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Research suggests the relationship between time pressure and software quality to be more complex than presumed. While software developers can adjust their output to improve observed performance at the expense of software quality, the latter has been found to increase with time pressure in case of work-pace dependent incentives. An untested, but widely disseminated game-theoretical model seeks to resolve this contradiction and hypothesizes that high rates of time pressure avoid so-called 'shortcuts', which occur in the form of imperfections induced by developers to meet unrealistically tight deadlines. We conduct two laboratory experiments to empirically test this model for the first time. Our results corroborate the model with regard to its suggestion that shortcuts can be reduced if developers perceive unrealistic deadlines as ever-present. However, we also show that the actual critical probability of unrealistic deadlines-the point at which shortcut taking is drastically reduced-is above the theoretical one. Although final conclusions on the impact of time pressure on software quality remain to be drawn, our results suggest that-considering the contingencies of our study-time pressure helps in striving for quality in software projects.

This article reports on the development of a knowledge management (KM) dictionary and its application to automated content analysis to investigate topical foci of KM publications and provide an overview of the current research landscape. While automated content analysis gains importance, a problem prevails concerning the use and analysis of compound concepts (e.g., organizational learning). Using a self-developed dictionary of KM-related compound concepts, a sample of 4,290 publications from ten top-ranked KM journals and one KM conference was analyzed using text-mining software. Based on the dictionary approach, this study investigates core research themes of the KM discipline and compares key research interests throughout the IJKM community and those of other outlets. The investigation provides guidance to identify research opportunities in KM and provides useful implications concerning the application of dictionaries. Practitioners might adapt their organizations' approaches to KM accordingly, with regard to prevailing themes and trends in KM research.

Time pressure represents one of the most critical factors associated with software development project failure. However, its role in previous research is limited to traditional development approaches and is also inconclusive, suggesting both negative and positive effects, while others argue for dependence on the level of time pressure. In the context of agile software development projects, particularly Scrum, we seek to analyze the role of time pressure in software development projects and aim to develop a better understanding of its antecedents and consequences. We apply an exploratory, interview-based research approach grounded in data and complemented by thematic analysis. Our findings support a differentiated picture of time pressure, revealing that not all antecedents equally lead to negative consequences and that effects are dependent not only on intensity but also on temporality of time pressure. Understanding antecedents and consequences serves organizations to advantageously manage time pressure.

Games can help motivate people in otherwise nongame scenarios and engage users in high interaction. For decades, animated strategy games have helped introduce MBA students to complex economic scenarios. More recently, marketing has been using gamification to connect users with products and sales channels. Software teams use gamification for collaborative experiences, learning, and knowledge sharing. Here, Dirk Basten explores gamification applications and underlying technologies. I look forward to hearing from both readers and prospective column authors about this column and the technologies you want to know more about.

The effectiveness of information technology (IT) depends on its embeddedness into its contingent context. Thus, enabling adequate knowledge management (KM) system design requires awareness of the characteristics of the knowledge that is created. Since related insights are missing, we explore what software developers learn on their projects by conducting interviews based on the Repertory Grid Technique. We assess the characteristics of the identified knowledge and skills and derive suggestions for KM system design accordingly. Our study gives rise to challenge the common idea that KM design should be chosen according to the type of knowledge (explicit versus tacit) to be managed. Incorporating further knowledge characteristics (task domain and volatility of knowledge), our results indicate that organisations should implement a codification strategy or a strategy between codification and personalisation, depending on the knowledge at hand.

This study illuminates the role of client–vendor communication in relation to project performance and client satisfaction in information system projects. Results from a field study with managers on the client side suggest that both process and product performance positively influence the confirmation of expectations; however, process expectations do not, which might be due to the normality of budget and schedule overruns. Furthermore, client–vendor communication wields an important influence on client satisfaction. Future research should address the contributions of different communication mediums and contrast agile and non-agile projects.

While information technology in general offers potential to improve learning and teaching processes, interactive whiteboards (IWBs) as a specific technology can increase flexibility, efficiency, interactivity, and motivation in classroom settings. Despite substantial investments, many teachers are reluctant to use IWBs. Insights from previous research to explain this reluctance are limited since the voluntary nature of teachers’ decision to use IWBs has been disregarded so far. To overcome this shortcoming, we rely on different theories concerning technology acceptance to develop and test a research model that advances the understanding of factors that contribute to teachers’ behavioral intention and use behavior regarding IWBs. Our study reveals hedonic motivation, habit, social influence, and compatibility as important factors. While we discuss contributions of our work such as the general role of hedonic motivation and habit in voluntary contexts of technology acceptance research, we also offer implications that schools should consider for successful IWB adoption.

In the context of the so-called fourth industrial revolution, cyber-physical systems (CPS) build the technological foundation for the increasing digitalisation of our world. Because guidelines to overcome challenges of building such systems (e.g. security concerns, missing know-how, and lack of standards) are scarce, researchers and practitioners alike have begun to analyse the role of the mature paradigm of service-oriented architecture (SOA) in implementing CPS. However, the relationship between SOA and CPS is not entirely understood. To close this gap, we analyse SOA’s role for CPS based on a concept-driven literature review. The analysis of 12 publications that address the interrelation between SOA and CPS yielded four groups of CPS benefits that can be achieved by leveraging SOA. Combining these benefits with architectural layers and SOA’s design principles, we identify logical links that explain the role of SOA for CPS. Future research might concentrate on dominant patterns to scrutinise how a specific benefit can be achieved by leveraging SOA. Designers of CPS can leverage the identified patterns to understand the importance of specific characteristics of SOA to address the unique requirements of their CPS.

Whereas expectations concerning both process and product are essential for information system development (ISD) project success, research has focused on end-user expectations toward the product. Based on semi-structured interviews, we shed light on the relevance of process expectations for customer satisfaction in ISD projects, concrete customer expectations toward the process, and approaches for managing these expectations. Our study provides means to manage customer expectations and thus increase the likelihood of customer satisfaction.

Striving to survive in dynamic business environments, companies often aim to strengthen their organizational agility (OA) by making use of information systems (IS). While findings reported in pertinent literature regarding the relationship between IS and OA are inconclusive, many authors advocate service-oriented architecture (SOA) as a means to ultimately shape OA. However, research on this relationship lacks a systematic synthesis of explanatory results and theoretical contributions. To close this research gap, we synthesize literature in order to conceptualize the relationship between SOA and OA. The potential for establishing a definitive link between SOA and OA is limited because of the weak conceptualization of these two concepts in many studies and their merely association without providing any further explanation of their linkage. In addition to providing a conceptualization of the relationship between SOA and OA, we thus offer an agenda for future research to continue the search for explanations.

The ability to sense and respond to continuous, uncertain, and unpredictable changes in dynamic business environments is called organizational agility, which is an important determinant of business success. Besides providing several benefits for organizations, the usage of mobile technologies (MT) poses great potential to enhance sensing and responding capabilities to ultimately foster organiza-tional agility. Empirical evidence of previous research on the relation between MT usage and organi-zational agility is mainly grounded on qualitative case-based research lacking generalizable results. Our study aims to systematically examine this relation by developing a theoretical model and conduct-ing a quantitative survey to test the model. Our findings indicate that MT usage and organizational agility are positively associated. From an academic view, we provide first quantitative insights into the relation between MT usage and organizational agility, thus, paving the way for future research. Practitioners need to exceed the current maturity stage of MT usage, by promoting integration and alignment of MT and business processes.

Despite extensive research over the past several decades, assessing information system (IS) project success is still a challenging endeavor. While the traditional approach takes process performance (time and budget) and product performance (functional and non-functional requirements) into account, the contemporary perspective acknowledges the more comprehensive character of project success and emphasizes the criticality of stakeholder satisfaction. Continuing previous research, we propose and test a model with customer satisfaction as the uppermost criterion of IS project success and process performance and product performance as its determinants. Following recent calls for researchers to investigate the explicit linkage between success factors and success criteria, we also analyze the influence of process transparency on process and product performance. We conducted a survey via a questionnaire with IS experts in Germany. We contribute to a deeper understanding of IS project success by indicating that customer satisfaction is less a matter of time and budget and that a stronger emphasis should be placed on product performance. Moreover, our results illuminate the role of process transparency in IS projects showing that it contributes to both process and product performance.

Many companies struggle with effective and efficient accomplishment of enterprise application integration (EAI), resulting in significant time and budget overruns. Concerning project management, a major reason for failure is considered to be effort underestimation. This underestimation is an aftermath of applying estimation methods that do not account for all relevant factors influencing EAI project effort. Applying the Repertory Grid Technique, we explore factors affecting the effort of such projects by conducting 22 semi-structured expert interviews. We provide an extensive overview of 91 effort-influencing factors and their classification in nine categories, which can be used as a checklist in EAI projects.

Despite improvements in single-task software effort estimation, IT projects routinely exceed estimates. Guidelines for organization-wide estimation can help overcome challenges involving governance, people, processes, and tools.

Companies increasingly face turbulent and dynamic environments characterized by mostly unforeseeable changes. A viable strategy to survive in such environments is to strengthen organizational agility, which denotes the ability to quickly cope with continuous unanticipated change and to take advantage of opportunities in the environment. Service- oriented architecture (SOA) accompanied by related organizational mechanisms have been identified as promising means to shape organizational agility. However, research concerning SOA’s impact on organizational agility lacks an in-depth understanding on how agility is enabled. Applying case-based research, this research-in-progress investigates this relationship in an in-depth, intensive manner, thus providing the opportunity to refine the concept of organizational agility in terms of explaining how it can be achieved. We present and discuss preliminary findings on success stories positively relating SOA and organizational agility.

The interwovenness of information technology and organizational structures suggests an understanding of organizations as systems of high complexity. The Viable Systems model (VSM), grounded on cybernetic principles, is a popular approach enabling researchers to assess the complexity of organizations heavily relying on information systems (IS). Although IS scholars have increasingly applied the VSM in recent years, the different studies lack a common ground in terms of a systematic approach. By conducting a concept-driven systematic literature review, we investigate the state of the art of IS research applying VSM in a realworld setting. We analyze and systematically compare the identified studies to direct future research on applications of the VSM. We identify a set of VSM specific benefits. While the VSM provides an innovative perspective to common IS topics, its application mostly lacks a rigorous evaluation and fails to exhaustively derive the identified benefits.

Managing unanticipated changes in turbulent and dynamic market environments requires organizations to reach an extended level of flexibility, which is known as agility. Agility can be defined as ability to sense environmental changes and to readily respond to those. While information systems are alleged to have a major influence on organizational agility, service-oriented architecture (SOA) poses an opportunity to shape agile information systems and ultimately organizational agility. However, related research studies predominantly comprise theoretical claims only. Seeking a detailed picture and in-depth insights, we conduct a qualitative exploratory case study. The objective of our research-in-progress is therefore to provide first-hand empirical data to contribute insights into SOA’s influence on organizational agility. We contribute to the two related research fields of SOA and organizational agility by addressing lack of empirical research on SOA’s organizational implications.