Information systems development as flowing wholeness

Abstract

This paper asserts that information systems development (lSD) should be understood as a continuous and holistic process. To support this view, ISD is analyzed in light of the current challenges of permanent business model innovation and of the ensuing pressures on the fast, but controlled, adjustment of the supporting information systems. In a context of growing complexity, increased interaction between people, departments, and enterprises, wide availability of heterogeneous enterprise software applications that call for integration, and concerns about the preservation of legacy, the need of completely new approaches to ISD becomes absolute. This paper describes an approach we have developed to this end, and shows how it can be used to fulfill the aim of continuous and holistic ISD. © 2001 by Springer Science+Business Media New York.