A Qualitative Oriented Study About IT Procurement Processes: Comparison of 4 European Countries

This study shows that in a qualitative study a small sample size is sufficient to gain interesting results and show differences between the procurement of IT services in different countries. It demonstrates how a requirements analysis can be conducted in a very early phase of a web development project. For the website of an IT company which sells products worldwide the needs of potential users of its website should be identifed. With 8 users each from Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Spain, an in-depth interview was conducted; after that some page drafts were shown. The users were from different hierarchy levels and from companies of varying sizes; all involved in the IT procurement process. The study showed who is involved in the different stages and what is relevant in each stage. The distribution of responsibilities was different in each country. The study gave insights into how to support potential buyers during the IT procurement process and how to adapt the web pages to local ne...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: HCI
• Authors: Michael Schiessl, Sabrina Duda
• Keywords: HCI 2007, Human Computer Interaction, IT Services, Procurement Process, Small Sample Size