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Reducing Requirement Incorrectness and Coping with Its Negative Impact in Information System Development Projects
Author(s) -
Hsu Jack ShihChieh,
Lin TungChin,
Cheng KuangTing,
Linden Lars P.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
decision sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.238
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1540-5915
pISSN - 0011-7315
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-5915.2012.00368.x
Subject(s) - computer science , requirements analysis , coping (psychology) , domain (mathematical analysis) , knowledge management , information system , process (computing) , process management , risk analysis (engineering) , software , psychology , business , engineering , mathematical analysis , mathematics , psychiatry , electrical engineering , programming language , operating system
The negative impact of incorrect requirements on information system development (ISD) project performance has long been acknowledged. This study addresses the problem of incorrect requirements by proposing a model that combines the error reduction and coping concepts proposed by Field, Ritzman, Safizadeh, and Downing (2006) with the view that ISD is a knowledge‐intensive process. The model hypothesizes that when developers and users possess an understanding of each other's primary domain of knowledge, the prevention of incorrect requirements and the mitigation of the negative consequences of incorrect requirements tend to improve project performance. Data collected from 250 ISD professionals on the basis of their experiences of recently completed ISD projects confirmed all of our hypotheses. The results demonstrate that the eliciting of incorrect requirements can be reduced when users and developers possess cross‐domain understanding and when requirement analysis methodologies and techniques are available. Furthermore, the negative impact of incorrect requirements on project performance can be mitigated when developers have sufficient ISD knowledge and behavioral knowledge.