The growing diffusion of software in society and its influence on people demands from its creators that their work carefully considers human values such as transparency, social responsibility, and equality. But how do software practitioners address human values in software engineering practice’ We interviewed 31 software practitioners from two organizations, each having a strong values framework, with the aim to understand: (a) practitioners’ perceptions of human values and their role in software engineering; (b)practices that practitioners use to address human values in software; and (c) challenges they face during this process. We report our findings from two contrasting case studies on how practitioners “engineer” values in their unique organizational settings. We found evidence that organizational culture significantly contributes to how values are addressed in software. We summarize recommendations from the practitioners to support proactive engineering of values-conscious software.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to explore the concept of information culture, and to demonstrate its utility when considering information management in organisations.Design/methodology/approach: Case studies were conducted of organisations with similar functions, located in regions likely to have different cultural dimensions.Findings: The findings show that different values and attitudes to information are influencing factors of the information culture in the organisations studied.Practical implications: Knowledge and understanding of the features of information culture will assist with addressing the challenges of organisational information management in this globalised age.Originality/value: This research adds to the body of knowledge about information culture, in particular national dimensions.

This paper was originally presented during the IFLA 2011 Annual World Library and Information Congress held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, 13‐18 August 2011. Published with the kind permission of IFLA www.ifla.org/

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the organizational readiness perspective of adopting artificial intelligence and big data analytics in the textile and garment industry in Bangladesh along with identifying the associated factors. Design/methodology/approach: The research uses a qualitative method using semi-structured interviews with representatives of business organizations and stakeholders of Bangladesh’s textile and garment industry. Findings: The research reveals that the textile and garment industry in Bangladesh currently has low organizational readiness to adopt artificial intelligence and big data analytics. This is due to moderate knowledge- and leadership-readiness along with low human-, finance- and engagement-readiness of most of the business organizations. The readiness aspects interplay with each other and need to be improved holistically. Practical implications: Considering the significant global and national importance of Bangladesh’s textile and garment industry, gaining insights into the industry’s current state of readiness for adopting artificial intelligence and big data analytics would offer valuable assistance to both national and global economies and may enhance economic outcomes. Originality/value: Since no exploratory study was conducted to understand the organizational readiness aspects of adopting artificial intelligence and big data analytics of the globally significant textile and garment industry in Bangladesh, the paper analyzes five key aspects of such readiness and offers a basis for conducting similar studies in other emerging economies.

Agile methods are predominantly focused on delivering business values. But can Agile methods be adapted to effectively address and deliver human values such as social justice, privacy, and sustainability in the software they produce Human values are what an individual or a society considers important in life. Ignoring these human values in software can pose difficulties or risks for all stakeholders (e.g., user dissatisfaction, reputation damage, financial loss). To answer this question, we selected the Scaled AgileFramework (SAFe), one of the most commonly used Agile methods in the industry, and conducted a qualitative case study to identify possible intervention points within SAFe that are the most natural to address and integrate human values in software. We present five high-level empirically-justified sets of interventions in SAFe: artefacts, roles, ceremonies, practices, and culture. We elaborate how some currentAgile artefacts (e.g., user story), roles (e.g., product owner), ceremonies (e.g., stand-up meeting), and practices (e.g., business-facing testing) in SAFe can be modified to support the inclusion of human values in software. Further, our study suggests new and exclusive values-based artefacts (e.g., legislative requirement), ceremonies (e.g., values conversation), roles (e.g., values champion), and cultural practices (e.g., induction and hiring) to be introduced in SAFe for this purpose. Guided by our findings, we argue that existingAgile methods can account for human values in software delivery with some evolutionary adaptations.