The Diverse Landscape of IS Development
Track Chair/s
Keld Bødker | Roskilde University | Denmark |
Lesley Land | University of New South Wales | Australia |
Sabine Madsen | Roskilde University | Denmark |
Sabine Matook | University of Queensland | Australia |
Track Description
This track addresses the conference theme of "Location" through a focus on the landscape of Information Systems Development (ISD). This landscape has changed and broadened enormously over the last decades, both in practice and with regard to theory.
In practice ISD now takes place in many different types of organizational settings, and various organizational forms are used – such as collocated, distributed, virtual, open source/voluntary, outsourced and global setups. Moreover, many different types of methods, modeling and visualization techniques, automated tools, and standard components are applied and shape ISD as it is performed in practice. Also, the information systems that are being developed differ greatly in size, ranging from small apps to large-scale, life-critical systems, and they are being developed for increasingly heterogeneous group of users, in the roles of employees, consumers, and citizens. In other words, in practice, the landscape of ISD has become very diverse.
This is also the case with regard to the theoretical ideas that inform the field. Thus, "new" theoretical approaches that focus on institutional logics, social capital, improvisation, tinkering, emergence, adaptive systems, chaos, and complexity add to or replace "older" understandings that emphasize the soft systems, knowledge management, and socio-technical aspects of ISD.
We call for papers that focus on and facilitate our understanding of ISD as an increasingly diverse field, in both theory and practice. In particular, we encourage papers that explicitly use theory to understand, compare, support and/or improve practice.
Possible topics include (but are not limited to):
- Demonstration of the relevance and applicability of novel theoretical approaches
- Revitalization of "old" theoretical ideas and understandings
- Agile and high-speed ISD
- Virtual ISD
- Distributed ISD
- Open source/voluntary development
- Outsourcing
- Global and cultural issues in ISD
- Component-based development
- Development of new types of information systems for the workplace
- Small-scale development (e.g., of apps)
- Development of systems for consumers and citizens
- Comparative studies of ISD in practice