Jay G. Cooprider

The contribution of shared knowledge to IS group performance

A major issue facing managers of information systems organizations is the increasing pressure to demonstrate the business value of the firms investment in information technology. The working relationship between the IS department and other diverse organizational groups can have a major contribution to increasing IS performance. This paper explores the concept of shared knowledge between IS groups and their line customers as a contributor to IS performance. Shared knowledge is achieved through the mechanisms of mutual trust and influence between these groups. The relationship of mutual trust, influence, and shared knowledge with IS performance is tested empirically using path analysis in a study of 86 IS departments. The results of this study show that shared knowledge mediates the relationship between IS performance and trust and influence and that increasing levels of shared knowledge between IS and line groups leads to increased IS performance. Recommendations are given for ways managers can develop mutual trust and influence between these diverse groups and therefore achieve higher levels of shared knowledge and IS performance.

Enabling Software Development Team Performance During Requirements Definition: a Behavioral Versus Technical Approach

As software development projects continue to be over budget and behind schedule, researchers continue to look for ways to improve the likelihood of project success. In this research we juxtapose two different views of what influences software development team performance during the requirements development phase. In an examination of 66 teams from 15 companies we found that team skill, managerial involvement, and little variance in team experience enable more effective team processes than do software development tools and methods. Further, we found that development teams exhibit both positive and negative boundary-spanning behaviors. Team members promote and champion their projects to the outside environment, which is considered valuable by project stakeholders. They also, however, guard themselves from their environments; keeping important information a secret from stakeholders negatively predicts performance.

Dimensions of I/S Planning and Design Aids: A Functional Model of CASE Technology

Information technology is playing an increasingly integral role in the competitive strategies of many organizations. As this trend continues, it is not surprising that there is growing emphasis on the ability of organizations to plan, design and implement critical information systems. A major strategy to improve the effectiveness of these processes is the use of computer-based planning and design aids. However, there is little empirical evidence that using this technology provides a significant performance impact. One factor limiting research on the impact of technology on planning and design is the manner in which this technology has been conceptualized for measuring usage behavior. This research develops a functional model of I/S planning and design support technology that distinguishes three general functional dimensions: Production Technology, Coordination Technology and Organizational Technology. An empirical analysis is used to test the robustness of the proposed model and its ability to discriminate among current design aids in a meaningful way. Implications for the use of this model in the study of I/S planning and design processes are discussed.

Social interactions of information systems development teams: a performance perspective

We report results from a longitudinal study of information systems development (ISD) teams. We use data drawn from 60 ISD teams at 22 sites of 15 Fortune 500 organizations to explore variations in performance relative to these teams’ social interactions. To do this, we characterize ISD as a form of new product development and focus on team‐level social interactions with external stakeholders. Drawing on cluster analysis, we identify five patterns of team‐level social interactions and the relationships of these patterns to a suite of objective and subjective measures of ISD performance. Analysis leads us to report three findings. First, data indicate that no one of the five identified patterns maximizes all performance measures. Second, data make clear that the most common approach to ISD is the least effective relative to our suite of performance measures. Third, data from this study show that early indications of ISD project success do not predict actual outcomes. These findings suggest two issues for research and practice. First, these findings indicate that varying patterns of social interactions lead to differences in ISD team performance. Second, the findings illustrate that singular measures of ISD performance are an oversimplification and that multiple measures of ISD performance are unlikely to agree.

The effective use of automated application development tools

In this paper we report on the results of a four-year study of how automated tools are used in application development (AD). Drawing on data collected from over 100 projects at 22 sites in 15 Fortune 500 companies, we focus on understanding the relationship between using such automated AD tools and various measures of AD performance—including user satisfaction, labor cost per function point, schedule slippage, and stakeholder-rated effectiveness. Using extensive data from numerous surveys, on-site observations, and field interviews, we found that the direct effects of automated tool use on AD performance were mixed, and that the use of such tools by themselves makes little difference in the results. Further analysis of key intervening factors finds that training, structured methods use, project size, design quality, and focusing on the combined use of AD tools adds a great deal of insight into what contributes to the successful use of automated tools in AD. Despite the many grand predictions of the trade press over the past decade, computer-assisted software engineering (CASE) tools failed to emerge as the promised “silver bullet.” The mixed effects of CASE tools use on AD performance that we found, coupled with the complex impact of other key factors such as training, methods, and group interaction, suggest that a cautious approach is appropriate for predicting the impact of similar AD tools (e.g., object-oriented, visual environments, etc.) in the future, and highlight the importance of carefully managing the introduction and use of such tools if they are to be used successfully in the modern enterprise.

A Collaboration Model for ERP User-System Interaction

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have received well-deserved attention from both the industry and the research communities, yet the usability of these systems remains a challenge. This paper proposes a model of the usability of ERP systems based on collaboration theory. In this model, Commitment to Joint Activity (CJA), Mutual Responsiveness (MR), and Commitment to Mutual Support (CMS) are properties of Shared Cooperative Activity between the user and the ERP system. The strength of this collaboration (conceptualized as the interaction of the individual properties: CJA, MR, and CMS) impacts the systems usability. The proposed constructs are illustrated with data from a field-based case study. Our findings provide initial support for our model of human-computer collaboration in ERP systems.

Analyzing Different Strategies to Enterprise System Adoption: Reengineering-Led vs. Quick-Deployment

The literature on enterprise system (ES) adoption suggests that companies use different strategies for implementation — some opting to radically reengineer business processes up-front, while others employ a quick-deployment strategy on the assumption that organizational change will follow. In this article we explore how these two different strategies play out in practice and also consider the factors that influence which approach is taken. We use exploratory data from interviews with consultants who have been involved in multiple ES implementations in external companies, as well as interviews with project members involved in an internal ES implementation. Analysis of the data suggests that some level of reengineering is an inevitable outcome of ES implementation. However, attempts to reengineer up-front is difficult and can be problematic. Much of this stems from how the ES is actually used versus its envisioned (or planned) use. The implications for post-implementation exploitation opportunities are explored.

Applying human-computer collaboration for improving ERP usability

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are vital to modern organizations for maintaining enterprise-wide operations. The poor usability characteristics of these systems, however, profoundly affect their effective adoption and use, as noted in industry reports [1] and field studies of usage [2], [3]. The work presented here is part of a multi-method research project aimed at significantly improving the usability of ERP systems in order to reduce user training time and increase user performance and efficiency. What distinguishes our approach to improving usability is the application of collaboration theory [4], [5] as a framework for analyzing human-computer interaction and performing system design and evaluation. Humancomputer collaboration requires that the system act as a partner that supports its users in increasingly complex environments of modern applications [6]. This view shifts the burden from the user being the only one with responsibilities and knowledge about the process and leads to specific requirements regarding the knowledge and behavior of the system. To effectively collaborate, both the system and the user must be aware of the context of their interaction and the overall goal, and each must share knowledge of how the goal can be achieved through those interactions. The parties must be responsive to the behaviors and actions of the other, must recognize when the other is in need of support, and must be committed to providing that support whenever possible. Our work draws from this perspective of system-user collaboration, as opposed to collaboration between people that is supported by computing technology (commonly referred to as computer-supported cooperative work, or CSCW). We propose that commonly occurring usability problems experienced by ERP users can be explained as examples of non-collaborative behavior on the part of the system. In testing this proposition, we have conducted field studies aimed at identifying usability issues and evaluating the collaborative properties of ERP systems. Findings from those studies have been used in conjunction with collaboration theory to provide initial support of a conceptual model linking the core properties of collaboration to system usability [2]. This model lays the foundation for a more sophisticated understanding of the relationship between the strength of collaboration properties and the impact of that strength on system usability. Building on our model, we have developed design principles for improving the usability of enterprise systems by improving their collaborative strength [7]. Empirical data from the field studies have also been used to support these principles, which are derived from core requirements of collaboration (namely, knowing the plan and communicating, committing to helping a partner in need, and providing other helpful behaviors for increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the collaborative activities and their likelihood of success). It is this theory-based perspective that differentiates our principles by placing the emphasis on the need for the system to apply its capabilities and knowledge for maximizing the effectiveness and efficiency of its interactions with users. To test our design principles and the ability of our proposed interventions for addressing usability limitations identified in the field studies, we have been developing software artifacts [8] and an infrastructure that supports input logging [9]. Access to an input log that relates interactions to particular users, tasks, and domain knowledge is critical to the systems ability to act as an effective collaborative partner. Such access enables a range of applications, from automated extraction of usability information to providing individualized assistance based on histories of prior use aggregated across multiple users. Coupling usage logs with automated planning enables explicit reasoning about how to provide enhanced support to users, particularly in error situations, and is part of our ongoing investigations [10].

Considering the IS-business relationship: a measurement approach

To better understand the relationships between IS organizations and their associated client business (line) organizations, we build and test a theoretical model of the management of these relationships. This model originates in the political economy framework of organizational analysis, and couples two streams of theories: transaction cost analysis and resource dependency analysis. Additionally, elements of social contract theory are used to emphasize the long-term, relational aspect of the IS-line relationship. From these frameworks, two dimensions of the IS-business relationship are proposed: sustainability and influence. These constructs are conceptualized separately for each participant, emphasizing the disparate perspectives held by IS and the line. The model is validated with a field study of 121 IS-line relationships, in which the reliability and validity of the model is established in a confirmatory factor analytic approach.