AJIS vol. 8 no. 1 September 2000

EDITORIAL

This is the first issue of volume 8 of the Australian Journal of Information Systems. As editor I am pleased to
report the continuing interest in the journal both in Australia as well as overseas.
Our first paper - 'An Empirical Analysis of the Effect of Criticality, Complexity and Organisational Influence on
Software Reliability', is presented by Paul Bowen, Jon Heales & Anne Speed, Department of Commerce,
University of Queensland. This paper reports on a study examining whether reliability is affected by criticality or
complexity and how the organisation deals with these issues.
Donald Chand, Bentley College, Waltham, USA presents our next paper 'Incorporating Database Design in
Warmer Method'. This paper addresses the issue of incorporating into the Warnier method, additional steps to
transform data into normalised relations.
Quan Dang, School of Informatics, University of North London, presents our next paper, 'Enhancing the Link of
Soft Systems and Information Systems Models Through a Uniform and Formalised Representation'. This paper
presents an approach based on meta modelling which not only allows SSM & IS modelling, but also represents the
relationships between the concepts in a meta-model.
Our next paper is presented by Klement Fellner & Klaus Turowski, Business Information Systems, University of
Magdeburg, and is entitled ' Framework Architecture Enabling an Agent-based Inter Company Integration with
XML. The paper describes a framework for inter company integration which helps to automate procurement
processes.
Guntram Graef & Martin Gaedke, University of Karlsruhe present our next paper 'Evolution of Web-based
Applications Using Domain-specific Markup languages. This paper suggests the adoption of a paradigm based on
component-technology and component-software architecture when developing web-based applications.
Alison Parkes, Department of Information Systems, Massey University presents our next paper, 'Is a Picture
Worth a Thousand Words? The Use of Non-text Items in Information Systems Research'. This paper examines the
use of non-text items in information systems journals and shows that articles, which use non-text items, are more
often cited than those that don't.
Les Worrall, University of Wolverhampton, Dan Remenyi, Brunei University & Arthur Money, Henley
Management College present our next paper 'A Methodology for Evaluating User Perceptions of the Delivery of
ICT Services: A Comparative Study of Six UK Local Authorities'. The paper used both gap analysis and
perceptual mapping techniques to develop an understanding of the aspects of ICT service delivery.
Our next paper, entitled 'Transitioning Existing Content: Inferring Organisation-Specific Documents is presented
by Arijit Sengupta, Georgia State University & Sandeep Purao, Agder University, Norway. This paper proposes a
method of inferring organisation-specific document structures, which involves artificial intelligence and natural
language processing techniques.
Our last three papers have been chosen as the best papers from the recent EFIS 2000 Conference in Dublin. Mark
Roantree provides a brief overview of the conference and the papers.
Uwe Hohenstein & Andreas Ebert, Siemens AG, Germany present the first of the three papers from EFIS 2000. It
is entitled 'Plugging Files in Database Federations. The paper presents a specification-based approach to support
the migrating of file data into relational databases.
Kai-Uwe Sattler, Department of Computer Science, University of Magdeburg, Stefan Conrad, Department of
Computer Science, University of Munich & Gunter Saake, Department of Computer Science, University of
Magdeburg present our next paper entitled 'Adding Conflict Resolution Features to a Query Language for
Database Federations. The paper presents SQL extensions for defining and querying database federations that
address the resolution conflicts by providing mechanisms for mapping attributes.
Willem-Jan Van den Heuvel, Wilhelm Hasselbring & Mike Papazoglou, Department of Information Management,
Tilburg University, present our final paper. The paper is entitled 'Top-Down Enterprise Application Integration
with Reference Models'. The paper presents a methodology that uses reference models as a starting point for a top-
down integration of enterprise applications.
A book review of 'The New Sociotech: Graffiti on the Long Wall' by Elayne Coakes, Dianne Willis & Raymond
Lloyd-Jones is presented by Lejla Vrazalic, Department of Information Systems, University of Wollongong.
Once again I would like to pass my thanks on to the authors and consulting editors for the high quality of material
in this issue. I would like to thank Lily Soh for her continued assistance with the journal and Diniz Da Rocha for
the maintenance of the home page.

Rob MacGregor
Editor http://www.uow.edu.au/ajis/ajis.html