Gamel O. Wiredu - Böcker

Technology and organizations co-evolve, as is illustrated by the growth of information and communication technology (ICT) and global software engineering (GSE). Technology has enabled the development of innovations in GSE. The literature on GSE has emphasized the role of the organization at the expense of technology. This book explores the role of technology in the evolution of globally distributed software engineering. To date, the role of the organization has been examined in coordinating GSE activities because of the prevalence of the logic of rationality (i.e., the efficiency ethos, mechanical methods, and mathematical analysis) and indeterminacy (i.e., the effectiveness ethos, natural methods, and functional analysis). This logic neglects the coordination role of ICT. However, GSE itself is an organizational mode that is technology-begotten, technology-dominated, and technology-driven, as is its coordination. GSE is a direct reflection of ICT innovation, change, and use, yet research into the role technology of GSE has been neglected.Global Software Engineering: Virtualization and Coordination considers existing fragmented explanations and perspectives in GSE research, poses new questions about GSE, and proposes a framework based on the logic of virtuality (i.e., creativity ethos, electrical methods, and technological analysis) rather than of rationality and indeterminacy. Virtuality is the primary perspective in this book’s comprehensive study of GSE. The book concludes with an integrated explanation of GSE coordination made possible through ICT connectivity and capitalization.

Technology and organizations co-evolve, as is illustrated by the growth of information and communication technology (ICT) and global software engineering (GSE). Technology has enabled the development of innovations in GSE. The literature on GSE has emphasized the role of the organization at the expense of technology. This book explores the role of technology in the evolution of globally distributed software engineering. To date, the role of the organization has been examined in coordinating GSE activities because of the prevalence of the logic of rationality (i.e., the efficiency ethos, mechanical methods, and mathematical analysis) and indeterminacy (i.e., the effectiveness ethos, natural methods, and functional analysis). This logic neglects the coordination role of ICT. However, GSE itself is an organizational mode that is technology-begotten, technology-dominated, and technology-driven, as is its coordination. GSE is a direct reflection of ICT innovation, change, and use, yet research into the role technology of GSE has been neglected.Global Software Engineering: Virtualization and Coordination considers existing fragmented explanations and perspectives in GSE research, poses new questions about GSE, and proposes a framework based on the logic of virtuality (i.e., creativity ethos, electrical methods, and technological analysis) rather than of rationality and indeterminacy. Virtuality is the primary perspective in this book’s comprehensive study of GSE. The book concludes with an integrated explanation of GSE coordination made possible through ICT connectivity and capitalization.

This book explains how mobile computer usability is shaped by the increasing integration of personal circumstances in organization. It represents an attempt to conceptualize an alternative model of mobile computer usability. It is motivated by the author’s conviction that we do not yet have an adequate understanding of this concept because we have not taken seriously the transformation of human personality by the co-evolution of organization and ICTs. The author argues that the transformation has resulted in a human personality whose personal and organizational activities are characterized by strong continuities between them. This characterization reflects a new kind of personality of the worker, and is a critical determinant of mobile computer usability. The word ‘organizational’ is used to describe this kind of personality – hence an alternative organizational personality perspective on mobile computer usability. This perspective suggests that a mobile computer is more usable to a person than another one because of its satisfaction of both his personal and organizational motives, which are in turn shaped by the co-evolution of organization, technology and personality.