Computer consultants' views of user participation in the system development process

The form of user participation adopted in any system development process is commonly argued to be an important determinant of its outcome. This study investigated computer consultants' experiences and views of different forms of user participation in the system development process. Thirty-four consu ltants from 14 Swedish companies of three different sizes filled out a ques tionnaire (response rate 47%). The results indicated that the consultants v iewed both external factors and their own roles as guiding the degree of us er participation. The consultants reported that reference groups, seminars/ meetings and user testing were common forms of user participation in projec ts introducing existing programs into organizations and that seminars/meeti ngs, users in project groups and reference groups, were the most common use r participation forms in projects developing new programs for an organizati on. In both contexts, user testing was reported to be most common in the op eration/administration phase of the project. The majority of consultants co nsidered union participation to be fairly unimportant. Further, it was foun d that questionnaires were seldom used for data collection in projects. Fin ally, the consultants did not appear to categorize development projects by the type of user participation employed in the projects. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.