Systems
Development Process Improvement: A Knowledge Integration Perspective
Patnayakuni, Ravi r.patnayakuni@uah.edu
Rai, Arun arunrai@gsu.edu
Tiwana, Amrit tiwana@iastate.edu
IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management; May2007,
Vol. 54 Issue 2, p286-300, 15p
Abstract
Although organizations have applied a variety
of practices and tools to address information systems development (ISD)
performance problems, most of these approaches have focused on controlling and
improving predictability of the development process. There is growing
recognition that ISD is a knowledge-intensive process that requires the
integration of specialized stakeholder knowledge. We develop the perspective
that integration of this specialized knowledge across knowledge boundaries in
the ISD process drives ISD performance. We theorize that formal and informal
organizational integrative practices influence ISD performance, because they
facilitate the development of boundary objects that effectively span knowledge
boundaries. Results from a field study of 110 firms provide considerable
support for the proposed model. This paper makes three novel contributions to
the technology management literature. First, it demonstrates that knowledge
integration across knowledge boundaries through boundary objects improves ISD
performance. Second, it shows how formal and informal organizational
integrative practices enhance the integration of specialized knowledge within
and across organizational subunits. Third, it shows that the positive influence
of formal and informal organizational integrative practices on ISD performance
is partially mediated by knowledge integration. For engineering and technology
managers, the results highlight the centrality of knowledge integration for the
management of technology development. Collectively, these findings offer a
novel knowledge integration-based perspective that complements prior research
on systems development and new product development.