Persistent problems and practices in information systems development

Abstract

This paper identifies and discusses the persistent problems and development practices of information systems development (ISD). A critical examination and comparison of past times ' 'traditional' and present-day 'web-based' development shows that contemporary ISD can be seen as an accentuated evolutionrather than a revolution -of well-known challenges and solutions. On this basis, (1) diversity; (2) knowledge; and (3) structure are identified as inherent and interrelated problems, while the practices for coping with these three challenges are (a) organization and specialization; (b) constant verbal communication and negotiation; and (c) pragmatic application of certain development methods and methodical concepts. We conclude that more research on the occurrence and interaction of problems and practices at, and between, different contextual levels (e.g. the business environment, company, project, team and individual levels) is needed to understand and assess (the gap between) 'observed practice' and 'good practice' across the many types of Web and non-Web ISD projects conducted today. We outline a possible research agenda to investigate these issues. Keywords: information systems development, empirical studies of ISD practice I N T R O D U C T I O NInformation and communication technologies are rapidly evolving. Hardware processing and storage capacities have been increasing at tremendous rates and computer-based devices and applications are spreading into nearly every human life sphere. The tools, techniques and processes used for producing information systems (IS) are undergoing profound changes as well. High-level languages and program generators have replaced machine languages. Similarly, ad hoc approaches to information systems development (ISD) have been replaced by development methods supported by powerful CASE tools, and new systems are now rarely built from scratch, but based on standard software packages or assembled from module libraries.Unsurprisingly, these changes are accompanied by frequent claims about their fundamental and paradigmatic nature. Already in the mid-1960s, early third-generation languages such as K Kautz et al.

New Branches, Old Roots: A Study of Methods and Techniques in Web/Hypermedia Systems Design

“…Accordingly, many new Web/hypermedia-specific methods and techniques have been proposed, an extensive list of which is included in Appendix A. On the other hand, there are dissenters who argue that the design of Web/hypermedia systems does not present any fundamentally new or unique challenges (Kautz & Nørbjerg, 2003), while Howard et al (1999) go so far as to assert, based on the result of an experiment which tested the efficacy of matching methods with application characteristics, that endeavours to devise specific methods for Web/hypermedia systems are not valuable because generic methods are likely to be just as effective.…”

Editorial

“…A set of improvisation paradoxes, which are argued to define scaled agility, are developed as an analytical framework to unpack the paradoxical nature of distributed systems development. The paper applies theories of organisational improvisation and the notion of paradoxes to characterise the nature of the software development in this activity and distinguishes it from the 'agility in the small' and traditional hierarchical 'development in the large' with which most readers will be much more familiar (see also Baskerville &Pries-Heje, 2004 andKautz et al, 2007).…”

“…A set of improvisation paradoxes, which are argued to define scaled agility, are developed as an analytical framework to unpack the paradoxical nature of distributed systems development. The paper applies theories of organisational improvisation and the notion of paradoxes to characterise the nature of the software development in this activity and distinguishes it from the 'agility in the small' and traditional hierarchical 'development in the large' with which most readers will be much more familiar (see also Baskerville &Pries-Heje, 2004 andKautz et al, 2007).The paper of Christopher Williams (2011) looks at knowledge-based theory to develop and test a model of client-vendor knowledge transfer at the level of the individual offshore IS engineer. The embedding of offshore vendor personnel in client projects is central to the success of many offshore outsourcing contracts, yet such knowledge transfer is difficult over large geographic, cultural and institutional distances.…”

A Critical Review of Challenges in Hypermedia Systems Development

“…67,68 Kautz and Nørbjerg argue that the move towards multidisciplinary teams is a continuation of an observable trend across systems development in general. 16 This position is supported by the contention of Fafchamps and Garg that flexible teams, characterised by composite membership and roles and diverse disciplines and skills, are "a new type of organizational entity that will become more prevalent in the future". 69 Whereas hypermedia systems development seems to call for a greater level of multi-/cross-skilling than traditional systems development, 42,56,70 this may likewise be argued to be an increasingly common phenomenon in the digital networked economy (i.e.…”

“…[12][13][14] Of late, there is a growing posse of dissenters who argue that there is nothing substantially different about Web-based systems development. 1,2,15,16 Given the problems earlier alluded to concerning the definition of "Web-based systems", this ought not be surprising. In the following sub-sections, each of the purported new/unique challenges shall be considered within the broader umbrella of hypermedia systems development.…”