Managerial considerations in participative design of MIS/DSS

There is widespread support for the concept of participation in systems design and development, but inconsistent evidence as to its contribution to systems success. These results are entirely consistent with those of the behavioral sciences where participation has been studied under many different conditions. Managers of design processes need to adopt a more complex view of participation and evaluate its probable contributions and limitations in particular applications. Drawing upon research results from within and outside the field of information sciences, decision guidelines for managing the extent and character of participation have been proposed. These guidelines stress that consideration be given to various contextual aspects of the problem, technology, user(s), job tasks, and organizational design.