Organizational Decision-Making in Information Technology Choice: A Case ...

Organizational Decision-Making in Information Technology Choice: A Case Study and Investigative Approach

Catherine Payne

Submitted to the Faculty of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF SCIENCE IN

COMPUTER SCIENCE

John M. Carroll, Chair D. Scott McCrickard, Member

Joyce Rothschild, Member

April 23, 2004 Blacksburg, VA

Keywords: Organizational Informatics, Complex Organizations, Decision-Making, Structuration, Power-Process, Information Technology Outsourcing, Stakeholder Conflict

Organizational Decision-Making in Information Technology Choice: A Case Study and Investigative Approach

By Catherine Payne

Abstract

A significant amount of research has been done in the area of understanding how people use technology in the workplace. Included in this research is how social and technical systems of an organization interact and influence one another. Previous work in both Management of Information Systems and Computer Supported Cooperative Work show how the interaction between the social and technical systems of a workplace can lead to new technology uses and requirements, as well as adoption issues like resistance. One area that has not been extensively studied is how organizations select technologies to begin with. To understand how an organization makes a choice on technology, one has to investigate the underlying organizational decision-making processes. The subject of this research is a case study of a government IT project. Data on the decision-making that led to the selection of the IT solution is gathered through elite and specialized interviews of government officials who were involved in the selection. The data collected in the case study supports three conclusions about decision-making for organizational systems: 1.) sociopolitical dynamics constrain the design space, 2.) emergent requirements are likely and 3) organizational systems can have different levels of stakeholders and the levels reflect the power structure within the organization. Finally, general guidelines for conducting decision-making analysis are provided so that data from decision-making activities of other organizations can be collected and analyzed by researchers and practitioners.

Acknowledgements

I'd like to thank Jack Carroll, for letting me run with this case study. I'd like to thank Joyce Rothschild for giving me research leads and insights from sociology that I wouldn't have found on my own. I'd like to thank Scott McCrickard for agreeing to be on the committee. Finally, I'd like to thank the Program Executive Office, Information Technology of the US Navy for being willing subjects for this case study.

iii

Table of Contents

Abstract...........................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................iii Table of Contents ...........................................................................................................iv List of Figures ................................................................................................................vi List of Tables ................................................................................................................vii 1 Introduction..................................................................................................................1

1.1 Sociopolitical Factors in Technology Research ......................................................2 1.2 Understanding Technical Choice: A Case Study ....................................................2 2 Background ..................................................................................................................3 2.1 Organizational Informatics.....................................................................................3 2.2. Organizational Informatics in Practice ..................................................................5

2.2.1 Current Information Technology Trends .........................................................6 2.2.2 Requirements Engineering ..............................................................................7 2.3 Theoretical Foundation for Analyzing Technology Decision-Making ....................8 3 Related Work .............................................................................................................10 3.1 Studies and Theories of Work ..............................................................................10 3.1.1 Situated Action .............................................................................................10 3.1.2 Activity Theory.............................................................................................12 3.2 Outsourcing .........................................................................................................14 3.2.1 What is Outsourcing?....................................................................................14 3.2.2 Why Outsource? ...............................................................................................15 3.2.3 Challenges of Outsourcing ................................................................................16 4. Methodology .............................................................................................................19 4.1 Elite and Specialized Interviewing Technique......................................................20 4.2 Data Collection....................................................................................................20 4.2.1 Interview Subjects.........................................................................................21 4.2.2 Interview Structure........................................................................................22 4.2.3 Other Data Sources .......................................................................................23 5 Case Study: The Navy-Marine Corps Intranet.............................................................23 5.1 Background: Preliminary Navy-Marine IT Efforts ...............................................23 5.2 Motivation for a Naval Intranet............................................................................25 5.2.1 Navy/Marine Organization............................................................................25 5.2.2 Legacy IT Implementation ............................................................................27 5.3 Origin of the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet ...........................................................28 5.3.1 "We Need a Naval Intranet"..........................................................................28 5.3.2 First Cut........................................................................................................29 5.4 Acquisition Approach ..........................................................................................31 5.4.1 Traditional DoD Acquisition Process ............................................................32 5.4.2 Performance-Based Acquisition ....................................................................34 5.5 Requirements Engineering ...................................................................................36 5.5.1 Requirements Generation ..............................................................................36 5.5.2 Baselining the Existing Infrastructure............................................................38 5.5.3 Results ..........................................................................................................39 5.6 External Political Resistance................................................................................41

iv

5.6.1 DOD Involvement.........................................................................................41 5.6.2 Congressional Involvement ...........................................................................43 5.7 Contract Award ...................................................................................................45 5.8 Implementation....................................................................................................47 5.9 Problems with Implementation ............................................................................50 5.9.1 Application Proliferation...............................................................................50 5.9.2 User Response ..............................................................................................53 5.10 Lessons Learned ................................................................................................55 6. Discussion of Case Study Results ..............................................................................57 6.1 Decision-Making Process Analysis ......................................................................57 6.1.1 Structure of Organizational Political Dynamics .............................................57 6.1.2 Goal Behind the NMCI .................................................................................60 6.1.3 Alternatives and Selection.............................................................................60 6.2 Implementation and Outcome ..............................................................................65 6.2.1 Application Proliferation...............................................................................65 6.2.2 Cultural Change: From Personal Computer to Government Computer...........66 7. Lessons Learned ........................................................................................................67 7.1 Sociopolitical Dynamics Constrain the Design Space...........................................67 7.1.1 Sociopolitical Dynamics Define Acceptable Solutions ..................................67 7.1.2 Sociopolitical Dynamics Determine Who Makes Decisions ..........................68 7.1.3 General Implications .....................................................................................69 7.2 Expect Emergent Requirements and Changes ......................................................70 7.2.1 Requirements Engineering for Office Work ..................................................71 7.2.2 Effect of a Linear Design Process..................................................................71 7.2.3 General Implications .....................................................................................72 7.3 Organizational Systems Can Have Multiple Levels of Goals................................73 7.3.1 Stakeholder Goals are Aligned with Organizational Power Structure.............73 7.3.2 General Implications .....................................................................................74 7.4 Guidelines on Conducting IT Decision-Making Analysis.....................................75 7.4.1 Challenges ....................................................................................................75 7.4.2 Guidelines for Conducting Decision-Making Process Analysis .....................76 8 Conclusion and Future Work ......................................................................................81 8.1 Future Work ........................................................................................................81 8.2 Closing ................................................................................................................82 A.1 Appendix A: Questionnaires Used For Interviews (Subjects 1 & 2) ........................87 A.1.1 Questionnaire: History and General Background Interviews.............................87 A.1.2 Questionnaire: Chief of Staff Interview (Subject 3) ..........................................89 A.1.3 Questionnaire: Deputy Director (Subject 4)......................................................91 A.1.4 Questionnaire: Executive Director (Subject 5)..................................................93 B.1 DoD Systems Development Process........................................................................94 C.1 Decision-Making Process Highlights ......................................................................95

v

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download