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Report 2001: Department of Informatics (INF)

Research Areas

• Research area 1: IT-systems Development
  IT systems development concerns the design, construction, and implementation if IT based systems. Thus, the area includes more technically oriented computer science topics as well as organizational and management oriented disciplines. The research of the IT systems development group concentrates on the design and construction of IT based systems and is divided into two - related - areas: Systems development processes and Distributed systems. The group attempts to strike a balance between strong theoretical foundation and practical application of its research with an emphasis on important problems in the software industry. Most research projects in the group involve industrial partners and international co-operation.
  Systems Development Processes: Systems development is a complex process and development projects often have cost and schedule overruns and produce products of less than desired quality. In recent years several approaches to improve organization, management and development practices have come together under the term Software Process Improvement. A central research theme in the group is whether and how these approaches can be combined and how to apply them in software process improvement projects. Systems development processes and improvement projects are studied in the context of in-house development, development of standard software, dedicated systems, and embedded systems software. Development for the World Wide Web creates new conditions for systems development; i.g. new types of applications, changing skill requirements for developers and new relationships between clients, developers and users. These changing conditions may challenge 'traditionel' thinking about how to organize and manage systems development processes. Another research theme in the group therefore concerns development models and methods for web-based applications. Distributed Systems: A distributed system is a collection of heterogeneous computers and processors connected via a network and working in concert to accomplish a common goal. As more and more computers are being connected, distributed systems are becoming ubiquitous and increasingly important, demanding new insight in important quality factors like secrecy, availability, efficiency, reliability, and consistency. Distributed solutions with many users scattered over different geographical areas require at least some degree of replication of data to ensure availability. The use of replication may also provide fault tolerance in a world of networked machines where the individual machines and network parts are bound to fail over time. While replication solves availability, it introduces potential inconsistency, which needs to be encapsulated. ACID properties in distributed databases are studied in this light.

• Research area 2: Management and organization of IT
  The major concern of this group is the management and organization of IT. The research undertaken by the group focuses on three areas: IT-management and strategy, IT-innovation and change, and Information economics.
  IT-management and strategy: IT has always held great promises for organizations, foremost as a cost saver and as a generator of competitive advantage. However, firms experience that these promises remain unfulfilled. Hence, how to benefit from IT investments, whether to out-source or in-source IT, and how to align the use of IT with the strategy of the firm, are three of several ever lasting questions that firms need to deal with. The research on IT-management and -strategy aims at critical examination of new concepts and ideas for management of IT, as well as to develop and make experiments with new strategies and concepts for IT-management. Also the group undertakes research on policy challenges of IT related to both business associations and governmental units. Recent research in this area includes strategies for e-commerce, integration of IT-based functions in service and maintenance, as well as a re-engineering of value-chains.
  Information Economics: In economic terms IT as an enabler provides cost-efficient business processes while as an integral part of a business model IT provides cost-effective provision of products and services. Electronic markets and hierarchies enabled by IT promote new business models re-shaping organizational boundaries, supplier and customer relationships, and transforming conventional products and services. Price (market) and non-price (organizational) mechanisms for IT based collaboration are supplemented with information incentives and controls to form reliable business relationships. New business systems emerge from applications with an impact on the capacity for collaboration and the mode of competition between companies transforming competition from the single market into systemic competition.

• Research area 3: Human Computer Interaction
  The HCI group's major concern is how to make design of computer interfaces better for humans to use. Interface design becomes essential in order to make systems effective, useable and aesthetic. Interfaces have to be intuitive, visually inviting, mentally engaging and smoothly functional if users are to exploit them. The research interests of the HCI group are: Design of interactive interfaces, and Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Learning.
  Design of Interactive Interfaces: The research focus is on the integration of Human Computer Interaction with Visual Communication and the aim is to contribute with theoretical and methodological knowledge to support design of interfaces. Visual Communication is seen as an essential basis for the design of IT-interfaces. However, digital interfaces embed interactions, and this makes them radically different from traditional graphical products. The complex interaction is important in relation to the user, and focus is on new requirements to design, to the design process and to design methods. Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Learning: The HCI research group looks at computer supported collaboration, work, and learning from both a theoretical and applied perspective. Some of the subjects in focus are: Identifying factors, which are significant to the success of virtual communication; designing and using interactive multimedia systems for learning; as well as investigation of methods for analysis of computer supported communication in any form, like observation and video analysis techniques.