INF 895 Madness in their method

Abstract

Literature suggesting that IS projects generally fail abound. The question posed in this research is ‘Why is the use of Information Systems Methodologies so prevalent in organisations?’ Two cycles of action research are performed to explore this topic in multiple implementations of a pre-developed Business Intelligence suite of reports in a large packaging company. During the first cycle exploratory work was done regarding the perception of methodologies amongst some of the players in implementations. The second cycle involved observing the use of methodologies in the implementations. Techniques involved semi-structured interviews, unstructured interviews and the researcher’s observations. The findings of the research can be summarised as follows: • Project Managers require a methodology as a mechanism for absolving themselves from a project that can potentially run awry. By adhering to a methodology they can claim that they were ‘following instructions.’ • There is an underlying sub-current pervasive in this organisation’s culture that demands that a methodology be used. • Dogmatic adherence to a methodology can be likened to a feed forward control loop. Use of an experienced agent in lieu of a methodology can be likened to the vastly superior feed back control loop.