Catherine Lowry Campbell, Bartel A. Van De Walle, & Fadi P. Deek. (2005). Asynchronous negotiation and collaboration of software requirements for an emergency response information system: An empirical investigation. In B. C. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2005 – 2nd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 5–11). Brussels: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: Negotiation and collaboration during the requirements stage of the software engineering process are fundamental to developing successful software products. Groups of stakeholders work together to come to agreement on the most important requirements to be sent forward for implementation. Distributed software engineering is becoming the norm rather than the exception, yet the requirements elicitation and definition process is normally conducted face to face. This paper describes an empirical study to investigate the relationship between structured task and specified negotiation steps within an asynchronous environment. The results reveal that these structures can have a positive impact on solution quality but a negative impact on process satisfaction, although following a negotiation sequence and task structure can help asynchronous groups come to agreement faster. Details of the experimental procedures, statistical analysis, and discussion of the results of the experiment are presented, as are suggestions for improving this work and a plan for future research.
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Madhavi M. Chakrabarty, & David Mendonça. (2005). Design considerations for information systems to support critical infrastructure management. In B. C. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2005 – 2nd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 13–18). Brussels: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: This paper develops a set of design considerations for information systems to support the management of interdependent critical infrastructure systems. Constraints on how these systems are managed are oriented along technical, political and organizational dimensions, though objectives along these dimensions may conflict and thus be difficult to satisfy. This paper harnesses methodologies from software engineering and cognitive science in order to specify opportunities for using information systems to support human-centered management of critical infrastructure systems. The particular focus of this work is on developing information systems to support visualization and visual problem solving. Progress to date is discussed in terms of an ongoing research project which uses as a test-bed data associated with lower Manhattan (New York, USA).
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Trishan R. De Lanerolle, Ralph A. Morelli, Norman Danner, Danny Krizanc, Gary Parker, & Ozgur Izmirli. (2008). Creating an academic community to build Humanitarian FOSS: A progress report. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 337–341). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: This paper describes The Humanitarian FOSS Project, a National Science Foundation funded effort to help revitalize undergraduate computing education by getting students and faculty involved in building open source software that benefits the community.
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Bruna Diirr, & Marcos R. S. Borges. (2013). Applying software engineering testing techniques to evaluate emergency plans. In J. Geldermann and T. Müller S. Fortier F. F. T. Comes (Ed.), ISCRAM 2013 Conference Proceedings – 10th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 758–763). KIT; Baden-Baden: Karlsruher Institut fur Technologie.
Abstract: An emergency plan is an important artifact used throughout emergencies. Therefore, it is crucial that this plan covers the different scenarios faced by emergency team and that the prescribed procedures generate the desired results. To achieve these goals, emergency plans need to be exhaustively tested prior to its adoption. Emergency teams usually use simulation to test plans, but it is an expensive approach, demanding the building of complex environments and tools to get realistic situations. To be ready to go through a simulation exercise, a plan should not have many or critical mistakes, otherwise the simulation exercise would be wasted. We present a paired approach to evaluate emergency plans before simulation exercises, by applying software engineering testing techniques: Formal technical review (FTR) and mutation testing. The expected result is a plan more ready to go through simulation, as many of the mistakes are eliminated prior to simulation.
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Edward J. Glantz. (2014). Community crisis management lessons from Philadelphia's 1793 epidemic. In and P.C. Shih. L. Plotnick M. S. P. S.R. Hiltz (Ed.), ISCRAM 2014 Conference Proceedings – 11th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 556–564). University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University.
Abstract: Public health organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, are greatly concerned that a new influenza type A outbreak will result in a rapid spread of infectious disease, overwhelming existing medical response infrastructures. Each of these organizations has published planning guides that call upon local and community organizers to begin planning for such an event. To establish insight and provide context for these organizers, this paper presents a case analysis of the Philadelphia yellow fever outbreak of 1793.
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Syed Imran, Franclin Foping, Ioannis M. Dokas, & John Feehan. (2010). Towards domain specific modeling approach in early warning system. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: It is of practical significance and great value to design and develop a novel Early Warning System (EWS), which will be used by the personnel of institutions involved in the drinking water delivery governance model of Ireland. In order to help the users of our EWS in representing and codifying their knowledge on the complex coincidences that may drive Water Treatment Plants (WTP) to failures or to hazardous states we propose in this paper a novel approach of using Domain Specific Modeling (DSM) in the domain of EWS for Water Treatment Plants. The novelty of our DSM approach also lies in providing a standalone open source software application rendering profiling of the water utilities, early warning signals, monitoring mechanisms of signals along with capability of assessing the “tendency” of a WTP towards failure, given a set of observed early warning signals.
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José H. Canós, & Diego Piedrahita. (2017). Emergency Plans are Software, too. In eds Aurélie Montarnal Matthieu Lauras Chihab Hanachi F. B. Tina Comes (Ed.), Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response And Management (pp. 374–379). Albi, France: Iscram.
Abstract: In one of the most influential papers in the history of Software Engineering, L.Osterweil analyzed the nature of both software and software development processes to conclude that the latter shared many characteristics with the former and, as a consequence, software development principles and techniques could be applied in the definition and exploitation of processes. Here, we do an imitation exercise to claim that emergency plans are advanced software artifacts and, hence, modern software development principles, methods, techniques and tools can be used in their development and enactment. We advocate for a change of paradigm in which the idea of emergency plans as text-based documents is replaced by that of active, complex digital objects with state and behavior that drive emergency response processes, and also several preparedness activities such as drills and training exercises. These new plans are the result of a systematic process we call Emergency Plan Engineering.
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Ralph A. Morelli, Heidi Ellis, Trishan R. De Lanerolle, Jonathan Damon, & Christopher Walti. (2007). Can student-written software help sustain humanitarian FOSS? In K. Nieuwenhuis P. B. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Intelligent Human Computer Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM 2007 Academic Proceedings Papers (pp. 41–44). Delft: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: This paper describes a Humanitarian FOSS (free and open source software) project carried out by a team of students and faculty at Trinity College. The project outcome was a volunteer management module that has recently been incorporated into the Sahana Disaster Recovery IT System. The Humanitarian FOSS movement is based on two premises: (1) that quality humanitarian software can be built and given freely to governments and organizations in need of such software ; and (2) that the FOSS development model can successfully harness the contributions of humanitarian-minded IT and computing professionals. The Trinity Sahana project introduces a third premise: (3) that students and faculty whose main goals are educational and pedagogical can contribute successfully to the Humanitarian FOSS movement. This paper examines these three premises focusing on the question raised by the third.
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Torben Wiedenhöfer, Christian Reuter, Benedikt Ley, & Volkmar Pipek. (2011). Inter-organizational crisis management infrastructures for electrical power breakdowns. In E. Portela L. S. M.A. Santos (Ed.), 8th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: From Early-Warning Systems to Preparedness and Training, ISCRAM 2011. Lisbon: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Major electricity breakdowns like the Northeast Blackout (USA) in 2003 or the blackout in most parts of Western Europe in 2005, have shown the fundamental role of electricity in our everyday life. The experiences of these accidents show that power suppliers, firefighters, police, county administration and citizens face multifarious challenges in inter-organizational communication, information and coordination processes during coping and recovery work. In this work-in-progress paper we describe early research dealing with inter-organizational issues in emergency management (EM). We are mainly focusing on supporting social practices in inter-organizational EM, for example collaborative interpretation of emergency situations, ad-hoc coordination or supporting citizen communication and helping routines. Identified from our experiences from related projects, discussions and literature studies, we suggest potential questions and future topics in user-driven software engineering processes for EM and domain specific problems, such as supporting citizen participation, coping with information uncertainties and quality variations or enhancing inter-organizational learning.
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