Jim Hughes

Understanding IS evaluation as a complex social process: a case study of a UK local authority

The increasing concern from both IS practitioners and academics about the lack of confidence in the returns on IS investment is evidenced in the IS literature and is further illustrated by the growing number of methods and initiatives in this area. This is particularly evident in the UK public sector where national and local government have a duty to ensure that public money is spent appropriately. In this paper the authors explore the area of IS evaluation by categorising the methods available for use and considering the underlying assumptions of these categories. Building on recent research work with interpretative IS evaluation in the private sector, the authors specifically consider UK local government initiatives and use an in-depth case study of one UK Local Authority to elicit lessons for IS practice. The authors contend that there is currently a prevailing paradigm for understanding IS evaluation based on mechanistic and functional principles that are flawed in practice. On the basis of the case material and from the literature, the authors argue that a complementary approach to this paradigm based on situated practice provides a richer view and a more practically oriented approach to IS evaluation.

Systems development as a research act

In this paper we argue that for systems developers who intervene in organizationally dependent phases of information systems development, such as requirements determination, then the engagement with social actors may be considered to be an interpretive research act. The argument is illustrated by action case studies in which one of the authors intervened in two situations with an explicit sociological perspective and analysis methods more usually associated with qualitative social science research. We argue that this places an onus on systems developers to be both explicit in their assumptions and critically reflective in their thinking.

An Empirical Model of the Information Systems Development Process: A Case Study of an Automotive Manufacturer

This paper challenges the often-perceived view that the systems development process is almost exclusively technical and predominantly rational. This prevalent position is often coupled with a view of information systems methodology as providing common standards of practice and documentation. Whilst the authors are aware of other challenges to this prevailing paradigm this paper investigates the information systems development process from the viewpoints of those directly involved. The authors used Grounded Theory procedures to elicit a local empirical model of the information systems development process to discover what happens in practice.

Effective elicitation and dissemination of situated knowledge: exploration of an agent based approach

The paper has focused on the issue of collaborative working through knowledge sharing. Various types of knowledge repository have been identified which have largely failed to be supported by traditional information and communication technologies. This paper addresses the capture, storage and dissemination of situated knowledge, recognising the need for both cultural and technological change if this valuable organisational asset is to be appropriately exploited. The use of an intelligent agent-based collaborative information retrieval tool known as Casmir has been explored as a means to address this complex area. A commercial domain (automotive manufacturer) has been used to illustrate its likely potential. Specifically, the aim of the illustration has been to develop a methodology for the articulation and dissemination of context based situated knowledge and the use of Casmir to push knowledge into the user domain. In order to evaluate the tool 50 naive users were set a specific, collaborative information retrieval task. The results of the user evaluation are presented. Phase one of the evaluation focused on serendipitous information discovery and showed a clear increase in precision of information retrieved over time. Phase two of the evaluation required a qualitative evaluation of the software from the users. The results of the phase two evaluation indicated that the collaborative information retrieval functionality of the tool was regarded as beneficial, especially in supporting group working in an informal manner. In conclusion, the work presented shows that the synergistic use of the software tool in a situated knowledge domain is a meaningful way forward in the battle to support the dissemination and exploitation of situated knowledge.