MAKING SENSE OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS FAILURES BY USING NARRATIVE ANALYSIS METHODS
Lynette Drevin · 2008
Early references to IS failure indicate that this phenomenon has been with us for a few decades. Numerous attempts are found in the literature to define or describe IS failure. It is shown that although much is known about IS failures and many solutions are given by researchers to avoid failure, many IS projects still founder. The problems may be experienced during development or during the use of the system. The problems could be in the area of financial constraints not being met or on the functionality side, e.g. user requirements not met. This paper describes a current project on IS failure and narrative methods. Background information is presented on IS failure and narrative analysis methods as an approach to be utilised when making sense of failures. The way people tell stories and specifically their experiences of failures should be taken into account. Often stakeholders have different viewpoints of incidents and we want to ascertain the value of narrative analysis approaches when making sense of IS failures.