Towards determining the appropriate systems development environment: the role of task characteristics

Abstract

The growth of user developed computer-based applications (UDA) presents today's organizations with a means to augment traditional systems development by Information Systems professionals. In order to effectively use the resources offered by these two development environments, organizations need to answer the question: given a systems requirement, which development environment should be used to ensure success. This paper hypothesizes that the answer to this question depends upon the characteristics of the task? Drawing upon previous systems analysis and design research, we examine the effect of a task's degree of structure, interdependency, scope and periodicity, on the appropriate development environment. Results from a preliminary empirical test indicate that these task characteristics are useful in suggesting the appropriate environment for successful development of an information system.