Exploring the influences of the use of elements comprising information system development methodologies on strategic business goals

Abstract

As the competitive pressure of the global market for information systems (IS) continues to increase, IS development enterprises should start to consider if and how the use of IS development methodologies (ISDM) influences their main strategic business goals. More precisely, they should start to consider two different dimensions of the actual use of ISDM: the number of times an opportunity for ISDM use arises and the number of times the ISDM is actually used. Otherwise, they run the risk of mismanaging their ISDM-related investments. The goal of this study is to develop a model that would enable academics and IS practitioners to better examine and understand how different dimensions of the use of ISDM influence strategic business goals of cost leadership, differentiation and cornering niche markets in IS development enterprises. Given the limited literature on the research topic, this study was considered exploratory and theory building in nature. The main result of the presented exploratory study is a clearly defined model for examining how different dimensions of ISDM influence strategic business goals. Exploratory results show that the actual use of ISDM has a significantly positive influence on strategic business goals of differentiation and cornering of niche markets, but not the cost leadership.

Keywords:

• information systems development methodologies
• strategic management
• evaluation of information systems development methodologies
• strategic business goals

JEL Classification:

• C8

Additional information

Tomaž HOVELJA. Assoc. Prof. Dr Tomaž Hovelja received his bachelor's degree, master's degree and his PhD in Business Administration from the Economic Faculty at the University of Ljubljana. He is employed as a docent at the Faculty of Computer and Information Science at the University of Ljubljana. His research areas are social, economic and organisational factors of IT deployment in enterprises and IT projects success criteria. His research has appeared in journals such as Journal of Systems and Software, Computer Science and Information Systems, Economic and Business Review for Central, South-Eastern Europe.

Olegas VASILECAS. Prof. Dr (hp). Olegas Vasilecas is full-time professor at the Information Systems Department, and principal researcher and head of Information Systems Research Laboratory of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University. He is author and co-author of more than 365 research papers and 5 books in the field of information systems development. His research interests include knowledge, represented by business rule and ontology, information systems development. He delivered lectures in 7 European universities including London, Barcelona, Athens and Ljubljana. Vasilecas carried out an apprenticeship in Germany, Holland, China, and last time in Latvia and Slovenia universities. He supervised 11 successfully defended doctoral theses and now is supervising 4doctoral students. He was the leader of a number of international and local projects. Last time he leaded “Business Rules Solutions for Information Systems Development (VeTIS)” project carried out under High Technology Development Program of Lithuania.

Damjan VAVPOTIČ. Assoc. Prof. Dr Damjan Vavpotič works at the Faculty of Computer and Information Science of the University of Ljubljana and a member of the Information Systems Laboratory at the same university. His research interests include information systems development methodologies, IS methodology evaluation and adoption, and evaluation of e-learning and IT in pedagogical processes. His research has appeared in journals such as Information and Software Technology, Nurse Education Today, Informatica, Computer Science and Information Systems, Electronics and Electrical Engineering, and in proceedings of many international conferences.