Interpreting socio-technical co-evolution: Applying complex adaptive
systems to IS engagement
Information Technology & People, 19 (1):
35-54 (2006)Abstract
Purpose This paper seeks to understand how software systems and
organisations co-evolve in
practice during an IS engagement. Seeks also to argue that complex
adaptive system theory (CAS)
provides an excellent lens to study the motor of co-evolution due
to its ability to frame the strategies
and reinforcement models of actors and to illustrate this by recounting
four narratives of the
interaction, selection and adaptation of actors arising from a longitudinal
case study of an IS
engagement. Then sets out to consider how the complexity of the engagement
emerges from the
interrelationship of these narratives and how the adaptive behaviour
of the various actors is both a
response to and a driver of co-evolution within the engagement.
Design/methodology/approach An interpretive case study was undertaken
to examine the
implementation of a novel academic scheduling and resource allocation
system at a research-intensive
Australian university. The research was conducted over ten months,
employing ethnographic
methods and semi-structured interviews. This analysis is conducted
within the theoretical framework
of CAS.
Findings By analysing this case study it is demonstrated how CAS
can help designers and
managers of IS engagements conceptualise the attendant complexities
that they encounter. It is also
demonstrated how complexity within IS engagements emerges through
the interactions and
goal-seeking behaviour of actors employing a variety of context-bound
strategies within
neighbourhoods, and how the adaptive behaviour of the various actors
is both a response to and a
driver of co-evolution within the engagement.
Originality/value This work builds on Organization Science, Vol.
10 Nos 3 and 5, by applying
CAS theory to organisational and IS research on co-evolution, where
the findings are grounded in a
longitudinal case study and not computational models.
Keywords Information systems, Adaptability, Complexity theory, Case
studies, Project management
Paper type Research paper
