arXiv subjects

Kai-Kristian Kemell

Publications and source records attributed to Kai-Kristian Kemell.

48 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Software startup education: gamifying growth hacking

Startups seek to create highly scalable business models. For startups, growth is thus vital. Growth hacking is a marketing strategy advocated by various startup practitioner experts. It focuses on using low cost practices while utilizing existing platforms in creative ways to gain more users for the service. Though topics related to growth hacking such as marketing on a general level have been extensively studied in the past, growth hacking as a practitioner-born topic has not seen much interesting among the academia. To both spark interest in growth hacking, and to facilitate teaching growth hacking in the academia, we present two board games intended to serve as an engaging introduction to growth hacking for students.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2021

Time for AI (Ethics) Maturity Model Is Now

There appears to be a common agreement that ethical concerns are of high importance when it comes to systems equipped with some sort of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Demands for ethical AI are declared from all directions. As a response, in recent years, public bodies, governments, and universities have rushed in to provide a set of principles to be considered when AI based systems are designed and used. We have learned, however, that high-level principles do not turn easily into actionable advice for practitioners. Hence, also companies are publishing their own ethical guidelines to guide their AI development. This paper argues that AI software is still software and needs to be approached from the software development perspective. The software engineering paradigm has introduced maturity model thinking, which provides a roadmap for companies to improve their performance from the selected viewpoints known as the key capabilities. We want to voice out a call for action for the development of a maturity model for AI software. We wish to discuss whether the focus should be on AI ethics or, more broadly, the quality of an AI system, called a maturity model for the development of AI systems.

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arXiv2020

ECCOLA -- a Method for Implementing Ethically Aligned AI Systems

Various recent Artificial Intelligence (AI) system failures, some of which have made the global headlines, have highlighted issues in these systems. These failures have resulted in calls for more ethical AI systems that better take into account their effects on various stakeholders. However, implementing AI ethics into practice is still an on-going challenge. High-level guidelines for doing so exist, devised by governments and private organizations alike, but lack practicality for developers. To address this issue, in this paper, we present a method for implementing AI ethics. The method, ECCOLA, has been iteratively developed using a cyclical action design research approach. The method aims at making the high-level AI ethics principles more practical, making it possible for developers to more easily implement them in practice.

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arXiv2020

Implementing Ethics in AI: Initial Results of an Industrial Multiple Case Study

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly widespread in system development endeavors. As AI systems affect various stakeholders due to their unique nature, the growing influence of these systems calls for ethical considerations. Academic discussion and practical examples of autonomous system failures have highlighted the need for implementing ethics in software development. However, research on methods and tools for implementing ethics into AI system design and development in practice is still lacking. This paper begins to address this focal problem by providing elements needed for producing a baseline for ethics in AI based software development. We do so by means of an industrial multiple case study on AI systems development in the healthcare sector. Using a research model based on extant, conceptual AI ethics literature, we explore the current state of practice out on the field in the absence of formal methods and tools for ethically aligned design.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2020

Implementing AI Ethics in Practice: An Empirical Evaluation of the RESOLVEDD Strategy

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems exert a growing influence on society, real-life incidents begin to underline the importance of AI Ethics. Though calls for more ethical AI systems have been voiced by scholars and the general public alike, few empirical studies on the topic exist. Similarly, few tools and methods designed for implementing AI ethics into practice currently exist. To provide empirical data into this on-going discussion, we empirically evaluate an existing method from the field of business ethics, the RESOLVEDD strategy, in the context of ethical system development. We evaluated RESOLVEDD by means of a multiple case study of five student projects where its use was given as one of the design requirements for the projects. One of our key findings is that, even though the use of the ethical method was forced upon the participants, its utilization nonetheless facilitated of ethical consideration in the projects. Specifically, it resulted in the developers displaying more responsibility, even though the use of the tool did not stem from intrinsic motivation.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2020

Ethically Aligned Design: An empirical evaluation of the RESOLVEDD-strategy in Software and Systems development context

Use of artificial intelligence (AI) in human contexts calls for ethical considerations for the design and development of AI-based systems. However, little knowledge currently exists on how to provide useful and tangible tools that could help software developers and designers implement ethical considerations into practice. In this paper, we empirically evaluate a method that enables ethically aligned design in a decision-making process. Though this method, titled the RESOLVEDD-strategy, originates from the field of business ethics, it is being applied in other fields as well. We tested the RESOLVEDD-strategy in a multiple case study of five student projects where the use of ethical tools was given as one of the design requirements. A key finding from the study indicates that simply the presence of an ethical tool has an effect on ethical consideration, creating more responsibility even in instances where the use of the tool is not intrinsically motivated.

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arXiv2019

AI Ethics in Industry: A Research Framework

Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems exert a growing influence on our society. As they become more ubiquitous, their potential negative impacts also become evident through various real-world incidents. Following such early incidents, academic and public discussion on AI ethics has highlighted the need for implementing ethics in AI system development. However, little currently exists in the way of frameworks for understanding the practical implementation of AI ethics. In this paper, we discuss a research framework for implementing AI ethics in industrial settings. The framework presents a starting point for empirical studies into AI ethics but is still being developed further based on its practical utilization.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2019

Ethically Aligned Design of Autonomous Systems: Industry viewpoint and an empirical study

Progress in the field of artificial intelligence has been accelerating rapidly in the past two decades. Various autonomous systems from purely digital ones to autonomous vehicles are being developed and deployed out on the field. As these systems exert a growing impact on society, ethics in relation to artificial intelligence and autonomous systems have recently seen growing attention among the academia. However, the current literature on the topic has focused almost exclusively on theory and more specifically on conceptualization in the area. To widen the body of knowledge in the area, we conduct an empirical study on the current state of practice in artificial intelligence ethics. We do so by means of a multiple case study of five case companies, the results of which indicate a gap between research and practice in the area. Based on our findings we propose ways to tackle the gap.

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arXiv2019

100+ Metrics for Software Startups - A Multi-Vocal Literature Review

Metrics can be used by businesses to make more objective decisions based on data. Software startups in particular are characterized by the uncertain or even chaotic nature of the contexts in which they operate. Using data in the form of metrics can help software startups to make the right decisions amidst uncertainty and limited resources. However, whereas conventional business metrics and software metrics have been studied in the past, metrics in the spe-cific context of software startup are not widely covered within academic literature. To promote research in this area and to create a starting point for it, we have conducted a multi-vocal literature review focusing on practitioner literature in order to compile a list of metrics used by software startups. Said list is intended to serve as a basis for further research in the area, as the metrics in it are based on suggestions made by practitioners and not empirically verified.

cs.GL↗

arXiv2018

The Essence Theory of Software Engineering - Large-Scale Classroom Experiences from 450+ Software Engineering BSc Students

Software Engineering as an industry is highly diverse in terms of development methods and practices. Practitioners employ a myriad of methods and tend to further tailor them by e.g. omitting some practices or rules. This diversity in development methods poses a challenge for software engineering education, creating a gap between education and industry. General theories such as the Essence Theory of Software Engineering can help bridge this gap by presenting software engineering students with higher-level frameworks upon which to build an understanding of software engineering methods and practical project work. In this paper, we study Essence in an educational setting to evaluate its usefulness for software engineering students while also investigating barriers to its adoption in this context. To this end, we observe 102 student teams utilize Essence in practical software engineering projects during a semester long, project-based course.

cs.SE↗

arXiv2018

Gamifying the Escape from the Engineering Method Prison - An Innovative Board Game to Teach the Essence Theory to Future Project Managers and Software Engineers

Software Engineering is an engineering discipline but lacks a solid theoretical foundation. One effort in remedying this situation has been the SEMAT Essence specification. Essence consists of a language for modeling Software Engineering (SE) practices and methods and a kernel containing what its authors describe as being elements that are present in every software development project. In practice, it is a method agnostic project management tool for SE Projects. Using the language of the specification, Essence can be used to model any software development method or practice. Thus, the specification can potentially be applied to any software development context, making it a powerful tool. However, due to the manual work and the learning process involved in modeling practices with Essence, its initial adoption can be tasking for development teams. Due to the importance of project management in SE projects, new project management tools such as Essence are valuable, and facilitating their adoption is consequently important. To tackle this issue in the case of Essence, we present a game-based approach to teaching the use Essence. In this paper, we gamify the learning process by means of an innovative board game. The game is empirically validated in a study involving students from the IT faculty of University of Jyväskylä (n=61). Based on the results, we report the effectiveness of the game-based approach to teaching both Essence and SE project work.

cs.SE↗

arXiv2018

Essencery - A Tool for Essentializing Software Engineering Practices

Software Engineering practitioners work using highly diverse methods and practices, and general theories in software engineering are lacking. One attempt at creating a common ground in the area of software engineering methodologies has been the Essence Theory of Software Engineering, which can be considered a method-agnostic project management tool for software engineering. Essence supports the use of any development practices and provides a framework for building a suitable method for any software engineering context. However, Essence presently suffers from low practitioner adoption that is partially considered to be caused by a lack of proper tooling. In this paper, we present Essencery, a tool for essentializing software engineering methods and practices using the Essence graphical syntax. Essencery aims to facilitate adoption of Essence among potential future users. We present an empirical evaluation of the tool by means of a qualitative, quasi-formal experiment and, based on the experiment, confirm that the tool is easy to use and useful for its intended purpose.

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