. The ways in which we approach systems development practice and research play a major role in shaping professional development within our field. This paper investigates a particular approach, Reflective Systems Development, which has been developed over the past twenty years by a small group of mainly Danish researchers in collaboration with practitioners and students. In this approach, researchers focus on how computer-based information systems are developed in practice; they emphasize the important role played by the local organizational environment; and they combine interpretive understandings of practice with normative propositions to support professional development. The purpose of the paper is to present and evaluate the underlying assumptions and practices of Reflective Systems Development focusing on the following questions: How should we understand, support, and improve practice ? How should we organize and conduct research? How should we relate practice and...

Although user involvement can be problematic for all types of information systems development, the situation has become even more difficult with the recent spread of information technology to senior organizational levels. Better theoretical conceptualization of the dynamic relationship between developers and users in systems development is needed to understand how this relationship shapes, and is shaped by, various constraints. Drawing on Giddens ’ work on constraints on human action and interaction, a theoretical conceptualization of the dynamic relationship between developers and executive users is proposed. This is grounded in empirical studies of the executive information systems development process in two organizations. The paper seeks to illustrate the “enabling” properties of the constraints and their ongoing production and reproduction. Such constraints may vary in their malleability and some appear to be relatively resistant to change by developers. Nevertheless, through improvisation and ingenuity, developers can often find ways to overcome them.

In large software development projects, coordination is considered critical for the success of system development. Generally, coordination focuses on managing interdependencies among different organizational units within one organization. However, in IS outsourcing the interdependencies reach beyond organizational boundaries into coordination of development between a software vendor and a client company. Our research focuses on coordination of development in a setting where several vendors and client organizations develop a common information system. In this study we investigate the characteristic features of system development in a multiple customer environment. Especially we look at the coordination mechanisms and their evolution over time and phases of system development. Our analysis shows that the coordination mechanisms become more formal and control-oriented as the jointly developed system becomes more and more functional. Subsequently changes to the system become harder to get through the coordination mechanisms.

The dynamic and on-going process of developing a state-of-the-art student record information system by a consortium of six Finnish universities is both described and analyzed. Using a social process model as the basic framework to describe the development, the 456 Part II: Theory consortium's choice of a joint development approach with two software vendors is explored and the consequences examined. The article concludes by posing a series of research questions that the authors hope to address as the project unfolds. Introduction In 1995, an agreement was signed by five Finnish universities to begin a feasibility study to produce a common information system (IS) to replace a variety of outdated student record systems, most of which have the year 2000 problem (Y2K). This System to Support Teaching and Learning (SSTL) would support teachers and students with a state-of-the-art user interface and www capabilities, and should enjoy an operating life of at least 10 years. The consor...

The paper presents a case study of the configuration and use of a standard e-procurement packaged software. It focuses on reviewing the new business processes that the system introduces. It, then, applies the Actor Network Theory’s (ANT) notions of associations and power in order to illustrate that the new business processes introduce a new power circuit effect. In so doing, it aims to provide insight into the performing social and technical network that the newly introduced system constructs. The paper then suggests that the system configuration should not only focus on the technical functionality of the system but it should also consider how the system’s new business processes would affect the social, organisational, and political architecture of the organisation and its established performing power networks. 1.

Sociotechnical systems theory (STS), a theory that originated in studies of mechanization in British coal mines, holds that work processes consist of two separate dimensions, one social, the other technical. The main tenant of STS is the principle of joint optimization – that is, the dimensions are reciprocally interdependent and must be designed conjointly. Although it has been intuitively appealing to conceptualize work processes along two dimensions, equivocal outcomes in STS research suggests there may be additional dimensions. In the context of IT-intensive reengineering projects, we examine the extent to which the technical dimension, the social dimension, and their reciprocal interdependence explain variance in project performance. Project performance is captured with an objective measure of IT-related project delay (IT-delay) and a subjective measure of client satisfaction. We find that neither the main effects nor the interaction effect significantly explains IT-delay or client satisfaction. Allowing for additional dimensions in our empirical analysis, however, we find that elements of functional-knowledge that were embedded in the initial technical dimension emerge as a separate dimension. Although the main effects of the technical, social and functional-knowledge dimensions do not

We view information system development (ISD) and change as a socio-technical change process in which technologies, human actors, organizational relationships and tasks change. We outline a punctuated socio-technical change model that recognizes both incremental and dynamic and abrupt changes during ISD and change. The model identifies events that incrementally change the information system as well as punctuate its deep structure in its evolutionary path at multiple levels. The analysis of these event sequences helps explain how and why an ISD outcome emerged. The change constructs are integrated with a socio-technical model of ISD in which configurations in work systems, building systems and the environment and their misalignments- gaps- drive ISD change. By conceiving ISD and change as a sequence of events and states, researchers can narrate explanations of ISD outcomes. Practitioners can use the model in post mortem analyses to diagnose and learn about the effectiveness of their ISD interventions. The explanatory power of the model is demonstrated with a case study of complex ISD and change over an eight year period.

Abstract- Computer based information systems (IS) in work-based organisation are generally acknowledged as incorporating a social as well as technical dimension. Information system strategy formation is something that people are said to engage in as they seek to determine what they wish to do with IS, presumably to assist the overall work effort, and yet while the role of power in relation to strategy has been raised by a range of authors, it remains relatively unexplored in relation to ISS. The argument advanced in this paper is that power is central to our understanding of strategy formation in relation to IS. Furthermore, the work of Hardy [36] indicates that we can think of mechanisms of power in at least four different ways, and this framework is discussed. The paper concludes by calling for research that addresses the multi-dimensionality of power, as a means of moving beyond the relatively limited view of ISS formation exhibited in the literature thus far. I.

Modern organizations are increasingly choosing to adopt off-the-shelf software applications (e.g., Enterprise Systems, ES) rather than develop tailor-made solutions. However, many studies have shown that adopting prepackaged software is difficult with these highly integrated systems amplifying the potential for organizational conflict; especially once the system is rolled out to users. There is a gap in the literature related to this changing pattern of systems development, and researchers have begun investigating it. We contribute to this emerging literature while also shifting the focus of ES implementation research by offering a new perspective to understand the processes of mutual adaptation of the technical and social during system implementation and maintenance of large scale systems (ES). We focus on the turnaround process by which a troubled project at go-live becomes a working information system. Much IS literature to date has focused on the problems associated with configuration and implementation or the immediate (often negative) reaction to, and use of, packaged software. Yet, there is significant evidence that projects often do survive and yield a working information system in the face of, and despite, a negative release. Based on data from an intensive qualitative field study within a university, we find that practices are negotiated through processes of use rather than being permanently and systematically selected at a particular moment in time and, in so doing, we offer one of the first works to address the issue of sociomateriality and its implications for understanding the evolution of large scale IT systems.

This paper aims at examining how the adoption of a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system challenges the definition of the expertise and roles of accountants within organisations. By drawing on structuration theory, as we rely on the notion of duality of structure for insights into the processes by which new accountants ’ practices and positions emerge, we indicate that the three levels (action, modalities of structuration, structure) and the three dimensions of structuration (signification, legitimation, domination) are a fundamental analytical device to understand such transformation. Within the outlined framework, we propose to conceptualise the potential change in accountants ' expertise as a structuration process and ERP systems as modalities of structuration providing new interpretive schemes, norms and co-ordination and control facilities. Finally, since we are convinced that detailed interpretive case studies of ERP implementations are needed to understand their complex impact on accountants’ positions and practices, we provide one such study as the basis for the development of some general conclusions deriving from our research. Key-words: ERP systems, accountants, change, structuration, interpretive case study