A field study of the software design process for large systems
Communications of the ACM
Information systems in organization theory: a review
Critical issues in information systems research
Critical issues in information systems research
Interactive Systems: Bridging the Gaps Between Developers and Users
Computer - Special issue on instruction sequencing
Power over users: its exercise by system professionals
Communications of the ACM
ICIS '97 Proceedings of the eighteenth international conference on Information systems
The Journal of Strategic Information Systems
Proceedings of the Tenth Anniversary Conference on Participatory Design 2008
| Hi-index | 0.00 |
The case study history of the cooperation between a software house and its client over a time span of 6 years is analyzed through the metaphor of the gatekeeper role. The analysis shows that, contrary to earlier research employing the gatekeeper metaphor, the gatekeeper role in software development work is not stable but changes considerably over time both from the point of view of the software house and the client. Moreover, there seem to be typical recurrent patterns of change for the gatekeeper role for both of the cooperating partners. The analysis indicates also that some of the main problems in contractual software development work may be alleviated through careful consideration of the content of the gatekeeper role in the cooperation phases between the software house and the client. A major question seems to be the decision when the managerial gatekeeper on each side must step aside and let the software developers and user representatives exchange information without managerial gatekeeping.