Information systems development as social action : framework and critical implications

Abstract

Despite of rapid progress in hardware and software information systems (IS) face many problems. This raises two important concerns for their research. The first is to understand the nature of information systems development (ISD) and the second is to understand characteristics of methodologies to support it. To address these concerns the research community needs concepts that can help it to see the multifaceted nature of ISD and the requirements this sets for the construction of new methodologies. A broad survey of the existing IS literature is made to analyze how these concerns have been addressed. The survey shows a lack of unifying frameworks and limitations in current IS research. These result mainly from its engineering bias. To overcome these deficiencies the work introduces the notion of social action. Social action means human behavior that is intentional in nature and constrained by social influences. The work shows that systems development as social action is concerned with a change in three realms: technological, symbolic and organizational. An information systems development methodology is defined as a public norm-system that guides what changes in three realms will be considered and how. The study shows that methodologies, like descriptive theories, include an underlying "world-view". Applying Habermas' theory of social action the work studies types of systems development methodologies. It indicates that most ISD methodologies focus only on one aspect of systems design: the achievement of ends by goal-oriented interventions. Accordingly they neglect development tasks that involve among others politics of change, understanding of meanings, change of norms and expectations, as well as justification of actions taken. The study concludes that current methodologies cannot cope with all development and use problems and they should be made socially more flexible.