Heinz K. Klein

A set of principles for conducting and evaluating interpretive field studies in information systems

This article discusses the conduct and evaluatoin of interpretive research in information systems. While the conventions for evaluating information systems case studies conducted according to the natural science model of social science are now widely accepted, this is not the case for interpretive field studies. A set of principles for the conduct and evaluation of interpretive field research in information systems is proposed, along with their philosophical rationale. The usefulness of the principles is illustrated by evaluating three published interpretive field studies drawn from the IS research literature. The intention of the paper is to further reflect and debate on the important subject of grounding interpretive research methodology.

Four paradigms of information systems development

Developing computer-based information systems necessarily involves making a number of implicit and explicit assumptions. The authors examine four different approaches to information systems development.

Growing systems in emergent organizations

requirements Complete and unambiguous specifications New system projects as achievements Tools/Techniques for emergent ISD goals: Reliable back channels for ISD professionals, emergent IT organizations, prototyping, proper rewards system, and existing tools such as open systems, end-user development and object-oriented designs and implementation tools. third goal is an implied response to the revocation of third and fourth items in the old goal set. Always analysis. Under emergent assumptions, the analysis of IS applications must be continuous. Since the organization is emerging, the fundamental IS must continuously change and adapt. In order to implement this adaptation, requirements and specifications are constantly renegotiated. Analysis activities are no longer captured within the early stages of a system’s life cycle. Instead, these activities are an ongoing service of the organizational ISD group. It is important to realize that this ongoing service must not be cyclical (periods of analysis followed by periods of implementation), but is generally a constant ISD activity in parallel with systems operation and maintenance. The results of this ongoing analysis are continuously fed into the maintenance activities. Because of organizational emergence, the underlying ISD service continuously monitors and reappraises the IS support for every business process and organizational activity. Under this goal, analysis is not a component of an ISD project, but an ongoing ISD organizational maintenance activity. Dynamic requirements negotiations. Because the organization is emerging around the users, IS requirements can never be fully specified because users are always in conflict with them. Thus user satisfaction is improbable. Indeed, under this assumption, a setting where users are fully satisfied would be an alarming anomaly. Requirements are no longer determined as part of a project, but become a negotiated outcome of the changing characteristics of an emergent organization and the resources for enhancing or altering the existing IS. An emergent ISD goal is not user satisfaction, but a “healthy” degree of conflict between users and their IS. As requirements conflicts rise, increased negotiation and IS enhancement activities are prescribed. As requirements conflicts fall, ISD activities are decreased. The conflict, negotiation and enhancement are continuous service activities provided to support ongoing business processes. These activities are not necessarily associated with any ISD project. Incomplete and usefully ambiguous specifications. If abstract requirements are largely imaginary, and unambiguous specifications are ineffectual, analysts must come to terms with ambiguity. Because the requirements are in motion, specifications must be kept in a state in which these can be easily adapted for enhancing or modifying the existing system. The goal is a set of specifications wherein each specification is open-ended and easily modified. Complete and unambiguous specifications are only possible for organizations that are totally stable, and waste valuable resources in an emergent setting. System enhancement and modification activities begin to be undertaken even though the specifications are incomplete and ambiguous. These activities “succeed” because they are themselves never completed (the organization is likely to emerge from under the planned enhancements or modifications). Traditionally, the IS is a consequence of the specification. Under the emergent view, the specification is just as equally a consequence of the IS emergence. This parallel emergence leads to both an IS and an ISD process that are incomplete and usefully ambiguous. These last two characteristics represent an excellent foundation for further organizational emergence. Continuous redevelopment. Under emergent assumptions, this goal supplants the current ISD project mentality under which all systems terminate at their obsolescence point. The goal of ISD is to preserve all existing IS applications by continuously enhancing and modifying these to match organizational requirements. The goal of ISD is to prevent system obsolescence and thereby eliminate system termination (and the implied new ISD project). The U.S. railroad system provides a metaphor to illustrate how this ISD approach operates. Today’s railroad systems no longer resemble the railroads of a century ago. The engines, rolling stock, tracks, stations, and signaling have all been replaced with modern elements. There has not been a nationwide development project to replace the entire railroad system. Instead, the railroad system has emerged to match the needs of the nation and the limits of the technology. This emergence is a consequence of continuous enhancements: new tracks added in some areas and new rolling stock purchased when needed, for example. The net effect is an adaptive railroad system. Continuous redevelopment implies that information systems are continuously enhanced and modified such that they are never totally outdated and irreparable. COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM August 1999/Vol. 42, No. 8 121 SYSTEMS SHOULD BE UNDER CONSTANT DEVELOPMENT, CAN NEVER BE FULLY SPECIFIED AND ARE SUBJECT TO CONSTANT ADJUSTMENT AND ADAPTATION. There are two interesting implications of continuous redevelopment. The first implication arises from the viewpoint of life-cycle termination as an anomaly. When an IS becomes too expensive to maintain and must be replaced, there is an implied failure on the part of ISD management. ISD management failed to keep the IS maintained in a state that permitted its further redevelopment. In other words, the IS was allowed to decay beyond its economic rescue point. In an emergent setting, the decayed IS probably imposed a long period of rising stable systems drag that limited the organizational ability to emerge. Had the system been continuously redeveloped, the drag would have been reduced and the system life span extended indefinitely. In most traditional ISD organizations, the resources that might be used for continuous redevelopment are paradoxically occupied with system replacement projects. The second interesting implication regards legacy systems and the infamous Y2K problem. These two interconnected problems have risen in importance over the last decade. To a degree, both of these result from the preservation of the 1960s and 1970s ISD project mentality into the 1980s and 1990s. The new systems projects consumed the resources that might have otherwise been applied in gradually redeveloping, enhancing, and modifying these old systems. Under continuous redevelopment, these systems, like the national railroad system, could not be legacy systems. Over the 1980s and 1990s, these legacy systems should have evolved, but didn’t. Today’s ISD managers are now confronted with (and blamed for) the failures of their predecessors. Adaptability orientation. The essential impact of the emergent goal set on ISD relates to the adaptability of IS. Recognizing that IS must undergo continuous redevelopment, the ISD approach and the underlying IS architecture must be conducive to redevelopment. Ease of modification must be deeply embedded in every IS. This easy modification implies that every system includes explicit ISD mechanisms by which the system can adapt. An interesting implication of this goal is the merger of IS and ISD. Development of an IS is exactly the same activity as maintenance, and is equally an essential component of IS operation. The distinction between IS and ISD disappears because the emergence of IS is embodied by the goal set of emergent ISD—an emergent IS is ISD. Ways of Supporting the New ISD Goals The existing vehicles for supporting an effort to reach the emergent organization goals include easily maintainable specifications, open systems interconnection architectures, prototyping, and end-user development. Easily maintainable specifications, like object-oriented designs, make it easier and cheaper to respecify IT systems when change is needed. Open systems architectures enable IT components to be easily rearranged and incorporated with newly developed components. Prototypes, particularly operational prototypes, are typically built with tools that enable easy changes. End-user development uses productivity tools to create inexpensive applications that can be thought of as disposable systems. These existing tools have a role in supporting emergent organizations, but these alone do not go far enough. Several IT organizational capabilities can also help. Back channel communications for ISD professionals. Back channels, such as guaranteed privacy for email, chat rooms, and groupware, permit developers to establish versions of the organizational identity or reality that conflict with other versions. This conflict is important for autopoiesis and emergence. These channels should extend beyond the ISD group and into the users with whom they may interact in order to continuously redevelop systems. Emergent IT organizations. The IT organization itself must be highly emergent. One element that can promote this emergence is virtual teams that extend to include users. These teams lack the history that confines their adaptation, and eliminate the boundary between user and developer. Another important element is the elimination of the “project” as the primary means of organizing IT activities. An emergent IT organization replaces projects with “streams” of redevelopment activity that are continuous as long as the particular IT system requirement is present. A new project represents the failure of the IT organization to properly adapt the systems in its charge. Proper rewards system. The IT organization that supports emergent organizations must value system adaptation. Initially developing adaptable systems is important. However, most of the organization’s important development activities are merged with its maintenance activities. Maintenance needs to become innovative

A set of principles for conducting critical research in information systems

While criteria or principles for conducting positivist and interpretive research have been widely discussed in the IS research literature, criteria or principles for critical research are lacking. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to propose a set of principles for the conduct of critical research in information systems. We examine the nature of the critical research perspective, clarify its significance, and review its major discourses, recognizing that its mission and methods cannot be captured by a fixed set of criteria once and for all, particularly as multiple approaches are still in the process of defining their identity. However, we suggest it is possible to formulate a set of principles capturing some of the commonalities of those approaches that have so far become most visible in the IS research literature. The usefulness of the principles is illustrated by analyzing three critical field studies in information systems. We hope that this paper will further reflection and debate on the important subject of grounding critical research methodology.

Towards a distinctive body of knowledge for information systems experts: coding ISD process knowledge in two IS journals

Abstract.  This paper introduces the idea of coding a practically relevant body of knowledge (BoK) in Information Systems (IS) that could have major benefits for the field. In its main part, the paper focuses on the question if and how an underlying body of action‐oriented knowledge for IS experts could be distilled from the IS research literature. For this purpose the paper identifies five knowledge areas as the most important parts for an IS experts BoK. Two of these are claimed as distinct areas of competence for IS experts: IS application knowledge and IS development (ISD) process knowledge. The paper focuses particularly on ISD process knowledge because it allows the organizing of practically relevant IS knowledge in an action‐oriented way. The paper presents some evidence for the claim that a considerable body of practically relevant IS process knowledge might, indeed, exist, but also notes that it is highly dispersed in the IS literature. It then argues that the IS research community should take stock of this knowledge and organize it in an action‐oriented way. Based on results from prior work it proposes a four‐level hierarchical coding scheme for this purpose. In order to test the idea of coding action‐oriented knowledge for IS experts, the paper reports the results of a coded literature analysis of ISD research articles published from 1996 to 2000 in two leading IS journals – Information Systems Journal and MIS Quarterly. The results suggest that ISD approaches form a useful framework for organizing practically relevant IS knowledge.

Rationality concepts in information system development methodologies

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that current practices and theories of information systems development (ISD) could benefit from a more explicit consideration of concepts of rationality. Many ISD methodologies already pay some attention to more than one rationality concept but they often do not fully recognize this, fail to strike a proper balance between them, and consequently fall short in cases where system success depends on a rationality concept that is not well catered for in a particular methodology. This paper explores four rationality concepts (formal, substantive, communicative, and emancipatory) and their implementation in seven ISD methodologies. The first two rationality concepts are drawn from Max Webers “theory of organization” and the latter two from the “critical social theory” of Jurgen Habermas.

Choosing Between Competing Design Ideals in Information Systems Development

Whenever information systems are developed, they serve some interests at the expense of others. Just what those interests are and who possesses them need to be understood and debated as they involve value judgments. This paper contends that advice concerning the design of information systems must not be limited to technical design, but should also address what is good or bad, or right or wrong in any particular situation—a notion termed a design ideal. The paper offers an approach on how such value judgments involving competing design ideals may be approached in a rational way. This necessitates the adoption of a wider concept of rationality, one, which allows the insights of critical philosophical analysis to be brought to bear on the question of how information systems can best serve all project stakeholders. In order to address likely objections to our proposal, the conclusions discuss several research issues.

Seeking the new and the critical in critical realism: déjà vu?

Abstract Critical realism (CR) is a research philosophy that has beeen proposed with the claim that it could be a way of “⋯ providing a consistent and coherent underpinning philosophy for information systems”. The purpose of this paper is to examine this claim critically in light of the advances made in hermeneutics and critical social theory as alternative research philosphies. CR is found lagging behind these philosophies in epistemology, ontology and action-oriented value formation. It is concluded that critical realism could nevertheless play a useful role as a catalyst in the contemporary methodological debate in the applied social sciences by broadening the frame of reference of positivists beyond the issues already recognized in the post-positivist literature.

Fundamental issues of decision support systems: A consequentialist perspective

Abstract While considerable enthusiasm for DSS exists in many quarters, there are still a number of fundamental issues which have not been seriously addressed. Of particular concern, is how DSS is likely to affect organizations. This philosophically motivated paper analyzes the underlying assumptions of DSS and develops an approach for consequence determination. Moreover, the paper uses this approach to assess how DSS might affect various organizational elements.

The structure of the IS discipline reconsidered: Implications and reflections from a community of practice perspective

The motivation of this paper is to advance the recent discussion about the identity of the Information Systems field with a social analysis of its community structures. It seeks to shed new light on the reasons why the field continues to debate its identity and to voice concerns about its recognition by other disciplines. For that purpose the paper adapts selected concepts from the community of practice literature for improving our understanding of the ways in which the IS research community differentiates itself into diverse constituencies, called communities of practice and knowing (CoPK (ii) what the nature and role of fundamental criticism is for the IS research community and why it is necessary for the fields future to pay more institutional attention to it; and (iii) how to improve understanding and communication within each paradigm constituency across a broad subset of different CoPK it also helps to suggest new priorities and possible strategies for dealing with these challenges.