Here is a summary of my seminars during my visit at University of Borås in Sweden. * Blockchain system development * Teaching philosophy

1. Information systems development for blockchain based systems
Mahdi Fahmideh (PhD in Information Systems)
Senior Lecturer in Cyber Security, University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ), Australia
E-email: Mahdi dot Fahmideh at usq.edu.au
November 2023
1

2. Who am I? (career history)
Algorithms and Data Structures
Postdoctoral Researcher (Oct 2016 – Dec 2018)
Undergrad/post-grad subjects in IS and SE
(March 2015 – present)
Mahdi
PhD
Business School
(September 2013- July 2017)
ranked 4th in Australia, 45th in the world, 2018 QS World University Rankings
(School of Systems,
Management and Leadership)
teaches
was-a
at
is-a
ABCD technologies (Artificial intelligence, Blockchain, Cloud computing, and big Data)
Data Management and Security
Software
Development Methodologies
Backend Web
Programming
Lecturer @
(2019-2021)
Professional Practice
and Research Project
System Analysis
and Design
Post-doc (2012 – present)
- 6 ERA-Core lead-author A*
Being a role model for IS
community,
improving people’s lives
with IT
Industry (software developer)
(2002-2012, e.g., publishing, insurance,
defense, accounting sectors)
Design science
researcher
nominated for 2020 OCTAL
Award at
Early career researcher
is-a
served as a
Guest Editor-Elsevier Journal IST
-Guest Editor-Elsevier Journal of Pervasive and Mobile
Computing
-Reviewer (ACM Computing Surveys)
-Track chair (e.g., EEMMSAD Conference 2021)
-Program committee
Senior Lecturer @
(2021- ?)

3. Day 1: Research seminar
3

4. My research profile
My research vision
 To provide better life for people via the information technology, in particular software systems.
 I believe that a great research should not only focus publishing on conferences and journals, but also it should go beyond
a lab wall and have real world impact.
My research mission
I undertake research in 2 x main streams:
 To helps IT-based organisations in the effective analysis, design, and adoption of new technologies which ultimately
create value as well as improve the quality of citizens’ life.
 Designing new development methods or strategies to help IT-based organisations in their digital transformation
endeavours.
 To help business enterprises in the analysis of requirements, design, and implementation of systems relying on
ABCD technologies (i.e., modern Internet-based computing technologies of Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain
smart contracts, Cloud computing, and big Data).
 Research outputs  information system development methods, decision making frameworks, conceptual
models
 My second area of research focuses on investigating research techniques used by researchers, particularly in design
science research in Information Systems discipline.
My research application in industry
My research mindset comes from my 8 x years of software industry experience, as an Analyst Programmer 4

5. Research profile
My research approach
In addition to my interest in quantitative and quantitative research approaches, I am actively using Design Science Research
(DSR) approach in IS field. To this end, I embrace the value of methodological pluralism and subscribe to applying mixed-
methods research including quantitative (e.g., surveys, statistical analysis), qualitative techniques (e.g., interpretive case study,
interview, and domain expert review), and software tool implementation. Some examples of my DSR work have appeared at
Mainstream Information Systems (IS), 60%
• EJIS (European Journal of Information Systems), senior AIS
• Decision Support System (DSS), senior AIS
• European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS)
• Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS)
• Australian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS)
Software Engineering, 30%
• IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE)
• Information and Software Technology (IST)
• Journal of Software Systems (JSS)
• Empirical Software Engineering
Broder, i.e., Computer Science, %10
• ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR),
• also serving as the associate editor
• Information Sciences
• IEEE Transactions on Service Computing (TSC) 5

6. Information systems development
for implementing blockchain based systems
6

7. Blockchain technology
Blockchain based (software) information systems uses
concepts and technologies popularized by cryptocurrencies
such as Bitcoin—highly decentralized, open transaction
ledgers with immutable content.
Increasing adoption of blockchain technology in different
domains such as finance, supply chain management,
healthcare, and voting systems to enhance transparency,
security, and trust in digital transactions and data management.
(some) IT-based organizations have found compelling
blockchain use cases, some other still figuring out..
7

8. Blockchain technology
Technical application: Digital transformation to
ABCD technologies (i.e., modern Internet-based
computing technologies of Artificial Intelligence,
Blockchain smart contracts, Cloud computing, and
big Data).
Blockchain can address challenges in adoption of
AI, Cloud computing, and big Data technologies in
IT-based organisations (and vice versa)
8
Cloud computing
Blockchain

9. Blockchain technology (continue)
Advantages of blockchain for information systems
Decentralization: Blockchain operates on a decentralized network - distributed ledger technology
(DLT)- eliminating the need for a central authority and allowing peer-to-peer transactions,
reducing the risk of single points of failure
Immutability: Once information is recorded on the blockchain, it cannot be altered or deleted,
ensuring data integrity and providing a reliable audit trail for all transactions
Enhanced security: Cryptographic techniques and consensus algorithms in blockchain provide
robust security, protecting data from unauthorized access and tampering, making it highly secure
for sensitive information
Transparency and traceability: Blockchain offers transparency by allowing all participants in
the network to view the transactions. This transparency, combined with the immutability of
records, enhances traceability, enabling a clear and accountable history of all transactions
And more ?
9

10. Key building elements/components of blockchain
• In a simple view, blockchain is an accounting book or digital
distributed database. It has a chain of blocks (i.e., records) that are
sequentially linked together.
• A block contains transactional data, a time stamp, and a hash value
of its previous block.
• The data records in a block are non-reversible, transparent, and
immutable.
• Each block depends on its predecessor block and is secured via
cryptography techniques.
• A block is created by a node (a computer in the distributed ledger
network).
• The chain of blocks is stored on a distributed network of nodes
where each node contains a copy of the entire blockchain
• The chain is visible and verifiable by all nodes in the network
• Once a block with its own timestamp is appended to the chain, the
creator node broadcasts that block to all the other nodes in the peer-
to-peer distributed network.
• Some nodes are validators, responsible for validating a newly added
block to the chain.
10
Components of blockchain technology

11. Key building blocks of blockchain
A key element of blockchain technology is the ability to create smart
contracts (e.g., e.g., Solidity on Ethereum platform)
• translating the clauses of a business contract into code and
embedding them into software or hardware to make them automated
and self-execute
• an automatable and enforceable agreement. Automatable by
computer, although some parts may require human input and control.
Enforceable either by legal enforcement of rights and obligations or
via tamper-proof execution of computer code (Clack et al. 2016)
• Reserve the necessary logic for the creation and validation of
transactions and enable users to read, update, and delete the
data that is stored in blockchain platforms
• Reducing the cost of contracting between transacting parties
and avoiding malicious actions during contract execution
11
Components of Blockchain technology (continue)

12. 12
Blockchain technology components (continue)
Smart contracts

13. 13
Blockchain technology components (continue)

14. 14
Blockchain technology components (continue)

15. 15
Components of blockchain technology (continue)

16. 16
Smart contracts: transforming business workflows to smart contracts
Components of blockchain technology (continue)

17. 17
Blockchain technology components (continue)

18. 18
(platforms) technologies to develop blockchain based systems
Example technologies to develop blockchain based systems
Technology Type Aim
On-chain
components
implementation
BigChainDB Blockchain platform A big data distributed platform with a support of blockchain characteristics
Californium CoAP Development framework Securing data transfer between IoT device data and blockchain platforms
Chain Core Blockchain platform Issuing and transferring financial assets on a permissioned blockchain infrastructure.
Corda Open source distributed ledger Enabling the development of smart contracts with a support for pluggable consensus mechanisms and minimizing transaction cost
Credit Distributed ledger dev. framework Developing permission based smart contracts
Domus Tower Blockchain platform Implementing consortium blockchain with a focus on finance domain functionalities
Elements Open source blockchain platform Enhancing Bitcoin functionalities at the communication and protocol levels
Ethereum Blockchain platform Enhancing Bitcoin functionalities and implementing smart contracts.
Eris:db Distributed ledger Enhancing Bitcoin functionalities
HydraChain Blockchain platform An extension to Ethereum platform for creating permissioned, private, and consortium blockchain
Hyperledger Fabric Open source blockchain platform Providing support for smart contract implementation and test in different application domains
Hyperledger Iroha Distributed ledger Developing smart contracts for mobile-based applications
Hyperledger Sawtooth Lake Open source blockchain platform Providing support for smart contract development with specific support for decoupling transaction business logic from the consensus layer
JUICE Tool Enabling the implementation and monitoring of Solidity smart contracts running on Ethereum platform
Multichain Open source blockchain platform Supporting Bitcoin functionalities for multi-asset financial transactions
Stellar Distributed ledger Enabling distributed payments infrastructure with RESTful HTTP API servers
Symbiont Assembly Distributed ledger A distributed ledger based on Apache Kafka to develop smart contracts
Truffle Framework Compilation, test, integration, and deployment of smart contracts
Bitcoin Testnet Framework Testing smart contracts without changing real system data or transactions
Hyperledger Besu Open source development framework A Java-based Ethereum client to develop and deploy applications to run on the public Ethereum public network or private permissioned network
Mininet Tool An emulator to analyse transaction blockchain transaction delays
Off-chain
components
implementation
JSON RPC Protocol Remote procedure call used by Ethereum clients to interact with Ethereum nodes
Web3j Library A lightweight Java and Android library for working with smart contracts and integrating with Ethereum platform
CouchDB Database A document-based NoSQL database that uses JSON to store data, JavaScript as its query language, and commonly used with Hyperledger Fabric
Raspberry Pi Toolkit Collection of hardware and programming language to develop blockchain-based IoT systems
REST API API To query data and test HTTP requests as well as call blockchain platform APIs
Bluetooth, ZigBee Hardware Hardware Communication protocols
Apache Tomcat Platform Hosting and implementing back-end and front-end applications interaction with off-chain components

19. Key challenges in developing information systems leveraging blockchain
technologies
Business enterprises are interested in taking benefits of blockchain technologies to empower their systems
Blockchain based systems as a complex socio-technical IT artefact
As a DLT underpinned by fundamental assumptions such as decentralization, peer-to-peer (P2P) transmission, transparency with pseudonymity,
irreversibility of records, and computational logic.
These assumptions raise a set of important challenges when developing systems leveraging blockchain
 Security and privacy: visibility of blocks and smart contracts’codes to users (public blockchain), attacks to smart contracts
 Scalability and performance: increased number of transactions and participant nodes grows, blockchain system performance can be degraded
 Interoperability and standards: different protocols, consensus algorithms, and data formats
 Energy consumption: gas fee (or gas consumption) necessitates significant computational resources and energy consumption
 Maintenance: updating deployed smart contract code, such as incorporating new features, addressing flaws, or enhancing code efficiency of
smart contracts
 Regulatory and legal: evolving regulatory landscape can be a barrier to adoption, as blockchain systems often operate across borders and must
comply with various legal requirements
 Other challenges..?
19

20. Reports of blockchain adoption failures
Examples of blockchain adoption failures
• MtGox attack in 2014 led to a declared loss of $600 million
• Bitfinex attack in 2016 led to a loss of $65 million, and a DAO
(decentralized autonomous organization) attack in 2016 caused the
withdrawal of Ether digital currency funds worth $50–60 million
• Ethereum: the DAO hack and Parity Wallet hack caused a loss of USD
$150 M in total
• EOS and Axie Infinity [3], were stolen, respectively, USD $58,000 and
USD$600 million, using faked tokens
• What are reasons in blockchain adoption failures?
• These failures are commonly attributed to a lack of adoption of a
systematic development approach, a project management flaw that
is aptly phrased as un-ruled and hurried software development
• Examples: poor quality assurance, smart contract scope creep,
inconsistent development, lack of accountability,
20

21. Information systems development methods (ISD methods or ISDMs)
(a.k.a. software engineering methodologies)
 Analogy: to build or buy a property (e.g., house, unit apartment, etc), we
need to adopt a method to organise and anticipate requirements, steps,
and risks.
 To build information systems (or software systems), we need to adopt
systematic development methods
 Ad-hoc system development vs. systematic (yet tailorable) system
development
 Adopting a systematic methods for managing the complexity of
IoT platform development vs. ad-hoc use of implementation
techniques and technologies to build systems which are likely to
deliver a vulnerable and poor-quality platform
 Information system development methods (ISD or software
engineering methodologies): entire suite of system development
lifecycle activities, e.g., planning, analysis, design, building, testing, and
maintenance, undertaken by humans individually/collectively to create a
working information system
 As the core centrepiece of quality management initiatives to build
sustainable information systems in a cost-effective manner
 Examples: Agile methods, object-oriented methods, agent-oriented
methods, etc 21

22. ISD methods for developing systems leveraging blockchain technologies
 Why ISD methods?
 A long-standing acknowledgment that the adoption of ISD methods, amongst other factors, plays a crucial role in the successful
implementation and effective maintenance of systems coupled with emerging technologies
 Research and practice have largely benefited from ISD methods as the core centrepiece of quality management initiatives to build
sustainable information systems in a cost-effective manner
 A blockchain based system is, after all, essentially a type of information system development endeavour!
 Conventional ISD methods applicable to blockchain development?
 In contrast to the conventional system development which takes place predominantly within an individual system- the socio-technical
nature of blockchain based systems raises a range of new important complexities
 Blockchain-based systems often require decentralized, consensus-driven architectures and smart contracts, diverging from the
centralized nature of conventional ISD methods.
 Unique characteristics like cryptographic security and peer-to-peer networks
 Some complexities are rooted in the immaturity of current technologies BUT some are intrinsic to blockchain technology
 Development of blockchain based systems can be much more complicated than that typically deemed in the conventional system
development wisdom
22

23. Benefits of applying ISD methods to build blockchain based systems
 Structured and systematic
 providing guidelines, relevant tasks, modeling techniques, and best practices to manage complexity, minimize errors, and improve the overall
quality of the blockchain based system
 Requirements driven
 by capturing and prioritizing various stakeholders’ requirements and expectations (what smart contracts are feasible?), ensuring that the
developed blockchain based system meets their needs
 Risk mitigation
 inherent risks in blockchain based systems such as security vulnerabilities, data privacy concerns, interoperability challenges, and scalability
issues can be better handled by development methods throughout development lifecycle as they help identify potential risks, assess their
impact, and devise techniques to mitigate them
 Integration and interoperability
 blockchain based systems may involve various off-chain and on-chain components leveraging different (non) blockchain technologies. ISD
methods can help with the design and implementation necessary interfaces, protocols, and data exchange mechanisms for seamless
integration among different blockchain based systems
 Quality assurance
 organizations can enhance the quality of their blockchain based systems, e.g., reliability, performance, and security
23

24. Constituents of ISD methods
24
Development
process
Roles Models
What activities/tasks
incorporated into blockchain
sys development
process?
What
roles, e.g., developers,
stakeholders, might
be involved in blockchain
based sys. development?
What
models, e.g., diagrams,
notations, might be
produced during blockchain
based sys. Development?
What tools, technologies,
techniques, heuristics,
guidelines, principles are
provided to operationalise and
support the development
process, roles, models,?
Adapted from S. Matook, G. Lee, and B. Fitzgerald, "MISQ Research Curation on
Information Systems Development," MIS Quarterly Research Curation, 2021.
 An ISD method, regardless of its application domain, can be
characterised in three core aspects

25. Research approach
 Research objective:
Design and validate an integrated ISD method providing a cohesive understating of blockchain system
development
 Design science research approach (Gregor and Hevner’s approach)
 An IT-artifact creation endeavour, here in ISD method for blockchain sys. development
 Quality criteria/design principles for a blockchain specific ISD method
Quality criteria revisited for the context of this research and fed into the framework design iterations
Criterion Definition
Comprehensiveness The ISDM method has sufficient coverage of critical method fragments related to process, modeling, and roles for
incorporation into the development lifecycle of blockchain systems
Generality The ISD method is abstract and independent of specific blockchain platforms, protocols, standards, implementations, and
other concrete technical centric details
Soundness The ISD method is meaningful and has a semantic link to the real world blockchain development

26. Research approach (continue)
 Design iterations
3 x consecutive iterations
1st iteration: conceptualization/deduction
2nd and 3rd iterations: empiricism/induction
Each iteration led to the cumulatively built the proposed method artifact in line with the quality criteria
Design iterations for ISD method artifact
Iteration Primary purpose
Targeting quality
criteria
Data source Technique Transitive artifact
1st
Crafting an initial
method
All, except for
soundness
Blockchain
literature
Systematic
literature review (64
studies) and thematic
analysis
Preliminary method composing of 45
method fragments as for 23 tasks, 7 roles,
and 6 modeling
2nd
Validating,
refining, and
extending
method
All
Domain experts’
review
12 x qualitative
interviews
Updated method with 3 new method
fragments under development process and
role aspects, changing the structure of the
method
3rd
Validating,
refining, and
extending
method
All
Real world
blockchain system
implementation
scenarios
2 x case studies
Updated method with 3 new method
fragments under the development process
and modeling aspects

27. Research approach (continue)
 Design iterations
• 1st iteration: conceptualization/deduction
• the guidelines in the systematic literature review (SLR) were taken into account as a point of departure to collate a set of commonly
occurring method fragments from the literature
Excerpt of coding the research data into relevant method fragments
Study & venue , exclusively AIS venues Research data Aspect(s) Candidate method fragment
Wang, Lu, et al. Value creation in
blockchain-driven supply chain finance,
Information & Management (I&M)
“our findings indicate three distinct roles during the blockchain-enabled value creation processes: core
company, supplier, financial institution..”, p.5
Role Blockchain user
“standardized norms and protocols are required to be applied to transactions to increase the efficiency of
B2B interactions”, p.7
Development process
(design phase)
Consensus protocol design
“transactions in a multitier SCF scenario require higher settlement speed and adequate security
guarantees”, p.8
Development process
(design phase)
Security design
Du, Derek, et al. Affordances,
experimentation and actualization of
FinTech: A blockchain implementation
study, The Journal of Strategic
Information Systems (JSIS)
“not all use cases were feasible. For example, AirSouth’s headquarters intended to integrate the loyalty
programs of subsidiaries, such as airlines, hotels and tourism, but subsidiaries did not want to give up their
customer information”, p.11
Development process
(analyze phase)
Feasibility assessment
“The development team developed a use case, whereby small suppliers could use blockchain records to
prove their solvency and secure loans from financial institutions”, p.7
Development process
(analyze phase)
Requirements analysis
Vaia, Giovanni, et al. Digital governance
mechanisms and principles
that enable agile responses in dynamic
competitive environments, European
Journal of Information Systems (EJIS)
“The suppliers had the responsibility to define the specific architecture and manage all of the
implementation activities at the periphery”, p.9
Model Architecture models
“Spunta proof-of-concept project was powered by close collaboration and coinnovation between all
participants, with each playing a key role”, p. 9
Development process
(analyze phase)
Actor identification
“Spunta participants reached consensus on “Corda” as the blockchain platform to underpin the project.
The collaborative solution resolved mismatches through performing checks and exchanges directly within
banking applications”, p.9
Development process
(design phase)
Consensus protocol design
Zhang, Wenping, et al. Beyond the block:
A novel blockchain technical model for
long-term care insurance, Journal of
Management Information Systems
(JMIS)
“we only include four prominent stakeholders in LTCI: a person applying for LTCI (denoted as applicant), a
nursing home (denoted as NHO), an LTCI distributing insurance company (denoted as DIO), and an LTCI
leading insurance company (denoted as LIO)”, p.15
Role Blockchain user
Proposed InsurModel blockchain model (figure 1 on p.10) Model Architecture models

28. Research approach (continue)
 Design iterations
 2nd iteration: domain expert
review
• Purpose: conducting a domain
expert review to get affirmative
or dissenting qualitative
feedback about how well the
framework is perceived
regarding the quality criteria
Profile of domain experts recruited for the framework review
Id Number
of review
sessions
Role of
expert
Adopted
ISDM
Application
domain
Experience Blockchain type Country
E1 2 Blockchain
Developer
Scrum Blockchain 1 yrs Permissioned public Australia
E2 3 Blockchain
Developer
Scrum Blockchain 1.6 yrs Permissioned public Switzerland
E3 4 Blockchain
consultant
Scrum Supply chain 6 yrs Permissioned
private
Australia
E4 1 Blockchain
Developer
Scrum/
Kanban
Digital
governance
5 yrs Permissioned
private
Germany
E5 1 Blockchain
Developer
In-house Finance 4 yrs Permissioned
private
Australia
E6 1 Project leader In-house Supply chain 1 yrs Public Pakistan
E8 1 Technical
advisor
Lean Energy 5 yrs Permissioned
private
United State
E9 1 System
architect
XP Game 2 yrs Permissioned public Germany
E10 2 Blockchain
Developer
Scrum IT 1 yrs Permissioned
private
Canada
E11 2 Researcher Lean Education 3 yrs Permissioned
private
Australia
E12 1 Project leader In-house Finance 5 yrs Permissioned
private
Australia
E13 2 Project leader In-house IT 6 yrs Permissioned public
& private
Australia

29. Research approach (continue)
 Design iterations
 3rd iteration: qualitative case
studies
• Purpose: to demonstrate the
framework's efficacy in
characterizing real-world
scenarios of blockchain system
development
The demographic of case studies
Case 1: Food trust Case 2: Token Exchanger
Domain Supply chain Finance
Business
problem and
implemented
blockchain
system
In the occurrence of a food-borne disease
outbreak, it can take days to find its
reason. If investigators cannot point to
farms, the government advises
consumers to avoid products grown in
certain areas. A blockchain food
traceability system could help save lives
by allowing companies to act faster and
protect the livelihoods of farmers by only
discarding products from the affected
farms. The system enabled tracking of
mangos sold in Walmart’s US stores and
pork sold in its China stores. For pork in
China, it allowed uploading certificates
of authenticity to the blockchain,
bringing more trust and for mangoes in
the US, the time needed to track the
provenance of over 25 products from 5
different suppliers from days to seconds.
Users are often concerned by the
complexity of transferring tokens over
multiple blockchain platforms, for
example, purchasing a non-fungible token
(NFT) to other users or blockchain systems
in multi chain environments. The project
aimed at providing a multiple blockchain
ecosystem called Squid, i.e., a third party
for interoperable business to business
integration, e.g., users and systems, that
simplifies token exchange (or cross-chain
logic) in multiple/cross-chain blockchain
environments. The Squid allows to
exchange of tokens between platforms.
Users can integrate their systems via either
Squid’s APIs and smart contracts or by
using Squid’s front-end application.
Type Permissioned private Permissioned public
Project duration On going 18 months
Base ISDM Agile Scrum Agile Scrum
Team size 6-30 10
Development
team
composition
Project leaders, architects, promontory,
blockchain advisors, blockchain
developers, project manager
Community manager, architect, blockchain
core developer, backend developer, user
experience, frontend engineer, data
designer, DevOps lead, business
development
Team location Australia (co-located) Switzerland (distributed)

30. Generic method for development of blockchain based systems
Analysis
- Assess readiness
Preliminary design
- Identify participants
- Approve agreement
- Decide on/off blockchain
- Select platform
- Define smart contract skeleton
- Define incentive protocols
- Resolve dispution
- Define smart contract changes
Detailed design
- Create consensus protocols
- Define interactions
- Optimize gas consumption
- Design permissions
- Design security
- Design replications
- Configure system
- Publish smart contracts
Maintenance
- Integrator
- Auditor
- Blockchain user
- Legal professional
Smart contract
developer
- Decide on blockchain type
- Analyze technology - Test smart contracts
- Implement smart contracts
- Integrate with off blockchain
Construction Transition
- Develop use cases
Retirement
Architect
Models
Generated output Phase Role
Sequences
- Security
- Core blockchain developer
- Smart contract developer
Legend
-Use case
-Prototype
-Requirements
-Smart contracts
-Base architecture
-Forking
-Data flow
-Interactions
-Consensus
-Transactions
-Executable smart
contracts
Role
Development
process
Modeling
-Miner
-Node operator
-Monitor nodes
-Evaluate contract
correctness
-Terminate

31. Generic method for development of blockchain based systems (continue)
 Situational factors relevant to assess readiness task
Sample list of situational factors for consideration in feasibility analysis task (called later readiness assessment)
Category Situational factor Possible values for the factor
Organization
Management commitment Low, medium, high
Organizational restructuring Hierarchical, functional, horizontal, divisional, matrix, team-based, network
Business change Rarely, occasionally, frequent, always
Energy and gas consumption cost Low, medium, high
Software team Development skills in cryptography, law/legislation Low, medium, high
Technical
Immutability of data Stable, volatile
Data format Homogeneous, mixture, substance
Visibility/transparency Public, private, protected, package private
Transaction fee Free, low cost, variable, expensive
Data provenance Source, temporal, meta-data result
Transactionality Low, medium, high
transaction performance Critical, fairly important, low, moderate
Roll-back performance Critical, fairly important, low, moderate
Demanding infrastructure None, emergent, operating, matured
Vendor lock-in Impossible, unlikely, even chance, certain
Hosting modes Cloud, dedicated servers, virtual private,
Smart contract tool availability Yes, no

32. Generic method for development of blockchain based systems (continue)
 Example tasks related to
preliminary design and
construction phases
 Define smart contract
skeleton and implement
smart contracts

33. Generic method for development of blockchain based systems (continue)
 Example roles

34. Generic method for development of blockchain based systems (continue)
 Example modellings

35. Research contributions
 Theoretical contributions
• The proposed method unfolds the implementation of blockchain systems in a core set of method
fragments associated with three key aspects of the development process, roles, and modeling
• The proposed method a solution to the knowledge integration problem but in the context of blockchain,
i.e., meta-method
• The proposed method is the first response in that order, but in the context of blockchain, to support and
guide researchers (especially novices) in the design and evaluation of ISDMs
 Practical contributions
• The proposed method unites the current-minded knowledge that can provide guidance to organizations
interested in defining new ISDMs for blockchain development
• The proposed method serves as an evaluation framework

36. Implications for research and practice
 Tailoring methods specific to blockchain development scenario. Recognizing the need for customized
development methods based on blockchain project is acknowledged. The persistent notion of a "silver bullet"
or a one-size-fits-all solution remains impractical in developing blockchain-based systems. Organisations and
software teams may employ in-house development approaches, yet these may be limited, concentrating on
specific blockchain development tasks while overlooking others.
 Situational method engineering (SME). Tailoring/creating project-specific development methods via
selecting appropriate method fragments from a method base and assembling them to construct a highly
customized method for a given project.
 Identifying value-driven smart contracts. What requirements are valuable and they instigate a variety of
stakeholders with diverging goals and commitment levels if they are addressed by BBS, for example, smart
contracts?
 Value driven blockchain smart contracts, i.e., requirements (engineering) analysis for blockchain smart
contract development
 Integrating and migrating legacy systems to blockchain platforms. Legacy software systems operating and
storing critical organizational data may predate blockchain technology. How and what new practices a
software team should incorporate into the development process to make legacy systems blockchain-enabled.
 Using generative AI as a facilitator for transforming legacy codes to smart contracts

37. Selected references
 C. D. Clack, V. A. Bakshi, and L. Braine. 2016. Smart contract templates: Foundations, design landscape and research directions. Retrieved from
https://arxiv.org/abs/1608.00771.
 S. Porru, A. Pinna, M. Marchesi, and R. Tonelli. 2017. Blockchain-oriented software engineering: challenges and new directions. In Proceedings of the
IEEE/ACM 39th International Conference on Software Engineering Companion (ICSEC’17). IEEE, 169–171.
 M. Fahmideh, J. Grundy, A. Ahmad, J. Shen, J. Yan, D. Mougouei, P. Wang et al. Engineering Blockchain-based Software Systems: Foundations, Survey, and
Future Directions, ACM Computing Surveys 55, no. 6 (2022): 1-44.
 M. Fahmideh, B. Abedin, J. Shen, Toward an integrated framework of developing blockchain systems, Decision Support Systems (DSS) journal (to appear)

38. 38
Mahdi Fahmideh, PhD in Information Systems
University of Southern Queensland, Australia,
E: Mahdi.Fahmideh@usq.edu.au , M: +61406052400

39. Day 2: Teaching in Information Systems
(IS) in the era of modern computing
technologies – an informal talk
39

40. Navigating emerging technologies through understanding fundamentals
40
Motivating and challenging students to become lifelong
learners, critical-thinker, and sceptical who positively contribute
to people’s lives, communities, and workplace
Webster’s theory, highlights the importance of understanding
the fundamental principles that underpin advancements in
information technologies field and how this knowledge enables
students to navigate and adapt to emerging technologies

41. 41
My philosophy: although information technologies are continuously
evolving, the underlying technical foundation remains relatively constant. If
students are provided with a deep understanding of key foundations of
information technologies operating on the binary logic of 0 & 1 digits, they
can effectively comprehend and apply key foundations to emerging
technologies
I often employ the analogy that knowledge of the English alphabets is akin to
understanding the fundamental concepts of information technologies (IT). As
students can construct words, sentences, and a book with letters, the students
who equipped with a solid foundation of information technologies can
navigate new technologies with ease
I strive to instil in my students the ability to connect the dots between
different fundamental concepts, enabling them to effectively analyse and
apply their knowledge to real-world scenarios A donkey remains true to its nature, yet its countenance may vary
Navigating emerging technologies through understanding fundamentals (continue)
except for quantum computing IS !

42. 42
A donkey remains true to its nature, yet its countenance may vary
Navigating emerging technologies through understanding fundamentals (continue)
An example

43. Navigating emerging technologies through understanding fundamentals (continue)
43
Laplace's demon: in philosophy, Laplace is often associated
with the idea of determinism, particularly due to his concept of a
hypothetical intelligence that, if it knew the precise positions
and velocities of all particles in the universe, could predict the
future and retrodict the past with certainty
Philosophy of determinism: the world has a set of repetitive
actions or events that can be discovered and represented as rules
suggesting a deterministic worldview
except for quantum computing IS !

44. CIS8708-Digital Forensics
Example!
Navigating emerging technologies through understanding fundamentals (continue)

45. CIS8708-Digital Forensics
Master of Cyber Security Program (UniSQ, Business School, Information Systems Discipline)
- CIS2104-Human Factors in Cyber Security
- CIS5205-Management of Information Security
- CIS5206-Data Mining for Business Analytics and Cyber Security
- CIS6709-Cyber Governance and Leadership
- CIS8504-Blockchain Fundamentals
- CIS8707-Cyber Incident Management and Response
- CIS8712-Information Assurance and Risk Management
- CIS8720-Cyber Security Project
- CIS8708-Digital Forensics
Navigating emerging technologies through understanding fundamentals (continue)

46. CIS8708-Digital Forensics
U.S. courts accept digital evidence as physical evidence
Digital data is a tangible object
Concept 1: Digital evidence
Can be any information stored or transmitted in digital form
CIS8708-Digital Forensics. This course teaches students the knowledge and skills
required to conduct digital forensic investigations. It includes cybercrime motivations,
investigation processes, common tools and techniques and digital evidence acquisition
and control. Cyber security risk is one of the high-profile business risks, and the ability
to respond to cyber security breaches and cyber-crime relies on the ability to conduct
detailed and often complex post incident investigation.
Concept 2: Investigation process
Concept 3: scope creep
Navigating emerging technologies through understanding fundamentals (continue)
Concept N: …

47. 47
Navigating emerging technologies through understanding fundamentals (continue)
Example: applying the CIS8708-Digital Forensics concepts in the
context of Generative AI as an emerging technology and AI human
ethics principles
Exam design: narrative-based technique
ABCD technologies (i.e., modern Internet-based computing technologies
of Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain smart contracts, Cloud computing,
and big Data)
 to help students become job-ready graduate
 to enhance the employability prospects of students, equipping them
with the cutting-edge skills and knowledge
CIS8708-Digital Forensics

48. 48
Navigating emerging technologies through understanding fundamentals (continue)
Conventional forensics lab
CIS8708-Digital Forensics
Cloud enabled forensic lab
ABCD technologies (i.e., modern Internet-based computing technologies
of Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain smart contracts, Cloud computing,
and big Data)
 to help students become job-ready graduate
 to enhance the employability prospects of students, equipping them
with the cutting-edge skills and knowledge

49. Steps in conventional digital forensics investigation process for crims
Navigating emerging technologies through understanding fundamentals (continue)
• Make an initial assessment about the type of case you are
investigating
• Determine a preliminary design or approach to the case
• Create a detailed checklist
• Determine the resources you need
• Obtain and copy an evidence drive
• Identify the risks
• Mitigate or minimize the risks
• Test the design
• Analyze and recover the digital evidence
• Investigate the data you recover
• Complete the case report
• Critique the case

50. 1. Evidence Identification: The first step is to identify and collect potential digital evidence from various sources, such as
computers, mobile devices, servers, or cloud storage. With the adoption of blockchain technology, evidence related to
blockchain transactions, smart contracts, or other blockchain-based activities can also be considered as potential digital
evidence, e.g., blockchain addresses, transaction IDs, smart contract code, or other relevant metadata associated with
blockchain transactions or smart contracts.
2. Evidence Collection: Once potential blockchain-related evidence is identified, the next step is to collect the evidence using
forensically sound techniques, e.g., forensic image of relevant digital devices or collecting metadata from blockchain
transactions or smart contracts using appropriate tools and methodologies. Chain of custody and preservation of the original
evidence are crucial considerations in this process to ensure that the evidence remains admissible in court.
3. Evidence Analysis: After the evidence is collected, forensic analysis can be performed to extract relevant information from
the blockchain transactions or smart contracts, e.g., forensic tools and techniques to trace and analyse transactions, interpret
smart contract code, and understand the interactions between different blockchain entities. The transparency, traceability, and
immutability features of blockchain technology can provide valuable insights into the digital evidence and help in reconstructing
the sequence of events or identifying patterns of activity.
4. Data Correlation: Data from blockchain transactions or smart contracts can be correlated with other digital evidence, such
as log files, emails, or user accounts, to establish relationships, timelines, or dependencies. This can help in identifying relevant
actors, transactions, or activities that may be associated with the investigation.
5. Verification and Authentication: Cryptographic techniques, for example, can be used to verify the integrity of blockchain
transactions or smart contracts, ensuring that the data has not been tampered with. Digital signatures or hash values associated
with blockchain transactions or smart contracts can be used to authenticate the origin and integrity of the evidence. These
verification and authentication mechanisms can enhance the evidentiary value of blockchain-related evidence in court.
6. Reporting and Presentation: Findings can be documented in a forensic report. The report can include details of the
evidence collected, the analysis performed, the conclusions drawn, and any relevant interpretations or opinions. The report can
be presented in court or to other stakeholders as part of the investigation process, supporting the investigation findings.
7. Expert Testimony: In some cases, a digital forensics investigator may be required to provide expert testimony in court
regarding the findings from the investigation, including the analysis of blockchain-related evidence. The investigator can explain
the technical details of blockchain technology, the analysis performed on the blockchain-related evidence, and the conclusions
drawn based on the findings.
Digital forensics investigation process for crims occurring in blockchain based systems
Navigating emerging technologies through understanding fundamentals (continue)

51. Navigating emerging technologies through understanding fundamentals (continue)
Potentials of blockchain smart contracts to enhance investigation processes