Abstract User involvement is critical in large-scale agile software development. User representatives bridge access gaps and align development teams with user expectations. However, research primarily focuses on development-side user representatives like product owners or user experience designers, overlooking user-side representatives who bring practical expertise and bridge communication between users and development teams. This highlights a gap in understanding user-side representatives’ roles in large-scale agile software development for fostering effective collaboration. In this paper, we ask the following research question: What are the roles, responsibilities, and challenges of user-side representatives in large-scale agile software development? We conducted an exploratory case study within a large public organization using interviews, focus groups, and document analysis to answer this. We investigated two established user-side representative roles: implementation coordinators and change agents. In our distributed case organization, implementation coordinators serve as county-level contact points, overseeing planning, coordination, training, and follow-up of software release implementation. Based in local offices, change agents facilitate requirements elicitation, test software quality, train users, share knowledge, and handle user requests. These roles enhance communication of user needs, support alignment between development and user requirements, and complement development-side user representatives. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of user involvement in large-scale, distributed agile software development.

Abstract Many studies of practices involve service exchange, and many service researchers have discovered the central role that sociotechnical practices play in service –in particular, within the service-dominant logic school of thought. In this paper, we propose an analytical lens that builds on this mutual interest to understand complex practices involving service exchange. Practice researchers can gain new insights regarding practices embedded in service ecosystems. At the same time, service researchers can better explain actor behavior by looking deeper at sociotechnical practices. We develop a concept toolbox based on practice and service-dominant logic research literature. We illustrate the usefulness of the toolbox through an interpretative case study of public service to include children with disabilities in leisure activities. Seeing practices as parts of larger multi-stakeholder service ecosystems 1) can help us better explain behavior in those practices and understand how they are affected by other overlapping practices, 2) brings forward the importance of value and how multiple actors need to interact in order to create value for each other, and 3) enriches service-dominant logic with a focus on sociotechnical aspects that are central to many practice studies.

We report findings from a case study of innovative public procurement of digital systems. The study uses interviews and workshops as data. Our findings show that 1) the procurer role is changing because of new innovation requirements, 2) Procurement regimes promote buying off-the-shelf products, not building software incrementally, 3) Collaboration among actors is challenging due to different agendas. These findings show that innovating using procurements can be a challenge.

There are a growing number of seniors and a growing need for health-related ICT (Information and Communication Technology) solutions to allow seniors to live independently in their own homes and communities. We need to have a better understanding of how and why seniors use or do not use health-related ICT in such settings so we can improve our solutions. In order to synthesize existing knowledge, we did a systematic literature review using Scopus and PubMed. We searched for both review articles and primary qualitative studies. Eleven review articles and 31 primary research articles were included in the study. We structured our findings using the UTAUT2 acceptance model developed by Venkatesh et al. Our findings show that seniors want health-related ICT that gives them independence, safety, and security, allows them to socialize and manage their own health, and helps them in their daily activities. They need to easily get help if they have problems using services, get tailored training, and get help during use. Lack of privacy and safety and stigma are some of the reported barriers. Health-related ICT at home is different than both consumer and institutional ICT. We need more research in order to develop a specialized and operationalized acceptance model for health-related ICT use among seniors. Our mapping to UTAUT2 is a step in this direction and suggests a possible specialization of this model.

The environmental impacts of the usage of fossil fuels together with its limited supply has been pushing governments, industries and people to seek cleaner and renewable energy supplies and to adopt energy habits leading to a greater sustainability. While acquiring a Photo Voltaic solar panel (PV) is a big step in that direction, much can also be accomplished with changes in individual and collective energy consumption behavior. Moreover both strategies can be used together. This paper presents a software prototype capable of increasing the awareness of the energy consumption in a smart house and supporting a behavior change towards greener consumption habits. The software was developed following the design science research methodology anchored by the application of User Centered Design and the theories of persuasive computing. The development of the User Interface (UI) was done following several iterations with both end-users and experts. In this work, we focus on the UI elements created in order to apply the concepts from different behavior change support methods and theories, such as Feedback, Gamification, and Social norm into energy savings and efficiency. The result was acclaimed during an expert evaluation and will now be trialed in two different trial neighborhoods.

This paper provides an empirical understanding of concerns that the application of a sensor-enhanced medical alert system, or personal emergency response (PER) system, raises from the perspective of care receivers (users) and care providers. Data were gathered in the context of a field trial of a PER system supporting both user-initiated alerts and automatic fall detection alerts. The system was tested at two residential care facilities for 3 weeks. Drawing on data primarily from post-trial group and pair interviews, we describe and compare care receivers' and providers' views on the following emerging concerns: (i) form factor and ergonomics, (ii) system feedback and user control and (iii) sensor precision and trust. Based on feedback from stakeholder groups, we discuss potential value biases, or discriminating factors, embedded in the evaluated PER system. We also discuss the implications of our findings for a value-driven design agenda for future PER systems.