Information Requirements for Decision Support Systems: A Task Behavior Orientation

Introduction It has been argued often and convincingly that requirements determination is the most critical phase of information systems development (Byrd, Cossick, and Zmud, 1992; Dalal and Yadav, 1992). System misuse or disuse can often be traced to an inadequate requirements determination process. The majority of information systems developed for organizations require post-implementation revisions to meet users\u27 needs (Wetherbe, 1991). Although information systems are expensive to develop initially, changes made after a system has been completed are much more expensive than making the same changes during the design process (Boehm, 1981). Consequently, research that can enlighten and improve the requirements elicitation process can make an important contribution to the quality and cost-effectiveness of software development efforts. This paper proposes a task behavior-oriented approach to the determination of information requirements for the design of decision support systems (DSS). It is argued that the behavioral nature of DSS requires a shift from the data-driven requirements determination approaches used to construct transaction processing and similar systems. The current trend toward task performance-centered DSS in industry (Gery, 1995) also supports a shift in requirements determination focus. Typical informationrequirements determination (IRD) methods include structured interviews, questionnaires, observation, and joint application design, among others (Whitten, Bentley, and Barlow, 1994). In most of these techniques, users are asked questions relating to goals,data, problems, and critical success factors, for example, and the answers are used to infer system requirements. However, these methods may not adequately specify the actual task performance behaviors in which users engage, as the methods are generally data-focused. Further, the level of requirements elicited through such methods is often too general to be of significant use to analysts attempting to understand behavior. Tools designed to elicit more specific task behaviors are likely to be of greater benefit, since such behaviors are better descriptors of user needs and arguably can lead to more complete system requirements (Keen, 1980). Because DSS are developed to support organizational tasks that decision makers perform, it is arguable that the requirements determination for such systems should more directly address users\u27 performance of those task

An Empirical Investigation of Build-or-Buy Decisions in Software Development

When an organization seeks to apply a computerbased application to its business processes, the decision of whether to build or buy software must typically be made. Much previous research has bypassed the build-or-buy decision stage. Even the limited studies focusing on the build-or-buy decision have tended to focus on checklists or guidelines for decision criteria and decision procedures. Thus, the build-or-buy decision process has not been explored fully from the behavioral perspective. The present research provides new insights into decision makers’ actual behavior when making build-or-buy decisions. Based on the belief processing model of Smith, Benson, and Curley (1991), a model is developed to describe the actual cognitive processes involved in the build-or-buy decision. Two hypotheses based on the theoretical background are proposed and will be investigated in an empirical study. We then describe the research methods for the empirical study in some detail. We conclude with a short discussion

More Enduring Questions in Cognitive IS Research

In the April 2012 issue of the Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Michael Davern, Teresa Shaft, and Dov Te’eni published an article titled “Cognition Matters: Enduring Questions in IS Research”. Their paper reviewed much of the history of cognitive research in the IS discipline, especially that related to human-computer interaction and decision support systems. While we believe their article is excellent in many respects, we also believe that it omitted a great deal of the most basic cognitive research performed in the IS domain over the past 10-15 years, especially work in the area of systems analysis and design. Our purpose in this paper is to supplement the work of Davern et al. by discussing much of this recent work. We use two theoretical lenses to organize our review: basic cognition and behavioral decision-making research. Our review provides many illustrations of IS research in these areas, including memory and categorization (basic cognition) and heuristics and biases (behavioral decision making). The result, we believe, is a fuller picture of the breadth of cognition-based work in the IS discipline in general and systems analysis and design in particular. The paper provides further evidence of the importance of cognitive research in IS and suggests additional enduring questions for future investigations

A Broad View of Systems Analysis and Design: Implications for Research

This article presents a broad view of systems analysis and design (SA&D) research. Although SA&D is a critical area of research in the information systems field, relatively little such research has been published in leading IS journals. To point toward increased research opportunities for SA&D work, this article presents a framework that illustrates the broad range of activities within the SA&D area. This framework contrasts with narrower views that consider SA&D to be concerned primarily with software development. The framework positions SA&D activities in a two-dimensional space. We identify theoretical and practical research issues that apply across the full range of SA&D activities as well as issues that apply to specific situations. Research opportunities in SA&D are described and discussed

A Broad View of Systems Analysis and Design

This article presents a broad view of systems analysis and design (SA&D) research. Although SA&D is a critical area of research in the information systems field, relatively little such research has been published in leading IS journals. To point toward increased research opportunities for SA&D work, this article presents a framework that illustrates the broad range of activities within the SA&D area. This framework contrasts with narrower views that consider SA&D to be concerned primarily with software development. The framework positions SA&D activities in a two-dimensional space. We identify theoretical and practical research issues that apply across the full range of SA&D activities as well as issues that apply to specific situations. Research opportunities in SA&D are described and discussed

Sequential Adoption Theory: A Theory for Understanding Herding Behavior in Early Adoption of Novel Technologies

Technology adoption often occurs sequentially, so that later potential adopters can see the decisions (adopt or not adopt) of earlier potential adopters. In this paper we review the literature on observational learning, in which people use information gained by observing the behavior of others to inform their decisions, and note that little prior research has used an observational learning perspective to understand the adoption of information technology. Based on theory and previous literature, we suggest that observational learning is likely to be common in adoption decisions. We develop a model that extends existing observational learning models and use simulation to test the model. The results suggest that following the behavior of other similarly-situated decision makers can be a very useful strategy in adoption situations in which there is a great deal of uncertainty. Implications for research and practice are discussed

The Role of the Abilene Paradox in Group Requirements Elicitation Processes

Systems development endeavors usually occur in highly complex, politicized environments in which diverging interests of stakeholders result in a variety of conflicts. Therefore, conflict management has been an important focus of research in information requirements determination (IRD). However, research has failed to recognize that organizational politics and pressures on the participants might lead to an illusion of agreement among participants. The illusion of agreement phenomenon subsumes a wide range of dysfunctional group behaviors that lead to a superficial illusion of conformity among the members of the group. Two specific variants of this illusion are groupthink and the Abilene Paradox (AP). While the problem of groupthink has received some attention in the IRD literature, the concept of AP has not been considered. AP refers to the tendency of each group member to believe that every member wants to pursue a particular course of action, which leads everyone to agree publicly while disagreeing privately. This study empirically demonstrates the role of AP during a group requirements elicitation process (JAD). Implications of the findings and prescriptive guidelines are discussed

Counterfactual Thoughts: A Theoretical Explanation of the Cognitive Mechanism Underlying the Formation of User Satisfaction and IS Continuance Intention

Counterfactual thoughts (CFTs) are imagined alternatives to an actual event, and are pervasive in our daily lives. It is not unusual for one to think of what might have been if only a few subtle details of the past had been different. CFTs often arise from disconfirmation of expectations. Such thoughts have been proposed to influence satisfaction, disappointment and continuance intentions in the fields of marketing and psychology. However, the traditional expectation-disconfirmation theory (EDT), often employed to study satisfaction and continuance intentions has failed to recognize the role of CFTs. Accordingly, this study presents a conceptual model and empirically examines the moderating role of CFTs in the relationship between expectation disconfirmation and satisfaction, and the effect of CFTs on disappointment and IS continuance intentions. Results strongly support the hypothesized role of CFTs. This study contributes to a better conceptualization of the post-implementation user cognition and EDT, which has been traditionally used to examine user satisfaction and continuance intentions