Steve Sawyer

Bio: Steve Sawyer is an academic researcher from Syracuse University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Information system & Social informatics. The author has an hindex of 29, co-authored 137 publications receiving 2949 citations. Previous affiliations of Steve Sawyer include Pennsylvania State University & Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology.

Software development: processes and performance

Abstract: This paper presents data that describe the effects on software development performance due to both the production methods of software development and the social processes of how software developers work together. Data from 40 software development teams at one site that produces commercial software are used to assess the effects of production methods and social processes on both software product quality and team performance. Findings indicate that production methods, such as the use of software methodologies and automated development tools, provide no explanation for the variance in either software product quality or team performance. Social processes, such as the level of informal coordination and communication, the ability to resolve intragroup conflicts, and the degree of supportiveness among the team members, can account for 25 percent of the variations in software product quality. These findings suggest two paradoxes for practice: (1) that teams of software developers are brought together to create variability and production methods are used to reduce variability, and (2) that team-level social processes may be a better predictor of software development team performance than are production methods. These findings also suggest that factors such as other social actions or individual-level differences must account for the large and unexplained variations in team performance.

Packaged software: implications of the differences from custom approaches to software development

Abstract: This paper contributes to the literature on software development in two ways. First, by discussing the packaged software domain relative to the more commonly studied custom information systems (IS) domain. Second, this paper presents our speculations on the implications of these differences between packaged and custom IS development. Regarding the first issue, while the two domains share many commonalities, the differences are also important to understand. To make this clear we discuss the differences at four levels: industry forces, approaches to software development, work culture and development team efforts. At each level, data from three case studies are used to illustrate the differences between the two domains. To develop our speculations, we contend that the differences between packaged software and the traditional, custom, approach to information systems development will be profound for five stakeholder groups: software development organizations, software development teams, software developers, software consumers and for researchers interested in software development.

A market-based perspective on information systems development

Abstract: I nformation systems development (ISD) is best understood as a market phenomenon, a perspective highlighting how software is developed and who performs that development and sells the related products and how they are introduced to users. Here I emphasize the increasing specialization of software producers (developers and vendors) as distinct from softwareconsuming organizations. I also contrast software product development with ISD, emphasizing my view of the worldwide software product market, exploring important implications for consumers. Worldwide software sales rose 280% from 1986 to 1995 [2] and are expected to double again by 2002, fueling market growth, along with the market capitalizations of Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and other major vendors. Software comes as either packaged (commercial, or shrink-wrap) or made-to-order (custom, or one-off ). I distinguish between software producers (vendors of packaged software and software houses) developing, manufacturing, and distributing software and software-consuming organizations acquiring (buying) and using it. Software producers include such huge organizations as EDS, IBM, Lockheed-Martin, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, as well as thousands of smaller firms. While a software consumer can be an individual or an organization, I focus on organization-level consumption. Thus, when Microsoft buys a license for, say, SAP R/3 products for managing financial operations and product inventories, it becomes a software consumer. Differentiating between producer and consumer points up that the boundaries between these roles are increasingly organizational in nature. An underlying assumption is that the changes in development are less dramatic than the changes in acquiring and installing software-based information systems [3, 4, 6]. I thus view these issues from the perspective of a software consumer to reveal how the software product market is changing ISD.

Social Technologies, Informal Knowledge Practices, and the Enterprise

Abstract: This article focuses on the ways in which social technologies facilitate informal knowledge sharing in the workplace. Social technologies include both common technologies such as email, phone, and instant messenger and emerging social networking technologies, often known as social media or Web 2.0, such as blogs, wikis, public social networking sites (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn), enterprise social networking technologies, etc. We know social technologies support informal interactions over digital systems and influence informal social connections among people within and across organizational boundaries. To understand the role of social technologies in informal knowledge practices, we pursue a field study of knowledge workers in consulting firms to investigate the role of social technologies in their informal knowledge sharing practices. Our theorizing from the data is guided by the conceptual premises of sociomateriality to better understand the ways social technologies are integrated with commo...

Broadband and mobile opportunities: A socio-technical perspective

Abstract: The growth of broadband connectivity expands what can and might be transmitted across the World Wide Web and Internet. Coupled with the increasing levels of mobile Internet connectivity, broadband may allow for a new round of changed patterns in the ways computers are used. Direct effects models of the deployment, use, value and futures of broadband connectivity are unlikely to cope with the social and technological complexity of broadband. A socio-technical theoretical perspective, with its emphasis on the complex relations among social and technical aspects of a phenomenon, can provide useful insight into the potential societal impact, institutional effects and changes to individual work and life behaviours that may arise from the increasing level of bandwidth available. This paper provides a brief overview of broadband and mobile technologies from a socio-technical perspective, organizes and surveys relevant literature and focuses on emerging issues with broadband connectivity where research will help shape policy, strategy and the use of broadband networks.

스크린 위의 삶 = Life on the screen : identity in the age of the internet

Abstract: From the Publisher: A Question of Identity Life on the Screen is a fascinating and wide-ranging investigation of the impact of computers and networking on society, peoples' perceptions of themselves, and the individual's relationship to machines. Sherry Turkle, a Professor of the Sociology of Science at MIT and a licensed psychologist, uses Internet MUDs (multi-user domains, or in older gaming parlance multi-user dungeons) as a launching pad for explorations of software design, user interfaces, simulation, artificial intelligence, artificial life, agents, "bots," virtual reality, and "the on-line way of life." Turkle's discussion of postmodernism is particularly enlightening. She shows how postmodern concepts in art, architecture, and ethics are related to concrete topics much closer to home, for example AI research (Minsky's "Society of Mind") and even MUDs (exemplified by students with X-window terminals who are doing homework in one window and simultaneously playing out several different roles in the same MUD in other windows). Those of you who have (like me) been turned off by the shallow, pretentious, meaningless paintings and sculptures that litter our museums of modern art may have a different perspective after hearing what Turkle has to say. This is a psychoanalytical book, not a technical one. However, software developers and engineers will find it highly accessible because of the depth of the author's technical understanding and credibility. Unlike most other authors in this genre, Turkle does not constantly jar the technically-literate reader with blatant errors or bogus assertions about how things work. Although I personally don't have time or patience for MUDs,view most of AI as snake-oil, and abhor postmodern architecture, I thought the time spent reading this book was an extremely good investment.

Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity

Abstract: The amount of data in our world has been exploding, and analyzing large data sets—so-called big data— will become a key basis of competition, underpinning new waves of productivity growth, innovation, and consumer surplus, according to research by MGI and McKinsey's Business Technology Office. Leaders in every sector will have to grapple with the implications of big data, not just a few data-oriented managers. The increasing volume and detail of information captured by enterprises, the rise of multimedia, social media, and the Internet of Things will fuel exponential growth in data for the foreseeable future.

Research methods in social relations

Abstract: This sales letter may not influence you to be smarter, but the book that we offer will evoke you to be smarter. Yeah, at least you'll know more than others who don't. This is what called as the quality life improvisation. Why should this research methods in social relations? It's because this is your favourite theme to read. If you like this theme about, why don't you read the book to enrich your discussion?

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

Abstract: What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.