A socio-technical
approach to improving the systems development process
Patnayakuni, Ravi r.patnayakuni@email.uah.edu
Ruppel, Cynthia P. ruppel@nova.edu
Journal of the Association for Information Systems; Aug2006, Vol. 7 Issue 8, p545-567
Abstract
Research on improving the systems
development processes has primarily focused on mechanisms such as tools,
software development methodologies, knowledge sharing and process capabilities.
This research has yielded considerable insights into improving the systems
development process, but the large majority of information systems development
projects still continue to be over budget, late, and ineffective in meeting
their user needs. Together with the advent of software development moving
offshore, or consisting of offshore team members, a more holistic approach is
appropriate. Approached from a sociotechnical perspective
the software development process is viewed as a process embedded in a social
and a technical subsystem. Drawing upon socio-technical work design principles,
this paper suggests how capabilities of the development process can be
improved. Data collected from a survey of software development practices in
organizations indicates that organizations at different levels of process
capabilities differ in work system characteristics as well as process
performance. For example, the use of multi-skilled teams was found to be
significantly related to the systems development process level as well as significantly
related to all the performance measures studied. This paper provides empirical
support for the socio-technical approach and provides a theoretical foundation
for designing software process initiatives in organizations.