Against method-ism: Exploring the limits of method

Provides a critique of method‐ism ‐ the view that methodology is necessary and sufficient for information systems’ development success; method‐ism presupposes also that systems developers understand the value of methodology and will prefer to work with it rather than without it. Argues, against method‐ism, that method flows from understanding, and not the reverse. Hence method cannot be a substitute for understanding. Discusses the way in which humans tend to interact with the world by means of ready‐to‐hand tools, using the ideas of Heidegger and Ihde. Shows that tools are used only if available (ready‐to‐hand) in the world of doing. If a methodology is not ready‐to‐hand, it will break down and be ignored in the pragmatics of getting the job done. Presents a number of arguments why methodologies by design will tend to break down (not be ready‐to‐hand) and hence be discarded.

[1]  Colette Rolland,et al.  A proposal for context-specific method engineering , 1996 .

[2]  Theodore Roszak,et al.  The cult of information : a neo-luddite treatise on high tech,artificial intelligence, and the true art of thinking , 1995 .

[3]  J. R. Beaumont.  Diagnosing the System for Organizations , 1985 .

[4]  F. C. P. Motta.  The theory of communicative action , 1991 .

[5]  J. O. Urmson,et al.  How to Do Things with Words@@@The William James Lectures , 1963 .

[6]  Ann,et al.  Truth and method , 1994, Journal of Religion and Health.

[7]  D. Ihde.  Technology and the lifeworld : from garden to earth , 1991 .

[8]  Enid Mumford,et al.  Computer systems in work design--the ETHICS method : effective technical and human implementation of computer systems , 1979 .

[9]  Peter Checkland,et al.  Systems Thinking, Systems Practice , 1981 .

[10]  Marjorie Grene,et al.  Knowing and being : essays , 1969 .

[11]  Christopher Alexander.  Notes on the Synthesis of Form , 1964 .

[12]  B. Latour,et al.  Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts , 1979 .

[13]  J. Sayers.  Against Method , 2016 .

[14]  Terry Winograd,et al.  Understanding computers and cognition - a new foundation for design , 1987 .

[15]  Peter Checkland,et al.  Diagnosing the system for organizations: S. BEER Wiley, Chichester, 1985, 152 + xiii pages, £7.50 , 1986 .

[16]  Wiebe E. Bijker,et al.  Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs: Toward a Theory of Sociotechnical Change , 1995 .

[17]  Claudio Ciborra,et al.  Improvisation and Information Technology in Organizations , 1996, ICIS.

[18]  Mary Tiles,et al.  Living in a Technological Culture: Human Tools and Human Values , 1995 .

[19]  Pamela Cobbs.  The Cult of Information: A Neo-Luddite Treatise on High-Tech, Artificial Intelligence, and the True Art of Thinking, Second Edition, by Theodore Roszak , 1996, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[20]  Jan Stage,et al.  Method Engineering. Principles of Method Construction and Tool Support , 1996 .

[21]  Lucas D. Introna.  Management, Information and Power , 1997 .

[22]  Tony Cornford,et al.  Limitations of information systems theory and practice: a case for pluralism , 1995, ISCO.

[23]  Susan Leigh Star,et al.  Changing Order: Replication and Induction in Scientific Practice by H. M. Collins (review) , 1988, Technology and Culture.

[24]  Tony Cornford,et al.  A review of the methodologies movement , 1993, J. Inf. Technol..

[25]  R. Hepburn,et al.  BEING AND TIME , 2010 .

[26]  M. Polanyi,et al.  Knowing and being : essays , 1969 .

[27]  Viktor Mikhaĭlovich Glushkov,et al.  An Introduction to Cybernetics , 1957, The Mathematical Gazette.

[28]  Brian Fitzgerald,et al.  An Investigation of the Use of Systems Development Methodologies in Practice , 1996, ECIS.

[29]  Neil Postman,et al.  Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology , 1993 .

[30]  H. Foerster,et al.  Principles of Self-Organization — In a Socio-Managerial Context , 1984 .

[31]  A. Koller,et al.  Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language , 1969 .

[32]  Lucas D. Introna.  Information: A hermeneutic perspective , 1993, ECIS.

[33]  E. Goffman.  The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life , 1959 .

[34]  Edgar A. Whitley.  Confusion, social knowledge and the design of intelligent machines , 1996, J. Exp. Theor. Artif. Intell..

[35]  E. Jantsch.  The self-organizing universe : scientific and human implications of the emerging paradigm of evolution , 1980 .