Professor Sandra A. Slaughter joined Georgia Institute of Technology in 2007 and held the Alton M. Costley Chair and Professor of Information Technology Management (“ITM”) in the Scheller College of Business at the Georgia Tech. She also held a courtesy appointment as an Adjunct Professor in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech. She was co-Director of the new Master of Science Degree in Analytics as well as the Center for Business Analytics at Georgia Tech. She served as the Area Coordinator for the ITM area in the Scheller College from 2012-2014. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, she was a tenured Associate Professor in the David A. Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. Prior to her academic career, Sandy worked as a software project leader and systems analyst in companies including Hewlett Packard, Rockwell-International, and Square D Corporation.

Sandy was an outstanding scholar and leader in the Information Systems discipline. Below is an incomplete summary of her achievements.

Sandy’s publications have made a significant impact on theory, research, and practice.
Sandy’s research publications have made a significant impact on theory and practice, particularly in the field of software development performance. This is an important area to examine because software is critical to the functioning of almost every aspect of organizations. Managers envision business software systems developed with high quality, within budget, and without delays, but the reality is quite different. More than two-thirds of software projects substantially overrun their schedule estimates, and the average large software project exceeds its initial budget by 150%. In 2002, a study commissioned by the National Institute of Standards and Technology concluded that software errors are so prevalent and detrimental that they cost the U.S. economy an estimated $59 billion annually, or about 0.6 percent of the gross domestic product.

Sandy’s contributions to this field stem from her emphasis on developing strong theory, creating valid constructs, and using rigorous multi-method research designs that integrate qualitative and quantitative analyses. Her research exemplifies a careful balance of rigor and relevance. She uniquely contributed by collecting software performance data from organizations and conducting rigorous analysis on the data to test and develop theories of software development performance.

Specific indicators of the impact of Sandy’s research include:
- She published more than 100 articles in leading research journals, conference proceedings, and edited books.
- She wrote a book on the software industry entitled “A Profile of the Software Industry” in 2014, published by Business Expert Press.
- Her work has been cited 4,981 times (Harzing’s Publish or Perish) with H-Index=33 and G-Index=69.
- She received 9 best paper awards and 4 best paper finalist awards at major conferences and journals including the 2010 award for Best Published Paper in Information Systems Research. Her thesis on software development practices and software maintenance performance won first place in the doctoral dissertation competition held by the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) in 1995.
- She was recognized in 2012 as one of the world’s top 100 Innovation Management Scholars (Yang and Tao, 2012, Journal of Product Innovation Management). She was also named a Top 100 IS Researcher, based on publications in Information Systems Research and MIS Quarterly from 1990-2013.
- She was awarded the Georgia Power Professor of Excellence in 2013 at Georgia Tech and the Xerox Research Chair for excellence in research in 1999 at Carnegie Mellon University.
- She was a recognized authority in the field of software development economics and management, and she received invitations to present her work and findings at research institutions, public media, and organizations in United States, Europe, and Asia. She gave 60 invited seminars at universities in North America, Europe and Asia, most recently at Queens University, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Florida, University of Georgia, Michigan State University, Georgia State University, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and the University of Calgary, among others.
- Her paper “Evaluating the Cost of Software Quality”, published in the Communications of the ACM in 1998, presents a methodology for evaluating the cost benefits of software quality. It has been used by the British and Swedish quality-management certification program for software development (tickIT) and the British standards institution in developing standards and metrics for software quality assessment. This work is referenced in the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK), published by the IEEE Computer Society. At the time of her passing, she was a principal investigator of a major grant from the U.S. Navy that applies and extends her methodology to evaluate the cost benefits of open standards in the military avionics software industry.
- Her paper “Motivations, Participation, and Performance in Open Source Software Development”, published with Il-Horn Hann and Jeffrey Roberts in Management Science in 2006, was the first to evaluate the effects of the various motivations for contributing to open source software projects on participation and outcomes. It was the featured article in the Management Science July 2006 issue. It was a Top Ten Download List for SSRN’s Business School Research Papers and Top Ten Download List for SSRN’s Management Research Network. The paper has been cited over 500 times.
- Her research articles are used in seminars in graduate courses in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia at universities including Stanford University, Harvard University, Penn State University, University of Michigan, University of Maryland, University of Texas, University of Texas at Dallas, University of Southern California, University of Pennsylvania, University of Minnesota, University of Waterloo, University of Cologne, Nanyang Technological University, University of Vienna, IT University of Denmark, and University of Queensland, among others.
- Her research was supported by more than $2 million in grants from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Navy, the Alfred P. Sloan Software Industry Center, the Center for International Business Education and Research at Georgia Tech, the Carnegie Bosch Institute and the CyLab at Carnegie Mellon University, and the Quality Leadership Center at the University of Minnesota.

Sandy’s intellectual leadership in the discipline was reflected in numerous prestigious editorial appointments.
Sandy contributed extensively in multiple editorial roles. Her leadership in this area was truly distinguished, and her many credentials in this area include:
- She served as co-Editor for the Information Systems Department of Management Science (2007-2014).
- She served on the editorial board for Journal of Management Information Systems (2013-2014) and Academy of Management Discoveries (2013-2014).
- She served as a Senior Editor for Information Systems Research (2004-2007) and Production and Operations Management (2003-2005).
- She served as an Associate Editor for Management Science (Information Systems Department from 2002-2004 and Technological Innovation and Entrepreneurship Department from 2002-2008); Information Systems Research (2000-2003); Organization Science (2004-2008); MIS Quarterly (2000-2002); Journal of the Association for Information Systems (2002-2004), and Journal of Database Management (2000-2002).
- She co-edited a Special Issue for Information Systems Research in 2009 on Flexible and Distributed Software Development and a Special Issue for the Journal of Information Technology and Management on Managing Software Development.
- She served as a reviewer for 16 journals and on numerous proposal review panels at the National Science Foundation, several of which have focused on projects of critical importance to the IS discipline.

Sandy has also provided intellectual leadership via her involvement in the Association for Information Systems (AIS) and IS conferences.
- She was the Region 1 Representative (elected), AIS Council, 2012-2015.
- She served on the AMCIS Executive Committee and the Finance Committee for AIS.
- She served on the advisory board for the National Information Systems Job index Project sponsored by AIS and on the advisory boards for Information Systems Research and the Information Systems Society.
- She was Program co-Chair for the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) in 2009.
- She served as a Program co-Chair for the Workshop on Information Systems and Economics (WISE) in 1999.
- She served as a Track Chair for ICIS and on numerous ICIS and other conference program committees.
- She served as co-Chair of the Senior Scholar’s Consortium and Forum at ICIS in 2011 and 2010.

Sandy’s intellectual stewardship of the field was reflected in the mentoring of doctoral students and young researchers
Sandy devoted significant time and effort to nurturing the development of future IS academics and young researchers. Examples of her endeavors include the following:
- She was to serve as the Doctoral Consortium co-Chair for the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) in 2016.
- She was the Doctoral Consortium co-Chair for the Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) in 2014.
- She was a faculty member participant of the ICIS Doctoral Consortium in 2005, the AMCIS Doctoral Consortium in 2013, and the OCIS Division of the Academy of Management Doctoral Consortium in 2007.
- She created and was co-Chair of a new AIS Workshop for Mid-Career Mentoring held at ICIS in 2013, and is advisor for the Mid-Career Mentoring Consortium at ICIS in 2014 and 2015.
- She led a day-long “meet the editors” session on publishing in Management Science for junior faculty in France, in December 2013, and participated in editor’s panel sessions on how to publish in Management Science at the ISA, SIGMIS, WISE, and WITS conferences in 2013, 2013, 2012, and 2010, respectively.
- She contributed to the evaluation and promotion of IS scholars by serving as an external examiner for promotion and tenure cases for IS academics at universities including: Arizona State University, Boston College, Boston University, Carnegie Mellon University, Duquesne University, Emory University, Florida State University, George Mason University, Georgia State University, Harvard University, Indian School of Business, Insead, Nanyang Technological University, National University of Singapore, New York University, Ohio State University, Purdue University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Temple University, University of Alabama, University of Arkansas, University of California at Irvine, University of California at San Diego, University of Calgary, University of Cincinnati, University of Connecticut, University of Georgia, University of Hawaii, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Maryland at College Park, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas at Dallas, and University of Washington.

Sandy was sought after by Ph.D. students as an advisor. She served on a total of 35 Ph.D. thesis committees: as chair for 9 students and as committee member for 26 students. She also served as an external thesis examiner for 3 students. Her Ph.D. students (where she was chair or co-chair) included:
- Donald Harter, initial placement: University of Michigan
- Evelyn Barry, initial placement: Texas A&M University
- Wai Fong Boh, initial placement: Nanyang Technological University
- Seunghee Yu, initial placement: Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
- Jeffrey Roberts, initial placement: Duquesne University
- Nishtha Langer, initial placement: Indian School of Business
- Bryon Balint, initial placement: Belmont University
- Chih-hung Peng, initial placement: City University of Hong Kong
- Tianshi Wu, initial placement: Harbin Institute of Technology

In addition, she chaired 3 master’s and 7 undergraduate thesis committees. She advised numerous Ph.D., master’s and undergraduate students on independent study and summer research projects.

On November 9, 2014, Sandy was awarded the 2014 Information Systems Society (ISS) Distinguished Fellow at the INFORMS Conference on Information Systems and Technology for her contributions to the Information Systems discipline and particularly to INFORMS. ISS has created a new ISS Rising Star Award in honor of her. She will also receive the Distinguished Member Award from the Association for Information Systems (AIS) this December at the International Conference on Information Systems in New Zealand.

Per her wishes, there will be a Sandra Ann and Ronald Gray Slaughter Ph.D. Scholarship established in their names at the Scheller College of Business, Georgia Institute of Technology.

Between Dec 1989 and July 1991, Sandy and Ron traveled over 18,000 miles around the world on a tandem bicycle, setting the world record for tandem biking. The adventure is chronicled in a book written by Sandy, Ron, and Kathryn Adcox Robinson; see http://www.amazon.com/Tandem-Times-Bicycle-Journey-Odyssey/dp/0965023206.

Below is a book review, discovered and forwarded by Anjana Susarla.

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Archive-URL: http://search.bikelist.org/getmsg.asp?Filename=tandem.9603.0219.eml
From: SANTANAINC(AT)aol.com
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 1996 21:45:43 -0500
Subject: Nu Tandem Book An book review from Bill at Santana

Nu Tandem Book

An unsolicited book review from Bill at Santana:

A few years ago a young couple named Ron and Sandy Slaughter quit their jobs, sold their car and most everything else, strapped their remaining possessions to a brand new Santana tandem and departed Northern California for their first tandem tour. Their goal: to arrive in Wisconsin in time for a long-planned family reunion.

Like Jules Verne's fictional Phineas Fogg, Ron and Sandy circle the globe to arrive at their destination one day early. And while Phineas spent a mere 80
days, the novice tandem team of Ron and Sandy Slaughter spent 19 months.
Along the way they rode through a few dozen countries, explored five continents, strayed across the Arctic Circle, skirted the Twilight Zone and, because 18,077 miles was a new record for a tandem tour, cycled their way into the Guinness Book of World Records.

Now Kathryn Adcox Robinson has converted Sandy's journals into a book titled
TANDEM TIMES--A BICYCLE JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD. Soft cover, 360 pages with photographs, $24.95. Published in 1996 by IME, Bryan, TX. ISBN 0-9650232-0-6.

I have to start my review by saying this book will be dissatisfying to bike
equipment buffs. In 360 pages we don't learn a thing about Ron and Sandy's
cranks, rims or even their gear ratios. What's more; Ron and Sandy probably
don't know those things either. You see, this book is not about a pair of
cyclists who take an adventurous bicycle tour. It is instead about an
adventuresome couple who decides to experience the world by traveling across
it on a tandem.

The book will also be unhelpful to those planning a luxury cycling vacation.
When sunset didn't find our heroes camped beside the road (or under a
bridge), it was because they'd splurged and rented a cheap room in one of the
world's worst hotels. Because the total cost of their trip and equipment came
from their own savings, affordability was the prime ingredient of their diet
too. Some of Ron and Sandy's favorite meals were mysterious morsels purchased from third-world street vendors.

As opposed to some sort of travel guide, TANDEM TIMES is a true and
unvarnished adventure diary of a young couple using a tandem to discover the
world. Through their eyes we experience a beautiful yet frightening journey
spanning deep jungles, vast deserts and high mountains. Along the way they
encounter gun-toting shadows in Central America, bandits in South America,
cursing adults and rock throwing children in India, murderous drivers in
Thailand, rednecks in Idaho and thoughtless bureaucrats everywhere. Though
most people they met were either hostile or indifferent, a few notable
exceptions serve to restore our faith in mankind.

While I am sure it's difficult to rewrite journal entries into a flowing story, this book is too often a mere blow-by-blow description of places and events. I kept searching for a deeper understanding of Ron and Sandy's motivations, emotions and growth. And yet, probably because this book describes an arduous journey without revealing much about the participants or their innermost thoughts, I constantly found myself wondering how my wife and
I would have endured the challenges they faced. At its core TANDEM TIMES is a plainly told survival story about a mysterious couple's epic tandem
journey--I found it to be a curiously intriguing piece of non-fiction.

TANDEM TIMES is available through Santana, selected tandem specialty shops
and independent book sellers.