Unpacking the systems development process: An empirical application of the CSF concept in a research context

This paper unpacks the black box of the IS development process and, thereby, helps business and IT managers understand better its complexity. The Critical Success Factors (CSF) concept was employed for this purpose in an in-depth study of four diverse systems development projects in a large telecommunications company. Unlike previous applications of the CSF method, the approach adopted in this study facilitated the identification of both 'generic' and 'collective' CSFs in order to map the network of interrelationships between them. Thus the findings shed new light on the process by which information systems are developed by illustrating empirically its complex multidimensional nature and by providing fresh insights into the challenges facing both developers and users in their task of developing organisational IS.