The importance of time: Managing temporal complexity in IS research

This is an Adaptation, Information Management Technology (AIMTech) event taking place at Leeds University Business School on Tuesday 26 February 2019

Abstract

There is a rarely questioned assumption that the world we now live and work in is aggressively faster, more evanescent, than any that preceded it. Organisations are increasingly turning to ‘high speed’ methods such as flow and agile to entrain a faster rhythm amongst staff. These methods are laced with speed-oriented metrics such as cycle time, cost of delay, burn-up rate, velocity, acceleration, and fail fast - all designed to measure and increase our work pulse. Time is a critically important element of IS research. However, time is an inherently complex, multi-faceted, subtle and socially-embedded in nature. While IS researchers are quick to highlight the impact of ICTs on the speed of organisational and social life, they can be slow to address the multi-dimensional, complex and nuanced nature of time in IS research. This seminar will examine contemporary thinking on time and time management, with examples of Kieran’s work in software development, analytics and time management research.

For further information, please contact Joanne Morgan at j.s.morgan@leeds.ac.uk

About the speaker

Kieran Conboy is a Professor in Business Information Systems in the School of Business and Economics and is a co-Principal Investigator in the Lero Irish Software research centre. He previously worked for Accenture Consulting and the University of New South Wales in Australia. He is also on the board of the Irish Research Council. Kieran teaches information systems innovation, agile and lean project management, portfolio management, and contemporary models such as crowdsourcing and crowdfunding. He has advised and published widely in the areas of management and workplace innovation, and particularly in the area of agile and lean processes in software organisations. He has worked with organisations such as Microsoft, Atlassian, Cisco Systems, Suncorp, and Fidelity Investments, as well as many SMEs. Kieran has also advised international public sector organisations in the health and education sectors. He is the Principal Investigator of a Science Foundation Ireland project in the area, involving 11 research fellows and PhD researchers, and has received over €8m in research grants from industry, the European Commission, Enterprise Ireland and the Irish Research Council. Kieran has published over 150 articles in leading international journals and conferences including Information Systems Research, the European Journal of Information Systems, Information Systems Journal, the Journal of the AIS, IEEE Software, the International Conference in Information Systems and the European Conference in Information Systems. He is an editor of the European Journal of Information Systems and has chaired international conferences in his field. Kieran also advises on funding agency policy and practice and has advised the EU Commission as well as national funding bodies in Ireland, the US and Australia. He is now leading an Irish Research Council funded project to adapt, implement and validate the use of crowdfunding and crowdsourcing techniques in the grant award policies and mechanisms of Science Foundation Ireland, Enterprise Ireland as well as the IRC. Kieran was also a Fulbright award recipient in 2009 where he spent time at Carnegie Mellon University working with the Software Engineering Institute on the business value of IT systems.