Background

It is a truism to say that computers have become ubiquitous in today's organizations. Since their application in administrative data processing in the mid-1950s, they have become one of the key instruments for improving the formal information processing activities of organizations. In less than four decades, computer-based information systems (IS) have evolved from supporting back office, already formalized, systems such as payroll, to penetrating the entire organization. New applications and technologies have emerged with great fanfare, and the enthusiasm for information systems continues to run high. Indeed, many enthusiasts conceive of information technology as the primary vehicle for organizational problem-solvers, increasing an organization's capacity to cope with external and internal complexity and improve its performance. Nor is there any doubt that information systems will play an even more vital role in tomorrow's organization.

The development of these information systems has received considerable attention in both the popular and academic literature. New methods for designing systems, new approaches for analysis, new strategies for implementing the developed systems, and the like, have proliferated over the past 30 years. Yet, a majority of information systems design approaches conceive of information systems development (ISD) with the assumption that they are technical systems with social consequences. This leads one to focus on IS design problems as problems of technical complexity. Proponents of this view assume that IS development problems can largely be resolved by more sophisticated technical solutions (tools, models, methods and principles).