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Information Systems Foundations Theory, Representation and Reality Information Systems Foundations Theory, Representation and Reality Information Systems Foundations Theory, Representation and Reality Dennis N. Hart and Shirley D. Gregor (Editors) Workshop Chair Shirley D. Gregor ANU Program Chairs Dennis N. Hart ANU Shirley D. Gregor ANU Program Committee Bob Colomb University of Queensland Walter Fernandez ANU Steven Fraser ANU Sigi Goode ANU Peter Green University of Queensland Robert Johnston University of Melbourne Sumit Lodhia ANU Mike Metcalfe University of South Australia Graham Pervan Curtin University of Technology Michael Rosemann Queensland University of Technology Graeme Shanks University of Melbourne Tim Turner Australian Defence Force Academy Leoni Warne Defence Science and Technology Organisation David Wilson University of Technology, Sydney Published by ANU E Press The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is also available online at: http://epress.anu.edu.au/info_systems02_citation.html National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Information systems foundations : theory, representation and reality Bibliography. ISBN 9781921313134 (pbk.) ISBN 9781921313141 (online) 1. Management information systems–Congresses. 2. Information resources management–Congresses. 658.4038 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Cover design by Brendon McKinley with logo by Michael Gregor Authors’ photographs on back cover: ANU Photography Printed by University Printing Services, ANU This edition © 2007 ANU E Press Table of Contents Preface vii The Papers ix Theory Designing for Mutability in Information Systems Artifacts, Shirley Gregor and Juhani Iivari 3 The Eect of the Application Domain in IS Problem Solving: A Theoretical Analysis, Iris Vessey 25 Towards a Unied Theory of Fit: Task, Technology and Individual, Michael J. Davern 49 Are Routine Manual Systems Genuine Information Systems?, Reeva Lederman and Robert Johnston 71 Representation Extending the Scope of Representation Theory: A Review and Proposed Research Model, Jan Recker and Michael Rosemann and Peter Green and Marta Indulska 93 Indexing Research: An Approach to Grounding Ingarden’s Ontological Framework, John W Lamp and Simon Milton 115 Using Protocol Analysis to Explore the Creative Requirements Engineering Process, Lemai Nguyen and Graeme Shanks 133 Poles Apart or Bedfellows? Re-conceptualising Information Systems Success and Failure, Dennis Hart and Leoni Warne 153 Reality An Action-Centred Approach to Conceptualising Information Support for Routine Work, Vivienne Waller and Robert B Johnston and Simon K Milton 171 Emergent Conversational Technologies That Are Democratising Information Systems in Organisations: The Case of the Corporate Wiki, Helen Hasan and Charmaine C Pfaff 197 A Road Less Travelled: Exploratory Practice-Driven Theory Development Opportunities in IS Project Management, Peter Reynolds and Philip Yetton 211 A Multi-Paradigm Approach to Grounded Theory, Walter Fernández and Michael A. Martin and Shirley Gregor and Steven E. Stern and Michael Vitale 231 The Methodological and Theoretical Foundations of Decision Support Systems Research, David Arnott and Graham Pervan 247 v Preface This volume contains the papers presented at the Information Systems Foundations Workshop, 27-28 September, 2006. The workshop was the fourth in a series, begun in 1999 by Kit Dampney at Macquarie University and continued biennially from 2002 at The Australian National University (ANU), focusing on the theoretical foundations of the discipline of information systems. The workshop immediately followed the annual Australian Council of Professors and Heads of Information Systems (ACPHIS) workshop also held at the ANU. The theme of the 2006 Workshop was `Theory, Representation and Reality' and it once again allowed researchers and practitioners in the field of information systems to come together to discuss some of the fundamental issues relating to our discipline. Information systems is still a quite young field of study that, perhaps uniquely, is a peculiar juxtaposition of the technological, in the form of computing and communication technology artifacts, and the non-technological, in the form of the humans and organisations that design, implement and use systems built with that technology. This has and still does present a problem for information systems theorists because typically theories in technologically oriented disciplines differ significantly from the more human oriented disciplines in their view of the world as well as how best to investigate it and intervene in it. Theory development and testing in information systems therefore presents a significant and continuing challenge since it must reconcile and integrate these differences at both the philosophical and practical levels in order to provide a secure foundation for the discipline. Moreover, it may and has been argued that what theoretical foundations exist in information systems are still weak, diffuse, poorly integrated and consist largely of imports from other fields of study with little that the field can really call its own. Accordingly, the primary aim of the Information Systems Foundations workshops is to provide those with an interest in the foundation of their discipline with an opportunity to discuss, debate and hopefully improve those foundations. Typically the workshop gives authors an opportunity to present papers and get feedback on ideas that might be regarded as too new or risky for publication in conventional outlets. There have been some good outcomes from this approach, with revised papers going on to find a wider audience in mainstream journals. As the workshop is relatively small, and there is only one stream of papers, all paper presentations are typically attended by all participants, which leads to ongoing and vigorous discussion. We had some discussion at the 2006 workshop as to whether a small specialised workshop such as this should continue. The general consensus was positive, as participants felt that it was filling a niche not met by other conferences. vii Information Systems Foundations The papers presented here were accepted after a double-blind review process and we thank our program committee and reviewers for their assistance. We also acknowledge and thank the sponsors of the workshop: The National Centre for Information Systems Research (NCISR) and the School of Accounting and Business Information Systems at the ANU. Dr Lee Boldeman of the Australian Department of Communication, Information Technology and the Arts also provided, as the keynote speaker on the second day of the workshop, a thought provoking overview of the contribution made by Information Technology to productivity and his own views on related economic theory. All in all, therefore, the Workshop provided a stimulating and productive as well as an enjoyable couple of days for both the authors and attendees, and we hope that the papers that form this volume will provide similar stimulation, provoke similar productive outcomes, and perhaps provide some enjoyable reading as well, for a wider audience than those who were able to attend the Workshop itself. Dennis Hart Shirley Gregor viii The Papers The papers in this book are organised into three sections entitled `Theory', `Representation' and `Reality', reflecting the sub-title of the 2006 Workshop. While convenient, it has to be said that this division is somewhat misleading, since no such hard categorial division can really be made: most if not all of the papers address more than one of these aspects at once. Nevertheless, in most cases an overriding interest in one or other of the three areas can be identified and this has formed the basis for the categorisation we have adopted in this volume.1 For instance, the lead paper by Gregor and Iivari is primarily theoretical in focus, considering the nature of the information system artifact and even introducing a new term (semizoic artifact) to describe such artifacts. But the purpose of the theoretical discussion as well as the introduction of the new term is not only theoretically motivated but also has a distinctly practical ultimate aim: to help those who grapple with the messy reality of designing and developing information systems to better understand the nature of and achieve better results from their efforts. In a similar way, the papers of Vessey and Davern focus on the theoretical concept of `fit' in an information systems context. Again, however, the aim of that focus is to identify and clarify ways in which it might be possible to improve the problem solving abilities and performance of both information system developers and users in the real world in which they work. The final paper in the `Theory' section by Lederman and Johnston is essentially concerned with how the concept `information system' is to be defined. This may appear to be a distinctly and exclusively theoretical issue, but even here there is crossover into the other categories: the intent of the authors is to contrast our usual understanding of `information systems' with what they call `routine manual systems' in order to glean ideas, lessons and implications about how we build information systems from looking at and considering how routine manual systems do their work in the world. The papers in the `Representation' section,
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