Documents As Mediating Artifacts in Contemporary IS Development

In this paper, we analyze the roles of project-related documents as mediating artifacts in contemporary IS acquisition and development. We draw on a range of theoretical concepts to propose four ways in which documents are implicated in IS development through (1) the translation of meaning and interests, (2) in boundary-spanning knowledge transfer, (3) in the enactment of structures, and (4) through their materiality. We explore the occurrence of these roles through a case study of the external development of a sophisticated financial database solution using a purchased commercial software package. In conceptualizing documents in this way, we seek to address the need for further empirical work that focuses on understanding the variety of roles such objects can play, the nature of the objects as well as their role, and how such objects emerge as mediating artifacts in practice.

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