Budget 2010: Public Sector ICT Spending Slashed By £500 Million (article)
by Georgina O'Toole
from TechMarketView / eGovMonitor
"Georgina O’Toole from Tech Market View examines the impact of the Chancellor's Budget and subsequent efficiency statements from departments and agencies on the public sector ICT spend."

This book is overdue! : how librarians and cybrarians can save us all [book]

Author: Marilyn Johnson

"Those who predicted the death of libraries forgot to consider that in the automated maze of contemporary life, none of us--neither the experts nor the hopelessly baffled--can get along without human help. And not just any help--we need librarians, who won't charge us by the question or roll their eyes, no matter what we ask. Who are they? What do they know? And how quickly can they save us from being buried by the digital age?" - cover.

Call number: 025.04 THI 2010
Click here, and request a copy from the library!

A Guide to the Business analysis body of knowledge (BABOK guide) [book]

Authors: Kevin Brennan / International Institute of Business Analysis
"Business analysis involves understanding how organizations function to accomplish their purposes and defining the capabilities an organization requires to provide products and services to external stakeholders. ... [This guide contains] a framework that describes the business analysis tasks that must be performed in order to understand how a solution will deliver value to the sponsoring organization." - page 3.

Call number: 658.401 GUI 2009
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Chasing the Hottest IT: Effects of Information Technology Fashion on Organizations (journal article)
By Ping Wang
from MIS Quarterly Vol. 34 Issue 1 Mar 2010, pp. 63-85
"What happens to organizations that chase the hottest information technologies? This study examines some of the important organizational impacts of the fashion phenomenon in IT. An IT fashion is a transitory collective belief that an information technology is new, efficient, and at the forefront of practice. Using data collected from published discourse and annual IT budgets of 109 large companies for a decade, I have found that firms whose names were associated with IT fashions in the press did not have higher performance, but they had better reputation and higher executive compensation in the near term. Companies investing in IT in fashion also had higher reputation and executive pay, but they had lower performance in the short term and then improved performance in the long term. These results support a fashion explanation for the middle phase diffusion of IT innovations, illustrating that following fashion can legitimize organizations and their leaders regardless of performance improvement. The findings also extend institutional theory from its usual focus on taken-for-granted practices to fashion as a novel source of social approval. This study suggests that practitioners balance between performance pressure and social approval when they confront whatever is hottest in IT."

Information Systems Innovation for Environmental Sustainability (journal article)
By Nigel P Melville
from MIS Quarterly Vol. 34 Issue 1 Mar 2010, pp. 1-21
"Human life is dependent upon the natural environment, which, most would agree, is rapidly degrading. Business enterprises are a dominant form of social organization and contribute to the worsening, and enhancement, of the natural environment. Scholars in the administrative sciences examine questions spanning organizations and the natural environment but have largely omitted the information systems perspective. We develop a research agenda on information systems innovation for environmental sustainability that demonstrates the critical role that IS can play in shaping beliefs about the environment, in enabling and transforming sustainable processes and practices in organizations, and in improving environmental and economic performance. The belief--action--outcome (BAO) framework and associated research agenda provide the basis for a new discourse on IS for environmental sustainability."

Information management (journal article)
By Brian Detlor
from International Journal of Information Management Vol. 30 Issue 2 Apr 2010, pp. 103-108
"Information management concerns the control over how information is created, acquired, organized, stored, distributed, and used as a means of promoting, efficient and effective information access, processing, and use by people and organizations. Various perspectives of information management exist. In this paper, three are presented: the organizational, library and personal perspectives. Each deals with the management of some or all of the processes involved in the information lifecycle. Each concerns itself with the management of different types of information resources. The purpose of this paper is to clearly describe what, “information management” is and to clarify how information management differs in regards to closely related terms."
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The critical success factors of business process management (journal article)
By Peter Trkman
from International Journal of Information Management Vol. 30 Issue 2 April 2010, pp. 125-134
"Although business process management (‘BPM’) is a popular concept, it has not yet been properly theoretically grounded. This leads to problems in identifying both generic and case-specific critical success factors of BPM programs. The paper proposes an underlying theoretical framework with the utilization of three theories: contingency, dynamic capabilities and task–technology fit. The main premise is that primarily the fit between the business environment and business processes is needed. Then both continuous improvement and the proper fit between business process tasks and information systems must exist. The underlying theory is used to identify critical success factors on a case study from the banking sector."
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The Internet of Things (journal article)
By Michael Chui, Markus Löffler, and Roger Roberts
from McKinsey Quarterly Mar 2010
"More objects are becoming embedded with sensors and gaining the ability to communicate. The resulting information networks promise to create new business models, improve business processes, and reduce costs and risks."
Contact the Library to obtain a copy of this article.

Knowledge creation measurement methods (journal article)
By Rebecca Mitchell and Brendan Boyle
from Journal of Knowledge Management Vol 14 Iss 1 2010, pp. 67 - 82
"This paper sets out to examine the operationalisation of knowledge creation. Given the importance of knowledge creation for national and corporate wealth, assessing its measurement is a valuable exercise; however, current research utilises a range of measures, and this lack of agreed construct operationalisation is a barrier to robust empirical investigation. This paper aims to review current measurement methods and to construct a taxonomy of knowledge creation measures."

Knowledge sharing in organisational contexts: a motivation-based perspective (journal article)
By Alice Lam and Jean-Paul Lambermont-Ford
from Journal of Knowledge Management Vol 14 Iss 1 2010, pp. 51-66
"Facilitating knowledge sharing within organisations is a difficult task: the willingness of individuals to share and integrate their knowledge is one of the central barriers. This paper aims to develop a motivation-based perspective to explore how organisations resolve the social dilemma of knowledge sharing."

Deliberate ignorance in project risk management (journal article)
By Elmar Kutsch and Mark Hall
from International Journal of Project Management Vol 28 Issue 3 Apr 2010, pp. 245-255
"The management of project risk is considered a key discipline by most organisations involved in projects. Best practice project risk management processes are claimed to be self-evidently correct. However, project risk management involves a choice between which information is utilized and which is deemed to be irrelevant and hence excluded. Little research has been carried out to ascertain the manifestation of barriers to optimal project risk management such as ‘irrelevance’; the deliberate inattention of risk actors to risk. This paper presents the results of a qualitative study of IT project managers, investigating their reasons for deeming certain known risks to be irrelevant. The results both confirm and expand on Smithson’s [Smithson, M., 1989. Ignorance and Uncertainty. Springer-Verlag, New York] taxonomy of ignorance and uncertainty and in particular offer further context related insights into the phenomenon of ‘irrelevance’ in project risk management. We suggest that coping with ‘irrelevance’ requires defence mechanisms, the effective management of relevance as well as the setting of, and sticking to priorities. "
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Automated verification of security pattern compositions (journal article)
By Jing Dong, Tu Peng and Yajing Zhao
from Information & Software Technology Vol 52 Issue 3 Mar 2010, pp. 274-295
"Software security becomes a critically important issue for software development when more and more malicious attacks explore the security holes in software systems. To avoid security problems, a large software system design may reuse good security solutions by applying security patterns. Security patterns document expert solutions to common security problems and capture best practices on secure software design and development. Although each security pattern describes a good design guideline, the compositions of these security patterns may be inconsistent and encounter problems and flaws. Therefore, the compositions of security patterns may be even insecure. In this paper, we present an approach to automated verification of the compositions of security patterns by model checking. We formally define the behavioral aspect of security patterns in CCS through their sequence diagrams. We also prove the faithfulness of the transformation from a sequence diagram to its CCS representation. In this way, the properties of the security patterns can be checked by a model checker when they are composed. Composition errors and problems can be discovered early in the design stage. We also use two case studies to illustrate our approach and show its capability to detect composition errors."
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Internet marketing : strategy, implementation and practice [book]

Author: Dave Chaffey

"Provides comprehensive, practical guidance on how companies can get the most out of the web to meet their marketing goals." - cover. Chapters include: Business-to-consumer internet marketing, Evaluation and improvement of digital channel performance, and Campaign planning for digital media, Internet marketing strategy.

Find it at: 658.872 INT 2009 or
Click here, and request a copy from the library!

Viral loop : the power of pass-it-on [book]

Author: Adam L. Penenberg

Examines the secret behind the success of companies such as Google, eBay and Facebook - the 'viral loop' or 'the ability to grow a company exponentially because the customers themselves spread it.' Case studies are used to analyse why viral marketing and networks work, and how these business models can be used in other areas.

Find it at: 659.133 VIR 2009 or

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IT trends in local public services 2009/10: Stretched to breaking point (article)
by John Serle
from eGov Monitor (UK) 08.02.2010
"IT Trends 2008/09 predicted that by 2010 public services would be stretched to breaking point as demand continued to increase and capacity declined. John Serle, IT Trends Editor discusses the latest report."

Delivering e-learning : a complete strategy for design, application and assessment [book]

Author: Kenneth Fee

"Presents a complete strategy for training and development. From deciding when to use, how to design, tips on selecting suppliers, and how to measure its effectiveness. Delivering E-Learning describes a new and better way of understanding e-learning. The author looks at overcoming objections to e-learning and acknowledging poor past practice before presenting a new strategic approach. It places the emphasis firmly on learning, not the technology, de-mystifying the jargon and de-bunking industry myths. The current way most people look at e-learning is flawed, and this means they are missing its full potential.

This book provides a clear framework to better understand e-learning. Proposing a strategic approach to implementing e-learning, the author demonstrates how to align e-learning strategy with learning and business strategies. It offers a complete resource for applying e-learning to any organization.

Find it at: 371.334 DEL 2009 or Click here, and request a copy from the library!

Gartner Identifies Four Information Management Roles IT Departments Need to Remain Effective (article)
from WebWire, Jan 18 2010
“Over the next two years, business demand for IT-driven growth and innovation will outstrip the supply of qualified people to fulfill job roles and as result traditional IT tasks are moving outside the IT department,” said Debra Logan, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “The future of IT lies outside the IT department. Increasingly CIOs are coming from “the business” and “users” are taking control of their own information delivery infrastructure.” By the end of 2010, Gartner predicts that 40 per cent of people who report into IT in a matrixed fashion or directly will have substantial business and non-IT experience.
Organisations need staff with different skills from the ones they were originally hired for. These are not IT people as organisations know them.

Lessons from multi-agency information management projects: Case of the Online Business Licensing Service (OBLS) Project, Singapore (journal article)
By Thompson Teo and Tat Koon Koh
from International Journal of Information Management Vol. 30 Issue 1 Feb 2010, pp. 85-93
"Multi-agency information management projects are becoming increasingly common. Yet, there is relatively limited research in this area, particularly in the context of electronic government (e-government). This paper fills this gap in the literature by examining a successful information management project called the Online Business Licensing Service (OBLS) that aims to streamline the various licenses (managed by different agencies) required to operate a business in Singapore. The findings suggest that multi-agency projects are inherently more complex than single agency projects. A set of lessons on managing such projects is presented and these lessons should prove useful to researchers and practitioners as multi-agency information management projects become increasingly more widespread."
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Future files : a history of the next 50 years [book]

Author: Richard Watson

"Prediction is a dangerous game - the future is never a straight, linear extrapolation from the present. Unexpected innovations and events will conspire to trip up the best-laid plans - but it's better than not thinking about the future at all. ... Filled with provocative forecasts about how the world might change in the next half century. It examines emerging patterns and developments in society, technology, economy, and business, and makes educated speculations as to where they might take us." - cover.

Want to read this book? Click here, & request a loan through your library.

Or find this book in the collection at: 303.49 FUT 2009

The Effect of IT Governance Maturity on IT Governance Performance (journal article)
By Mårten Simonsson, Pontus Johnson and Mathias Ekstedt
from Information Systems Management Vol. 27 Issue 1 Winter 2010, pp. 10-24
"There are several best practice based frameworks that detail effective arrangements for the internal structure of an IT organization. Although it is reasonable that there is a correlation
between the quality of the internal structure of an IT organization – labeled IT governance maturity, and the external impact of the same IT organization on the business – labeled IT governance performance, this has not been validated. The results, based on 35 case studies, confirm the hypotheses of a positive correlation between IT governance maturity and IT governance performance. Among IT processes described in 34 references, the internal structure of the IT organization, clearly defined organizational structures and relationships, mature quality management, and cost allocation show the strongest positive correlation to IT governance performance. The maturity of project management and service level management, as well as performance and capacity management, show almost no correlation to IT governance
performance. The findings can be used to improve current frameworks for IT governance."