ANALYZING INFORMATION-SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT - A COMPARISON AND ANALYSISOF 8 IS DEVELOPMENT APPROACHES

This paper analyses two fundamental assumptions associated with the an alysis and design of information systems:: (1) the assumed organizatio nal role of information systems, and (2) the view of information requi rements. In the case of the first assumption, it distinguishes three a lternatives: a technical view, a sociotechnical view, and a social vie w. In the case of the second assumption, again three alternatives are explored: an objective view, a subjective view, and an intersubjective view. The paper points out the importance of these assumptions from t he viewpoint of IS development through the analysis of eight IS develo pment approaches: Information Modelling, Decision Support Systems, the Socio-Technical Approach, the Infological Approach, the Interactionis t approach, the Speech Act-based approach, Soft Systems Methodology an d the Scandinavian Trade Unionist approach. The first four are establi shed traditions and the last four, newer and more emerging as IS devel opment approaches. The analysis shows that the first two established t raditions have a technical-mechanistic view of the organizational role of information systems, the view of the socio-technical tradition bei ng socio-technical and the infological approach reflecting all three v iews. Most of the emerging approaches emphasize the social nature of i nformation systems. In the case of information requirements, the diffe rences between the established and emerging approaches are not as stri king. While the objective and subjective views dominate the establishe d traditions, only the Speech Act-based approach and Soft Systems Meth odology among the emerging approaches seem to emphasize the intersubje ctive nature of information requirements. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd