Jens Kaaber Pors

Systems Development in the Wild: User-Led Exploration and Transformation of Organizing Visions

This paper addresses an increasingly significant category of IT use: that of user-led deployment of generic technologies in organizational settings. Three case studies of such deployment are presented: a Web-based collaboration application developed in-house and deployed in distributed work of a multinational pharmaceutical company, a commercial groupware application deployed in the merger of a Northern European financial company, and a communication infrastructure for multimedia telemedicine in a Norwegian hospital. The activities studied were not fully organized in formal development projects, but were to a large extent initiatives “in the wild” where users influenced directions and outcomes of the process. In all three cases, we found a slow transformation of the initial organizing visions and intentions, a successive addition and adjustment of various technological components, and gradual alterations in work practice. In this paper, we classify this work as development in order to emphasize the importance of such redesigns, tailoring, and adaptations of the technologies that take place in use settings. In closing, the paper discusses the implications for the position and contribution of the IS professional in informing this process.

Coordinating Work with Groupware

One important goal of employing groupware is to make possible complex collaboration between geographically distributed groups. This requires a dual transformation of both technology and work practice. The challenge is to reduce the complexity of the coordination work by successfully integrating the protocol stipulating the collaboration and the artefact, in form of the groupware application, mediating the collaboration. This paper analyses a generic groupware application that was deployed in a large financial organisation in order to support working groups distributed throughout four countries. Using the CSCW framework of coordination mechanisms, we have elicited six general factors influencing the integration of the groupware application in two situations.