Abstract

Information systems development (ISD) efforts increasingly extend beyond developing and delivering technological products, and are directly committed to organizational improvement targets. In such outcome-oriented ISD, digital technology cannot be treated only as an artifact to be constructed and accepted by a client, but must also be understood as an intervention into a complex organizational system, seeking to influence system-level behavior. Whereas we have relatively well-established principles and methods for the product-construction part of ISD, we have a less developed understanding of the work required to understand and manage organizational systems as wholes, which is a necessary aspect of outcome-oriented ISD.

My research seeks to articulate concepts, principles, and approaches for this form of ISD, framed as systemic...