Why Groups are Used in Software System Modernization Decisions? Comparing Group Decision-Making in Private and Public Sector

Abstract

Software systems are evolving all the time. Important decisions are needed to make whether to modernize a system or totally replace it. Group decisions have become popular also in this kind of decision-making. In this study we are interested why groups are used. We also want to find out are there any differences in public and private sector decisions. Our research approach is qualitative. Research material is collected by semi-structured interviews and analysis is done using content analysis and identifying themes. As a main result, we found out that groups are used to get expert opinions, get users' opinions, share the responsibility and for special reasons. There were similarities in public and private sector decision-making. We suggest that groups are partly used to make decisions as good as possible but, on the other hand, groups are used to avoid responsibility.