The primary aim for this book is to gather and collate articles which represent the best and latest thinking in the domain of technology transfer, from research, academia and practice around the world. We envisage that the book will, as a result of this, represent an important source of knowledge in this domain to students (undergraduate and postgraduate), researchers, practitioners and consultants, chiefly in the software engineering and IT/industries, but also in management and other organisational and social disciplines. An important aspect of the book is the role that reflective practitioners (and not just academics) play. They will be involved in the production, and evaluation of contributions, as well as in the design and delivery of conference events, upon which of course, the book will be based.

In a world where technology is continually advancing, and problems are becoming more and more complex, established practices for decision making and problem solving are no longer effective. In this new book, however, Enid Mumford draws on her wealth of experience in management, business schools, and working with the police and other professional problem solvers to show us how to tackle complex problems efficiently. With drugs and cyber-crime as her main examples Professor Mumford shows how these topical, yet apparently permanent problems, could be approached. She does this by looking at how the criminals themselves have overcome legal obstacles, and other problems to make the drug trafficking industry the second largest in the world today, and the relative newcomer, electronic fraud, a multi-billion dollar problem already. These crimes, which in themselves lead to more crime from petty theft to support a drug habit, to international money laundering, are incredibly complex, and yet the book shows us that there is not only a way forward with these issues, but a way to approach all complex problems with efficiency and competency, wherever they occur in our lives.

This book describes the experiences of four organizations who tried to introduce new computer systems in a humanistic manner so that human as well as business gains would be derived from the introduction of technology. All four paid a great deal of attention to identifying efficiency and job satisfaction needs and to design ing the technical system and its surrounding organizational context in such a way that these needs could be effectively met. Nevertheless, as with all major change, the change process was difficult and demanding and considerable management skill and insight was required before successful systems were implemented. The author set out to identify the extent to which the values of the different groups involved in the design process influenced the way in which computer systems were designed and implemented. She also wished to establish the extent to which the values of technical systems designers, user management and user clerks converged or diverged in the change process. It is hoped that the ideas set out here will contribute both to a greater theoretical understanding of the in fluences which affect technical change and to the practical design of humanistic computer systems. The research was carried out in three large government de partments, two industrial firms and an international bank. Two of the govern ment departments asked for their data to remain confidential and so these are not described in detail in the book. The book is in twelve chapters."

In a world where technology is continually advancing, and problems are becoming more and more complex, established practices for decision making and problem solving are no longer effective. In this new book, however, Enid Mumford draws on her wealth of experience in management, business schools, and working with the police and other professional problem solvers to show us how to tackle complex problems efficiently. With drugs and cyber-crime as her main examples Professor Mumford shows how these topical, yet apparently permanent problems, could be approached. She does this by looking at how the criminals themselves have overcome legal obstacles, and other problems to make the drug trafficking industry the second largest in the world today, and the relative newcomer, electronic fraud, a multi-billion dollar problem already. These crimes, which in themselves lead to more crime from petty theft to support a drug habit, to international money laundering, are incredibly complex, and yet the book shows us that there is not only a way forward with these issues, but a way to approach all complex problems with efficiency and competency, wherever they occur in our lives.