[AISWorld] AMCIS 2013 CFP: Mini-track on Project Management in Small Software Shops

[Jacob Nørbjerg]

Call for Papers

19th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS 2013)

Chicago, IL, August 15–17, 2013


Minitrack: Project Management in Small Shops. The Need for a Learning Approach
Track: IT Project Management (SIGITProjMgmt)

Mini track chairs:

Jacob Nørbjerg
Copenhagen Business School
jno.itm at cbs.dk<mailto:jno.itm at cbs.dk>

Jeff Babb
West Texas A&M University
jbabb at wtamu.edu


DESCRIPTION

More than 80% of US software developing companies have less than 10 employees. Similar numbers apply to other countries and regions. Yet, we know surprisingly little about the software project practices and challenges of these companies. Moreover, we have much to learn about how the practices and concepts of IT project management have bearing on the less formalized and systematic approaches typical for small software shops. Previous studies have shown that the traditional guidelines, methods, and tools for project management fit poorly to the practices and needs of these small companies, due to, for example, their dependence on short delivery cycles, pressure from customers, shortage of resources to acquire and adapt techniques and tools, and low levels of specialization. Even adopting modern agile practices appear to be challenging for these companies.

Small shops are likely to remain pervasive due to a number of emergent phenomena in the development world: big data, social computing, mobile computing, and general pervasive computing.  While these trends do not preclude larger development concerns, it is not too difficult to trace back the developers for many mobile applications and see that this software is written by individuals and small teams in many cases.

Also, small software shops often function as sub-contractors to larger companies, creating challenges for project and requirements management.  Against this backdrop, it seems that IS research can add value by developing more research into the environment and constraints that small shops must operate.  As we see movement towards Service-Dominant Logic and Co-creative relationships between customers and service providers, how can we understand the role that small shops will play in this ecosystem?

It has been proposed that a learning approach is adopted such that the best practices of IT project management might be inculcated, rather than indoctrinated, for the types of projects that a small shop would likely be involved.  That is, perhaps the best practices for small shops may be those that they can take on “a la carte.”  Certainly the opposite argument could be made, which would make for an interesting set of papers in this mini-track.



SUGGESTED TOPICS

The purpose of this mini-track is to focus on the challenges and practices of small shop IT project management. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

• Adapting Information Systems Development methods, tools, and techniques to the small shop environment
• Learning in small software shops and development teams
• Agile development in small shops
• Quality management issues
• Software process selection and adaptation
• Software process maturity
• Project organization and iterations

Important Dates

January 4, 2013   Paper submission begins
February 22, 2013       Paper submission deadline

April 19, 2013   Authors will be notified of acceptances on or about this date
May 9, 2013      Camera-ready copy of accepted papers due


For more information and paper submission guidelines, see:

http://amcis2013.aisnet.org/

Jacob Nørbjerg, Associate Professor Ph.D.
Department of IT Management
Copenhagen Business School
Howitzvej 60
DK-2000   Frederiksberg
Sept 2012-Jan 2013:
ISOM
University of Auckland Business School
Ph: +64 (0) 9 923 4516
Cell: +64 (0) 27 936 8358
E-mail: jno.itm at cbs.dk<mailto:jno.itm at cbs.dk>
www.cbs.dk/staff/noerbjerg<http://www.cbs.dk/Forskning/Institutter-centre/Institutter/node_165685/Menu/Medarbejdere/Menu/Videnskabelige-medarbejdere/Videnskabelige-medarbejdere/Lektor/noerbjerg>
Skype: jnoerbjerg






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