There are currently two sub-groups in ISE:

E-Commerce and Databases:
This group is concerned with the issues surrounding the development, deployment and management of e-commerce systems and databases.

Information Systems and Software Processes:
This group conducts research into methodologies, processes and architectures of information systems and software.

Members

Geetha Abeysinghe
Research interest are in Business Process Modelling, Artificial Intelligence, and Information Systems: methods for process elicitation, analysis and modelling and studying different modelling paradigms and notations and modelling tools currently in use. Currently she is investigating the possibility of facilitating the process elicitation by automatic conversion of natural language process descriptions to executable process models.

Walaa Mohamed Bakry
Research interest is mainly in the area of Software Specification Reuse. This research looks at categorisation principles in cognitive science and philosophy and their possible use in classifying Information Systems. The research project that he is currently involved in, named Specification reuse via Homogenous Interpretation Of Concepts (SPHINCs), pronounced Sphinx, attempts to classify new system's requirements according to a proposed set of Concepts. These concepts are linked to previously developed specifications that can be used in new situations. Other research interests include Electronic Commerce. Particularly, business activities re-structuring to maximise the benefits of E-Commerce. He also maintains an active interest in web-based learning.

Bryan Bennett
Bryan's research interests are in two main areas: First, modelling organisational knowledge development through the use of ontology and the relationship between individual and organisational ontology. Second, the social, legal and ethical impact of the development of web technologies.

Darren Dalcher
Darren's primary research interest is in systems failures and forensic engineering. The bulk of the work is concerned with systematic learning from failures. This is facilitated through the collection and analysis of software failures (and disasters) by utilising forensic software engineering.

Additional research interests cover:

• Software development life cycles with particular emphasis on evolution and feedback systems enabling the creation of dynamic feedback models
• Project management of very small to extremely large undertakings in a variety of environments (including distributed and web-based projects) and the shift towards value-driven projects
• Risk management and opportunity maximisation techniques, with subsidiary interest in hazard analysis and the acceptability of risk
• Decision making, creativity and problem solving
• Systems and software engineering
• The application of complexity, evolution and non-linearity to software development and management.

Dave Lawrence
Dave's 'IS' research area is 'end user computing ' - modelling success factors.

Maya Milankovic-Atkinson
I am interested in software design in general trying to improve the current practices and thereby make the software development process more reliable and efficient. I have registered a PhD with the title Specification of Distributed Object Systems with the aim to develop a distributed programming method based on a general high level style that would make it possible to specify the interactions among distributed components. The objective is to create better designs, make it possible to analyse, evaluate and verify designs and make informed choices among design alternatives. The method will also make it possible to reverse engineer i.e. adapt applications to ever changing requirements. The work concentrates on the use of Java, the Java APIs that take the form of class libraries incorporating many established design patterns including the more recently APIs for real-time distributed object programming The API and execution environment of Java will enable developers to correctly reason about the temporal behaviour and execution of applications. I have published papers on my subject speciality as well as curriculum development.

Norman Revell
His research interests have been mainly involved with areas of database and information systems where he has published over 50 papers and books. He has been involved in a number of externally funded research projects including the implementation of a parallel database machine. He has supervised a number of PhD students in this field and currently has them working in an area of database metrics and interface technology. The 'city' database benchmark developed by his team has now been adopted by a large number of database users and vendors both in the UK and elsewhere. He is currently working with a number of European Universities and IT firms and supervises PhD students in the area of database architectures and optimisation.

Chris Sadler
His primary research interests lie in Programming Language Design, Software Design and Software Engineering Management. In Programming Language Design he is currently looking at linking problems associated with distributed code (so-called 'binary compatibility') whilst his Software Design interests involve using 'signature analysis' to investigate liveness in distributed software. In Software Engineering Management he is chiefly interested in inter-project communications and methods of minimising the overhead this involves, although he has not done much work in this area to date. Chris has also done work on Software Methodology Evaluation and on cultural influences on the effectiveness both of software development teams and on IT take-up in more general commercial contexts.

Mark Woodman
Research interests focus on complex software, particularly object-orientated systems. He also studies social and cultural aspects of software engineering. An author of many articles and books, and a consultant on several TV programmes, recent international articles focus on object technology and on process improvement. He is Middlesex University's principle investigator on a large European project on software components and process improvement. He has also been heavily involved in international standards work as an ISO convenor and was a BSI panel chair. He has been involved in distance education for over twenty years and he has led projects for introducing computing to several thousand students in the UK and overseas.