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A System Dynamics Simulator for Decision Support in Risk-Based IT Outsourcing Capabilities Management

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Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 402))

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Abstract

Organizations face important risks with IT Outsourcing (ITO)—the practice of delegating organizational IT functions to third parties. Here, we employ a system dynamics simulator to support ITO decision-making under risk, taking a dynamic and integrated view of both capabilities management and benefits management. After briefly presenting its functionality, we use the simulator to assess how deficits in two IT capabilities—Contract Monitoring (on the customer’s side) and Service Delivery (on the supplier’s side)—affect the earned values of service orders, the ITO budget, service completion deadlines, and damage to the customer-supplier relationship. Validation is ongoing at four institutions in Brazil, including a large, state tax collecting and finance agency. Initial results are encouraging and indicate that the simulator is useful for planning and managing ITO activities.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computing Systems Department, Federal University of Campina Grande, Campina Grande, Brazil

    Tarcio R. Bezerra & Antão Moura

  2. Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

    Seth Bullock

  3. Institute of Computer Science, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

    Dietmar Pfahl

Authors
  1. Tarcio R. Bezerra
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  2. Antão Moura
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  3. Seth Bullock
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  4. Dietmar Pfahl
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tarcio R. Bezerra .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Computer & Info Science, Fordham University, Bronx, New York, USA

    Mohammad S. Obaidat

  2. Faculty of Engg school of ECE, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    Tuncer Ören

  3. Intelligent Systems Laboratory, Sys Rese Insti of Polish Academy of Sci, Warsaw, Poland

    Janusz Kacprzyk

  4. INSTICC, Setubal, Portugal

    Joaquim Filipe

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Bezerra, T.R., Moura, A., Bullock, S., Pfahl, D. (2015). A System Dynamics Simulator for Decision Support in Risk-Based IT Outsourcing Capabilities Management. In: Obaidat, M., Ören, T., Kacprzyk, J., Filipe, J. (eds) Simulation and Modeling Methodologies, Technologies and Applications . Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 402. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26470-7_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26470-7_7

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-26469-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-26470-7

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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