A proposal for a framework to classify and review contingent information system design methods

Today, information systems (IS) and related information technologies occupy a prime position in our organizations. However, over 60% of IS projects represent a failure. In this boarder, the contingent and modular design methods, which enable to adapt the steps of the project to the context and to use several method fragments and techniques in a combined manner, seem promising. However, they do not reach expected efficiency since the failure rate remains high. Existing propositions emphasise the description of such methods, but there is no means to understand the underlying logic of integrated contingency approaches. Such means are however essential to help clarifying and analysing existing contingent approaches and to assist researchers in developing more innovative contingent methods. The paper is an attempt to explore some of the issues underlying contingent IS design methods and to propose a framework for their classification. The framework is a 3-dimensional framework which advocates that a contingent design method can be well defined by its contingency level, characterization type and adaptation mode. After reviewing eight existing methods according to the framework, these are analysed and further research directions are highlighted.