When Systems Loose their Identity

This paper reports a longitudinal study of the design and implementation of a Web-based groupware application. We studied the development of three versions of the application, and the preliminary discussions of the forth. We adopt a sensemaking perspective to analyze the dynamics of this process and show that improvisational action and bricolage (make do with the materials at hand) played a vital role in the development process, successfully within a small group of people, but less so when more, distributed people became involved. The paper introduces the problem of distributed sensemaking in IS development.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: ECIS
• Authors: Jorgen P. Bansler, Erling C. Havn
• Keywords: ECIS 2004, Information Technology, Longitudinal Study, Preliminary Discussions, Web-based Groupware Application