Research Profile

Tom O'Kane

Biography

                         

Current position October 2007 to present:

Lecturing:

  • Advanced Tools & Methods for Information Systems (Undergraduate level)
  • Final Year Project Supervision (Undergraduate level)

  • Software Project Management (Masters level)

  • Electronic Business Development (Masters level)

  • PhD Supervison

Research:

  • PI for development of a Maturity Model for Anti-Money Laundering
  • Investigation into Maturity Model for Chronic Illness Management

Administration:

  • Co-Course Director MBS degree in e-Business

Previous Appointment 2004-2007:

Principal Engineer and Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff - Motorola Systems & Software Engineering Research Labs

Conducting research into a diverse range of software related topics:

  • Capability Maturity Models

  • Development methodologies

  • Software process control

  • Probabilistic inference networks for predictive modelling

Research Interests

My research strategy to date has been dominated by Action Research. This is simply because I was in an employment position that required that I not only conduct research into issues affecting the company, but I was also obliged to take action to address adverse findings from the research. So the Action Research cycles of Diagnosing, Action Planning, Action Taking, Evaluating, and Specifying Learning, as described by Susman and Evered, were applied to a wide range of topical issues that affected the corporation. Among these were issues around Process definition, Quality management, Software test capability and Outsourcing.
I have also used both intrinsic and instrumental Case Study research strategies. I have used Intrinsic Case Study research to investigate situations that were specific and of interest in their own right. For instance specific issues affecting a specialised group that was attempting to define and then re-engineer their process models. I have used Instrumental Case Study research to investigate situations that gave us information that we can apply to other situations. For instance researching Agile software development practices to understand which practices appeared to be most efficacious and should therefore be made mandatory for all Agile adoptions.
For my PhD research aspects from both Case Study and Action Research were combined to produce Action-Case Study research. That is Action Research that is based upon an a priori Case Study.

Top three research outputs

1.The creation of a global process architecture and highly effective software process improvement infrastructure for a division within Motorola with plant in Arlington Heights (IL), Schaumburg (IL), Phoenix (AZ), Cork (IRL), and Swindon (UK). The project was a huge success enabling the geographically dispersed teams to effectively work together under a common process infrastructure. The process tailoring methodology for the process became the subject of publication in ACM Journal.
2.The creation of a probabilistic inference model that enabled management to simulate the effect of process changes or interventions on a globally distributed team. The simulations were used to forecast likely effects of decision making on productivity and quality thus enabling better informed decisions to be made. The results of this research were published internally at the Motorola Systems and Software Engineering Symposium.
3.The creation of a Testing Capability Assessment model. This was a model designed to allow the client division assess the capability of its globally distributed software testing groups and provide those groups with a normative model for improvement. The model was hailed a success and deployed by the client division. It will be the subject of a publication in 2009.


Research Grants

 ProjectFunding
Body
Start DateEnd DateAward
EI - ERS to develop an innovative software product to assist company registries in the processing of applications for new company names.Enterprise Irl01-JAN-0828-FEB-11€6,500.00
EI - Innovation Voucher Transaction Based PricingEnterprise Irl01-JAN-0931-DEC-10€6,500.00

Publications

Book Chapters

 YearPublication
(2014)'Evaluating the Utility of the Irish HSE’s Paper Based Early Warning Score Chart: A Reflective Data Gathering Phase for the Design of the REVIEWS Framework'
Creedon, F. O’Kane, T. O’Donoghue, J. Adam,F, Woodworth, S. and O’Connor S. (2014) 'Evaluating the Utility of the Irish HSE’s Paper Based Early Warning Score Chart: A Reflective Data Gathering Phase for the Design of the REVIEWS Framework' In: Dss 2.0 – Supporting Decision Making With New Technologies. Amsterdam, NL: IOS Press. [Details]
(2012)'Electronic-Early Warning Scorecard: An Intelligent Context Aware Decision Making Approach for Patient Monitoring'
O’Kane, T., O’Donoghue, J., Gallagher, J., Aftab, A., Casey, A., Courtney, G. (2012) 'Electronic-Early Warning Scorecard: An Intelligent Context Aware Decision Making Approach for Patient Monitoring' In: Handbook of Ambient Assisted Living. Netherlands: IOS Press.   [Details]
(2007)'Industry-University Collaborations in Research for Information Systems'
O¿Kane, T ; (2007) 'Industry-University Collaborations in Research for Information Systems' In: Industry-University Collaborations in Research for Information Systems: An Exploratory Study of a Management Model, Information Systems and Technology Education: From the University to the Workplace. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference. [Details]

Peer Reviewed Journals

 YearPublication
(2013)'Variation in Health Care Providers' Perceptions: Decision Making Based on Patient Vital Signs'
1. Zarabzadeh, A., O'Donoghue, J., O'Connor, Y., O'Kane, T., Woodworth, S., Gallagher, J., and O'Connor, S. (2013) 'Variation in Health Care Providers' Perceptions: Decision Making Based on Patient Vital Signs'. Journal of Decision Systems, 22 (3):168-189 [Details]
(2011)'Modified Early Warning Scorecard: The Role of Data/Information Quality within the Decision Making Process'
O’Donoghue, J., O’Kane, T., Gallagher, J., Courtney, G., Aftab, A., Casey, A, Torres, J. and Angove, P. (2011) 'Modified Early Warning Scorecard: The Role of Data/Information Quality within the Decision Making Process'. Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation, 14 (1)   [Details]
(2003)'Software Development Method Tailoring at Motorola'
Fitzgerald B., Russo, N. & O¿Kane T ; (2003) 'Software Development Method Tailoring at Motorola'. Communications of the ACM (CACM), 46 (4):64-70 [Details]
(1999)'A Longitudinal Study of Software Process Improvement'
Fitzgerald B., & O¿Kane T ; (1999) 'A Longitudinal Study of Software Process Improvement'. IEEE Software Journal, 16 (3):37-45 [Details]

Conference Publications

 YearPublication
(2014)17th IFIP WG 8.2 conference on DSS
5. Creedon, F. O’Kane, T. O’Donoghue, J. Adam, F, Woodworth, S. and O’Connor S. (2014) Evaluating the Utility of the Irish HSE’s Paper Based Early Warning Score Chart: A Reflective Data Gathering Phase for the Design of the REVIEWS Framework 17th IFIP WG 8.2 conference on DSS Paris, France, [Details]
(2013)Innovation for Financial Services Conference, Singapore
O'Kane, T., Casserly, T., and McCartney, P. (2013) The Financial Services Maturity Model for Anti-Money Laundering (FSMM (AML)) Innovation for Financial Services Conference, Singapore [Details]
(2013)International Conference on Information Systems (UKAIS)
Creedon, F., O’Donoghue, J., O’Kane, T. And Adam, F. (2013) Designing a Clinical Decision Support System Utilising Naturalistic Decision Making Theory: A Design Science Approach International Conference on Information Systems (UKAIS) [Details]
(2012)IEEE 25th Computer-Based Medical Systems (CBMS)
Zarabzadeh, A., O'Connell, M., O'Donoghue, J., O'Kane, T., Woodworth, S., Gallagher, J., O'Connor, S., and Adam, F. (2012) Features of electronic Early Warning systems which impact clinical decision making IEEE 25th Computer-Based Medical Systems (CBMS) [Details]
(2012)31st Annual International Nursing and Midwifery Conference, Royal College of Surgeons Ireland
O’Connor, S; Zarabzadeh, A; O’Connell, M; Gallagher, J; Woodworth, S; O’Kane, T; Adam, F; O’Donoghue, J (2012) MEWS to e-MEWS: from a paper based to a clinical decision support system 31st Annual International Nursing and Midwifery Conference, Royal College of Surgeons Ireland [Details]
(2012)6th European Conference on Information Management and Evaluation (ECIME)
Zarabzadeh, A., O’Donoghue, J., Adam, F., O’Connell, M., O’Connor, S., Woodworth, S., Gallagher, J. and O’Kane, T. (2012) Moving towards a sensor-based patient monitoring system: Evaluating its impact on data and information quality 6th European Conference on Information Management and Evaluation (ECIME) [Details]
(2012)Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland (RCSI) 31st International Annual Nursing and Midwifery Research Conference
O’Connor, S., O’Donoghue, J., O’Kane, T., Gallagher, J., Courtney, G., Woodworth, S., Casey, A., Aftab, A. (2012) From Early Warning Scores to Clinical Decision Support Systems & their impact on nursing care delivery Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland (RCSI) 31st International Annual Nursing and Midwifery Research Conference [Details]
(2011)University College Cork 11th Annual Nursing and Midwifery Research Conference
O’Connor, S., O’Donoghue, J., O’Kane, T., Adam, F., Woodworth, S. (2011) MEWS to e-MEWS: From a paper based to an electronic Clinical Decision Support System University College Cork 11th Annual Nursing and Midwifery Research Conference [Details]
(2011)11th Annual Nursing and Midwifery Conference, University College Cork, Ireland
O’Connor, S; O’Donoghue, J; Woodworth, S; O’Connell, M; Gallagher, J; O’Kane, T; Zarabzadeh, A; Adam, F (2011) Electronic Modified Early Warning Scorecard (e-MEWS) 11th Annual Nursing and Midwifery Conference, University College Cork, Ireland [Details]
(2010)Health Informatics Society of Ireland (HISI)
O’Kane, T., O’Donoghue, J. and Gallagher, J. (2010) The e-MEWS and system integration Health Informatics Society of Ireland (HISI) [Details]
(2010)European Conference on Information Management and Evaluation (ECIME)
O'Kane, T., O'Donoghue J., Gallagher, J. Courtney, G., Aftab, A. and Casey, A., Torres, J. and Angove, P. (2010) MEWS to e-MEWS: From a Paper-Based to an Electronic Clinical Decision Support System European Conference on Information Management and Evaluation (ECIME) [Details]
(2010)European Conference on Information Management and Evaluation (ECIME)
O'Donoghue, J., O'Kane, T., Gallagher, J. Courtney, G., Aftab, A. and Casey, A., Torres, J. and Angove, P. (2010) The Application of a Patient Assessment Data Quality Model to the Modified Early Warning Scorecard European Conference on Information Management and Evaluation (ECIME) [Details]
(2004)9th European SEPG Conference
O¿Kane, T. & White T ; (2004) Supplier Selection ¿ A Practical Approach to Conducting Software Supplier Assessments 9th European SEPG Conference [Details]
(2000)8th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS)
Fitzgerald, B., Russo, N. & O¿Kane, T ; (2000) An Empirical Study of System Development Method Tailoring in Practice 8th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) [Details]
(1999)EuroSTAR¿99 7th European International Conference on Software Testing
O¿Hara, F., O¿Kane, T. & Smith, A ; (1999) Contradictions within an Evolving Inspection Process EuroSTAR¿99 7th European International Conference on Software Testing [Details]

Professional Activities

Conference Contributions

 YearPublication
(2006)Fraunhofer Institute,
O'Kane, T; (2006) Agile Software Development Within Motorola. [Oral Presentation], Fraunhofer Institute, Kaiserslautern, Germany , 01-NOV-06 - 01-NOV-06. [Details]
(2006)Motorola Software and Systems Symposium,
O'Kane, T; (2006) Modelling Globally Distributed Testing. [Oral Presentation], Motorola Software and Systems Symposium, Itasca, Illinois, USA , 01-JUN-06 - 01-JUN-06. [Details]
(2006)Motorola Software and Systems Symposium,
O'Kane, T; (2006) An Investigation into Agile Practices within Motorola. [Oral Presentation], Motorola Software and Systems Symposium, Itasca, Illinois, USA , 01-JUN-06 - 01-JUN-06. [Details]
(2005)Motorola Software and Systems Symposium,
O'Kane, T; (2005) Global Quality Management. [Oral Presentation], Motorola Software and Systems Symposium, Itasca, Illinois, USA , 01-JUN-05 - 01-JUN-05. [Details]

Employment

 EmployerPositionFrom / To
Motorola Labs Distinguished Member of Technical Staff/
University College Cork Lecturer/

Education

 YearInstitutionQualificationSubject
2006University College Cork PHD

Consultancy

 ClientDescription
Fedral Reserve Bank of Boston
Investigation into 2-factor authentication
ERSL
Investigation into company registration practices
Danutech
Investigation into the provision of software tools and services in emerging wireless value chains

Journal Activities

 JournalRoleTo / From
Ieee Software Referee-
Journal Decision Support Systems Referee-
European Conference On Information Systems Referee-

Teaching Activities

Teaching Interests

Process Modelling and Capability Models

Software Project Management

Software Process Improvement

Current Postgraduate Students

 StudentDegree Type
Geary Niall Doctoral Degree
Healy Joseph Olan Doctoral Degree
Creedon Fred Doctoral Degree (Structured)

Modules Taught

 Term (ID))TitleLinkSubject
2015Software Quality and Standards IS4442Software Quality and Standards
2015Information Systems Project Tracking and Oversight IS6028Information Systems Project Tracking and Oversight

Contact details

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University College Cork

Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh

College Road, Cork T12 K8AF

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