Papers by Niklas Hallberg
Information technology (IT) has become an essential element in our society that constitutes both ... more Information technology (IT) has become an essential element in our society that constitutes both possibilities for those who are able to make use of it and a threat to those who are not. The Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) collaborates with academia to find out how IT can be useful in unions. The objective of this paper is to present the development of a design model for specifications of information systems used in unions. The model was constructed on the basis of preconditions found in empirical studies of unions and literature. Subsequently the model was applied and evaluated in a union project. It resulted in a model based on PD principles for determining the features that an information system should implement. The conclusion is that this kind of model is useful for development of information systems in trade unions, even though some questions are raised for further work.
There is a need to extend Participatory design in order to apply it in heterogeneous user groups ... more There is a need to extend Participatory design in order to apply it in heterogeneous user groups and large projects of strategic importance for organizations. This study displays an approach to capturing and including relevant external design voices using data from the design of an information system aimed to support the day-to-day tasks of Swedish shop stewards. It was found that shop stewards often use an operative voice, middle level union ombudsmen an organizational voice, and union federation management an ideological one when relating to information technology. An Activity theory analysis showed that the union organization stands at a crossroads, and that the choice of information technology will directly influence the future direction to be taken. It is argued that all parties in a design process must therefore be heard, in order to arrive at system solutions that are actually implemented, used and administrated.
Participatory Design (PD) methods have traditionally been oriented towards small, local workplace... more Participatory Design (PD) methods have traditionally been oriented towards small, local workplaces with homogeneous user groups and thereby on a subset of IT applications. This study presents a renewed PD framework suited to the context of large organisations and the design of comprehensive IS, using design data from an IT project in the Swedish Trade Union Confederation and the participative design of an information system for all its 225 000 trade union shop stewards. The framework was developed in response to six major obstacles for success in PD projects, identified by participatory action research methods.
Methods of Information in Medicine
An integrated method was constructed for the study of in situ clinical reasoning. A meta-analysis... more An integrated method was constructed for the study of in situ clinical reasoning. A meta-analysis of existing theories and an exploratory case study were performed. Twelve physicians at the department of otorhinolaryngology, and three physicians and three biomedical technologists at the clinical microbiological laboratory of an 800-bed university hospital were involved in the evaluation of the method. The meta-analysis identified situations where practitioners face assignments for which they follow no routine strategy as suitable starting points for the development of the method, in which organizational processes are presented as workflow graphs. Using the critical incident technique, problem situations in the processes are identified, and stimulated recall interviews are employed to construct a model of the situation-dependent logic used in decision-making. The case study showed that the first levels of the method could easily be used by physicians without training in organizational development or cognitive psychology. It is concluded that the method can be a means for case construction in problem-oriented learning programs that have an empirical background. It can also be used in the development of clinical organization, where training is combined with the establishment of critical paths and computer support.
Studies in health technology and informatics
Studies in health technology and informatics
To identify utility and design criteria for a computer network service for occupational therapist... more To identify utility and design criteria for a computer network service for occupational therapists. Heuristic walkthrough evaluation. The evaluators explored a prototype and then commented upon the design in plenary sessions. One group of information system design experts and one of occupational therapists. The central utility criteria were the possibility to organize dynamic work groups for development of the occupational therapy profession and access to databases on assistive technologies. The main system design criteria identified were navigation, structure, tools, and content. A computer network service can support the development of the therapy professions. Generic issues exist which need to be considered in the detailed design. The heuristic walkthrough method is useful for identifying these.
Information technology (IT) is a crucial resource and enabler in almost every part of our society... more Information technology (IT) is a crucial resource and enabler in almost every part of our society. However, there are severe risks associated with IT that may substantially decrease the potential benefits. To handle these risks, it is essential to be able to judge the security posture of systems. This requires the ability to perform security assessments. However, since security is an abstract, subjective, and non-tangible property, proper security assessment of non-trivial systems is hard. Currently, there is a lack of methods for efficient, reliable, and valid security assessments. In this paper, problems relating to the structural assessment of system security are addressed. In structural security assessments, the security of systems is quantified based on the security qualities of and inter-relations between sub-systems.
Studies in health technology and informatics
To develop a conceptual model of a management information system for process-oriented health care... more To develop a conceptual model of a management information system for process-oriented health care organizations. Qualitative data was collected from two case studies in process-oriented health care settings. The first study addressed the information requirements of health care managers and the second study focused on organizational activities and clinical practice. From these data, preliminary models were iteratively developed, interpreted, and further revised. A county hospital in southern Sweden with 30 clinics and 3,200 employees. A conceptual model of a management information system for process-oriented health care organizations was developed in two parts: one part that describes the organizational interface of the model and the other part that describes the architecture of the model. A conceptual model has been developed for local-level integration of management information systems and organizational procedures in process-oriented health care organizations
Local emergency-response organizations must maximize their use of existing resources. Therefore, ... more Local emergency-response organizations must maximize their use of existing resources. Therefore, emergency-response organizations need appropriate command-and-control (C2) systems to coordinate not only their own resources, but also to take advantages of other local actors. The local nature of response coordination imposes additional challenges for the development of C2 systems. In particular, the C2 systems must support coordination across organizational boundaries at the local level. Service-oriented architectures (SOA) provide new technologies for the development of C2 systems. This approach is based on a set of loosely-coupled services offered by multiple actors rather than a single monolithic system. This work reports the result of a prototype SOA implementation that builds on a previous requirements engineering study for service-oriented C2 systems for local emergency response. The results illustrate how it is possible to develop lightweight C2 systems using state-or-the art W...
Distributed Multimedia Systems, 2008
Distributed Multimedia Systems, 2008
Förord Att förebygga och hantera olyckor och kriser är en central förmåga i moderna samhällen. De... more Förord Att förebygga och hantera olyckor och kriser är en central förmåga i moderna samhällen. Detta innefattar att förebygga olyckor och händelser, att förutse och förbereda sig för de händelser som inträffar, samt att hantera dessa och återställa ett fungerande samhälle så snabbt och effektivt som möjligt. Samhällets utveckling har lett till ett ökat ömsesidigt beroende mellan mänskliga aktiviteter och ett beroende av komplexa tekniska system. Den ökad komplexitet i kombination med exempelvis politisk instabilitet in många delar av världen och kraftigare påverkan av väderfenomen har bidragit till alltmer oförutsägbara olyckor och krissituationer vilket innebär ökad risk för skada på människor och miljö samt ekonomiska och materiella förluster. Detta innebär att samhällens förmåga till skydd mot olyckor, krishantering och civilt försvar måste anpassas till att effektiv och flexibel hantera uppkomma situationer. Därmed måste även de sociotekniska system som utgör grund till samhälle...
Design Rationale is an approach to the design of information systems which highlights the underly... more Design Rationale is an approach to the design of information systems which highlights the underlying argumentative reasoning and documentation of design decisions. The Argumentative Design (ArD) method extends Design Rationale to address organisational problem identification and the formulation of needs to be supported by the system. In this study, ArD was further modified and then applied in the early phase of the design of an information system for shop stewards in the Swedish trade union movement.
International Journal of Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, 2012
International Journal of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering, 2014
International Journal of Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, 2014
ABSTRACT Emergency responders at the local community level are the prime actors concerning emerge... more ABSTRACT Emergency responders at the local community level are the prime actors concerning emergency management. It has been claimed that information systems have considerable potential to support emergency management. However, development of such systems is demanding, due to the complexity of emergency management. The ability to be able to reveal the stakeholders' needs for support are essential for successful system developments. The objective of this paper is to explore the rationale for emergency management information systems at the local community level. This was accomplished by an extensive needs assessment based on 49 governing documents and 12 interviews with representatives for local as well as regional emergency response organizations. The analysis uncovered eleven areas where emergency management information systems could enhance the capability of local communities' to manage emergencies. The identified needs categories are proposed to constitute a foundation for design patterns for the development of emergency management information systems for local communities.
Studies in health technology and informatics, 2001
The introduction of modern information systems in public health provides new possibilities for im... more The introduction of modern information systems in public health provides new possibilities for improvements in public health services and hence also of population's health. However, development of information systems that truly supports public health practices requires that technical, cognitive, and social issues be taken into consideration. In requirements engineering for public health, a notable problem is that of capturing all aspects of the future user's voices, i.e., the viewpoints of different public health practitioners. Failing to capture these voices will result in inefficient or even useless systems. The aim of this paper is to report a requirements-engineering instrument to describe problems in the daily work of public health professionals. The issues of concern thus captured can be used as the basis for formulating the requirements of information systems for public health professionals.
Studies in health technology and informatics, 1998
To identify utility and design criteria for a computer network service for occupational therapist... more To identify utility and design criteria for a computer network service for occupational therapists. Heuristic walkthrough evaluation. The evaluators explored a prototype and then commented upon the design in plenary sessions. One group of information system design experts and one of occupational therapists. The central utility criteria were the possibility to organize dynamic work groups for development of the occupational therapy profession and access to databases on assistive technologies. The main system design criteria identified were navigation, structure, tools, and content. A computer network service can support the development of the therapy professions. Generic issues exist which need to be considered in the detailed design. The heuristic walkthrough method is useful for identifying these.
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Papers by Niklas Hallberg