Balancing Agile and Disciplined Engineering and Management Approaches for IT Services and Software Products

The highly dynamic world of information technology service management stresses the benefits of the quick and correct implementation of IT services. A disciplined approach relies on a separate set of assumptions and principles as an agile approach, both of which have complicated implementation processes as well as copious benefits. Combining these two approaches to enhance the effectiveness of each, while difficult, can yield exceptional dividends. Balancing Agile and Disciplined Engineering and Management Approaches for IT Services and Software Products is an essential publication that focuses on clarifying theoretical foundations of balanced design methods with conceptual frameworks and empirical cases. Highlighting a broad range of topics including business trends, IT service, and software development, this book is ideally designed for software engineers, software developers, programmers, information technology professionals, researchers, academicians, and students.

Manuel Mora is a full-time Professor in the Information Systems Department at the Autonomous University of Aguascalientes (UAA), Mexico. Dr. Mora holds a B.S. in Computer Systems Engineering (1984) and a M.Sc. in Computer Sciences (Artificial Intelligence area, 1989) from Monterrey Tech (ITESM), and an Eng.D. in Engineering (Systems Engineering area, 2003) from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He has published over 90 research papers in international top conferences, research books, and refereed journals listed in JCRs such as IEEE-TSMC, European Journal of Operational Research, Int. Journal of Information Management, Engineering Management, Int. J. of Information Technology and Decision Making, Information Technology for Development, Int. J. in Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering , and Computer Standards & Interface . Dr. Mora is a senior member of ACM (since 2008), of IEEE SMC Society, of INCOSE, and of the Mexican National Research System at Level I, and serves in the ERB of several international journals indexed by Emergent Source Citation Index focused on decision-making support systems (DMSS) and IT services systems. Dr. Mora has co-edited also four international research books in the topics of DMSS, IT services and Research Methods for prestigious academic publishers like Springer and IGI.

Jorge Marx Gómez studied Computer Engineering and Industrial Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences Berlin (Technische Fachhochschule Berlin). He was a lecturer and researcher at the Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg (Germany) where he also obtained a PhD degree in Business Information Systems with the work Computer-based Approaches to Forecast Returns of Scrapped Products to Recycling. From 2002 till 2003 he was a visiting professor for Business Informatics at the Technical University of Clausthal (TU Clausthal, Germany). In 2004 he received his habilitation for the work Automated Environmental Reporting through Material Flow Networks at the Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg. In 2005 he became a full professor and chair of Business Information Systems at the Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg (Germany). His research interests include Very Large Business Applications, Business Information Systems, Federated ERP-Systems, Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, Interoperability and Environmental Management Information Systems.

Rory V. O’Connor is a Professor of Software Engineering at Dublin City University (Ireland) where he is currently serving as the Head of the School of Computing. He is also a Senior Researcher with Lero, the Irish Software Research Centre. O’Connor is Ireland’s Head of Delegation to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for Software & Systems Engineering (ISO/IEC JCT1/ SC7). His research interests are centred on the processes and standards whereby software intensive systems are designed, implemented and managed. His focus is on researching methods, techniques, tools and standards for supporting the work of software project managers and software developers in relation to software process improvement, and the management of software development projects.

Associate Professor Alena Buchalcevova, Ing. Ph.D.graduated in 1981 at Prague University of Economics, Faculty of Management in the specialisation Information Systems Management. Since then she has been working at the faculty and at present she is associate professor at the Department of Information technologies. Her research field is object oriented analysis, design and programming, software development methodologies, software quality assurance, management of business informatics, Enterprise Architecture. She is an author or co-author of 10 books, many journal articles and conference papers.