Search results

Existing literature acknowledges information systems development (ISD) to be a complex activity. This complexity is magnified by the continuous changes in user requirements due to changing organizational needs in changing external competitive environments. Research findings show that, if this increasing complexity is not managed appropriately, information systems fail. The paper thus aims to portray the sources of complexity related to ISD and to suggest the use of complexity theory as a frame of reference, analyzing its implications on information system design and development to deal with the emergent nature of IS.

Conceptual analysis and review of relevant literature.

This article provides a conceptual model explaining how top‐down “official” and bottom‐up “emergent” co‐evolutionary adaptations of information systems design with changing user requirements will result in more effective system design and operation. At the heart of this model are seven first principles of adaptive success drawn from foundational biological and social science theory: adaptive tension, requisite complexity, change rate, modular design, positive feedback, causal intricacy, and coordination rhythm. These principles, translated into the ISD context, outline how IS professionals can use them to better enable the co‐evolutionary adaptation of ISD projects to changing stakeholder interests and broader environmental changes.

This paper considers and recognizes the different sources of complexity related to ISD before suggesting how they could be better dealt with. It develops a framework for change to deal with the emergent nature of ISD and enable more expeditious co‐evolutionary adaptation.

Contemporary offshore information system development (ISD) outsourcing is becoming even more complex. Outsourcing partner has begun “re-outsourcing” components of their projects to other outsourcing companies to minimize cost and gain efficiencies. This paper aims to explore intra-organizational information asymmetry of re-outsourced offshore ISD outsourcing projects.

An online survey was conducted to get an overall view of information asymmetry between principal and agents (as per the agency theory).

Statistical analysis showed that there are significant differences between the principal and agent on clarity of requirements, common domain knowledge and communication effectiveness constructs, implying an unbalanced relationship between the parties. Moreover, the authors' results showed that these three are significant measurement constructs of information asymmetry.

In this study the authors have only considered three main factors as common domain knowledge, clarity of requirements and communication effectiveness as three measurement constructs of information asymmetry. Therefore, researches are encouraged to test the proposed constructs further to increase its precision.

The authors' analysis indicates significant differences in all three measurement constructs, implying the difficulties to ensure that the agent is performing according to the requirements of the principal. Using the agency theory as theoretical view, this study sheds light on the best contract governing methods which minimize information asymmetry between the multiple partners within ISD outsourcing organizations.

Currently, to the best of the authors' knowledge, no study has undertaken research on intra-organizational information asymmetry in re-outsourced offshore ISD outsourcing projects.

Existing studies of information systems development (ISD) control commonly examine controller-centric considerations, such as the antecedents and performance impacts of control mode choices. In contrast, little is known about the controllee-centric factors that may influence the effectiveness of control activities. Drawing on institutional theory, the purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of control legitimacy to the ISD literature – a concept that past organizational research has linked to outcomes such as employee commitment and performance. Specifically, the authors explore how different dimensions of control activities (mode, degree, style) relate to controllee perceptions of control legitimacy in terms of justice, autonomy, group identification, and competence development.

Interviews were conducted with 20 practitioners across three companies. A structured data coding approach was employed and analysis was conducted within and across each case study.

The authors find that the control degree and control style can help explain control legitimacy perceptions better than control modes alone. For example, the results suggest that formal controls enacted in a bilateral style correspond with higher perceptions of justice and autonomy, when compared to formal controls enacted in a unilateral style.

The study results imply that ISD managers should be increasingly mindful of enacting controls in a way that is perceived to be legitimate by subordinates, thereby potentially enhancing both staff well-being and ISD performance.

The purpose of this paper is to identify, classify and analyse temporality in information systems development (ISD) literature.

The authors address the temporality and ISD research gap by using a framework – which classifies time into three categories: conceptions of time, mapping activities to time and actors relating to time. The authors conduct a systematic literature review which investigates time in ISD within the Senior Scholars' Basket, Information Technology & People (IT&P), and top two information systems conferences over the past 20 years. The search strategy resulted in 9,850 studies of which 47 were identified as primary papers.

The results reveal that ISD research is ill equipped for contemporary thinking around time. This systematic literature review (SLR) contributes to ISD by finding the following gaps in the literature: (1) clock time is dominant and all other types of time are under-researched; (2) contributions to mapping activities to time is lacking and existing studies focus on single ISD projects rather multiple complex ISD projects; (3) research on actors relating to time is lacking; (4) existing ISD studies which contribute to temporal characteristics are fragmented and lack integration with other categories of time and (5) ISD methodology papers lack contributions to temporal characteristics and fail to acknowledge and contribute to time as a multifaceted interrelated concept.

This work has developed the first SLR on temporality in ISD. This study provides a starting point for ISD researchers and ISD practitioners to test commonly held temporal assumptions of ISD researchers and practitioners.

Defines legitimation. Proposes six social factors or forces for analysing the current bases for legitimation in information systems development. Argues that if the directions of these forces shift, it could signal a major social change. Asserts that consideration of the concepts related to the six factors can help information systems researchers to sense emergent issues.

The purpose of this study is to examine tacit knowledge sharing within information systems development (ISD) projects by exploring the combination of social interdependence theory and regulatory focus theory (RFT).

A survey was conducted on 198 ISD professionals to investigate the effect of social interdependence on tacit knowledge sharing. The survey data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), and the results were discussed.

This study reveals that team members tend to share tacit knowledge in a way characterized by cooperative interdependence, and different patterns of social interdependence have an impact on tacit knowledge sharing. The RFT explains the disparities in attitude toward tacit knowledge sharing. Specifically, individuals with a prevention-focused orientation positively moderate the impact of competitive interdependence on tacit knowledge sharing, while those with a promotion-focused orientation have a negative moderating effect on the effect of competitive interdependence on tacit knowledge sharing. Moreover, promotion-focused individuals negatively moderate the effect of cooperative interdependence on tacit knowledge sharing.

The study identifies important aspects of social interdependence in ISD projects that affect the management of tacit knowledge. Furthermore, the study shows that the influence of cooperative and competitive interdependence on tacit knowledge sharing is moderated by the regulatory focus of an individual, providing new insights into ISD knowledge management.

Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) has long been involved in information systems development through the medium of action research. Its social constructivist paradigm and managerial focus distinguish it from most software engineering development approaches. Checkland’s underlying view of systems development, however, is heavily influenced by traditional waterfall models – something of a contradiction. This paper uses recent developments in SSM to develop a more appropriate systems development concept: the interaction‐transformation‐interaction (ITI) model. The model views systems development primarily as a social and managerial task, rather than a technical one. It was successfully used (in conjunction with developed forms of SSM which incorporate analysis based on structuration theory) to structure the development of an intranet in a university department. The experience led to a further series of reflections on the model.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a co-design process that was initiated between government and the private sector in Botswana to redesign current ISD practice with particular focus on finding a solution for learning failure. Learning failure was analysed retrospectively using concepts of “task conscious” and “learning conscious” learning.

On the basis of a typical Botswana ISD project in which the lead researcher participated, inefficiencies and shortcomings in the standardised Botswana ISD process in terms of full utilisation of learning processes to support systems success were examined. Through the Developmental Work Research (DWR) methodology, which is based on Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) principles, IS practitioners from government and the private sector, together with users collaborated to redesign the current Botswana ISD work practice in order to address this shortcoming.

The result has been the incorporation of activity-based learning and reflection into a proposed improved ISD practice framework for Botswana.

Through collaborative redesign between government and industry, a new Botswana ISD practice model that incorporates activity-based learning and reflection has been designed, and findings from examination of the model suggest that it has potential to address current learning deficiencies and thus contribute to efforts of avoiding IS failures. There have also been contributions to DWR resulting from the way in which the methodology was applied.

This is the first known study that uses concepts of “task-conscious” and “learning-conscious” learning to analyse learning retrospectively and at the same time adopting the DWR methodology in the social context of a developing country such as Botswana.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the success rate of information system development by means of an empirical research with a focus on how various user factors. The authors examined user reactions, interactions and participation during the early, middle and late stages of an ISD project to analyze the effect of user involvement. Once the data were collected, they analyzed the effectiveness of each kind of user involvement by tying the user involvement to the final result of the corresponding project.

This empirical research is to study 35 information system development projects, whose sample size is determined to maintain statistical confidence as well as the intensity of each interview.

The authors have obtained some interesting findings as follows: user involvement itself does not improve the chance of success for an IS project; user expectations could profoundly impact the success rate of IS projects – clear user expectations in early stages significantly improve the chance of success and user expectations in late stages through user involvement do not obviously improve the chance of success; user attitude toward an IS project is much more important than user involvement; user attitude is largely influenced by effective communications from the management; corporate training and labor practices do not have significant impact on project success rate, nor does user competency; the success rate of IS projects is more relevant to decision-making approaches than to individual project management – a bottom-up approach, a transparent decision-making protocol, a positive attitude toward new ideas, a supportive corporate culture, etc.; and finally, the overall corporate culture is the single most important critical success factor for an ISD, including the overall performance of the company and the top-level management support.

Through an empirical study, this research has examined user factors of ISD in general and analyzed the efficacy of user involvement in different stages of ISD in particular. While other research results emphasize more on user involvement, the findings from this research reveal indicate that user involvement does not always effectively benefit ISD, but their involvement in the early stages of the ISD does. Furthermore, our findings indicate that effective user involvement can be achieved through psychological involvement via adequate communications rather than through participatory involvement.

The managerial implications entailed to this research should help refocus our attention on project management and could result in more effective improvement on the success rate of an ISD.

Through an empirical study, this research has examined user factors of ISD in general and analyzed the efficacy of user involvement in different stages of ISD in particular. While other research results emphasize more on user involvement, the findings from this research reveal indicate that user involvement does not always effectively benefit ISD, but their involvement in the early stages of the ISD does. Furthermore, our findings indicate that effective user involvement can be achieved through psychological involvement via adequate communications rather than through participatory involvement.

This paper seeks to examine how expectations from business analytics (BA) by members of agile information systems development (ISD) teams affect their perceptions and continuous use of BA in ISD projects.

Data was collected from 153 respondents working in agile ISD projects and analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling techniques (PLS-SEM).

Perceived usefulness and technological compatibility are the most salient factors that affect BA continuance intention in agile ISD projects. The proposed model explains 48.4% of the variance for BA continuance intention, 50.6% of the variance in satisfaction, 36.7% of the variance in perceived usefulness and 31.9% of the variance in technological compatibility.

First, this study advances understanding of the factors that affect the continuous use of BA in agile ISD projects; second, it contextualizes the expectation-confirmation model by integrating technological compatibility in the context of agile ISD projects.

This is the first study to investigate BA continuance intention from an employee perspective in the context of agile ISD projects.