Purpose

This study aims to understand how practitioners use their insights in software development models to share experiences within and between organizations.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a qualitative study of practitioners in software development projects, in large-, medium- or small-size businesses. It analyzes interview material in three-step iterations to understand reflexive practice when using software development models.

Findings

The study shows how work processes are based on team members’ experiences and common views. This study highlights the challenges of organizational learning in system development projects. Current practice is unreflective, habitual and lacks systematic ways to address recurring problems and share information within and between organizations. Learning is episodic and sporadic. Knowledge from previous experience is individual not organizational.

Originality/value

Software development teams and organizations tend to learn about, and adopt, software development models episodically. This research expands understanding of how organizational learning takes place within and between organizations with practitioners who participate in teams. Learnings show the potential for further research to determine how new curriculums might be formed for teaching software development model improvements.

IT solutions for rehab are seen as an opportunity to provide effective support for patients’ recovery process in their in-home environment, based on instructions from health care professionals. However, what factors in the context affect the usefulness of such systems lie beyond the training process as such. In this research, we followed a co-design process, where the design of a support packaged for home rehab is based on standard products. Through group interviews with teams of home rehab staff, a broader view of the subject was sought. Group discussions involving the initial demonstration and testing of technology provided a wide spectrum of factors that the staff considered important for success, related to issues on both the organizational and the patient levels. These findings were analyzed for success factors in an attempt to reach an understanding of the rehab process context which will have an effect on the usefulness of the support system. As a result, a checklist of aspects on the process that need to be taken into account in the design of a rehab support system is presented and discussed. The results could be used both in the design of solutions and in the selection and implementation of support systems regarding how to improve the actual use of the systems.

Experiences in a successful implementation of an IS-development model for co-design in a quadruple helix project.

1. Introduction

Information systems (IS) research of the last twenty years has shown a phenomenon of unused research results, for instance IS-development models that do not reach practice. In some cases it may be relied upon that it takes considerable long time to transfer the new innovation from academy to practice. The reason for that could be that there is a lack of relevance for practice. In a quadruple helix project where academy and practice are cooperating to develop IS relevant for practice, a new model for IS-development has been formed. It is a co-design model to bridge the gap between all stakeholders. It motivates end-user involvement at an early stage to catch needs of the IS. The co-design model must therefore be transferred to all the stakeholders of the quadruple helix project and the purpose in this research is to obtain deeper understanding of the model transfer process.

2. Methods

Qualitative interview study of stakeholders in the quadruple helix project, thus practitioners (healthcare workers, system developers, end-users) and academics (researchers).

3. Results

The co-design model is transferred to practice when used by practice. For that it must be understood by all stakeholders. There are many ways to understand the model and to communicate the learnings from using it. Issues remain to get the model transferred completely. Researchers are also exposed to difficulties by having to balance the theoretical model against the practical process of co-design.

4. Discussions

The transfer of the co-design model has been successful as the model have been used in a setting intended for it. Technology/knowledge transfer theories are considered, but still issues in order to succeed transferring the model remains. The knowledge bearers must be included early and all the way through the model transfer, and the diversity of the stakeholders and their professions must be carefully considered. For instance, end-users and technicians in several cases have disparate affiliations in social systems, and thus not a common ground for communicating the transfer issues. Another issue is that the transfer is slowed down if representing stakeholder is not the decision maker.

5. Conclusions

The stakeholders are early adopters of the co-design model and they are all affected by explained and perceived attributes, decisions, time, communication channels and the nature of their social systems. It is motivated to consider the complexity surrounding the co-design model.

The current paper addresses one of the core yet complex issues in the study of technology in organizations: the relationship between the social and the material. Many scholars in the field of Information Systems have used the notion of affordance as a lens to investigate and theorize this relationship. However, knowledge contributions in this area are often abstract and impractical, or at least compel further conceptual development. This paper uses a relational view of affordances to study organizational social media affor- dances based on empirical data collected about the use of the Wiki technology at two large multinational organizations—CCC and IBM. It theorizes four key mechanisms—referring to other affordances (referential), collectively enacting significant affordances (communal), situation-dependent exploitation of affordances (situatedness), and exploiting other op- portunities for action (multiplicity), that embody the interaction between the social and the material. These mechanisms make up what is labelled in this paper as ‘the affordances ap- paratus’. The apparatus provides a conceptual structure for the interaction between social and material features that shows operational dynamics and processes underpinning the perception, enactment and exploitation of affordances. This apparatus is the main contribu- tion of the paper in that it gives researchers a conceptual tool for investigating affordances as relational constructs between the social and the material. It also helps in understanding how people navigate the use of technology features relative to their intentions and goals.

Ehealth solutions are in great need in the community of elderly in general, as patients or home carers, however a design approach that delivers this is illusive. In this research we present the experiences from a set of design processes targeting elderly’s needs of support or home care, based on a co-design approach. The purpose is to present guiding principles for how to work with elderly in a co-design process, to be used as basis for future set up of co-design processes.

The Internet of Things (IoT) plays a vital role in today’s medicine (Islam et al, 2015). In 2020, 40% of IoT-related technologies will be assigned to the health domain, which makes up around a 117 $ billion in the global market (Bauer, Patel & Veira, 2016). Adding to this the demographic changes will further set a significant challenge in Europe (Steinführer & Haase, 2007). Innovative techniques for supporting health systems and independent life for the aging population is therefore essential, not at least in relation to fall prevention and technology for promoting a good life throughout the lifespan. Further, participation from patients is a goal for healthcare worldwide (Lundgren, Sunesson & Tunved, 2014). For example according to the Health and Medical care act in Sweden (1982:763) it is described that the goal for health care “is good health and care on equal terms for the entire population”. In line with this challenge of integrated care the patient itself will be the most important resource for promotion of health, why Co Design is needed as a method for innovation in healthcare sector. It is important for the users ‘experiences and insights to contribution in improvements but not at least because it has been shown that increased involvement with the user in care reduces the number of hospital visits (Simpsons, 2007).

Long term success of eHealth initiatives rests on the cooperation between major parties in society. This paper reports on an ongoing project with the aim of providing support for elderly living longer at home. The general template of Quadruple Helix cooperation aids the formation and execution of projects with broad impact ambitions and could guide the design of solutions for an aging population. A general model for cooperation, based on the different challenges encountered in an ongoing research and development project, is presented and discussed, with regard to a process of the Quadruple Helix type. Key components of the processes include a lifecycle-based process view of the solutions and the technical base, comprising the continuous development of solutions, business models and technical platforms. At the centre of the approach reside user interaction aspects and the desired outcomes of changed behaviours. These rest on the abilities of a technical platform to afford the personalization of solutions fitting the varying needs of elderly living longer at home. As a result, a lifecycle-based and end-user driven co-design process is presented as an example of a Quadruple Helix project organization. The project shows a way of operationalizing Quadruple Helix in software development through the use of co-design concepts.

This paper presents a framework for thedevelopment of flexible eHealth solutions based on a platformlogic and a set of processes for cooperative development. Theframework consists of both a specification detailing the activitiesof the development process and a technical platform integratingsensors, IoT integration data management and end-userinterfaces as well as business and user processes.