ongoing use required for its effective operation.

Older adults (OAs) are a growing and dominant part of the global population, with specific communication and usability needs. Information technology, such as smartphone applications, has the potential to help OAs stay connected, yet some designs do not appeal to this group of users. Current recommendations for the design of usable smartphone applications for OAs can be hard to apply and difficult to interpret. As a result, designers of smartphone applications do not have a clear set of recommendations for the design of smartphones for OAs. In this paper we elicit and transform usability trends and difficulties experienced directly by tech-savvy1 OA users, into an organised set of recommendations. To do this we conducted an empirical study in four stages: (1) Data extraction. Digital context is extracted through conducting Think Aloud sessions with tech-savvy OAs (aged 50+); (2) Data mapping. Digital content extractions are mapped against 7 key aspects of usability; (3) Validation. Validated mappings through inter-rater reliability testing; (4) Presentation. Presented resultant recommendations as design patterns. Applying this method resulted in a set of 131 Usability recommendations with some overlap, transformed into a set of 14 design patterns that can act as a starting point for designers and developers of smartphone applications for OAs, and for pedagogy. Three of these patterns are presented in this study.

From experience over the past 2 decades, this paper discusses how academic researchers and industry-based practitioners can collaborate to produce research that is mutually beneficial. It also discusses how Lero – the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software researchers have successfully managed and implemented such projects, thus becoming part of a mutualistic relationship, such as those seen in the natural world.

This case study paper describes the development and evaluation of a prototype, Golden Jubilants, a smartphone app. Golden Jubilants was built within a software engineering in healthcare project, ReDEAP, that aimed to identify a set of recommendations for the design of smartphone apps for older adults aged over 50. Prototype development and evaluation is a recognized way to elicit meaningful feedback from any user group. This tangible artifact was interactive and provided fruitful engagement for us as researchers, and for the older adults who participated. This short paper presents the prototype evaluation process, and techniques used to ensure older adult involvement. To conclude, we discuss four key recommendations for consideration by software engineering in healthcare researchers who are using prototypes in their research – develop the research project through public and patient involvement, harness the potential of established evaluation and testing standards, develop a needed and tangible prototype, and involve an external group to evaluate findings.

Background Digital contact tracing apps have the potential to augment contact tracing systems and disrupt COVID-19 transmission by rapidly identifying secondary cases prior to the onset of infectiousness and linking them into a system of quarantine, testing, and health care worker case management. The international experience of digital contact tracing apps during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates how challenging their design and deployment are. Objective This study aims to derive and summarize best practice guidance for the design of the ideal digital contact tracing app. Methods A collaborative cross-disciplinary approach was used to derive best practice guidance for designing the ideal digital contact tracing app. A search of the indexed and gray literature was conducted to identify articles describing or evaluating digital contact tracing apps. MEDLINE was searched using a combination of free-text terms and Medical Subject Headings search terms. Gray literature sources searched were the World Health Organization Institutional Repository for Information Sharing, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control publications library, and Google, including the websites of many health protection authorities. Articles that were acceptable for inclusion in this evidence synthesis were peer-reviewed publications, cohort studies, randomized trials, modeling studies, technical reports, white papers, and media reports related to digital contact tracing. Results Ethical, user experience, privacy and data protection, technical, clinical and societal, and evaluation considerations were identified from the literature. The ideal digital contact tracing app should be voluntary and should be equitably available and accessible. User engagement could be enhanced by small financial incentives, enabling users to tailor aspects of the app to their particular needs and integrating digital contact tracing apps into the wider public health information campaign. Adherence to the principles of good data protection and privacy by design is important to convince target populations to download and use digital contact tracing apps. Bluetooth Low Energy is recommended for a digital contact tracing app's contact event detection, but combining it with ultrasound technology may improve a digital contact tracing app's accuracy. A decentralized privacy-preserving protocol should be followed to enable digital contact tracing app users to exchange and record temporary contact numbers during contact events. The ideal digital contact tracing app should define and risk-stratify contact events according to proximity, duration of contact, and the infectiousness of the case at the time of contact. Evaluating digital contact tracing apps requires data to quantify app downloads, use among COVID-19 cases, successful contact alert generation, contact alert receivers, contact alert receivers that adhere to quarantine and testing recommendations, and the number of contact alert receivers who subsequently are tested positive for COVID-19. The outcomes of digital contact tracing apps' evaluations should be openly reported to allow for the wider public to review the evaluation of the app. Conclusions In conclusion, key considerations and best practice guidance for the design of the ideal digital contact tracing app were derived from the literature.

This paper reports on the progress in the project COVIGILANT, which is aimed at developing an evaluation taxonomy for Contact Tracing Applications (CTAs) for COVID-19 Specifically, this article describes the development of Usability, one pillar of the COVIGILANT taxonomy, discussing the classification and decision-making processes, and the initial model validation The validation process was undertaken in two stages First, we validated how the Usability pillar could be used to evaluate the Irish Health Services Executive (HSE) COVID-19 CTA While this supported many of the attributes that we had within the Usability pillar, it also identified issues We made amendments based on these, and undertook a second study, this time evaluating 4 CTAs used in other countries This has led to the completion of the Usability pillar, which can now be used to evaluate global CTAs Copyright © 2021 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda All rights reserved

Together with many success stories, promises such as the increase in production speed and the improvement in stakeholders' collaboration have contributed to making agile a transformation in the software industry in which many companies want to take part. However, driven either by a natural and expected evolution or by contextual factors that challenge the adoption of agile methods as prescribed by their creator(s), software processes in practice mutate into hybrids over time. Are these still agile? In this article, we investigate the question: what makes a software development method agile? We present an empirical study grounded in a large-scale international survey that aims to identify software development methods and practices that improve or tame agility. Based on 556 data points, we analyze the perceived degree of agility in the implementation of standard project disciplines and its relation to used development methods and practices. Our findings suggest that only a small number of participants operate their projects in a purely traditional or agile manner (under 15%). That said, most project disciplines and most practices show a clear trend towards increasing degrees of agility. Compared to the methods used to develop software, the selection of practices has a stronger effect on the degree of agility of a given discipline. Finally, there are no methods or practices that explicitly guarantee or prevent agility. We conclude that agility cannot be defined solely at the process level. Additional factors need to be taken into account when trying to implement or improve agility in a software company. Finally, we discuss the field of software process-related research in the light of our findings and present a roadmap for future research., Comment: Journal paper, 17 pages, 14 figures

Persons with intellectual and developmental disability remain among the most vulnerable members of society and frequently face numerous barriers. This includes having poor access to health information systems (HIS), which may be further compromised by a lack of accessible HIS resources. To be more effective, HIS must be easily accessible and usable to be understood by users. The study explores the usability and accessibility of HIS that is used and accessed by people with mild intellectual and developmental disability. Through focus groups following which we drew on qualitative data, we explored and observed the accessibility and usability of HIS by men with mild intellectual and developmental disabilities aged between 18 and 35 years. The findings of our study show that there is substantial promise for using and accessing HIS by participants. However, we identified many barriers against and enablers for using and accessing these systems. We also identified some design requirements for developing health information system for persons with mild intellectual and developmental disability.

The proportion of older adults (OAs) is increasing throughout the globe. One of the most important needs of this age group is to maintain active social engagement, which can be achieved through smartphone applications offering active social engagement facilities. But OAs are often reluctant to use these apps, which leads to lower uptake over time. The underlying problem is pitfalls in guidance to develop smartphone applications for older adults. This leads to a lack of usage of the guidance by practitioners and hence the reflection of these guidelines on apps for older adults is limited. We have researched this problem space by undertaking a mixed-methods empirical study with 235 OAs. We elicited requirements that can be used in the design and development of smartphone applications for older adults. The contribution of this study is an evaluated classification of the derived recommendations, called ReDEAP (Recommendations for DEveloping smartphone applications for an aging Population). ReDEAP serves as a starting point for researchers and practitioners designing smartphone applications for older adults.

Healthcare education is continually evolving to meet the global healthcare needs of society. Education is of critical importance to support healthcare workers professional development while also expanding the evidence-base for healthcare professional training. There are inherent links between healthcare professionals’ educational development and patient safety. In recent years, there has been considerable emphasis on the role of technology to enhance patient safety and to support healthcare professionals in practice. However there is growing concern regarding the mismatch in healthcare professionals technological skills and how technological innovators are informed of healthcare needs. Education plays a key role to bridge this gap. Collaborating in simulated clinical learning environments, e.g. university-simulated clinical skills laboratories, can provide a valuable resource to support students’ technical competencies as they graduate into a digital healthcare environment. It also provides a safe innovation environment for healthcare solution developers to experiment with implementing technology to improve healthcare practice and faculty development. We review the literature to examine state-of-the-art in healthcare education and healthcare innovation with a view to developing a framework to guide how we can begin to successfully bridge healthcare education and technology innovation.

Identify factors that influence the task allocation activity of a GSD project.Implement an SLR and questionnaire survey methodologies to collect evidence.Identify 11 factors that influence the task allocation activity in a GSD project.The results indicate that the SLR findings and the industry experts feedback are aligned.The results are analyzed in relation to centralized and distributed project structures. ContextPlanning and managing task allocation in Global Software Development (GSD) projects is both critical and challenging. To date, a number of models that support task allocation have been proposed, including cost models and risk-based multi-criteria optimization models. ObjectiveThe objective of this paper is to identify the factors that influence task allocation in the GSD project management context. MethodFirst, we implemented a formal Systematic Literature Review (SLR) approach and identified a set of factors that influence task allocation in GSD projects. Second, a questionnaire survey was developed based on the SLR, and we collected feedback from 62 industry practitioners. ResultsThe findings of this combined SLR and questionnaire survey indicate that site technical expertise, time zone difference, resource cost, task dependency, task size and vendor reliability are the key criteria for the distribution of work units in a GSD project. The results of the t-test show that there is no significant difference between the findings of the SLR and questionnaire survey. However, the industry study data indicates that resource cost and task dependency are more important to a centralized GSD project structure while task size is a key factor in a decentralized GSD project structure. ConclusionGSD organizations should try to consider the identified task allocation factors when managing their global software development activities to better understand, plan and manage work distribution decisions.

Pharmacy plays a pivotal role in supporting acute clinical care pathways. However, across hospital environments, pharmacies are often stretched by growing service demands and conflicted by increased medication and service costs. Ultimately, such factors contribute towards process inefficiencies that impact on the provision of healthcare services. Following a literature review, we examined clinical pharmacy services by undertaking three acute hospital pharmacy case studies. We adopted an ethnographic approach, observing and interviewing pharmacists, pharmacy staff and nurses. With a view to improving healthcare information systems (ISs), we identified the enablers and barriers in service efficiency, thus identifying opportunities for pharmacy IS implementation across acute hospital environments. The findings also reveal some of the key enablers and barriers towards the introduction of hospital IS innovation. We present recommendations to overcome such barriers.

peer-reviewed The full text of this article will not be available in ULIR until the embargo expires on the 20/08/2021 In Global Software Development (GSD), the additional complexity caused by global distance requires processes to ease collaboration difficulties, reduce communication overhead, and improve control. How development tasks are broken down, shared and prioritized is key to project success. While the related literature provides some support for architects involved in GSD, guidelines are far from complete. This paper presents a GSD Architectural Practice Framework reflecting the views of software architects, all of whom are working in a distributed setting. In-depth interviews with architects from seven different GSD organizations revealed a complex set of challenges and practices. We found that designing software for distributed teams requires careful selection of practices that support understanding and adherence to defined architectural plans across sites. Teams used Scrum which aided communication, and Continuous Integration which helped solve synchronization issues. However, teams deviated from the design, causing conflicts. Furthermore, there needs to be a balance between the self-organizing Scrum team methodology and the need to impose architectural design decisions across distributed sites. The research presented provides an enhanced understanding of architectural practices in GSD companies. Our GSD Architectural Practice Framework gives practitioners a cohesive set of warnings, which for the most part, are matched by recommendations. ACCEPTED peer-reviewed

Background: Agile methods are no longer restricted to small projects and co-located teams. The last decade has seen the spread of agile into large scale, distributed and regulated domains. Many case studies show successful agile adoption in GSD, however, taken as a whole, it remains unclear how widespread this trend is, and what form the agile adoption takes in a global software development (GSD) setting. Aims: Our objective is to gain a deeper understanding of how organisations adopt agile development methods in distributed settings. Specifically we aim to plot the current development process landscape in GSD. Method: We analyse industrial survey data from 33 different countries collected as part of the project that explored the wider use of hybrid development approaches in software development. We extract and analyse the results of 263 surveys completed by participants involved in globally distributed projects. Results: In our sample, 72 of globally distributed projects implement a mix of both agile and traditional approaches (termed `hybrid'). 25 of GSD organisations are predominantly agile, with only very few (5) opting for traditional approaches. GSD projects that used only agile methods tended to be very large. Conclusions: Globally Distributed Software Development (and project size) is not a barrier to adopting agile practices. Yet, to facilitate project coordination and general project management, many adopt traditional approaches, resulting in a hybrid approach that follows defined rules., To appear, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM 2019)

Context Global Software Development (GSD) is the process whereby software is developed by different teams located in various parts of the globe. One of the major reasons for GSD project failure is that a number of organizations endorse global development prior to understanding project management challenges for the global activity. Objective The objective of this paper is to identify the challenges, from the client and vendor perspectives, which can undermine the successful management of GSD projects. Method We followed a two-phase approach: we first identified the challenges via a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) and then the identified challenges were validated using a questionnaire-based survey. Results Through both approaches, we identified 19 challenges important to the success of GSD project management. A comparison of the challenges identified in client and vendor organizations indicates that there are more similarities than differences between the challenges. Our results show a positive correlation between the ranks obtained from the SLR and the questionnaire ((r s (19) = 0.102), p = 0.679). The results of t -test (i.e., t = 0.299, p = 0.768 > 0.05) show that there is no significant difference between the findings of SLR and questionnaire. Conclusions GSD organizations should try to address the identified challenges when managing their global software development activities to increase the probability of project success.

Purpose Connected Health is an emerging and rapidly developing field never before witnessed across the healthcare sector. It has the potential to transform healthcare service systems by increasing its safety, quality and overall efficiency. However, as healthcare technologies or medical devices continuously rely more on software development, one of the core challenges is examining how Connected Health is regulated – often impacting Connected Health innovation. The purpose of this paper is to present an understanding of how Connected Health is regulated. Many of these regulatory developments fall under “medical devices”, giving rise to Software-as-a-Medical Device (SaaMD). Design/methodology/approach Through an extensive literature review, this paper demystifies Connected Health regulation. It presents the outcome of expert discussions which explore the key regulatory developments in the context of Connected Health to provide a practical guide to understanding how regulation can potentially shape healthcare innovation. Findings Several key issues are identified, and the authors present a comprehensive overview of regulatory developments relating to Connected Health with a view to support the continued growth of IT-enabled healthcare service models. The authors also identify the key challenges in Connected Health and identify areas for future research. Originality/value A key outcome of this research is a clearer understanding of the opportunities and challenges that regulation and standards present to Connected Health. Furthermore, this research is of critical importance in a first attempt towards recognising the impact of regulation and standards compliance in Connected Health.

Context: Global software development (GSD), although now a norm in the software industry, carries with it enormous challenges mostly regarding communication and coordination. Aforementioned challenges are highlighted when there is a need to transfer knowledge between sites, particularly when software artifacts assigned to different sites depend on each other. The design of the software architecture and associated task dependencies play a major role in reducing some of these challenges. Objective: The current literature does not provide a cohesive picture of how the distributed nature of software development is taken into account during the design phase: what to avoid, and what works in practice. The objective of this paper is to gain an understanding of software architecting in the context of GSD, in order to develop a framework of challenges and solutions that can be applied in both research and practice. Method: We conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) that synthesises (i) challenges which GSD imposes on software architecture design, and (ii) recommended practices to alleviate these challenges. Results: We produced a comprehensive set of guidelines for performing software architecture design in GSD based on 55 selected studies. Our framework comprises nine key challenges with 28 related concerns, and nine recommended practices, with 22 related concerns for software architecture design in GSD. These challenges and practices were mapped to a thematic conceptual model with the following concepts: Organization (Structure and Resources), Ways of Working (Architecture Knowledge Management, Change Management and Quality Management), Design Practices, Modularity and Task Allocation. Conclusion: The synthesis of findings resulted in a thematic conceptual model of the problem area, a mapping of the key challenges to practices, and a concern framework providing concrete questions to aid the design process in a distributed setting. This is a first step in creating more concrete architecture design practices and guidelines. acceptedVersion

This paper reviews current literature on the bed management role seeking to highlight developments most likely to increase efficiency. A reduction in the number of in-patient beds due in part to innovative surgical techniques is causing increased pressure on a very finite resource. This requires a greater emphasis on the bed management role and the wider hospital team. A number of studies are presented describing initiatives implemented to support bed management both operationally, procedurally and from a decision support approach. Finally, literature on people, process technology approaches in healthcare is presented, which could support a sustainable improvement in the role.

peer-reviewed Technological advancements have accelerated the deployment of healthcare information systems (HIS) with the potential to enhance productivity, lower costs, reduce medication errors, and ease the manpower strain on the healthcare industry. Although HIS can provide various benefits to healthcare professionals and patients, there is a high occurrence (50%) of unsuccessful HIS projects and problems with initiating their adoption. To investigate this phenomenon, this paper identifies decision-making theories, their short-coming of adopting HIS in healthcare organisations and decision-making facets that influence the adoption. These review will shed some light for future researchers to conceptualize, distinguish and comprehend the underlying decision-making models and theories that may affect the future application of HIS adoption. A literature search was conducted to identify studies presenting HIS decision-making adoption theories/models in a healthcare environment. From synthesis of 26 studies, we identified five major facets that provides a structure to organize and capture information on the decision-making and adoption of HIS. The themes presented here provide a starting point in understanding the decision-making adoption theories, their major facets and their short-coming in adopting HIS. This will facilitate our future research on decision-making framework for the adoption of HIS.

Individuals with intellectual and developmental disability remain among the most vulnerable members of society and frequently face numerous barriers to healthcare services. The purpose of this paper is to review the literature exploring health information access and use for those with intellectual and developmental disability (IDD), identifying barriers they face when using systems. A literature search was conducted to identify studies presenting experiences of individuals with IDD when accessing health information. We identified 28 studies which were published between January 2005 and October 2017. Thematic analysis of included articles resulted in identifying six major barriers: (a) communication skill, (b) patient engagement and satisfaction, (c) training/education for clients with IDD, (d) attitude and knowledge of healthcare providers, (e) clients with IDD being excluded from health promotion and research, and (f) quality of accessing healthcare services. The themes presented here provide a starting point in understanding the accessibility of health information for IDD clients. This will facilitate our future research on health interventions for IDD clients through the use of healthcare technology.

In recent years, healthcare technology applications have rapidly influenced and changed primary healthcare service delivery. By adopting the Theory of Reasoned Action, this study investigates the antecedents that influence healthcare professionals to trust and use healthcare technology. It incorporates a framework of technology acceptance by individual healthcare professionals, illustrating how healthcare technology acceptance can improve overall healthcare services. We explain this by extending the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) for healthcare technology. In particular, building on our previous systematic mapping review, we propose a conceptual model which incorporates the construct of trust into the TAM. This research contribution supports researchers to identify new insights on the effects of trust on the 'intention to use' of healthcare technology.

The adoption, scaling and tailoring of agile methods depends on several factors, such as the size of the software development organization, business goals, and operative model. The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) was developed to support organizations in scaling agile practices across the enterprise. Large multi-national enterprises report that adoption of SAFe led to significant productivity and quality gains. However, whether these benefits translate to small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) is unknown. As such, in this study we ask: To what extent can SAFe practices be implemented in a global SME? We administrated three surveys to members of the development organization of an Irish SME, to identify and evaluate the adoption rate of SAFe practices in the Global environment. We found teams and program level personnel are transitioning well towards SAFe. But the Portfolio level personnel appear not to have, as yet, adopted many SAFe practices. In an SME context it might not be necessary for Portfolio level members to fully adopt SAFe providing they are supportive of their teams. The SAFe self-assessment highlighted where training is required, to improve the vertical communication between teams, program level and upper management.

We study software development projects in supplier firms.Project managers assign a project start date differently even within one company.A project may lose knowledge, profitability, and be late before its start.We suggest definitions related to project start and project start date.We emphasise the need to study software development projects in a business context. A software development project may be considered a failure because it is late. In order to be able to assess this, a project start date should be known. The purpose of the paper is to study software development projects in a business context and especially project start from the supplier's perspective. In our research, we observed different ways of assigning project start but did not observe any company-level instructions for defining it. We raise questions regarding knowledge loss, project profitability, and having a project running late even before the project has started. We provide definitions for project start and project start date, and define boundaries for software supplier's project start-up. With this paper, we emphasise the need to study software development projects in a business context. The paper contributes to research on project management success, the software project business, and the management of a software project in a business context.

Healthcare demands are making it harder to deliver timely and safe quality care. However, connected health solutions can support this. This Journal First session presents three papers which discuss the role of software engineering in connected health.

This qualitative study addresses the adoption, utilization and effects of cloud-based testing in different organizational contexts. We approached the research problem by conducting thirty-five interviews with professionals in 20 organizations and applied grounded theory as the research method. The results indicate that cloud-based testing provides viable solutions to meet the testing needs within organizations. Cloud-based resources can be applied in performing various testing activities such as performance and multiplatform testing as well supporting practitioners in involving users during iterative development and testing. Cloud-based testing also adds value to practitioners by enabling easier management of the cloud-based testing resources and helping to produce improved end products. We use the results of the study to propose a strategy that can be used to assist practitioners in their decision-making processes towards adoption of cloud-based testing.

Practitioners perceive research on global software engineering as useful, yet they rarely read academic articles on the topic. Instead, they look to books, blogs, colleagues, forums, and their own experiences for solutions. Making research more relevant to practice requires a new mindset.

Context: How to adopt, scale and tailor agile methods depends on several factors such as the size of the organization, business goals, operative model, and needs. The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®) was developed to support organizations to scale agile practices across the enterprise.

Background. The proportion of older adults (OAs) is increasing throughout the developed world. Social isolation is a recognised problem for this sector. Technology is regarded as a possible way to create a more inclusive society, where for example social network systems (SNSs) can keep OAs in contact with local communities, create new communities, reduce adverse impact of geographic separation, reduced mobility and lifestyle changes. Objective. As end-users of SNSs, this paper looks at the current state of practice of SNSs for OAs. We explore what OAs think about SNSs, what they want from SNSs and whether these needs are met. Method. Taking a snowballing approach, we examined 51 primary studies on SNSs for OAs. Results. There is a discernible increase in SNSs designed for OAs since 2005, which claim to meet needs such as simplicity, ease of use, privacy and access to useful information. Yet, sustained use over time is unknown. Conclusion. SNSs remain a potential way to reduce the social isolation of OAs, however the extent to which SNSs can replace real human contact is largely unexplored, as is whether SNSs can trigger the creation of new supportive communities.

Connected Health can be described as a patient- or consumer-centred socio-technical healthcare management model which exploits the use of information and communication technology (ICT) during clinical or wellness decision-making tasks. It facilitates the connectivity of information sources and extends healthcare services and processes beyond traditional healthcare institutions. However, while much of the emphasis has been on developing the technology to facilitate Connected Health, there are few efforts that have established an evaluation model to encapsulate and assess the value and potential impact of Connected Health solutions, particularly from multiple stakeholders’ perspectives. Many information systems (IS) and health information systems (HIS) models are narrow in their evaluation focus. We present the Connected Health Evaluation Framework (CHEF), which offers a generic approach that encapsulates a holistic view of a Connected Health evaluation process. It focuses on four key domains: end-user perception, business growth, quality management and healthcare practice. We present a case study on the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) and describe the multi-stakeholder analysis challenge which this presents from an evaluation perspective. We also explore how CHEF could have guided more successful outcomes though our evaluation process.

Global software development has become the norm rather than the exception for even the smallest companies. However, global software development is known to lead to numerous negative effects among distributed teams. This paper focuses on the effect of global software development on motivation. Specifically we ask: “Does increased autonomy, through the introduction of scrum, result in higher motivation among distributed developers?” We studied two distributed software development teams within one company headquartered in Ireland. Teams employ the scrum approach to software development which emphasizes, among other things, autonomy. We observed the teams during their scrum ceremonies, interviewed each team member and administered a motivation survey. We found that the difference in motivation levels before and after the introduction of scrum was slight and not statistically significant. Instead, there was a significant difference in the motivation levels of experienced team members, which were lower than less experienced members.

The Global Teaming Model (GTM) is a CMMI (R)-style process model comprising 64 recommendations that synthesizes empirical evidence on how to overcome the obstacles faced by global software development projects. While the Global Teaming Model recommendations specify what a global software development project should do, it does not specify how. In order to provide concrete guidance for projects that wish to employ Agile methods in a global software development context, we asked, could the practices described in the Scaled Agile Framework (R) (SAFe (R)) provide examples for how GTM recommendations could be realized? We found 79 of 90 SAFe (R) Team level practices partly or wholly implement GTM recommendations. The SAFe (R) mapping onto the Global Teaming model provides a concrete roadmap for teams who need specific advice on how to implement GTM practices that have been identified as necessary to their success.

Global software development (GSD) is increasingly the norm. As firms expand into new markets overseas, acquire companies in different countries, and recruit talented developers in new locations, projects become distributed by necessity. As projects become increasingly distributed, and include external participants such as outsourcing vendors, conventional top-down management oversight and control becomes more difficult. How can organizations ensure that the activities of all parties involved are aligned with the strategic objectives and values of a software development undertaking? The Global Teaming Model is a framework that specifies practices and recommendations for Global Software Development. As such, it serves as a means to organize GSD practices relevant to Software Development Governance. We conducted a case study of a small team engaged in Global Software Development, identifying governance shortcomings. Then, we used the Global Teaming Model to identify governance practices that would address those shortcomings. We identified several aspects of the team's interactions with other teams in the company that would be improved by recommendations from the Global Teaming Governance Model. The Global Teaming Model provides a blueprint for Software Development Governance that organizations seeking to globalize their current development projects in a controlled way can use to implement good Software Development Governance.

In this paper, we discuss how IBM is working with Lero -- the Irish Software Research Centre and the Ireland Smart Aging Exchange. The proposed project will observe, analyse and coordinate Smarter Care models as they apply to active ageing and healthy living, building on models taken from Connected Health. We consider these as socio-technical models, extending from the older person's home and family into wider society. They can and will include healthcare models, but will also include further elements such as social interaction, exercise, intellectual requirements and personal assistance.

In this paper, we present information about two related software tools which solves two healthcare problems. In the first case, we have developed a Connected Health software solution, Homesafe Care, to monitor long-term conditions, through connecting a patient to his / her General Practitioner -- a one-to-one relationship. Through discussion with an Indian-based charity, Varanasi Children's Hospital, we then realized that the software could be updated to support their cause, improving children's nutrition. However, this meant that the system had to be changed to support many-to-one relationships, where many children were being supported by one single care worker, and this information would be submitted to a central office.

In recent years, there has been significant growth in software companies across the healthcare sector developing new technologies to improve healthcare delivery and services. This has given rise to the emergence of Connected Health -- a new model for healthcare management. This also places considerable emphasis on the process of software development in supporting Connected Health. In addition, it highlights the growing reliance and trust we place on software to support healthcare decisions. However, unlike many other sectors, such as business and education, failure to align healthcare needs with software requirements can have devastating consequences on people's health and potentially cause death. Our research and experience with healthcare companies confirms the need to establish a Connected Health Innovation Framework using Design Thinking principles to a) support software developers in clearly identifying healthcare requirements and b) extend and enrich traditional software requirements gathering techniques. This paper presents an e-pharmacy case study and describes the impact this approach has within a Connected Health context.

Medical Software Quality Regulations have been developed through a concern for patient safety, outcome and care. From our research on a variety of projects, which includes observation within hospitals and clinics, we can demonstrate that there are many situations in which regulations and directives regarding medical device software are not being taken into account, and unregulated software is developed and used in healthcare organisations. This happen mainly because people, not trained in software engineering within a lack of knowledge in regulations develop software solutions for healthcare. In addition, healthcare professionals are unaware of regulations and the effect unregulated software may have on patient and practitioner alike, and so use these systems.Software Engineers have a role to play to solve this problem. We recommend that, healthcare software systems are developed by professional software engineers in interdisciplinary teams with healthcare professionals. Software engineering and healthcare academics can collaborate on the development of modules within healthcare courses and the development of specialist courses. Through these, healthcare professionals will be educated on the value of software engineering practices and principles, and on the requirement for regulation in the development of medical device software. Software engineering courses should include topics focused on Medical Device Software development.

peer-reviewed Background: The derivation of products from a software product line is a time consuming and expensive activity. Despite recognition that an effective process could alleviate many of the difficulties associated with product derivation, existing approaches have different scope, emphasise different aspects of the derivation process and are frequently too specialised to serve as a general solution. Objective: To define a systematic process that will provide a structured approach to the derivation of products from a software product line, based on a set of tasks, roles and artefacts. Method: Through a series of research stages using sources in industry and academia, this research has developed a Process Model for Product Derivation (Pro-PD). We document the evidence for the construction of Pro-PD and the design decisions taken. We evaluate Pro-PD through comparison with prominent existing approaches and standards. Results: This research presents a Process Model for Product Derivation (Pro-PD). Pro-PD describes the tasks, roles and work artefacts used to derive products from a software product line. Conclusion: In response to a need for methodological support, we developed Pro-PD (Process Model for Product Derivation). Pro-PD was iteratively developed and evaluated through four research stages. Our research is a first step toward an evidence-based methodology for product derivation and a starting point for the definition of a product derivation approach.

peer-reviewed Service comprise of socio-technical (human and technological) factors which exchange various resources and competencies. Service networks are used to transfer resources and competencies, yet they remain an underexplored and ‘invisible’ infrastructure. Service networks become increasingly complex when technology is implemented to execute specific service processes. This ultimately adds to the complexity of a service environment, making it one of the most difficult environments to examine and manage. In addition, although the emerging paradigm of ‘Service Science’ calls for more theoretical focus on understanding complex service systems, few efforts have surfaced which apply a new theoretical lens on understanding the underlying trajectories of socio-technical dynamics within a service system. This paper presents a literature review on Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and discusses how it may be employed to examine the socio-technical nature of service networks. ANT offers a rich vocabulary to describe the interplay of socio-technical dynamics which influence the service system reconfiguration. Thus, this paper offers a discussion on how ANT may be employed to examine the complexity of service systems and service innovation.

A hospital quality assurance program (H-QAP) assures compliance in the real-world clinical environment via evidence-based best practices in patient and software systems management. Software Systems Embedded within hardware devices are increasingly prevalent in healthcare settings. They typically integrate information from devices and applications that collect, store, manipulate, and report clinical data. Authorities such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulate software within hardware devices and the EU has recently deemed stand alone software to be medical device.

In this paper, we consider software development project success and failure from the supplier's perspective. First we clarified concepts in order to be able to exclude review articles on in-house projects, continuous services, the customer's perspective, and software product development, with the aim of providing valid results for supplier firms. We divided success criteria into project success and project management (PM) success, and, in seven articles, identified three success criteria from the supplier's perspective: customer satisfaction, short-term business benefits, and long-term business benefits. In contrast, no definition of software development project failure was found. Articles were found in seven different journals, showing that knowledge on software development project success from the supplier's perspective is fragmented. This impedes the growth of knowledge on this topic.

ContextService-Oriented Computing (SOC) is a promising computing paradigm which facilitates the development of adaptive and loosely coupled service-based applications (SBAs). Many of the technical challenges pertaining to the development of SBAs have been addressed, however, there are still outstanding questions relating to the processes required to develop them. ObjectiveThe objective of this study is to systematically identify process models for developing service-based applications (SBAs) and review the processes within them. This will provide a useful starting point for any further research in the area. A secondary objective of the study is to identify process models which facilitate the adaptation of SBAs. MethodIn order to achieve this objective a systematic literature review (SLR) of the existing software engineering literature is conducted. ResultsDuring this research 722 studies were identified using a predefined search strategy, this number was narrowed down to 57 studies based on a set of strict inclusion and exclusion criteria. The results are reported both quantitatively in the form of a mapping study, as well as qualitatively in the form of a narrative summary of the key processes identified. ConclusionThere are many process models reported for the development of SBAs varying in detail and maturity, this review has identified and categorised the processes within those process models. The review has also identified and evaluated process models which facilitate the adaptation of SBAs.