EARLY DIAGNOSIS OF MIS IMPLEMENTATION FAILURE: PROMISING RESULTS AND UNANSWERED QUESTIONS.

Abstract

Much of the research on MIS implementation which has been conducted in the past decade has focused on identifying and measuring the organizational characteristics which appear to be particularly conducive to either success or failure of system development efforts. While such research is useful in providing insight about the implementation problem, it provides little guidance for the management of ongoing implementation efforts. The study described in this work addresses the implementation management question by exploring the use of MIS users' pre-implementation expectations about a system as indicators of the likely success of that system. The results of a number of implementation studies suggest that implementation failure is more likely when users hold unrealistic expectations about a system. Research in other areas, especially product evaluation and job satisfaction, also shows a connection between realism of expectations and outcomes (e. g. , satisfaction). Thus, user expectations held at the end of the Definition stage might serve as early warning indicators of MIS implementation outcomes.