ISDM tailoring on complex information systems projects

This thesis explores issues related to how methodologies for guiding the development of complex Information Systems (“Information Systems Development Methodologies” or “ISDMs”) are tailored in practice. A model of ISDM tailoring was proposed, refined and tested through case studies. The tailoring of an ISDM was observed in three large, commercial IS development projects undertaken by Sysco, a global provider of Information Technology (IT) hardware, software, and services. The model represents an ISDM as existing in three states: the Methodology-as-Documented, the Methodology-as-Anticipated, and the Methodology-in-Action. The model also proposes that transitions between pairs of states can occur in two fundamentally different ways: Contingent tailoring, which is a pro-active response to known or assumed project characteristics; and Improvised tailoring, which is a reactive response to emerging project conditions, drawing on the knowledge and experience of the tailoring practitioner. Exemplars of the three states, and of transitions of both types between these states, have been identified and documented. The implications for theory include: Identifying and defining the three states in which an ISDM can exist; Identifying and defining two types of transition between states; and Developing a model which represents the different states and the transitions between them observed in the course of this research. Implications for the practice of ISDM tailoring include: Identifying the need to incorporate into documentation and training materials associated with an ISDM, recognition of the third, intermediate state in which an ISDM can exist, the Methodology-as-Anticipated, and the identification of the two types of transitions between states. These findings are captured in a “Model of Methodology Tailoring”, developed and refined in the course of the thesis.