Browsing by Author "Lucas, Ana"
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- Corporate Data Quality Management : From Theory to PracticePublication . Lucas, AnaIt is now assumed that poor quality data is costing large amounts of money to corporations all over the world. Although research on methods and techniques for data quality assessment and improvement have begun in the early nineties of the past century and being currently abundant and innovative, it is noted that the academic and professional communities virtually have no dialogue, which turns out to be harmful to both of them. The challenge of promoting the relevance in information systems research, without compromising the necessary rigor, is still present in the various disciplines of information systems scientific area [1,2], including the data quality one. In this paper we present "data as a corporate asset" as a business philosophy, and a framework for the concepts related to that philosophy, derived from the academic and professional literature. According to this framework, we present, analyze and discuss a single explanatory case study, developed in a fixed and mobile telecommunications company, operating in one of the European Union Countries. The results show that, in the absence of data stewardship roles, data quality problems become more of an "IT problem" than typically is considered in the literature, owing to Requirements Analysis Teams of the IS Development Units, to become a "quality negotiator" between the various stakeholders. Other findings are their bottom-up approach to data quality management, their biggest focus on motivating employees through innovative forms of communication, which appears to be a critical success factor1 (CSF) for data quality management, as well as the importance of a data quality champion [3] leadership.
- Corporate data quality management in contextPublication . Lucas, AnaPresently, we are well aware that poor quality data is costing large amounts of money to corporations all over the world. Nevertheless, little research has been done about the way Organizations are dealing with data quality management and the strategies they are using. This work aims to find some answers to the following questions: which business drivers motivate the organizations to engage in a data quality management initiative?, how do they implement data quality management? and which objectives have been achieved, so far? Due to the kind of research questions involved, a decision was made to adopt the use of multiple exploratory case studies as research strategy [32]. The case studies were developed in a telecommunications company (MyTelecom), a public bank (PublicBank) and in the central bank (CentralBank) of one European Union Country. The results show that the main drivers to data quality (DQ) initiatives were the reduction in non quality costs, risk management, mergers, and the improvement of the company's image among its customers, those aspects being in line with literature [7, 8, 20]. The commercial corporations (MyTelecom and PublicBank) began their DQ projects with customer data, this being in accordance with literature [18], while CentralBank, which mainly works with analytical systems, began with data source metadata characterization and reuse. None of the organizations uses a formal DQ methodology, but they are using tools for data profiling, standardization and cleaning. PublicBank and CentralBank are working towards a Corporate Data Policy, aligned with their Business Policy, which is not the case of MyTelecom. The findings enabled us to prepare a first draft of a "Data Governance strategic impact grid", adapted from Nolan& MacFarlan IT Governance strategic impact grid [17], this framework needing further empirical support.
- Factores Críticos de Sucesso da Governança dos SI/TIPublication . Correia, Sandra Maria Almeida; Lucas, AnaA governança das TI é parte integrante da gestão empresarial e consiste na liderança e na criação de estruturas e processos organizacionais que asseguram que as TI sustentam e estendem as estratégias e os objectivos da organização. A identificação e controlo dos factores críticos de sucesso (FCS) da governança das TI pode ter um impacto significativo no sucesso das organizações. Este artigo apresenta um estudo sobre os factores críticos de sucesso relativamente aos quais os gestores do negócio e dos SI/TI devem manter o controlo, de forma a garantir a adequação das actividades de governança das TI às estratégias e aos objectivos da organização. O estudo utiliza o método Delphi com a técnica Q-sort, que foi aplicado a um painel de gestores de negócio, gestores de SI/TI, consultores e universitários. Obteve-se uma lista de factores críticos de sucesso, ordenados por ordem de importância, que reflectem o entendimento desta problemática por aquele perfil de profissionais.
- A Qualidade dos Dados de Observação em Engenharia CivilPublication . Lucas, Ana; Reis, António Palma dos; Caldeira, MárioNeste artigo apresenta-se o trabalho desenvolvido e discutem-se as conclusões obtidas relativamente à identificação e definição das dimensões da qualidade dos dados relativos ao controlo da segurança de grandes obras de engenharia civil. A análise do comportamento e o controlo da segurança daquelas obras depende, fundamentalmente, da qualidade dos dados recolhidos através de sensores, denominados dados de observação, da dos modelos de análise utilizados e, naturalmente, do perfil dos especialistas. Para além disso, o LNEC trata e preserva os dados de observação sobre grandes obras de engenharia civil, que representam uma importante fonte de pesquisa para o LNEC e as Universidades, o que configura um cenário de e-Science . De forma diversa de outros autores de ambientes de e-Science, este trabalho não se restringe às dimensões objectivas, cujas medidas podem ser calculadas automaticamente. Afigura-se, a partir da opinião de especialistas, que algumas dimensões subjectivas podem enriquecer a qualidade da informação a disponibilizar sobre os dados arquivados, à custa de algum trabalho adicional de data curation. No desenvolvimento desta investigação foi utilizado o método Delphi com a técnica Q-Sort, numa versão online, complementado a montante com entrevistas a especialistas e a jusante com uma reunião com peritos. Obtiveram-se dez dimensões para a qualidade de dados de observação, ordenadas por ordem de importância, que são o erro-de-observação, coerência, relevância, interpretabilidade, actualidade, completude, acessibilidade, volume de dados apropriado, segurança e preservação.
- Reflexões sobre o Desafio da Relevância na Investigação em Sistemas de InformaçãoPublication . Lucas, Ana; Reis, António Palma dosMediante o desafio de fomentar a relevância da investigação em sistemas de informação, sem por em causa o seu rigor, este artigo analisa os conceitos de rigor e de relevância da investigação, assim como as perspectivas existentes sobre as possibilidades de conjugação de rigor e relevância em processos de investigação. Verificando-se que alguma da investigação mais rigorosa não atrai, tanto quanto seria desejável, o interesse de parte da sua audiência por falta de relevância, este artigo compila um conjunto de recomendações para que os investigadores em sistemas de informação desenvolvam investigação não só rigorosa mas também relevante. Considerando os objectivos do investigador, nomeadamente o nível de rigor e relevância pretendidos e os recursos disponíveis para o processo de investigação, este artigo discute o impacto da escolha por inovação incremental, modular, arquitectural e radical nas perspectivas de exequibilidade de rigor e relevância. Assim, a discussão e as considerações finais deste trabalho deverão constituir contributo satisfatoriamente rigoroso e relevante para os investigadores em sistemas de informação.
- The quality of monitoring data in Civil Engineering worksPublication . Lucas, Ana; Reis, António Palma dos; Caldeira, MárioThis paper presents the research and discusses the findings concerning the identification and definition of quality dimensions related to the monitoring data obtained in the safety control of major civil engineering works, namely dams and bridges. The analysis of the behavior and the safety evaluation of these works essentially depend on the quality of the data collected by the sensors, named the observation data, besides the quality of the models and, last but not least, the knowledge and experience of the experts involved. In addition, LNEC stores and preserves the observation data concerning major civil engineering works, which represents an important research source for LNEC and Universities and, thus, shapes itself as an e-Science scenario. Differently from other e-Science environment authors, we have not restricted our work to objective dimensions, whose measures can be calculated automatically. It appears, from the experts' opinions, that some subjective dimensions can largely enrich the quality information about archived data at the expense of some additional work in data curation. In the development of this research we used an online version of the Delphi method with the Q-Sort technique, complemented with upstream interviews and a downstream meeting with the experts. We found out, and sorted by the importance level assigned by the experts, ten dimensions for the quality of observation data, which are error-of-observation, coherence, relevancy, interpretability, timeliness, completeness, accessibility, appropriate amount of data, access security and preservation.
- Towards corporate data quality managementPublication . Lucas, AnaToday, it is a well known fact that poor quality data is costing large amounts of money to corporations all over the world. Despite the increasing research on methods, concepts, and tools for data quality (DQ) assessment and improvement, little has been done about corporate DQ management. The purpose of this research is to understand the nature and complexity of corporate DQ management, through various perspectives. These include the various kind of sponsorship, type and level of collaboration between business and IS/IT, organizational position of the DQ management team, scope of the DQ initiatives, roles, services provided, DQ methodologies, techniques and tools in use, etc. This paper presents, analyzes and discusses a single pilot exploratory case study, undertaken in a fixed and mobile telecommunications company in a European Union Country. The purpose of this case study is to check the validity of some initial propositions, and eventually find new ones, to be used in a subsequent multiple-case study, in order to provide an in-depth understanding of the corporate DQ management phenomenon.