RELEVANCE AND RIGOUR, THEORY AND PRACTICE IN SYSTEMS

摘要

In choosing a methodology, relevance should determine the conduct of inquiry; in using methodologies, rigour will stem from the existence of adequate justification for the requirements elicited by the practitioners. However, it can be concluded that practitioners should be given (by project managers, etc.) considerable freedom to choose approaches to IS development that ― from their perspective - suit the pertaining organisational circumstances. Furthermore, it may often be necessary for practitioners to move between (broadly-based) hard and soft, and near-cookbook and near-ad hoc approaches in many IS development projects ― as the practicalities dictate. Iteration between phases and cross referencing should be encouraged, at least as far as the time-constraints of a particular IS development project allow. Finally, it should be noted that whilst this paper has gone some way to providing a gone some way to providing a coherent framework for interpreting practical action in IS development, Jayaratna's advice to the practitioner, "Not to hand over his or her thought processes to be directed by any external person, model, methodology or framework, including the one advocated in this [1994] book. Methodology users must become responsible for their thinking and actions." (Jayaratna 1994, p. xiii) is pertinent here, as his comments apply to this paper also.