Frank Stowell

Towards client‐led development of information systems

Abstract. With the incorporation of Information Technology into most areas of modern life, the methods used by the Computer System Analyst (CSA) needs to be reconsidered. To suppose Systems Analysis to be concerned solely with computing is to minimize the task as an information system is greater than a computer system. As such, the information system designer needs to be able to ‘appreciate’ the wider implications of a clients information needs. An argument is put forward that Information System Design should be undertaken by the client with the CSA acting as facilitator. This paper attempts to provide a re‐appraisal of the CSA and arising from this re‐appraisal, suggest that ideas originating from organizational analysis could be usefully embodied in the design process for Information Systems.

Client-Led Information System Creation (CLIC): navigating the gap

Abstract.  This paper offers a new framework to facilitate an interpretive approach to client‐led information system development, referred to as CLIC (Client‐Led Information System Creation). The challenge of moving seamlessly through a process of information systems (IS) design is still the subject of much research in the IS field. Attempts to address the difficulties of ‘bridging the gap’ between a clients business needs and an information system definition have hitherto not provided a coherent and practical approach. Rather than attempting to bridge the gap, this paper describes an approach to managing this gap by facilitating the clients’ navigating through the information system design process (or inquiry process) in a coherent manner. The framework has been developed through practice, and the paper provides an example of navigating through the design phase taken from an Action Research field study in a major UK bank.

Soft systems and research

Purpose – This paper is written in response to the question “What developments are taking place in systems?” as a contribution to the November 2006 Cybernetics Conference. The paper is based upon the assumption that what is meant by the question relates to research in an area of systems known as soft systems.Design/methodology/approach – The paper begins with clarification about “Systems” and then the reader is taken on a personal journey through what are considered to be important contributions to soft systems research. The account includes reference to philosophical treatise on aspects relevant to some of the difficulties facing subjective research and some outcomes from research germane to the development of these ideas.Findings – The paper recounts lessons learnt from the practice about the nature of undertaking soft systems research and whilst acknowledging that this research continues suggests that because of these soft systems has an intellectual and practical foundation.Originality/value – Systems...

The Appreciative Inquiry Method

In this paper the authors offer a brief outline of a practical approach to knowledge elicitation (KE) for expert systems based upon the notion that human expertise consists of both “objective” knowledge (i.e. factual, rule-based, text-book, logical, tangible, deterministic knowledge) and “subjective” knowledge (i.e. knowledge resulting from experience, judgement, intuition, prejudice, rules-of-thumb).

Action Research and Information Systems Research

Action Research (AR) has, for some time, been advocated as a useful way of conducting work in the field of Information Systems (Checkland and Scholes, 1990) since it offers an alternative to the traditional positivist approach in inquiry. In practice this has led to AR being used as a framework for designing, developing and implementing information systems (IS) (Avison and Wood-Harper, 1990) as well as a means of conducting IS research. Those choosing to work within this framework soon become aware of the difficulties that the approach brings to bear upon the development and/or research processes involved. A popular criticism of AR, which is particularly problematic for those interested in using it as a research method, is that it leads to studies that are ‘all action and no research’. A further criticism is that AR studies are ‘unscientific’ and lack rigour. It may be true that AR has received some ‘bad press’ due to sloppy or uninformed use but, used thoughtfully and rigorously, the approach can provide a practical means of conducting inquiry in social situations that has a strong theoretical underpinning. The literature on AR tends to focus upon describing and arguing the theoretical basis of the approach (e.g. Susman and Evered, 1978), discussing some concept relevant to the approach such as ‘dialogue’ or ‘calibration’ (e.g. Bartunek, 1993), or upon giving case study type reports to illustrate the effects and results of an AR study (e.g. Ledford and Mohrman, 1993). Unfortunately, there appears to be little in the literature to describe how an AR study can be conducted and to advise how the inherent problems may be overcome. In an attempt to go some way towards providing such a discussion, in the rest of this paper two AR study ‘models’ for conducting IS research are described and the difficulties and issues associated with each are discussed.

Using computer-based technology to support a subjective method of inquiry

In the first part of this paper a description is given of the Appreciative Inquiry Method (AIM), a subjective method of inquiry which is deemed to be of particular use and benefit in the development of computer-based information systems in complex domains. AIM was originally developed in its manual form as a method of knowledge elicitation (KE) which might alleviate some of the problems recognized to exist within the process of KE when building expert systems. The method has since been shown to have the potential to provide more than a process of KE in that it offers a practical mode of inquiry consistent with the desire to recognize the subjectivity of individual perceptions of any situation or process under investigation. The second part of the paper concerns the work ongoing in translating the manual version of AIM into a computer-based support tool which incorporates features associated with hypertext technology. The end product is seen as providing both a potential “front-end” development aid to hypermedia/multimedia/KBS applications and a potential computer-based inquiry support system in its own right.

The Contribution of Systems Ideas during the Process of Knowledge Elicitation

The origin of this paper lies in an earlier study that was concerned with investigating the general problems of designing expert systems (West, 1987). Research revealed that many commentators draw attention to the process of knowledge elicitation (KE), which is referred to as a “bottleneck” of expert system design and an area which merits further research. This provided the basis for research which has now developed into two phases: one which concentrates upon identifying the problems of current KE techniques, and the second which is concerned with the development of an expert system model based upon the knowledge gained from a re-evaluation of the practice of “expertise” (Fig. 2). This paper is devoted to one part of the research, namely, the exploration of systems ideas as a potential contribution to the process of KE.

Surveillance, privacy and the law of requisite variety

In both the academic literature and in the media there have been concerns expressed about the level of surveillance technologies used to facilitate security and its effect upon privacy. Government policies in the USA and the UK are continuing to increase surveillance technologies to counteract perceived terrorist threats. Reflecting upon Ashbys Law of Requisite Variety, the authors conclude that these policies will not meet espoused ends and investigate an alternative strategy for policy making. The authors develop a methodology by drawing on an isomorphy of concepts from the discipline of Macroeconomics. This proposal is achieved by considering security and privacy as economic goods, where surveillance is seen as security technologies serving ID management and privacy is considered as being supported by ID assurance solutions. As the means of exploring the relationship between surveillance and privacy in terms of the proposed methodology, the authors use scenarios from a public report commissioned by the UK Government. The result of this exercise suggests that the proposed methodology could be a valuable tool for decision making at a strategic and aggregate level.

Addressing Team Dynamics in Virtual Teams: The Role of Soft Systems

Computer Mediated Communication CMC is providing businesses with the means of assembling virtual teams comprising of members in diverse locations. However research shows that virtual team dynamics are different from face to face dynamics. Recent research adds force to the view that conflicts are more prevalent within virtual teams since participants are less likely to change their initial points of view when discussions are held virtually. This insight has implications for IS development since many IS are developed by virtual project teams. It is relevant to systems analysis since according to systems thinkers the process should include a discussion about alternative points of view leading to a group level shared view of the situation under analysis. If recent research is taken into account then conflict resolution in virtual teams is difficult which raises doubts about whether a group level view of a situation can be reached during systems analysis. In this paper, the authors strive to identify challenges associated with the application of soft methods in synchronous virtual teams since a review of literature shows that soft methods have not been used previously in synchronous virtual teams. The authors also explore if concerns about conflicts in synchronous virtual teams can be overcome through the use of soft systems methods.

Do We Mean Information Systems or Systems of Information

Information Systems, as a domain on knowledge, is rarely satisfactorily explored in the literature. There are papers which discuss IS within the context of a particular area of application e.g. Management Information Systems but few deal with the nature of Information Systems. Although IS researchers and practitioners refer to IS theory rarely do they define what they mean. The dearth of discussion about the constituents of the subject itself implies that there is universality of understanding about the nature and composition of IS. It is true that the range of knowledge and the variety of skills that IS embraces makes its definition, in terms familiar to the more traditional areas of expertise, difficult to achieve. The lack of a common and acceptable description has vexed the IS community for some years and a sound theory of IS is still elusive (see also Gregor, 2006, p612). We can argue that the mnemonic IS, which is the common way of referring to the area, has added AbstrAct