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Decision making in traditional software development lies with the project manager. In contrast, Agile software development teams are empowered to make decisions, while the role of project manager has changed from one of command and control (i.e. to make decisions and ensure they are implemented) to one of a facilitator. This article argues that decision making in software development is not characterised by a sequence of isolated or exclusive decisions; rather, decisions are inter-related, with each decision leading to further decisions, the chain of which often spans the entire duration of a project. Over this extended period, there are several potential factors that can negatively affect the efficacy of decision making by Agile teams. One of the findings of this exploratory longitudinal study is that the high level of empowerment of a cohesive software development team undertaking an Agile project may be one of these negative factors, as empowered, cohesive teams can exhibit problems such as groupthink or the Abilene Paradox. This article therefore argues that the role of project manager in Agile development initiatives needs to be reassessed, with project managers taking on the role of devil's advocate in the decision-making process.

This chapter explores the promise and potential of Regulatory Technologies (RegTech), a new and vital dimension to FinTech. It draws on the findings and outcomes of a five-year research programme to highlight the role that RegTech can play in making regulatory compliance more efficient and effective. The chapter presents research on the Bank of England/Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) RegTech Sprint initiative, whose objective was to demonstrate how straight-through processing of regulations and regulatory compliance reporting using semantically enabled applications can be made possible by RegTech. The chapter notes that the full benefits of RegTech will only materialise if the pitfalls of a fragmented Tower of Babel approach are avoided. Semantic standards, we argue, are the key to all this.

Researchers report mixed findings on the successful application of information technologies (IT) for knowledge management (KM). The primary difficulty is argued to be the use of information management techniques and concepts to design and develop KM Tools. Also problematic is the existence of a multiplicity of KM technologies, the application and use of which differs across organizations. This paper argues that these problems stem, in part, from the information system field's over-reliance on design concepts from the functionalist paradigm. Hence, our contention that alternative perspectives, which bring into focus issues of ontology and epistemology, need to be brought to bear in order to understand the challenges involved in the design and deployment of IT artefacts in knowledge management systems (KMS). The philosophy of technology, with its emphasis on the primacy of praxis, and which incorporates ontological and epistemological concepts from phenomenology and hermeneutics, is applied to the findings of a participative action research study to illustrate how social actors interpret and understand worldly phenomena and subsequently share their knowledge of the life-world using IT. The outcome of this marriage of situated practical theory and philosophy is a set of design principles to guide the development of a core KM Tool for KMS.

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While much is known about the general process of user participation in information systems development, its impact on matters of organisational change has not been the subject of systematic, in-depth investigation. In addition, researchers have typically adopted variance, rather than process-based approaches to the study of these related phenomena. This paper addresses these deficiencies and makes several important contributions to the literature. First, it presents the results of a comprehensive, process-based study of the relationship between user participation and organisational change in the development and implementation of information systems in a large organisation. Second, it presents a theoretical model which captures the institutional and development-related contexts that shape and influence the processes of user participation and management of change. Third, using the model as a framework to guide the research effort, this study illustrates that an organisation’s institutional context plays a dominant role in shaping and influencing the content and process of user participation and management of change in systems development. This particular finding has important implications for both research and practice. Finally, the model and its associated framework has been validated by the findings of this stud; it may, therefore, be used in future explorations of these important phenomena.

There is increasing interest in hermeneutics as a research approach in the field of information systems. However, the problem facing researchers is that there is a paucity of information on the application of hermeneutics for empirical research in the social sciences; indeed, there is very little guidance on what exactly constitutes a hermeneutic method for the investigation of social phenomena. In order to address this problem, this paper provides an overview of concepts and principles from the related philosophies of phenomenology and hermeneutics; it then illustrates their application in an interpretive case study on the information systems development process. The insights obtained from the application of the hermeneutic method outlined in this paper have helped realize the study's objective of illustrating the link between phenomenological hermeneutics and the conduct of interpretive research.

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