The School of Computing

Profile

Frank Stowell is Professor of Systems and Information Systems. He was formerly the Director of Campus at De Montfort University Milton Keynes and moved to back to Portsmouth in 2003 to undertake a leading role in Information Systems research. Professor Stowell is also visiting Professor of Systems and Information Systems to University of Northumbria. He has a PhD in Organisational Change and his research centres on participative design of Information Systems. He is the coordinator of the Information Systems research group and the Centre for Innovation and Inclusion through Information Systems. He has successfully supervised a number of PhD research projects, published papers and texts in the field and presented papers at a number of international conferences in Europe and the United States.

He is co-chair of a number of research funded projects notably the Systems Practice for Managing Complexity project, which was awarded an EPSRC grant for 3 years but continues as a self sustaining network for managers from Industry and Academia. He is past President of the UK Academy of Information Systems and the UK Systems Society and the current Vice President of that society.

He is the current chair of the Council of Information Systems Professors (CISP). He has also held academic managerial responsibilities as Head of the Department of Computing at two UK Universities. Prior to his academic career he was a consultant in a central government sponsored Management Systems Development Group and has experience of defining and developing IT supported management information systems

Scholarly Activities

• Editor in Chief Systemist (UKSS Publication) 1987 – to date
• Senior Editor International Journal of Information Technology and the Systems Approach (IJITSA) (2007 – to date)

Membership of professional bodies

• Chair of Council of Information Systems Professors (CISP) (2006- to date)
• Chair of Committee of Professors and Heads of Information Systems (2003 – 2006)
• Elected President of the UK Academy of Information Systems 1999-2000, Vice President 2001, member of the Board of the Academy from 1995 -to date
• Elected President of UK Systems Society 2002-2004.
• Vice President of UKSS and external relations 2004- to date
• Member of UK Systems Society Board (formerly executive) 1985-to date.

General Academic experience:

• External examiner for degree and postgraduate degree programmes in UK Universities 1991 – to date
• External examiner to three Universities for programmes in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong and is currently an external examiner to a programme in Dubai
• Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) subject reviewer 2001 – 2006
• QAA Development Engagement reviewer 2004 – 2006
• Member of the Higher Education Funding Council Quality Assurance Benchmarking panel for Computing 2000
• Chair of Open University/De Montfort University Centre for Life Long Learning 1999-2001, member of Executive and Steering Committee 1999-2003
• OU (PT) Tutor 1983-90

Research

• Information Systems and Participative Design (CLIKS)
• Information System Development Methodologies
• Impact of IT upon Organisational Power
• Research Methods

Externally Funded projects

• EPSRC funded research £150K over 3 years (UMISD) (with Professor Zedan faculty SE research centre) - 1998-2002
• EPSRC funded research £60k over 3 years (SPMC) (with Professor Ison at Open University) 2001-2004 – but project continues as self funded
• EPSRC funded Masters Training Programme £817k over 5 years – 2001-2007
• EPSRC Travel Grant to support F6 application £6.5k 2003/4

Unified Mechanism for Information Systems Definition (UMISD)EPSRC funded project within the Software Engineering for Business Process Change programme, joint project with Professor Hussein Zedan.

Information Systems Requirements Analysis (ISRA)- development of a composite method of information system definition and specification.

Systems Practice for Managing Complexity (SPMC)is a EPSRC funded network designed to generate new fresh insights and research questions by integrating the experience, needs and expertise of the business community, government agencies and the not-for-profit sector with researchers concerned with systems approaches for managing complexity.

Organisational Power and the Impact of Information Technology on-going research. Research into responsible participation. Using ideas based upon Client Led Design and the evolved Client Led Information System Creation (CLIC): which are dedicated to ways of enabling the client to manage the whole information system development process.

Selected Publications since 2002

Stowell, F.A. (2008) Soft Systems and Research, Kybernetes, accepted, forthcoming

Stowell, F.A. (2007) The knowledge Age or the Age of Ignorance and the Decline of Freedom? Systemic Practice and Action Research, accepted, forthcoming

Stowell, F.A. (2007) Do we mean Information Systems or Systems of Information? International Journal of Information Technology and the Systems Approach; accepted, Forthcoming.

Stowell, F.A. and Gregory, A. (2007) Holison and the IFSR – a case for using PEArL and SSM, Systemist, Vol. 29 (3), Nov 2006, pp157-167

Stowell, F.A. and Cooray, S. (2006) Addressing IS Failure - Could a “Systems” approach be the Answer?, Special Symposium on Information Systems Research and Systems Approach, Baden Baden, Germany, August 9th 2006

Stowell, F.A and Cooray, S, (2006) “Client Led Information System Creation (CLIC) - Reality or Fantasy?”, accepted proceedings of Fifteenth International Conference on Information System Development Methods and Tools, Budapest, Hungary, 25-31st Aug, 2006, Proceedings in press.

Cooray, S., and Stowell, F.A. (2006) Investigating the Concept of “Appreciative Settings” as a Means of Understanding Weltanschauung, Systemist, refereed proceedings UKSS International Conference Oxford Sept 2006, pp 60-69

Champion, D., Stowell, F.A. and O’Callaghan, A., (2005), Client Led Information System Creation (CLIC): Navigating the Gap, accepted for Information Systems Journal, 15, pp213-231.

Champion, D and Stowell, F.A. (2003), Validating Action Research Field Studies: PEArL, Systemic Practice and Action Research, Vol. 16, No. 1, February, 2003, pp21-36

Champion, D. and Stowell, F.A. (2002) “Navigating the Gap between Action and a Serving Information System” Information Systems Frontiers, 4:3, pp 273-284p>

Stowell, F.A. and West, (1994) Client led design, McGraw Hill, Maidenhead

Stowell, F.A. (ed) (1995) Information Systems Provision: the contribution of Soft Systems Methodology, McGraw-Hill, Maidenhead.

Mingers, J. and Stowell, F.A. (1997) Information Systems: An Emerging Discipline?, McGraw-Hill, Maidenhead.

Chapters in Books since 2000

Stowell, F.A. and Champion, D., (2002), “A Unified Mechanism for Information System Definition in Action”, in Systems Engineering for Business Process Change: New Directions, P. Henderson (ed), EPSRC publication, pp. 138-149, London, Springer.

Stowell, F.A. and Champion, D., (2000) “Interpretivist Modelling for Information System Definition”, in, Systems Engineering for Business Process Change, P. Henderson (ed), EPSRC publication, pp. 106-116, London, Springer.

Stowell, F.A. (2000) “Modelling Information System Requirements for Complex Systems”, in Systems Modelling for Business Process Improvement, D.W. Bustard, P. Kawalek and M.T. Norris, (eds), pp. 171-186, London, Artech.

Champion, D. and Stowell, F.A., (2000) “An Interpretivist Approach to Modelling Clients Requirements for Information Systems”, in, Systems Modelling for Business Process Improvement, D.W. Bustard, P. Kawalek and M.T. Norris (eds), pp. 187-198, London, Artech.