Abstract

Information systems development (ISD) efforts increasingly extend beyond developing and delivering technological products, and are directly committed to organizational improvement targets. In such outcome-oriented ISD, digital technology cannot be treated only as an artifact to be constructed and accepted by a client, but must also be understood as an intervention into a complex organizational system, seeking to influence system-level behavior. Whereas we have relatively well-established principles and methods for the product-construction part of ISD, we have a less developed understanding of the work required to understand and manage organizational systems as wholes, which is a necessary aspect of outcome-oriented ISD.

My research seeks to articulate concepts, principles, and approaches for this form of ISD, framed as systemic and organizational inquiry. I draw on John Dewey’s theory of inquiry and its continuations in the work of Donald Schön and Chris Argyris, together with ideas from cybernetics and systems thinking (e.g., Ashby, Beer, Bateson). Empirically, I work through close engagement with ISD practice in a variety of countries, particularly within public sector organizations and in health contexts.

In the talk, I begin with a short story from several years of action research on ISD projects in the HISP network in countries such as Uganda and Mozambique, which provides a concrete entry point into these concerns. Drawing on Dewey’s theory of inquiry, I then outline some basic elements of outcome-oriented ISD that differ from the more traditional product-construction logic, and discuss what this implies for research and practice.

Short Bio

I work as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Informatics at the University of Oslo. My primary interest is in how we can improve digital innovation and digitalization processes with a particular focus on larger public sector organizations. I do empirical research in Norway and within the HISP network, collaborating with IT professionals in countries such as Mozambique and Tanzania. This also involves university collaborations for teaching and supervision in these countries. I'm also interested in how researchers can develop relevant knowledge for professional digitalization practice. I engage actively in the conduct and further development of engaged scholarship as an approach to empirical research and pragmatism as a philosophical underpinning for theorizing. With a basis in engaged scholarship and pragmatism, I see the primary aim of my research to develop what colleagues and I call useful abstractions that are relevant to researchers and IT professionals in understanding and addressing complex real-world problem situations.