METAPHORS AND METHODOLOGIES - LIVING BEYOND THE SYSTEMS MACHINE

Metaphors are the cognitive lenses we use to make sense of all situati ons. Intimately interconnected with the way we think, metaphors are fu ndamental in shaping reality. Building on work about metaphor's in org anizational life, this paper examines the language of information syst ems users in 16 different organizations. The results confirm the exist ence of six main metaphors (journey, war, game, organism, society, and machine) and adds three metaphors that also emerged from the language of IS users (family, zoo, and jungle). Dramatistic analysis was used to reveal that seven of these principal metaphors are found in commonl y used systems development methodologies. For example, the systems dev elopment life cycle draws upon the ''game'' metaphor, and structured m ethodologies and CASE tools are akin to the ''machine'' metaphor. Anal ysts who are aware of the existence of these metaphors (both in the us er organization and within the methodologies themselves) will begin to see the systems development process in an entirely different light. C aution must be undertaken, however, when using this approach. First, a nalysts should lead the systems development Process by selecting a met hodology to match user metaphors, not the other way around. Second, an alysts must see, rather than suppress, the paradoxical richness of met aphors. Third, analysts should not limit the number of metaphors becau se it limits the usefulness of this approach. Fourth, analysts should be adequately trained in a variety of systems development methodologie s. Finally, analysts should use metaphorical analysis in conjunction w ith other approaches Using the recommendations and findings for guidan ce, analysts can begin to develop the power of metaphorical analysis t o better understand and communicate with users during the development process.