For Dr Noel Carroll, the most exciting aspect of information systems research is the chance to dig deep into the social and technical aspects of emerging technologies.
Dr Noel Carroll is an associate professor of business information systems at the University of Galway and a funded investigator with Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software, where he completed his PhD.
His research focuses on the areas of information systems, health informatics and software engineering. He enjoys engaging with industry and supports organisations in developing transformation strategies.
He founded the Citizen Development Lab at the University of Galway to support organisations to carry out sustainable and scalable digital transformations, and investigate how low-code/no-code development is accelerating and expanding digital transformation efforts.
Tell us about your current research.
My current research focuses on recent developments in digital transformation.
For me, digital transformation is fascinating because it allows us to explore how organisations react to emerging technologies and respond with various strategic initiatives. In essence, as a researcher, it allows me to examine the rewiring of an organisation and how they set out with the goal of creating (new) value and scaling new technologies.
In a way, you could use an analogy of a poker game whereby numerous organisations are sitting around the table and the card dealer releases a new technology (the playing card) to which every organisation needs to rethink their strategy and anticipate what their competition may do next.
The only difference here is that you cannot bluff your way through a digital transformation and in some cases, an organisation may need to fold due to challenges with finance, mindset, misalignment of goals, culture etc.
While many people may try to keep up with the next digital hype with organisations, I’m also lucky to gain deeper insights around the benefits and challenges of the technology and the stakeholder’s experience in undergoing a digital transformation. This is the exciting part of carrying out research within the information systems field whereby we account for the social and technical aspects emerging technologies.
In more recent years, this has led me to the emergence of citizen development. Citizen development is an approach which allows business users to participate in digital transformation and deliver software solutions. Low-code/no-code platforms have emerged as potential game-changers to empower non-technical stakeholders to contribute to digital transformations.
In your opinion, why is your research important?
My research is important because ‘transformation’ is core to business and society. Digital technologies continue to play a significant role in influencing the transformation process and the speed by which a transformation takes place. You only need to look at the recent hype surrounding AI and the emergence of ChatGPT.
With so many potential use cases for ChatGPT, businesses may struggle to identify the most valuable applications of the technology and may face challenges to meet their specific requirements.
So, these technologies transform businesses, society, and on an individual level, they impact on us in terms of growing expectations and new capabilities.
During a recent class I teach on ‘Business Intelligence and Analytics’, one student explained to me how Generative Pre-trained Transformer technology is being used to scout soccer players (ScoutGPT). So, in this case generative AI, such as ScoutGPT, is being used to analyse players and teams in a football-specific manner. This will also open up new research on how AI technology has the potential to transform the future of fan engagement and decision-making in football … and perhaps lead to new innovation in HR recruitment for organisations. The point here is that research on digital transformation is vast and there are many exciting opportunities to drive impact.
But we need to tread carefully. We need to ensure that these are responsible technologies and are accessible to all. I do fear that we may be widening the digital divide in terms of the growing gap between certain demographics and regions that have access to modern digital solutions. This is where citizen development can play an excellent (and timely) role.
For example, through the use of low-code/no-code technologies, we can reduce the digital divide by building apps. Within an organisational context, as digital agility continues to advance, more employees are becoming citizen developers and creating applications on their own across various departments such as HR, R&D, finance and customer service.
We are also seeing how citizen development can play a role in developing economies and address sustainable development goals. Building on this research and impact is very important as we seek ways to reduce technology barriers to advance the quality of life for society.
What inspired you to become a researcher?
Some years ago, I was fortunate to undertake a PhD with Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software at the University of Limerick. Here, I could see firsthand the importance of collaborating with expert software teams from various universities and institutes of technology across Ireland and globally.
I also learned about the importance of collaboration and targeting quality outputs for research. This continues to be an excellent foundation and network for me to build on and is well recognised internationally. This continues to inspire me as Lero grows from strength to strength.
In more recent years, working with colleagues at the University of Galway and within the business information systems discipline continues to inspire me with a perfect mix of excellence, rigour, quality, and fun across research and teaching.
What are some of the biggest challenges or misconceptions you face as a researcher in your field?
One of the biggest challenges in my research area is keeping up with the pace of technology advancements. We saw some significant shifts over the past decade with the hype around areas such as web technologies, cloud computing, business analytics or data science, to what we now see with AI.
Going back to the poker analogy I mentioned earlier, it would be as if a certain poker hand represented a new technology and some players want to go all in (sometimes with certainty, sometimes to chance it and other times to bluff). However, to overcome the challenge in keeping up with the pace, it is worth remembering that all of these technological advancements have similar factors at the heart of them – people, process and technology.
Regardless of what comes down the line, people, process and technology need to work in harmony for successful business operations or digital transformations. If one aspect is weak or not aligned with the others, it can impact the overall efficiency and effectiveness and may lead to failure. Therefore, one challenge I see in terms of research with various organisations is understanding the rationale to invest in new technologies, for example AI, without a solid understanding of the business case.
This triggers questions for me when I work with organisations to get a better insight on ‘what is the core business problem to which AI is the solution?’ and in many cases, this can be a stumbling block for management to explain.
The key point here is that there can often be a misconception of new technologies being the silver bullet as they get caught up in the hype. I have learned in more recent years that digitally transforming an organisation is very exciting but finding stability for organisations has become even more important and extremely challenging.
Organisations that are constantly undergoing change and transforming create a sense of unease for employees almost as if they need to ‘chase a moving target’. The misconception out there is that digital transformations are continuously ongoing but achieving stability is equally important. I have examined this in more recent years through the lens of normalisation and how organisation should move through a cycle from transformation to stability.
Do you think public engagement with science has changed in recent years?
There have been some significant changes in terms of public engagement in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. Within an information systems context, I was involved in research spanning our understanding of the ‘new normal’ in terms of education, remote work and how organisations digitally transformed. This also placed more importance on the role of public engagement to share research insights on how we could better cope, plan and lead within various organisational contexts.
From a researcher perspective, social media and online news items were a key resource to share research and find various online tribes where I could learn from and contribute to discussions. I think we also saw the value of learning from public engagement and identifying areas to upskill across digital technology and innovation.
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