Exploring the user – IT professional relationship

Drawing on theoretical developments within the innovation literature, a conceptual model has been developed that draws a distinction between the adoption and assimilation of information technology (IT). The substantive conclusions are that a number of incongruences exist between IT professionals and end-users. These cover 1) the mismatch between business needs and the technology solution 2) inability of adoption processes to address issues of a social, organizational, or user nature 3) failure to recognize the importance of the process of interaction between various parties to technology assimilation. By addressing the assimilation process, the conceptual model offers a way to reframe our understanding from a user perspective

Outcomes of Enterprise Resource Planning System on Organizational Productivity

Leaders within local government organizations do not understand how to achieve expected and desired benefits from the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The lack of alignment between social and technical elements in ERP implementation continues to depress organizational productivity. The prime objective of our quantitative correlational study was to examine whether social and technical elements increase use and productivity in ERP implementation. Sociotechnical systems theory provided the theoretical basis for our study. We examined six dimensional variables relating to ERP implementation. Our key findings indicated positive significant relationships between ERP and information sharing, between ERP system quality and ease of ERP use, and between ERP system quality and organizational productivity. Further studies could examine other dimensions that could ensure ERP sustainability in other government organizations

A Conceptual Definition of Information Technology Project Management: A Campaign-Driven Perspective

Despite the importance of the project management phenomenon in information technology projects, the information technology project management (ITPM) concept lacks clarity and is narrowly defined. In this paper, we adopt a change management perspective to propose a multidimensional and configurable conceptualization of ITPM. More specifically, using a “campaign” metaphor, we identify twelve key underlying activities of ITPM, grouped under three dimensions, i.e., diplomatic, promotional, and martial, then position these activities within the organizational control theory framework

Implementation of weakly structured systems: moving from local practices to common organizational rules

The traditional implementation of an information system assumes that the IT system to be implemented is highly structured (HSS), carrying out regulatory functions expressed in organizational rules scripted into the system. Subsequent implementation seeks users’ compliance with stated regulatory needs. We propose an alternative view of implementing IT systems when such systems are weakly structured (WSS). In these systems, most scripted rules express the composition and behavior of digital objects, which organizational members tend to voluntarily enact as part of their tasks. By using analytical inference and illustrative examples, this work extends the Trifecta model of organizational regulation by developing a vocabulary and a process model for the evolution of the rule system during the implementation of WSS. The offered model depicts IT implementation as a movement from local practices, where system uses are discovered as affordances, to wider rule sets that regulate and enforce the shared deployment of such affordances

Risk –Informed Decision Making in Information System Implementation Projects: Using Qualitative Assessment and Evaluation of Stakeholders’ Perceptions of Risk

The successful implementation of a new software system at any organization requires identification and management of risks as well as insight into the decision-making process throughout the information system lifecycle. Risk assessment of software systems aids in planning, implementation and adoption stages and helps identify potential problems before they occur. This study utilized a qualitative case study method and an interview design for data collection to gather, organize and make sense of key stakeholders’ perceptions of risk for decision making in the implementation of a new department-wide computerized system. Top stakeholder risks identified include executive sponsorship support; adoption of the new technologies and processes; and interoperability. The results of the analysis of perceptions of risks allowed the organization and the team responsible for the implementation of the new system to make decisions about mitigating strategies aligned with stakeholders’ expectations; forecast potential issues within the implementation timeline based on activities associated with identified risks; and make implementation and process decisions based upon the risk assessment. This study extends the research on IT risk management and decision making by demonstrating the utility and efficacy of a qualitative case study method for eliciting the information needed from stakeholders in order to make decisions regarding system implementation, specifically in an organization that lacks the appropriate risk management maturity level to conduct an exhaustive quantitative analysis of risks associated with the project

Yet Another ‘List’ Of Critical Success ‘Factors’ For Enterprise Systems: Review Of Empirical Evidence And Suggested Research Directions (2)

Critical Success Factors (CSF) remain the most-researched areas within the Enterprise Systems (ES) domain over the years and has resulted in a long ‘list’ of such factors. Consequently, many ‘factors’ are not more than ‘variables’ belonging to the same management area. Therefore, this paper argues for going back to the original definition of CSFs as few key areas and reviews empirical evidence in each CSF area. Thereafter, the paper notes other limitations of the CSF literature and suggests research directions to provide a deeper explanation of the ES phenomena. These include tracing CSFs across time, taking a change-centric view of the ES lifecycle, unpacking interrelationship among CSFs, paying attention to the implementation context, and moving from a list of CSFs to the identification of their underlying mechanisms. We hope that our suggestions will provide a roadmap to ES researchers on conducting focussed research on CSFs

Implementation as Regulation: Implementing Industrial Internet of Things in Manufacturing

There is an exponential increase in information systems with few or no organizational rules initially embedded in them, such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Implementing these systems has been identified as an important challenge in practice and research. However, past information systems implementation research has mostly focused on systems with many organizational rules embedded in them. We present an initial case study of implementing IIoT using a regulation lens. This research demonstrates the embeddedness of rules within systems leads to different implementation processes and develops an initial process model of implementing systems with few rules embedded in them. These results show the usefulness of viewing implementation as regulation and suggest opportunities to improve implementation outcomes for IIoT. We plan on continuing this research by conducting a multiple case study

Textual Fragments, Openness of Enquiry and Information Systems: An Example from an ERP Implementation

In this paper, we will use this textual fragment from an interview to demonstrate a set of approaches that allow us to critique the initial reading of events. In doing so, we come to a deeper view of the development process. We will see interpretations of the project from a variety of perspectives and in the process shed light on the conundrum of success and failure in Information Systems projects. Our primary goal is to increase our understanding of the Information Systems Development (ISD) change process and at the same time maintain openness of inquiry. Additionally, we use the textual analysis to illustrate the use of the hermeneutical circle. Finally, many research projects in information systems (IS) employ interviews of subjects and develop large corpuses of data transcripts. We believe that our approach adds an additional weapon to the armory of the IS researcher in making sense of such textual “databases” and producing more interesting and insightful readings

Industry 4.0 Implementation: Novel Issues and Directions

Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is an emerging industrial paradigm yet to achieve its full potential. One research gap is understanding its unique implementation challenges. We highlight unattended issues in implementing I4.0 technologies by drawing on information systems implementation research. I4.0 is a weakly structured system, which requires users to discover then share affordances and later negotiate shared rules through joint regulation. This calls for different ways of implementing I4.0 when compared with earlier highly structured technologies such as MRP, which demanded user compliance. We develop a 2x2 framework of I4.0 implementation issues defined by (1) vertical or horizontal integration and (2) the capacity for the components of I4.0 systems to learn autonomously. We posit that these issues form a new frontier of implementation research in the next decade

A Conceptual Definition of Information Technology Project Management: A Campaign-Driven Perspective

Despite the importance of the project management phenomenon in information technology projects, the information technology project management (ITPM) concept lacks clarity and is narrowly defined. In this paper, we adopt a change management perspective to propose a multidimensional and configurable conceptualization of ITPM. More specifically, using a “campaign” metaphor, we identify twelve key underlying activities of ITPM, grouped under three dimensions, i.e., diplomatic, promotional, and martial, then position these activities within the organizational control theory framework