INFORMATION SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT IN A LOW MATURITY ENVIRONMENT: AN EXPLORATORY CASE STUDY ON CONTROL MODES

This paper presents an exploratory case study to examine information systems development (ISD) processes in a low maturity environment, and to understand the role of control mechanisms in project success. The case involves the development of a large scale bank information system, which progressed without a fully-defined master plan or much reliance on formal development methodologies, but was successfully launched nevertheless despite some delay. Data were analyzed from the lens of control modes. Results show that clan control emerged as a dominant form of informal control in a high complexity and low methodological maturity environment, and end-to-end user participation through collocation with the developers served as effective outcome control, which appeared to be a critical success factor. The reliance on behavior control was marginal, although the project manager\u27s effective leadership as a form of self-control also played a role in project success. This work contributes to ISD research in general and the development of a control perspective to user participation in ISD. One of the practical implications is that potential problems associated with the absence of formal methods in a low ISD maturity environment may be overcome by strong user control over the process and quality via extensive participation

Key Factors for Selecting an Agile Method: A Systematic Literature Review

Agile methods have become popular in recent years because the success rate of project development using Agile methods is better than structured design methods. Nevertheless, less than 50 percent of projects implemented using Agile methods are considered successful, and selecting the wrong Agile method is one of the reasons for project failure. Selecting the most appropriate Agile method is a challenging task because there are so many to choose from. In addition, potential adopters believe that migrating to an Agile method involves taking a drastic risk. Therefore, to assist project managers and other decision makers, this study aims to identify the key factors that should be considered when selecting an appropriate Agile method. A systematic literature review was performed to elicit these factors in an unbiased manner and then content analysis was used to analyze the resultant data. It was found that the nature of project, development team skills, project constraints, customer involvement and organizational culture are the key factors that should guide decision makers in the selection of an appropriate Agile method based on the value these factors have for different organizations and/or different projects