We introduce ChartA11y, an app developed to enable accessible 2-D visualizations on smartphones for blind users through a participatory and iterative design process involving 13 sessions with two blind partners. We also present a design journey for making accessible touch experiences that go beyond simple auditory feedback, incorporating multimodal interactions and multisensory data representations. Together, ChartA11y aimed at providing direct chart accessing and comprehensive chart understanding by applying a two-mode setting: a semantic navigation framework mode and a direct touch mapping mode. By re-designing traditional touch-to-audio interactions, ChartA11y also extends to accessible scatter plots, addressing the under-explored challenges posed by their non-linear data distribution. Our main contributions encompass the detailed participatory design process and the resulting system, ChartA11y, offering a novel approach for blind users to access visualizations on their smartphones.

This study examines the potential of using stage‐wise process audit review and control (ARC) efforts in estimating overall effort and defects in a software project. Using archival data from 49 software projects that were based on the waterfall methodology, and obtained from a CMMI level 5 organisation, the authors found that higher ARC efforts at the requirement and build phases of a project were associated with an increase in overall project effort. Further, higher ARC efforts at the design and build phases were correlated with an increase in the number of defects delivered to the client at the end of the project. The predictive ability of the authors’ effort models was very high, with mean errors in the range of 3–4% of the overall project effort. They found that the mean ARC effort in their sample was 0.15 h/FP for the requirements stage, 0.31 h/FP for the design stage and 0.67 h/FP for the build stage. A project where the ARC effort for any of the three stages exceeded the respective benchmark, could be a candidate for deeper inspection to prevent excess effort or defects. Organisations can use their own data to develop similar benchmarks for their software project portfolios.

As organizations increasingly operate, compete, and cooperate in a global context, business processes are also becoming global to propagate the benefits from coordination and standardization across geographical boundaries. In this context, security has gained significance due to increased threats, as well as legislation and compliance issues. This article presents a framework for assessing the security of Internet technology components that support a globally distributed workplace. Four distinct information flow and design architectures are identified based on location sensitivities and placements of the infrastructure components. Using a combination of scenarios, architectures, and technologies, the article presents the framework of a development tool for information security officers to evaluate the security posture of an information system. To aid managers in better understanding their options to improve security of the system, we also propose a three-dimensional representation, based on the framework, for embedding solution alternatives. To demonstrate its use in a real-world context, the article also applies the framework to assess a globally distributed workforce application at a northeast financial institution.

Software agents can perform effectively as negotiators in automated negotiation settings. We present a model for software agents that can automate negotiations by implementing a multi-issue learning heuristic that allows agents to learn from the bidding behavior of opponents. The performance of agents is evaluated using an experimental study involving human subjects. The results indicate that software agents can act as effective surrogates of human negotiators under some circumstances.

The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) has become a popular methodology for improving software development processes with the goal of developing high-quality software within budget and planned cycle time. Prior research literature, while not exclusively focusing on CMM level 5 projects, has identified a host of factors as determinants of software development effort, quality, and cycle time. In this study, we focus exclusively on CMM level 5 projects from multiple organizations to study the impacts of highly mature processes on effort, quality, and cycle time. Using a linear regression model based on data collected from 37 CMM level 5 projects of four organizations, we find that high levels of process maturity, as indicated by CMM level 5 rating, reduce the effects of most factors that were previously believed to impact software development effort, quality, and cycle time. The only factor found to be significant in determining effort, cycle time, and quality was software size. On the average, the developed models predicted effort and cycle time around 12 percent and defects to about 49 percent of the actuals, across organizations. Overall, the results in this paper indicate that some of the biggest rewards from high levels of process maturity come from the reduction in variance of software development outcomes that were caused by factors other than software size

An important dimension of mobile computing is the ubiquitous and location-independent availability of data. Aggregation is the ability to electronically access and display personal account information from disparate sources through a single identity. The client financial data is assembled in an organized format providing meaningful summarization and analysis. The prevalent methods of aggregation pose issues in information security and assurance. Utilizing advances in Internet technology such as web services and SOAP coupled with the best of the present approaches to aggregation we can arrive at better solutions to securing the identity and data of aggregation customers. The paper puts forth conceptual solutions to address issues regarding security of user profile and identifying aggregators masquerading as users through processes such as screen scraping.