Abstract
The record of failure to deliver large-scale information systems (IS) in a timely fashion that offer value to major commercial and public organizations is legendary. Just looking to critical success factors such as top management support and user involvement in order to understand how to deliver better systems can at best be a partial solution. We seem to overlook an obvious area in our organizations: what can we learn from our information system development (ISD) historical patterns? In order to develop this idea we draw on parallels in sport where current performance and behaviour are believed to be closely linked to historical precedents, or “form”. In that domain, historical patterns are a fallible but valuable predictor of success. Our thesis is that past negative patterns in ISD will tend to repeat themselves without radical intervention. Put another way, failure begets failure. After examining the game of football as an allegory for ISD, we look briefly at two organizations that have experienced a pattern of failure in the IS area in the past but have transformed the way they build IS, moving from negative patterns to successful ones. This chapter ends with suggestions for managers charged with developing new IS as to how they might use their understanding of ISD “form” to improve their chances of success.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Figure 99.1 also shows the major, critical events En at time tn. In a previous paper we developed a model that attempted to explain ISD outcomes in terms of history, context and outcomes [14].
- 2.
Owing to space considerations, we will not be addressing the complex question as to what constitutes success and failure in ISD in this chapter. Where the matter is not obvious, we will adopt a stakeholder view which may involve multiple and conflicting opinions on the subject.
- 3.
In the case of football there is often a large amount of money wagered world-wide on a particular game with separate odds for a home win, away win or a draw. Spread betting is a more sophisticated version of this with real-time odds offered on possible events during the game (e.g. next goal scorer).
- 4.
- 5.
References
Bob-Jones, B. Newman, M., and Lyytinen, K. (2008) Picking up the pieces after a “successful” implementation: networks, coalitions and ERP systems, Forthcoming in the Proceedings of AMCIS 2008, Toronto, Canada.
Drummond, H. (1996) Escalation in Decision-Making: The Tragedy of Taurus. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K.
Ewusi-Mensah, K. (1997) Critical issues in abandoned information systems development projects. Communications of the ACM 40 (9), 74–80.
Hirschheim, R., and Newman, M. (1991), Information systems development as symbolism: myth, metaphor, and magic. Information Systems Research, 2 (1), 29–62.
Iacovou, C., and Dexter, A. (2005) Surviving IT project cancellations. Communications of the ACM 48 (4), 83–86.
Keil, M. (1995) Pulling the plug: software project management and the problem of project escalation. MIS Quarterly 19 (4), 421–447.
Leavitt, H. (1964) Applied organization change in industry: structural, technical, and human approaches. In New Perspectives in Organizational Research. Chichester: Wiley, 55–71.
Lyytinen, K., and Robey, D. (1999) Learning failure in information systems development. Information Systems Journal 9 (2), 85–101.
Lyytinen, K., and Newman, M. (2005) Information systems development as punctuated socio-technical change, Working Paper, The University of Manchester.
Myers, M., and Newman, M. (2007) The qualitative interview in IS research: examining the craft. Information and Organization, 17 (1), 2–26.
Newman, M., and Robey, D., (1992) A social process model of user-analyst relationships, MIS Quarterly, June, pp. 249–266.
Newman, M., and Sabherwal, R. (1996) Determinants of commitment to information system development: a longitudinal investigation. MIS Quarterly 20 (1), 23–54.
Newman, M., Pan, S., and Pan, G. (2006) Can information systems development “form” teach us anything?, Working paper, The University of Manchester.
Newman, M. (2007). Context, Process and outcomes of ISD: an allegorical tale. Proceedings of the Americas Conference on Information Systems, Keystone, Colorado, August 10–12.
Newman, M., and Zhao, Y. (2008) The process of ERP implementation and BPR: a tale from two Chinese SMEs. Information Systems Journal. Published electronically April 15.
Pan, S., Pan, G., Newman, M., and Flynn, D. (2006) Escalation and de-escalation of commitment to information systems projects: insights from a project evaluation model. European Journal of Operational Research 173 (3), 1139–1160.
Pentland, B. T. (1999) Building process theory with narrative: from description to explanation. Academy of Management Review,24 (4), 711–724.
Robey, D., and Newman, M. (1996) Sequential patterns in information systems development: an application of a social process model. ACM Transactions of Information Systems, 14, January, 30–63.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Newman, M., Pan, S.L., Pan, G. (2009). Why Can’t We Bet on ISD Outcomes: ISD “Form” as a Predictor of Success. In: Papadopoulos, G., Wojtkowski, W., Wojtkowski, G., Wrycza, S., Zupancic, J. (eds) Information Systems Development. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/b137171_99
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/b137171_99
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-84809-9
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-84810-5
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)