The organizational and social issues associated with the development, implementation and use of computer-based information systems have increasingly attracted the attention of information systems researchers. Interest in qualitative research methods such as action research, case study research and ethnography, which focus on understanding social phenomena in their natural setting, has consequently grown. Case study research is the most widely used qualitative research method in information systems research, and is well suited to understanding the interactions between information technology-related innovations and organizational contexts. Although case study research is useful as a means of studying information systems development and use in the field, there can be practical difficulties associated with attempting to undertake case studies as a rigorous and effective method of research. This paper addresses a number of these difficulties and offers some practical guidelines for successfully completing case study research.

The identification of factors which are necessary for successful implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems is of great importance to many organizations. ERP systems have to be configured and implemented, often by a team of business analysts and consultants over a period of months or years. The process is lengthy and expensive, and may include extensive business process reengineering. Given that the investment in these systems, including both the package and associated implementation costs, is measured in millions of dollars, failure to meet deadlines and budgets may result in substantial company loss. However, the literature on the ERP implementation process, and the factors which either facilitate or impede its progress, is not extensive. This research reports the first O. Ngwenyama et al. (eds.

No abstract

There has been increasing awareness of the impact of the early stages of systems development on the quality of information systems. A critical early activity is requirements definition, when the requirements for an information system are determined. Traditional requirements capture techniques do not support the collaborative nature of requirements definition or the emergent nature of requirements themselves. This paper focuses on viewpoint development as a means of resolving some of the difficulties of requirements definition. It proposes a user viewpoint model for capturing and representing the viewpoints of users during requirements acquisition. The model can facilitate communication and interaction between analysts and users and help build a shared understanding of requirements. It can be used to structure the requirements acquisition process. The model provides for evaluation of requirements acquisition techniques to guide the selection of appropriate techniques for developing user viewpoint models. The paper reports a multiple-case study of requirements definition efforts that examined user viewpoint development in practice and used the cases to validate empirically the concepts of the user viewpoint model. The implications of the case study findings for requirements definition practice are discussed, and some areas for future research are identified.

No abstract