Information systems development as emergent socio-technical change: a practice approach

Many information systems development (ISD) initiatives fail to deliver the expected benefits. An important percentage of these are the result of social and organizational factors, not simply technical failures. This paper explores the dynamics of these social and organizational factors to better understand the causes of success and failure. Based on data from a detailed case analysis of an ISD project, the paper depicts the ISD process as an emergent and dynamic one, characterized by continuous local adaptations. The paper ends with a proposal of a feedback-rich framework, based on a practice view of socio-technical change that offers theoretical insights and practical heuristics to system developers and project managers.     

Social interactions of information systems development teams: a performance perspective

We report results from a longitudinal study of information systems development (ISD) teams. We use data drawn from 60 ISD teams at 22 sites of 15 Fortune 500 organizations to explore variations in performance relative to these teams' social interactions. To do this, we characterize ISD as a form of new product development and focus on team-level social interactions with external stakeholders. Drawing on cluster analysis, we identify five patterns of team-level social interactions and the relationships of these patterns to a suite of objective and subjective measures of ISD performance. Analysis leads us to report three findings. First, data indicate that no one of the five identified patterns maximizes all performance measures. Second, data make clear that the most common approach to ISD is the least effective relative to our suite of performance measures. Third, data from this study show that early indications of ISD project success do not predict actual outcomes. These findings suggest two issues for research and practice. First, these findings indicate that varying patterns of social interactions lead to differences in ISD team performance. Second, the findings illustrate that singular measures of ISD performance are an oversimplification and that multiple measures of ISD performance are unlikely to agree.     

Sensei: Enforcing secure coding guidelines in the integrated development environment

We discuss the potential benefits, requirements, and implementation challenges of a security-by-design approach in which an integrated development environment plugin assists software developers to write code that complies with secure coding guidelines. We discuss how such a plugin can enable a company's policy-setting security experts and developers to pass their knowledge on to each other more efficiently, and to let developers more effectively put that knowledge into practice. This is achieved by letting the team members develop customized rule sets that formalize coding guidelines and by letting the plugin check the compliance of code being written to those rule sets in real time, similar to an as-you-type spell checker. Upon detected violations, the plugin suggests options to quickly fix them and offers additional information for the developer. We share our experience with proof-of-concept designs and implementations rolled out in multiple companies, and present some future research and development directions.     

Reading the organization: metaphors and information management

Abstract. The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of selected metaphors as a way of reading organizations, and to relate this to elements of the practice of information management A brief outline of the philosophical basis of the metaphorical approach is given. This is followed by a detailed discussion of the metaphors of organizations as cultures and political systems. These metaphors are then related to a specific issue in information management, namely the development and implementation of information systems strategy. Finally, some conclusions are drawn on the value of a metaphorical approach for information management.     

Assessing the relative contribution of the facets of agility to distributed systems development success: an Analytic Hierarchy Process approach

Recent studies have sought to identify different types/facets of agility that can potentially contribute to distributed Information Systems Development (ISD) project success. However, prior research has not attempted to assess the relative importance of the various types of agility with respect to different ISD success measures. We believe that such an assessment is critical, since this information can enable organizations to direct scarce organizational resources to the types of agility that are most relevant. To this end, we use the Analytic Hierarchy Process to unearth, from the perspectives of two stakeholder groups of distributed software development projects, managers, and technical staff members, as to which agility facets facilitate (and to what degree) on-time completion of projects and effective collaboration in distributed ISD teams. Furthermore, noting that there is a need for an overall set of prioritized agility facets (by integrating managerial and technically oriented perspectives), we present three ways to aggregate the preferences of the two groups.     

Why situational method engineering is useful to information systems development

Effective methods and methodologies for building information systems (IS) remain crucial to building successful IS. This paper investigates the use of situational method engineering for IS development (ISD) projects in a professional bureaucracy. This specialist organization methodology (SOM) is built starting with the philosophy of ISD moving through to flexible, amethodical implementation methods, a proposed instance of situational method engineering that is targeted towards professional bureaucracies. An in‐depth philosophical discussion of the ontological, epistemological, research methodological and ethical underpinnings of SOM are outlined, in addition to its limitations, to develop the building blocks of a methodology to implement within a professional bureaucracy organization ISD scenario. Amethodical ISD will be introduced as the appropriate way to implement this developed methodology to build a successful IS. The contribution of this paper is to detail how to develop a philosophically consistent methodology for a specific organizational environment (in this case, using the specific organizational example of a professional bureaucracy) that, when combined with developers and tools, can create a method to be applied to build an IS that has a greater possibility of successful organizational adoption than an IS built using a method devised using more common IS method engineering approaches.     

A Practical Approach for Quality-Driven Inspections

Software inspection is a rigorous process for validating software work products that's both efficient and cost effective. However, this process presents challenges that might keep software developers from continuing to implement inspections. From our experience, major reasons for this are poor or missing customization of inspections for given context characteristics and insufficient stakeholder involvement. The TAQtIC (Tailoring Approach for Quality-Driven Inspections) inspection approach lets organizations implement inspections in a sustainable way in a given organizational context. Practitioners can use TAQtIC's underlying concepts to customize inspections for their environment. Experiences from projects using this approach demonstrate how organizations can tailor inspections of their software products     

Information system development agility as organizational learning

Information System Development (ISD) agility is concerned with why and how ISD organizations sense and respond swiftly as they develop and maintain Information System applications. We outline a theory of ISD agility that draws upon a model of IT innovation and organizational learning. The theory adopts March's concepts of exploration and exploitation to investigate agility in the context of ISD organizations. Depending on their learning focus, ISD organizations make choices as to what sensing and responding swiftly means. This is reflected in how they value speed in relation to other ISD process goals, including quality, cost, risk and innovative content. The paper examines two specific Research Propositions: (1) ISD organizations locate themselves into different innovation regimes with respect to their need for exploration and exploitation, and (2) their perceptions of agility differ in those regimes as reflected in their process goal priorities. We validate these propositions through an empirical investigation of changes in ISD organizations' process goals and innovation practices over a period of over 4 years (1999–2003), during which time they shied away from exploration to exploitation while innovating with Internet computing. These ISD organizations viewed agility differently during the studied time periods as reflected in how they traded innovative content or speed vis-à-vis the other process goals of cost, risk, and product quality. In conclusion, this paper discusses implications for future research on agility in ISD organizations.     

The interstitiality of IT risk: An inquiry into information systems development practices

Information systems development (ISD) has been part of the core of information systems for over 40 years. Throughout its history, the issue of risk has been closely related to ISD projects, and significant efforts have been made by researchers and practitioners to improve their quality. While important headway has been made in assessing and resolving ISD risk, the literature shows that new and salient risks emerge outside the scope of extant risk management regimes. As a consequence, organizations still struggle with leveraging new technology as projects continue to fail at almost the same rate, albeit for different reasons. Understood as the distinction between reality and possibility, risk is inherently intertwined with practice and rooted in the knowledge, goals, power, and values of specific actors in particular contexts. Hence, to understand how risks emerge, we present a longitudinal case study in which we trace the origin and locus of risks in contemporary ISD practices. We draw on these insights to theorize information technology risk as increasingly interstitial, originating from sources positioned in between established practices and therefore outside the scope of conventional risk analyses. In conclusion, we discuss interstitial risks as an important form of emergent risk with implications for both research and practice.     

Design thinking in social organizations: Understanding the role of user engagement

Design thinking has recently gained significant attention as a potential approach to address major global problems. Although its practice is proven to contribute to advance organizational efficiency and address user needs, lack of understanding about its practice in social organizations limits our understanding about its social context. With this background, we study how users persuade social organizations to adopt design thinking. We conducted a qualitative study in four social organizations in India during 2008–2013 and interviewed 38 respondents to answer our research question. Our results indicate that the designer roles are blurred when social organizations adopt design thinking, where users in the form of interconnecting agency reduce the gap between designers and communities.     

Influences on regression testing strategies in agile software development environments

Regression testing is a well-established practice in software development, but in recent years it has seen a change of status and emphasis with the increasing popularity of agile methods, which stress the central role of regression testing in maintaining software quality. The objectives of this article are to investigate regression testing strategies in agile development teams and identify the factors that can influence the adoption and implementation of this practice. We have used a mixed methods approach to our research, beginning with an analysis of the literature to identify research themes related to the adoption of regression testing techniques under agile methodologies, from which we developed an analytical framework for the study. This was followed by three exploratory case studies that we used to exercise the main elements of the framework, develop some key themes of interest, and devise a questionnaire for the final stage of the study, an on-line survey to explore the main issues identified in the case studies across different contexts. Within our specific sample, our results suggest that organizational maturity is a key factor in effective regression testing practices and that the adoption of such practices is helped by a coherent testing philosophy and change management processes. We also found that the return on investment in automated regression testing was positive for our respondents and that adopting these practices in the context of agile methods had been a relatively painless process for the organizations in our survey. We conclude that investing in regression testing tools and processes is likely to be beneficial for organizations. However, further work is needed in assessing how organizational culture impacts on the quality process and the financial outcomes for commercial software development organizations.     

An Exploration of Impact of Cognitive Elaboration on Learning in ISD Projects

Stakeholder learning has been considered crucial for effective participation and the success of information system development (ISD). However, little guidance has been offered as an operational method to facilitate learning in ISD settings. We argue that “cognitive elaboration” (CE) is a helpful strategy for developing effective learning in client–developer interactions in ISD efforts. Two types of learning are investigated: model-building (MB) and model-maintenance (MM). The current study investigated whether CE performed by stakeholders themselves in client–developer interaction led to their MB rather than MM learning. In addition, an alternative hypothesis has been explored: whether mere communication activities may induce learning. Fifty individuals in seven ongoing software development projects in four organizations were examined. For each project, two meetings in which clients and developers participated were observed. The empirical results demonstrated that stakeholders in an ISD process who have engaged in CE themselves are more likely to experience MB learning; and that mere communication does not account for MB learning. An insignificant link between CE and MM learning was found. This study deepens our understanding about IS–user interactions. Limitations of the current research and implications for future research are discussed.     

Obstacles to user involvement in software product development,with implications for CSCW

This paper addresses one particular software development context: large product development organizations. It describes common obstacles that product developers face in obtaining knowledge about actual or potential users of their systems and applications. Many of these obstacles can be traced to organizational structures and development practices that arose prior to the widespread market for interactive systems. These observations apply to user involvement in human-computer interface development in general, but have particular relevance to CSCW and groupware development.     

Employee dispositions to job and organization as antecedents and consequences of information systems use

Organizations implement information systems to improve employee productivity and engender favourable organizational outcomes. Although there is evidence of positive outcomes of system use, research has suggested that system use may lead to negative consequences for employees and organizations. There has been limited research that focuses on how employees' use of information systems in the workplace is associated with their positive and negative dispositions to job and organization. We develop and test a model that posits that dispositions to job (ie, job satisfaction, job security, job anxiety, and emotional exhaustion), and organization (ie, organizational commitment and organizational trust) will play a dual role of antecedents and consequences of system use. We conducted 2 longitudinal studies in the context of 2 different systems—a functional system and an enterprise system—and found support for our hypotheses (N = 257 and 181, respectively). We found that preimplementation job and organizational dispositions significantly predicted both lean and rich measures of system use. Further, we found that rich measures of system use (ie, cognitive absorption use and deep structure use) had differential impacts on postimplementation employee dispositions—functional system use had a positive impact and enterprise system use had a negative impact. Overall, our findings offer a comprehensive understanding of system use, and its antecedents and consequences for employees in organizations.     

The Work of IT System Developers in Context: An Organizational Case Study

The HCI community has become increasingly interested in analyzing the organizational context of systems design (e.g., Curtis, Krasner, & Iscoe, 1988). Previous work has focused on product development organizations in identifying organizational constraints on the work of system designers (Grudin, 1991b). This case study focuses on the working practices of internal system developers as they both developed a new IT system for the organization and managed the concomitant process of change. Here the organizational context (in terms of shared beliefs, politics and inter- and intragroup relations) is seen as informing both the manner in which the project was conducted and, to some extent, the customization of the product. The role of internal system developers as organizational change agents is highlighted, with emphasis on their image management and political strategies in effecting change.     

Managing IT with systems thinking

Technological systems do not exist in a vacuum, but are an integral part of an organizational setting. With information systems now permeating almost every aspect of our environment, systems thinking has never been more relevant to engineers and managers. Information systems essentially store, process, and distribute organizational information. As the capacity to accomplish these tasks has grown by leaps and bounds, organizations have become increasingly coupled. The information systems that developers are designing and implementing today are not only more complex, they also generate more complex interactions within organizational units. Unfortunately, many engineers only come to understand the need for a holistic approach to managing information technology through experience.     

What are mobile developers asking about? A large scale study using stack overflow

The popularity of mobile devices has been steadily growing in recent years. These devices heavily depend on software from the underlying operating systems to the applications they run. Prior research showed that mobile software is different than traditional, large software systems. However, to date most of our research has been conducted on traditional software systems. Very little work has focused on the issues that mobile developers face. Therefore, in this paper, we use data from the popular online Q&A site, Stack Overflow, and analyze 13,232,821 posts to examine what mobile developers ask about. We employ Latent Dirichlet allocation-based topic models to help us summarize the mobile-related questions. Our findings show that developers are asking about app distribution, mobile APIs, data management, sensors and context, mobile tools, and user interface development. We also determine what popular mobile-related issues are the most difficult, explore platform specific issues, and investigate the types (e.g., what, how, or why) of questions mobile developers ask. Our findings help highlight the challenges facing mobile developers that require more attention from the software engineering research and development communities in the future and establish a novel approach for analyzing questions asked on Q&A forums.     

Metaphors in managerial and employee sensemaking in an information systems project

This longitudinal study looks at the metaphors used in a public sector information systems development project from the perspective of cognitive metaphor theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980 ). We examine the use of metaphors by project team members, including representatives of the users, software developers and the managers guiding the project work. The findings indicate that project team members and managers use a rich set of metaphors to make sense of the project and the records management system they are working on. Notably, distinct sets of metaphors are used in different project phases and among the project personnel and management. As the differences in the metaphors also coincide with key events in the trajectory of the project, we contend that metaphors have significant power in sensemaking, influencing action and project outcomes. In particular, we find that in highly ambiguous, knowledge‐intensive situations, metaphor use with unclear intentions and purpose hinders learning and creates more chaos than order. From a practical perspective, our study highlights the relevance of metaphor use for project management. We suggest that intentional selection of metaphors by management could be beneficial for many complex information systems projects. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd