Delphi technique is the structure communication process to collect and analyse the experts’ opinions with controlled feedback in an iterative manner to build consensus. Social media is an open and unstructured communication platform with flexibility to generate the contents at anytime from anywhere. Integration of the Delphi technique with social media provides an opportunity to utilize the social media users as experts and leverages the experts to participate in the Delphi communication process from anywhere and at anytime. The purpose of this research is to study the feasibility to integrate the Delphi technique with social media. To examine the feasibility of integrating the Delphi technique with social media, the design science research method is chosen as a research approach. From the literature review of the Delphi technique and social media, the design guidelines were identified to develop the prototype system and to conduct the experiment as a proof of concept. The university course feedback is selected as the context area to conduct the experiment with the prototype system. A pre survey is conducted to study the background information of technological knowledge of the participants and to know the opinions of the participants towards the context area. In the experiment, four questions were asked to the participants in each Delphi round to measure the group consensus and ideas convergence. The participants in the experiment were free to provide response to the questions from anywhere at any time using the Twitter account. The results show that the experiment has been successful and the experts are able to make consensus on their opinions. In addition, this study also shows that the Delphi technique can be integrated with social media to build consensus. The results also support that Twitter may not be the ideal social media platform for such experiment. In the future studies, the design issues should be carefully considered for getting the better results‏.

User experience became a buzzword in the mid 90’s after it was conceived. It quickly took over the previous position of usability as the leading term to cover the interactions between man and machine. Heuristics, originally created to assess usability in systems were adapted to try and evaluate the experience which is drawn from the interaction with the systems. However, usability and user experience differ from one another with many aspects. While the heuristic evaluation is procedurally similar when evaluating usability or user experience, the fundamental differences between the two challenge the applicability of the method itself. The aim of this thesis is to take a critical look at usability and user experience evaluation using general usability heuristics created by Nielsen and Molich in 1990 and user experience heuristics created by Arhippainen in 2009. This thesis will explore the challenges and advantages that heuristic evaluation of systems usability and user experience encompasses. This is done by reviewing relevant literature and by conducting two case studies for evaluating Facebook’s usability and user experience. This thesis will eventually present that the original advantages of heuristic evaluation of systems usability are mostly applicable to the UX heuristics with minor differences. However some additional challenges concerning the subjective and temporal nature of user experience are discovered when applying the UX heuristics. This thesis will also suggest that using heuristic evaluation to evaluate systems user experience is recommended not alone, if possible, but in conjunction with other methods.

Based on interests and topics, different communities are created within social network platforms. Community members discuss questions, share information, and help others solve problems. Some social network communities are very successful and have attracted a lot of members, whereas other social network communities cannot sustain because members are not satisfied and leave. The current study investigates the factors associating with user’s satisfaction in the social network communities. Regulatory focus theory is used to frame the investigation. Based on regulatory focus theory, vanity, disinhibition, enjoyment, bridging social capital are proposed as promotion-focused goals, while privacy concern and risk aversion are categorised as prevention-focused goals. The research model is tested with the data collected from online questionnaire. Results suggest that individuals’ satisfaction increases when they feel disinhibited, obtain enjoyment, and gain bridging social capital in social network communities. The fulfilment of vanity is not regarded as a significant source of satisfaction in social network communities. This study has important contributions to literature and implications for practice.

Usability is one of the software quality attributes and plays an important role in information systems success, technology acceptance and adoption models. Usability is a product of user interaction design and can be evaluated using usability testing and inspection methods. The usability of open source software (OSS) systems has had a poor reputation. The reasons for poor usability are cultural and software engineers have designed software for their own needs and for tech-savvy users, and thus, usability is not the primary objective. Also, usability experts do not participate much to OSS development. Sometimes they are not welcome or it is difficult to show their merits without contributing code. However, usability of OSS product is getting better as user- centred movement has been closing the gap between users and programmers. The aim of this thesis is to examine the impacts usability evaluations to an open source software community and to find out the existence of core human-computer interaction and open source software philosophies during the project. The research method used in this study is longitudinal interpretive case study and the research material consists of usability evaluation project material, email correspondence with the community and publicly available information provided by the community and its members. The attitudes of the target open source software community towards usability and usability activities were mainly positive. After the first contribution, a project leader asked for more activities and after contributing three sets of activities for different versions of the software, the project leader rated them as beneficial. Furthermore, most of the core human computer interaction (HCI) and OSS philosophies existed. The characteristics of HCI philosophy found during the usability project were that usability specialists were user representatives in informative and consultative roles, knowing the user, speaking for the user in the development and sticking with the user focus. The following characteristics of OSS philosophy were found: the selection of the target community was based on one usability specialist scratching his own itch, the software was seen as a communal resource, collaboration was voluntary, interaction with the community was loose, usability specialists acted as bug reporters and designers gaining merit and reputation through contributing to the community. This thesis contributes to the existing literature of introducing usability activities into open source software development by examining a new case study. Compared to the prior research, a new instantiation of OSS philosophy characteristic, “scratching your own itch” was found.

Arvo on taloustieteen keskeisimpiä käsitteitä. Yrityksen arvon luominen asiakkaille puolestaan on menestyvän liiketoiminnan elinehto. Arvo on myös tämän ohjelmistoliiketoimintaan liittyvän pro gradu -tutkielman keskiössä. Yrityksien on tärkeää tiedostaa, mitkä ohjelmistotuotteen ominaisuudet tuottavat arvoa asiakkaille, jotta ohjelmistotuotteelle voidaan antaa sopiva hinta. Tällöin ohjelmistotuotetta voidaan markkinoida myös tehokkaasti. Tässä tutkielmassa on tarkasteltu arvon ilmenemistä kuluttajamarkkinoilla toimivien ohjelmistoyritysten valmistamien ohjelmistotuotteiden valmistamisessa, hinnoittelussa ja myymisessä. Tutkielmassa käsitellään erilaisia tapoja luoda asiakkaille arvoa. Lisäksi tutkielmassa on käsitelty hinnoittelua yleisestä ja ohjelmistoliiketoiminnan näkökulmasta. Tutkielman menetelmäsuuntaus on kvalitatiivinen tutkimus. Aineisto kerättiin haastattelemalla viiden kuluttajamarkkinoilla toimivan oululaisen ohjelmistoyritysten hinnoittelusta vastaavia henkilöitä. Haastattelujen perusteella havaittiin, että suorittaakseen asiakkaan kokemaan arvoon perustuvaa hinnoittelua yrityksen tarvitsee hallita myös arvoa tuottavien ominaisuuksien lisääminen tuotteeseensa. Teorian ja käytännön perusteella havaittiin, että kuluttajamarkkinoilla on vaikea ottaa huomioon asiakkaiden ohjelmistotuotteelle kokemaa arvoa ja markkinoida asiakkaille ohjelmistotuotetta, joka ei tuota asiakkaille mitattavissa olevaa arvoa. Tutkimuksen keskeisimmäksi tulokseksi ja tärkeimmäksi kontribuutioksi muodostui ”Ohjelmistotuotteiden arvoperusteisen valmistamisen, hinnoittelun ja myymisen malli kuluttajamarkkinoille”, jota ohjelmistoyritykset voivat käyttää edellä mainittujen toimintojen tehokkaaseen suorittamiseen.

Computer Ethics is a study of ethical issues that are related mainly with computing machines and computing profession. The features of internet that, it is global and interactive, it allows users to stay anonymous, and it enables reproducibility of information possible unlike before makes the online behavior morally different. Computer ethics studies the nature and social influence of computing machines and ethical issues in formulating and justification of policies. Software Piracy, which is the unauthorized use or copying of software illegally, has become a major problem for businesses and it is widespread in many parts of the world which led to drain of economy. As the access to use computer grows, the percentage for using pirated software also grows. The Business Software Alliance (BSA) and the Software Publishers Association (SPA) made estimation (2010) that there are two-ten illegal copies of software are available for every legal copy of software sold. Software piracy is one of the most remarkable among computer ethics’ breaches. Unlike other activities like hacking and security breaches, which are outright illegal, software piracy technically covers a gray area of ethical principles, as they relate to computers and information technology. This is because people might inadvertently commit the act without realizing that they are ethically/morally/legally wrong. When one buys software, it means that they actually are buying the software license but not the software. This is similar to artistic copyrights, where a composer/artist holds the license to his work and gains monetary compensation on a licensing basis. However, the ease with which the software can be copied makes it difficult to exercise licensing rights. One of the ways to counter software piracy is to understand the motivations behind it and create awareness. The purpose of this research is to understand the principles of computing ethics in-depth and use this knowledge to understand what drives average people to commit acts of software piracy. The purpose is to use this information to create awareness among general public regarding software piracy.

As ERP implementation is complex and risky, there were many researchers discussed the critical success factors (CSFs) of it to achieve a more successful ERP implementation project. On the other hand, the ERP implementation in Chinese SOEs met some other obstacles. There were articles discussed what were the differences of ERP implementation between Chinese SOE and western countries, and some were directly about the CSFs among Chinese SOE implementing, there is still lack of a comprehensive study of what caused the difficulties and why, as well as possible solutions for it. This study was based on both literature review and empirical study. Literature of brief ERP and ERP implementation introduction, general CSFs description, cultural features of Chinese SOE, and ERP implementation in Chinese context, were reviewed. In the empirical study, which was about the ERP implemented in a Chinese SOE, the project process was described and the perspectives from different project participants were obtained by interviews, surveys and documents. Generated from the literature review and empirical study, suggestions of CSFs of ERP implemented in Chinese SOE are as follow: the legacy systems, existing data quality and IT infrastructure should be figured out to make proper plans and schedule; the top management should be mobilized to guarantee their sufficient support and commitment, as well as resource allocation; the employee cultural feature should be understood such as collectivist and uncertainty acceptance culture; and based on these understanding of the cultural characteristics of project relevant groups, then the appropriate and accurate plan and estimation can be done; during the project, the project team has to spend enough effort and patience to execute the plans, as well as guarantee the effective communications among implementing parties; after the implementation, a continuous attention should be paid by top management and relevant departments to obtain the continuous improvement which is one of the ERP benefits.

Avoin data edistää hallinnon läpinäkyvyyttä ja demokratiaa sekä tehostaa hallinnon palveluja, mutta se mahdollistaa myös uusien innovatiivisten sovellusten ja palveluiden kehittämisen. Jotta avointa dataa voitaisiin hyödyntää innovatiivisten sovellusten pohjana, tulisi avoimen datan täyttää vaatimukset datan laadun, kiinnostavuuden sekä datan helpon saatavuuden suhteen. Edellytykset avoimen datan innovoinnin mahdollistajana ovat teknisesti laadukkaat sekä kehittäjiä kiinnostavat ja hyödylliset data-aineistot, sekä avoimet API-rajapinnat. Itse avoimen datan lisäksi merkitystä on myös sillä, miten avointa dataa pyritään edistämään, sekä miten avointa dataa tuodaan kehittäjien ulottuville. Myös julkishallintojen aktiivinen osallistuminen avoimen datan julkaisijana ja edistäjänä on tärkeää. Suomessa tilanne avoimen datan suhteen on kohtuullisen hyvä, mutta parannusta tarvitaan avoimen datan laadun, API-rajapintoihin määrän, sekä avoimen datan portaalien toiminnan osalta.

Background: Cross-project defect prediction, which provides feasibility to build defect prediction models in the case of lack of local data repositories, have been gaining attention within research community recently. Many studies have pursued improving predictive performance of cross-project defect prediction models by mitigating challenges related to cross-project defect prediction. However there has been no attempt to analyse the empirical evidence on cross-project defect prediction models in a systematic way. Objective: The objective of this study is to summarise and synthesise the existing cross-project defect prediction studies in order to identify what kind of independent variables, modelling techniques, performance evaluation criteria and different approaches are used in building cross-project defect prediction models. Further, this study aims to explore the predictive performance of cross-project defect prediction models compared to within-project defect prediction models. Method: A systematic literature review was conducted to identify 30 relevant primary studies. Then qualitative and quantitative results of those studies were synthesized to answer defined research questions. Results: The majority of the Cross Project Defect Prediction (CPDP) models have been constructed using combinations of different types of independent variables. The models that perform well tend to be using combinations of different types of independent variables. Models based on Nearest Neighbour (NN) and Decision Tree (DTree) appear to perform well in CPDP context. Most commonly used Naive Bayes (NB) seemed to having average performance among other modelling techniques. Recall, precision, F-measure, probability of false alarm (pf) and Area Under Curve (AUC) are the commonly used performance metrics in cross-project context. Filtering and data transformation are also frequently used approaches in the cross-project context. The majority of the CPDP approaches address one or more data related issues using various row and column processing methods. Models appear to be performing well when filtering approach is used and model is built based on NB. Further, models perform well with data transformation approach is used and model is built based on Support Vector Machine (SVM). There is no significant difference in performance of CPDP models compared with Within Project Defect Prediction (WPDP) model performance. CPDP model perform well in majority cases in terms of recall. Conclusion: There are various types of independent variables, modelling techniques, performance evaluation criteria that have been used in cross-project defect prediction context. Cross-project defect prediction model performance is influenced by the way it is being built. Cross-project defect prediction still remains as a challenge, but they can achieve comparative predictive performance as within-project defect prediction models when the factors influencing the performance are optimized.

Vaikka mekaaniset kiintolevyt (HDD) ovat edelleen laajin käytössä oleva datan tallennusmetodi, ovat SSD-levytkin vakiinnuttaneet paikkansa tietynlaisissa käyttöympäristöissä niin kuluttajilla kuin yrityskäytössä. Flash-muistia hyödyntävien SSD-levyjen esitteleminen RAID-levyjärjestelmiin korvaamaan mekaanisia kiintolevyjä on mielenkiintoinen konsepti, joka tuo selviä parannuksia ja etuja perinteisiin kiintolevyratkaisuihin nähden. Kuitenkin, ongelmiksi ja haasteiksi voi syntyä esimerkiksi korkea hinta/kapasiteetti verrattuna kiintolevyihin, heikko suorituskyky pienillä satunnaisilla kirjoitusoperaatioilla, flash-muistin pyyhintä-kirjoitus-viive, flash-muistin kuluminen ja rajalliset kirjoituskerrat, mahdolliset I/O-pullonkaulat muussa järjestelmässä, sekä epäsymmetriset luku- ja kirjoitusnopeudet. Ratkaisuna näihin on joko kiertää ongelmat käyttäen vaihtoehtoisia ratkaisuja, tai kehittää esimerkiksi kokonaan uusia, kuten sekä kiintolevyjä, että SSD-levyjä hyödyntäviä hybridi RAID-implementaatioita, joilla pystytään tuomaan molempien tallennusteknologioiden hyvät puolet esiin.