Book Reviews

Information Systems Development and Data Modeling: Conceptual and Philosophical Foundations. Rudy Hirschheim, Heinz K. Klein, and Kalle Lyytinen. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press; t995: 289 pp. Price: $44.95. (ISBN: 0-521-37369-7.) Kirschheim, Klein, and Lyytinen have done a valuable service by tying together a series of related research lines into a single thread andperhaps as importantlyall of the research thread histories into a single volume. Synthesis of research from more than 800 references provides a single integrated look at the manner in which information systems and data modeling methodologies have evolved. The authors should feel proud of this significant integration accomplishment. An extensive presentation of systems development methodologies stresses the importance of understanding the breadth of material covered. My guess is that most IS researchers would be hard pressed to name the seven types of information system development methodologies as: formal live-cycle approaches, structured approaches, prototyping and evolutionary approaches, sociotechnical participatory approaches, sense-making and problem formulation approaches, trade union led approaches, and emancipatory approaches. A similar treatment of the evolution of data modeling draws parallels between the evolution of systems development and data modeling methodologies. The key point is that both have "been shaped by rival concerns." Competing schools of thought have developed differing approaches to both information systems development and data modeling. These schools differ greatly as to what constitute development activities and how should they be accomplished leading to differing methodology goals and means. The text presents a comprehensive treatment of the philosophical foundations of systems development and data modeling methodologies. The authors note how "systems development assumptions can be reflected in developer behaviors and/or be enforced by methodologies but that these assumptions certainly affect the systems that are developed." They define two classes of assumptions: those about the way developer's come to acquire knowledge required to develop systems; and those relating to the developer's view of the social and technical worlds in which the system exists. Analysis of these assumptions yields four development paradigmsdescribing functionalist, social relativist, radical structuralist, and neohumanist infonnation systems development. These are compared on a number of points for both information systems development and data modeling. The third topic area links the theoretical concepts to the approach specific assumptions derived by topic area two. Four development paradigms are detailed to permit more detailed examination of the each's affect on systems development. Four methodologies are systematically evaluated, populating a matrix with according to their respective: key actors; narrative; plot; and assumptions on one axis and the techniques: analysis scope;

1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

life cycle coverage; approach to uncertainty; methodology's defined environment; respective objectives; and data modeling approach on the other axis. The four methodologies examined are: information systems planning, prototyping, soft systems methodology, and the professional work practices approach. The chapter summary includes two figures on the common and different aspects of the methodologies. These provide a clear compare and contrast of the alternative development approaches. The authors report several conclusions and consider two implications on IS research and practice. First, recognizing that there is conflict as to the nature of IS research that has focused on analysts specific assumptions about users and themselves. The authors argue the danger of this approach because^unlike scientific disciplinesthe research foci are conscious beings and researchers have not found satisfactory ways of examining human community-based behavior with mathematical and natural science-based methods. Second, academic practices promote functionalism, typically excluding alternative perspectives. The literature analysis indicates the vast majority of research has been focused on fact-based approaches as per the functionalist paradigm. They suggest perhaps more research should be focused on the alternative approaches as a means of addressing some of the deficiencies associated with the functionalist approach. Indeed, the author's note this is a situation where the academic community is falling behind more progressive industry practices that have understood the need and are moving beyond strict, functional-based approaches to systems development and data modeling. As the authors state at the text's conclusion: "If our philosophical journeymetaphorically speakingto reach beyond functional has any merit, it is because many practitioners have also embarked on a journey arriving at the same place, but they do not know where they are or how they got tiiere." While the text contents are quite valuable, I also found the text particularly frustrating in two ways. First, the text contains differing amounts of materials covering many of the topics. For example, presenting 12 pages on the seven information system development methodologies made the presentation feel awkwardly detailed with followed by 4 pages devoted to data modeling evolution. This pattern is repeated in later chapters with large sections on some topics and much smaller section on others. There is approximately three times as much discussion of infonnation system development methodologies as there is on data modeling. While the uneven presentation is confusing to readers, it is consistent with the text's goals of illustrating the problematic nature of historical information systems development practices and their study. In defense of the authors, reducing the detail of the information system development coverage would have been difficult because it is already quite compact. The authors decision to present so much information system development materials can be justified in the interest of research coverage completeness. Extending the data modeling discussion would have clouded the points, and because data modeling hasn't the history of infonnation system development, differing coverage amounts

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reinforces the authors' point. Nevertheless, the uneven coverage is awkward. In addition, the coverage presents a some alternative techniques are more widely practiced and/or developed than in fact they arepresenting a if understood to represent the state of current system development practices. The second source of frustration is that the entire text suffers from use of difficult language. The entire text is written in dense academese that is simply inaccessible to mainstream information systems developers and data modelers. A final rewrite with the help of a technical editor could have improved (and a subsequent edition can still improve) the writing to make it more readable and thus more useful to the target audience. This is especially unfortunate in that one of the central themes of the text is the need for resolving communication difference between information systems developers and users. And in this sense the author's didn't heed their own advice. The entire text would benefit from this treatment, and the result would be that a much wider audience would be able to access its important contents.

Peter Aiken Department of Information Systems Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond, VA 23284-4000 E-mail: paiken@acm.org

Symbolic Projection for Image Information Retrievai and Spatial Reasoning. Shi-Kuo Chang and Eriand Jungert. London: Academic Press; 1996: 324 pp. Price: $39.95. (ISBN: 012-168030-4.) Image processing is an area that encompasses a wide range of research topics such as image coding and storage, image manipulation, pattern and object recognition, etc. Several books have been written on major topics like image manipulation and pattern recognition. However, at the time this review is written, Chang and Jungert's work seems to be the only book currently available that offers systematic coverage of symbolic projection and spatial reasoning in the context of image retrieval. The book starts with a quick attempt at exposing the fundamental idea of symbolic projection using intuitive examples and putting the work into the context of image processing and retrieval. The rest of the book takes the initial idea introduced in the beginning chapter and gradually extends and refines it into a more abstract formalism. The book appears to be carefully organized to ease a reader's first encounter with a rather complicated, if not difficult, subject without being overwhelmed and hindered by too much mathematical details. The main portion of this book is divided into three distinct parts: Part I introduces the notions of symbolic projection, image segmentation, and 2D string representation; Part II gives advanced theories of generalized symbolic projection and spatial reasoning in algebraic form; Part III extends the theory of Symbolic Projection to deal with various issues in active image information systems design and to facilitate 3D spatial reasoning. Part I consists of Chapters 2 - 6 . Chapter 2 highlights the basics of image coding and data structures in preparation for projection string generation. Chapter 3 formalizes the basic concepts of symbolic projection and 2D strings introduced in Chapter 1. Projection string generation and 2D string matching algorithms are also given in this chapter. Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 further develop the ideas introduced earlier, define generalized 2D strings as the basis for integrating numerous variations of

2D strings, and introduce logical operators and spatial relations. Chapter 6 describes some 2D string-based image database systems to demonstrate typical applications of the theory of Symbolic Projection to image information retrieval. Part II includes four chapters, namely Chapters 7-10. Chapter 7 describes algebraic properties of 2D string manipulation and transformation in the form of an "image algebra." A theoretical concept of "empty space object" is defined, followed by presentation of various laws of generalized empty space, object manipulation, unification, and operator precedence. Chapter 8 deals with transformation of various types of projection strings and representations of object relations into and from generalized 2D strings. Object rotation based on the image algebra is also discussed in this chapter. Chapter 9 discusses the deficiencies of Symbolic Projection in representing line and point objects (direction, and distance). Slope projection, path projection, and polar projection are presented to demonstrate how Symbolic Projection can be extended to solve these deficiencies. Finally, in Chapter 10, a number of different approaches to qualitative spatial reasoning are described. Although in the introductory section of this chapter the authors suggest that "Symbolic Projection also includes other characteristics that made it suitable for various forms of spatial reasoning and in particular for qualitative spatial reasoning" (p. 179), this aspect is not addressed in any notably substantial form. Part III consists of five chapters. The first chapter in this part. Chapter 11 is a sketchy review of existing image processing/ retrieval systems with emphasis on their visual querying interface design. Chapter 12 introduces the concept of active indexing for content-based image infonnation retrieval. An experimental image retrieval system based on the technique of active indexing is also described to demonstrate the use of this concept. Chapter 13 extends the theory of 2D Symbolic Projection to 3D situation by giving a sequence of definitions and theorems regarding 3D projection string generation and manipulation. Chapter 14 presents the concept of a-tree, a symbolic hierarchical representation of a 3D space, based on the 3D Symbolic Projection theory developed in the previous chapter. The final chapter of the book first proposes a taxonomy-like classification of various image indexing techniques, then gives a survey of current existing image processing systems, and ends with a very brief discussion of the future research directions in image information systems without much specifics. In general, the book amounts to a reasonably good integration of theories and concepts in the area of image indexing and an effective condensation of the research in Symbolic Projection and Spatial Reasoning, if not too much of the latter. While it covers the major theories, concepts, and techniques, the authors' survey of the field is by no means complete. A quick search reveals several nontrivial references not mentioned anywhere in the book but apparently within its reachable scope (Cohn, 1995; Frank, 1996; Shanahan, 1995; Stein & Medioni, 1992a, 1992b; Venkatesh et al., 1995; Williams, 1995; Zimmermann & Freska, 1996). The authors' exposition is not very difficult to follow, and the book is relatively easy to read, thanks to its rich diagrammatic illustrations and clear focus and organization of chapters. Nevertheless, too many a typesetting error and occasional appearance of undefined symbols prove to be distractive. The captions in Figure 1.3 are too small for the comfort of reading. Also, lack of explicit definition of the concept "object" doesn't help either, although the word is heavily used throughout the book. It is not always clear whether the word "object" refers to a physical 3D entity, or a fiat "shadow" pattern recorded in an image, or a segment of a recognized pattern after cutting. Finally and more importantly, it seems that there are three general approaches to image indexing and retrieval, at different levels correspondingly. Images can be indexed and searched

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