The article presents a study of chief information officers (CIOs), which focuses on changes in the position's leadership role from a supply-oriented to demand-oriented model. The trend toward information technology (IT) as a commodity which can be outsourced has led to CIOs becoming more involved in business strategy planning at the senior executive level. A staged maturity model of the CIO role is presented as a means of analyzing this transition, from IT as an operations-oriented support function to the strategic deployment of IT to achieve a competitive advantage. Matched CIO responses from over 150 corporations were used to identify aspects of this process, such as human capital, CIO structural power, and organizational support for IT.
As business and technology environments change at an unprecedented rate, software development agility to respond to changing user requirements has become increasingly critical for software development performance. Agile software development approaches, which emphasize sense-and-respond, self-organization, cross-functional teams, and continuous adaptation, have been adopted by an increasing number of organizations to improve their software development agility. However, the agile development literature is largely anecdotal and prescriptive, lacking empirical evidence and theoretical foundation to support the principles and practices of agile development. Little research has empirically examined the software development agility construct in terms of its dimensions, determinants, and effects on software development performance. As a result, there is a lack of understanding about how organizations can effectively implement an agile development approach. Using an integrated research approach that combines quantitative and qualitative data analyses, this research opens the black box of agile development by empirically examining the relationships among two dimensions of software development agility (software team response extensiveness and software team response efficiency), two antecedents that can be controlled (team autonomy and team diversity), and three aspects of software development performance (on-time completion, on-budget completion, and software functionality). Our PLS results of survey responses of 399 software project managers suggest that the relationships among these variables are more complex than what has been perceived by the literature. The results suggest a tradeoff relationship between response extensiveness and response efficiency. These two agility dimensions impact software development performance differently: response efficiency positively affects all of on-time completion, on-budget completion, and software functionality, whereas response extensiveness positively affects only software functionality. The results also suggest that team autonomy has a positive effect on response efficiency and a negative effect on response extensiveness, and that team diversity has a positive effect on response extensiveness. We conducted 10 post hoc case studies to qualitatively cross-validate our PLS results and provide rich, additional insights regarding the complex, dynamic interplays between autonomy, diversity, agility, and performance. The qualitative analysis also provides explanations for both supported and unsupported hypotheses. We discuss these qualitative analysis results and conclude with the theoretical and practical implications of our research findings for agile development approaches.
This paper conceptualizes and develops valid measurements of the key dimensions of information systems development project (ISDP) complexity. A conceptual framework is proposed to define four components of ISDP complexity: structural organizational complexity, structural IT complexity, dynamic organizational complexity, and dynamic IT complexity. Measures of ISDP complexity are generated based on literature review, field interviews, and focus group discussions. The measures are then refined through a systematic process and are tested using confirmatory data analyses with survey responses from 541 ISDP managers. Results support the final measurement model that consists of a second-order factor of ISDP complexity, four distinct first-order factors, and 15 measurement items. The measurement adequately satisfies the criteria for unidimensionality, convergent validity, discriminant validity, reliability, factorial invariance across different types of ISDPs, and nomo logical validity. Implications of the study results to research and practice as well as limitations of the study and directions for future research are discussed.
Although user satisfaction is widely used by researchers and practitioners to evaluate information system success, important issues related to its meaning and measurement across population subgroups have not been adequately resolved. To be most useful in decision-making, instruments like end-user computing satisfaction (EUCS), which are designed to evaluate system success, should be robust. That is, they should enable comparisons by providing equivalent measurement across diverse samples that represent the variety of conditions or population subgroups present in organizations. Using a sample of 1,166 responses, the EUCS instrument is tested for measurement invariance across four dimensions--respondent positions, types of application, hardware platforms, and modes of development. While the results suggest that the meaning of user satisfaction is context sensitive and differs across population subgroups, the 12 measurement items are invariant across all four dimensions. The 12-item summed scale enables researchers or practitioners to compare EUCS scores across the instrument's originally intended universe of applicability.
This article presents a confirmatory factor analysis of the end-user computing satisfaction index. User satisfaction is often thought to be the most important measure of success for information systems. This study uses LISREL VII to test hypothesis against sample data. The sample data was collected from 409 computer end-users from 18 different organizations using 139 computer applications including accounts payable, financial planning, inventory, and computer-aided design. The data was statistically analyzed for a variety of models.
The increasing need for integration and the rapid growth of online systems have made telecommunications a vital part of management information systems (MIS). In search of competitive advantage, organizations make significant investments in telecommunications. Telecommunications management is becoming a top priority of information systems executives. The MIS literature suggests that steering committees are effective means of managing information systems. However, there is no information on how steering committees impact the management of the telecommunications function. Drawing on organizational theory and MIS literature, a framework is presented that relates firm size and telecommunications steering committees to planning practices and organizational recognition and support. Using a survey of 137 organizations, this framework is examined. The results of this exploratory research suggest that use of a telecommunications steering committee is associated with firm size, planning practices, and top management recognition and support. As firms grow, they tend to more frequently use steering committees for inter unit coordination, setting policies, allocating resources, and monitoring progress. These steering committees can also pro- mote organizational recognition and secure funding commitments for the telecommunications function.