Business-Driven Information Systems Change: Understanding the Change Process

Organizational information systems (IS) change for a variety of reasons, yet the change process itself remains ill-defined. Much of the focus has been on systems development, with an assumption that the same processes can be used in systems change. By focusing explicitly on systems change, this paper aims to improve our understanding by focusing on the following research questions: (1) What are key factors that influence the change decision-making choices for enterprise IS, and (2) how does the process of determining the change choices take place? This research study used thematic analysis to code interviews with 31 IS professionals who play various roles at five different organizations in different industries. The interviews were then coded using thematic analysis to examine the change process. This research makes the case that rather than studying the technology in isolation, the change process itself should be the level of analysis. The model outlines three types of negotiations that occur between the business staff, IT staff, and IT system. Results show, first, that the change process, rather than the technology, should be the focus of analysis. Second, the results suggest that organizations could benefit by dedicating time and building processes for these negotiations to occur as a part of the system change processes. Overall, this paper provides a comprehensive understanding of the business-driven information systems change process by focusing on the interactions between business and IT staff, rather than just the technology itself.