User readiness for IS development: An examination of 50 cases

Abstract

Nearly every information system development (ISD) triggers a wide variety of feelings from all stakeholders who are impacted in various ways because, more than ever, ISD is leveraged as a means of organizational change. Motivated by the stubborn progress on the success rate of ISD, this research, in contrast to the previous research, hypothesizes that user readiness underpins all other kinds of readiness for ISD. In light of this hypothesis, our research team has interviewed representatives of 50 ISD projects in order to identify the efficacy of user readiness in the success rate of ISD and the responsiveness of user readiness to project-specific efforts. Our interview findings indicate that user readiness does correlate to the success of ISD, although such correspondence varies in degree according to the complexity of ISD. In addition, our findings show that the motivational aspect of user readiness responds to project-specific efforts more slowly than the cognitive aspect of it, and that user readiness is in the midst of other kinds of readiness such as process readiness, data readiness, organizational and cultural readiness, so it is pivotal to the success of ISD. The findings from this research should help researchers and practitioners refocus their efforts to improve the success rate of ISD. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.