Scenarios for system development: Matching context and strategy

A comparison of seventeen contingency models for system development (SD) led to the conclusion that no model supports all requested activities: diagnosing the contest, describing alternative approaches, matching context and approach, looking at social organizational issues, and supporting a dynamic fit between contest and approach. This study paid special attention to the social and organizational aspects of system development. Our contingency model specifies five possible types of risk (functional uncertainty, conflict potential, technical uncertainty and resistance potential) in system development that should be controlled. For each type, a corresponding proposition about its control was derived from this model and analysed in seven system development processes. We succeeded in explaining the outcome of the development process through the fit between context and situation, thereby gaining some preliminary support for the model. Still, the limitations of such a contingency model are to be taken seriously.

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