Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Participatory Design in Information Systems Development

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Reframing Humans in Information Systems Development

Part of the book series: Computer Supported Cooperative Work ((CSCW))

Abstract

This chapter deals with IT design in an organizational setting – be it a medium sized service company, a large industrial company, a small entrepreneurial knowledge company, or a public company or institution. In such work settings we often find a complex organizational structure, including several management levels, diverse professional groups, workplace cultures, and established working relations where new IT projects challenge the established ways-of-working. This is also the domain of ‘classic’ information systems development (ISD) approaches. This chapter presents the principles, key ideas, and experiences from using the participatory design method known as the ‘MUST method’, developed by the authors (Bødker et al. 2004).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    MUST is a Danish acronym for initial participatory design activities.

  2. 2.

    Bødker, Keld, Finn Kensing, and Jesper Simonsen, Participatory IT Design: Designing for Business and Workplace Realities, Figure 1.3© 2004 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, by permission of The MIT Press.

  3. 3.

    Bodker, Keld, Finn Kensing, and Jesper Simonsen, Participatory IT Design: Designing for Business and Workplace Realities, Figure 1.1© 2004 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, by permission of The MIT Press.

  4. 4.

    Bodker, Keld, Finn Kensing, and Jesper Simonsen, Participatory IT Design: Designing for Business and Workplace Realities, Figure 2.1© 2004 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, by permission of The MIT Press.

References

  • Ballejos, L. C. & Montagna, J.M. (2008) Method for stakeholder identification in interorganisational environments. Requirements engineering13, 281–297.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bansler, J and Bødker, K. (1993) A Reappraisal of Structured Analysis: Design in an Organizational Context. ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 11(2), 165–193.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beyer, H. & Holtzblatt, K. (1998) Contextual Design. Defining Customer-Centered Systems. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc, San Francisco, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bødker, S. (1996) Creating Conditions for Participation: Conflicts and Resources in in Systems Development. Human-Coomputer Interaction,11(3), 215–236.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bødker, K., Kensing, F. & Simonsen, J. (2000) Professionel IT-forundersøgelse – grundlaget for bæredygtige IT-anvendelser. Samfundslitteratur

    Google Scholar 

  • Bødker, K., Kensing, F. & Simonsen, J. (2002) Changing Work Practices in Design. In Social Thinking – Software Practice(Eds, Dittrich, Y., Floyd, C. & Klischewski, R.) MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp 267–285.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bødker, K., Kensing, F. & Simonsen, J. (2004) Participatory IT Design. Designing for Business and Workplace Realities. MIT press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bødker, K., Kensing, F. & Simonsen, J. (2008) Professionel IT-forundersøgelse – grundlag for brugerdrevet innovation (2 udg.). Samfundslitteratur

    Google Scholar 

  • Clement, A. & Besselaar, P.V.d. (1993) A Retrospective Look at PD Projects. Communications of the ACM, 36, 29–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coughlan, J. & Macredie, R.D. (2002) Effective Communication in Requirements Elicitation: A Comparison of Methodologies. Requirements Engineering7, 47–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeMichelis, G., Dubois, E., Jarke, M., Matthes, F., Mylopoulos, J., Schmidt, J. W., Woo, C. & Yu, E. (1998) A three-faceted view of information systems, Communications of the ACM, 41(12), 64–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gärtner, J. (1998) Participatory Design in Consulting. Computer Supported Cooperative Work – A Journal of Collaborative Computing, 7(3–4), 273–289. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenbaum, J. & Kyng, M. (Eds.) (1991) Design at Work: Cooperative Design of Computer SystemsLawrence Erlbaum Associates, Chichester, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halse, J. (2008) Design Anthropology: Borderland Experiments with Participation, Performance and Situated Intervention. Ph.d. dissertation. IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 2008.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammer, M. & Champy, J. (1993) Reengineering the Corporation. A Manifesto for Business Revolution. HaperBusiness/HaperCollins, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holtzblatt, K., BurnsWendell, J. & Wood, S. (2004) Rapid Contextual Design: A How-to Guide to Key Techniques for User-Centered Design. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc, San Francisco, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, J.A., Randall, D. & Shapiro, D. (1993) From Ethnographic Record to System Design: Some Experiences From the Field. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW): An International Journal, 1, 123–141.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Iivari, J., Isomäki, H., and Pekkola, S., (2009). The User – the Great Unknown of Systems Development: reasons, forms, challenges and intellectual contributions of user involvement, ISJ special issue introduction, to be published.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kensing, F. (1983). The Trade Unions Influence on Technological Change. In Systems Design For, With and By the Users.U. Briefs et al. (eds.), North Holland Publishing Company, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kensing, F. and J. Blomberg (1998) PD meets CSCW – Issues and Concerns. Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 7, 167–185.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kensing, F. (1999). Method Design and Dissemination. In J. Pries-Heje et al. (eds.): Proceedings of The Seventh European Conference on Information Systems, Copenhagen, Denmark.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kensing, F., Simonsen, J. & Bødker, K. (1998a) Participatory Design at a Radio Station. Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 7, 243–271.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kensing, F., Simonsen, J. & Bødker, K. (1998b) MUST – a Method for Participatory Design. Human-Computer Interaction,13(2), 167–198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kensing, F. (2003). Methods and Practices in Participatory Design. ITU Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Korpela, M., H.A. Soriyan, K.C. Olufokunbi, A.A. Onayade, A. Davies-Adetugbo & D. Adesanmi (1998): Community Participation in Health Informatics in Africa: An Experiment in Tripartite Partnership in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Computer Supported Cooperative Work – A Journal of Collaborative Computing, 7(3–4), 339–358. Kluwer, Norwell, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luff, P., Hindmarsh, J. & Heath, C.C. (2000) Workplace studies: recovering work practice and informing system design. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, R., Lyytinen, K., Keil, M. & Cule, P. (2001) Identifying software project risks: An international Delphi study. Journal of Management Information Systems, 17, 5–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schuler, D. & Namioka, A. (Eds.) (1993) Participatory Design: Principles and PracticesLawrence Erlbaum Associates, London, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simonsen, J. (2007) Involving Top Management in IT Projects: Aligning Business Needs and IT Solutions with the Problem Mapping Technique. Communications of the ACM, 50, 53–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simonsen, J. (2009) The Role of Ethnography in the Design and Implementation of IT Systems. Design Principles and Practices, an International Journal, 3(3), 251–264.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simonsen, J. & Hertzum, M. (2008) Participatory Design and the Challenges of Large-Scale Systems: Extending the Iterative PD Approach. Proceedings of the 10th anniversary conference on Participatory Design: Experiences and Challenges, September 30–October 4, 2008, Bloomington, IN, USA, pp 1–10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simonsen, J. and M. Hertzum (2011): “Iterative Particpatory Design”, in Simonsen, J., J.O Bærenholdt, M. Büscher, and J.D. Scheuer (Eds.) Design Research: Synergies from Interdisciplinary Perspectives,Routledge, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simonsen, J. & Kensing, F. (1997) Using Ethnography in Contextual Design. Communications of the ACM, 40, 82–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simonsen, J. & Kensing, F. (1998) Make Room for Ethnography in Design! The Journal of Computer Documentation, 22, 20–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sommerville, I., Rodden, T., Bentley, R. & Sawyer, P. (1992) Sociologists can be surprisingly useful in interactive systems design. Proceedings of HCI’92, York University, September 1992, People and Computers, VII, 341–353.

    Google Scholar 

  • Suchman, L.A. (1983) Office Procedure as Practical Action: Models of Work and System Design. ACM Transactions on Office Information Systems, 1, 320–328.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suchman, L.A. (1987) Plans and Situated Actions: The Problem of Human-Machine Communication. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Womack, J.P. & Jones, D.T. (1996) Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation. Simon and Schuster, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xia, W. & Lee, G. (2004) Grasping the Complexity of IS Development Projects. Communication of the ACM, 47, 69–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark

    Keld Bødker & Jesper Simonsen

  2. University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Finn Kensing

Authors
  1. Keld Bødker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Finn Kensing
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jesper Simonsen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Keld Bødker .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Mathematical Information Technology, University of Jyväskylä, Mattilianniemi 2, Jyväskylä, 40014, Finland

    Hannakaisa Isomäki

  2. , Business Information Mgt. and Logistics, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, 33101, Finland

    Samuli Pekkola

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2010 Springer London

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Bødker, K., Kensing, F., Simonsen, J. (2010). Participatory Design in Information Systems Development. In: Isomäki, H., Pekkola, S. (eds) Reframing Humans in Information Systems Development. Computer Supported Cooperative Work. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84996-347-3_7

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84996-347-3_7

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-84996-346-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-84996-347-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation