Juhani Iivari

An empirical test of the DeLone-McLean model of information system success

This paper tests the model of information system success proposed by DeLone and McLean using a field study of a mandatory information system. The results show that perceived system quality and perceived information quality are significant predictors of user satisfaction with the system, but not of system use. Perceived system quality was also a significant predictor of system use. User satisfaction was found to be a strong predictor of individual impact, whereas the influence of system use on individual impact was insignificant.

Why are CASE tools not used

group, and 5% are widely used, but not to capacity. Aaen et al. [1], based on a survey of 102 CASE user organizations in Denmark and Fin-land, report that less than 20% of the organizations were close to routine users of CASE tools, even though 24% had used them more than three years. About half the respondents had used the tools for two projects or less, and in the majority of the organizations, less than one-fourth of the analysts used CASE tools. Kusters and Wijers [14] found in their analysis of 262 Dutch organizations that in 20% of the organizations more than 75% of analysts used CASE tools on a regular basis and in 18% the rate was between 51% and 75%. Even so, in 37% of the organizations, 25% or less of the analysts used CASE tools on a regular basis. Besides the waste of the initial investment in CASE tools, the low rate is alarming because most empirical studies indicate positive rather than negative impact of CASE tools on systems development effectiveness. Norman and Nunamaker [17] reported that software engineers generally perceived their productivity being improved with the use of CASE technology. Banker and Kauffman [2] found an order of magnitude increase in software development productivity in their analysis of 20 projects that applied a CASE tool emphasizing reusability. Aaen et al. [1] found that about 72% of their sample perceived the objectives of improved quality of systems, improved systems development procedures, and increased standardization were met to a significant degree, but about 60% of respondents assessed the objective of improved productivity was met only to a minor degree. 47% of the respondents indicated good profitability of CASE investments while 31% assessed it as poor. The author examines attitudes toward CASE usage in a wide variety of organizations. CASE (Computer-Aided Software/Systems Engineering) tools are claimed to increase information systems and software development effectiveness in terms of productivity of systems development and the quality of the developed systems. However, the results of prior research on CASE adoption [1, 6, 14, 17] are to some extent paradoxical. While most research reports positive rather than negative impact on the quality of developed systems , and to a lesser extent on the productivity of the development process, the actual use of CASE technology has been much less than one would expect. Kemerer [13], for example, reports that one year after introduction, 70% …

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.

The relationship between organizational culture and the deployment of agile methods

ContextSystems development normally takes place in a specific organizational context, including organizational culture. Previous research has identified organizational culture as a factor that potentially affects the deployment systems development methods. ObjectiveThe purpose is to analyze the relationship between organizational culture and the post-adoption deployment of agile methods. MethodThis study is a theory development exercise. Based on the Competing Values Model of organizational culture, the paper proposes a number of hypotheses about the relationship between organizational culture and the deployment of agile methods. ResultsInspired by the agile methods thirteen new hypotheses are introduced and discussed. They have interesting implications, when contrasted with ad hoc development and with traditional systems development methods. ConclusionBecause of the conceptual richness of organizational culture and the ambiguity of the concept of agility the relationship between organizational culture and the deployment of agile systems development forms a rich and interesting research topic. Recognizing that the Competing Values Model represents just one view of organizational culture, the paper introduces a number of alternative conceptions and identifies several interesting paths for future research into the relationship between organizational culture and agile methods deployment.

Characterizing the evolving research on enterprise content management

Innovations in network technologies in the 1990s have provided new ways to store and organize information to be shared by people and various information systems. The term Enterprise Content Management (ECM) has been widely adopted by software product vendors and practitioners to refer to technologies used to manage the content of assets like documents, web sites, intranets, and extranets In organizational or inter-organizational contexts. Despite this practical interest ECM has received only little attention in the information systems research community. This editorial argues that ECM provides an important and complex subfield of Information Systems. It provides a framework to stimulate and guide future research, and outlines research issues specific to the field of ECM.

Analyzing information systems development: a comparison and analysis of eight IS development approaches

This paper analyses two fundamental assumptions associated with the analysis and design of information systems:: (1) the assumed organizational role of information systems, and (2) the view of information requirements. In the case of the first assumption, it distinguishes three alternatives: a technical view, a sociotechnical view, and a social view. In the case of the second assumption, again three alternatives are explored: an objective view, a subjective view, and an intersubjective view. The paper points out the importance of these assumptions from the viewpoint of IS development through the analysis of eight IS development approaches: Information Modelling, Decision Support Systems, the Socio-Technical Approach, the Infological Approach, the Interactionist approach, the Speech Act-based approach, Soft Systems Methodology and the Scandinavian Trade Unionist approach. The first four are established traditions and the last four, newer and more emerging as IS development approaches. The analysis shows that the first two established traditions have a technical-mechanistic view of the organizational role of information systems, the view of the socio-technical tradition being socio-technical and the infological approach reflecting all three views. Most of the emerging approaches emphasize the social nature of information systems. In the case of information requirements, the differences between the established and emerging approaches are not as striking. While the objective and subjective views dominate the established traditions, only the Speech Act-based approach and Soft Systems Methodology among the emerging approaches seem to emphasize the intersubjective nature of information requirements.

Why the old world cannot publish? Overcoming challenges in publishing high-impact IS research

We review the status of European publishing in high-impact Information System (IS) journals finding that the European publication record is disappointing. We consider popular explanations to this state of affairs and find them neither credible nor useful for improving the European record. We propose several constructive reasons for this including (1) the lack of appreciation of the article genre, (2) weak publishing cultures, (3) inadequate Ph.D. preparation for article publishing, (4) weak reviewing practices, (5) poorer command of research methods, (6) poorer understanding of the reviewing protocols, and (7) institutional shaping of research funding in Europe. We formulate several recommendations to affect these causes at the individual, institutional, journal, and European community level.

Deployment of systems development methodologies: perceptual congruence between IS managers and systems developers

We studied the differences in perception between IS managers and developers about the deployment of systems development methodologies. The results indicated that IS managers were generally more positive about systems development methodologies than were developers. IS managers perceived methodology support for organizational alignment, and methodology impact on the productivity and quality of the development process to be significantly more important than did system developers, who, in turn, perceived methodology support for verification and validation significantly higher than did IS managers. These differences can be explained by the relevance and importance of the support to the task that the stakeholders perform.

The user – the great unknown of systems development: reasons, forms, challenges, experiences and intellectual contributions of user involvement

We are witnessing an interesting era in the history of computing and information technology (IT). Computing, telephone and television on the one hand and data, voice and video on the other hand are converging. Internet, the World Wide Web and mobile computing have made IT truly global. IT has become pervasive – it is increasingly difficult for human beings to live their lives without encountering IT. The applications of IT have expanded from traditional automating (e.g. process control and embedded applications), augmenting (e.g. word processing), informating (information systems proper) and communicating (e.g. email) applications to various accompanying (e.g. computer pets), entertaining (e.g. computer games) and fantasizing applications (e.g. virtual world applications such as Second Life) (Iivari, 2007). Modern IT has enabled us to organize our society, business, and lives in new ways. Both in the private and public sector, services or ‘meta-services’, i.e. services required for or supporting the acquisition of the primary service, are increasingly transferred to the internet, and people are being coerced more or less gently into using these electronic services (e.g. Internet banking). These electronic services frequently change the division of labour between people, e.g. between the customers and employees of the service providers. For instance, in internet banking, customers perform many operations previously performed by the bank clerks. Customers have become users of banking applications. IT has enabled organizations and individuals to become globally networked, as evidenced by network organizations and virtual communities. The IT field has not only been the supplier of the technology, but has also been profoundly influenced by these new ways of organizing. The digital nature of software has made it a natural application area for global e-commerce, outsourcing, offshoring, geographically distributed development and also virtual communitybased open-source development. The world of digital convergence and the new IT applications challenge many traditional boundaries. The border between IT and non-IT has become blurred, and as a consequence IT use may be implicit in the sense that people may not necessarily perceive themselves as IT users. For example, are people watching TV and interacting with the program using short doi:10.1111/j.1365-2575.2009.00336.x

The PIOCO model for information systems design

The PIOCO model is a comprehensive methodology for information system s(IS) design consisting of a metamodel for an information system, the corresponding description languages, a process model for information systems design, and a model for choice and quality criteria. The metamodel for an information system consists of three levels of abstraction and forms a profound and articulated conceptual basis for the PIOCO model for the IS design process.The article gives an overview of the PIOCO approach from a management perspective, emphasizing the role of IS design as an inquiry process supporting the decision-making concerning the information system, the quality criteria related to the IS design, and the use of the PIOCO model as a macro-framework which integrates more detailed micro-level methodologies, methods, techniques and tools.