An investigation of strategies for supporting and controlling user development of computer applications (management information systems (mis))
IV John Buyers Crawford · 1986
User development is that part of end-user computing which deals with the development of computer application software by organization members who are not computing professionals. This study investigated how organization policies and procedures for the support and control of user development were related to the success of user development. It also investigated how the background of those performing user development was related to its success. User development success was measured in terms of satisfaction on the part of functional unit managers and their subordinates who perform user development. The study was a nonexperimental field survey of the one-measurement cross-sectional type. Data for the study was collected via three self-administered questionnaires. One questionnaire was used to collect data about the organization's support and control policies from a member of the EDP function. Another questionnaire was used to collect data from functional unit managers about their perceptions of the problems and benefits associated with user development. The third questionnaire was used to collect data about the background of user developers as well as their levels of satisfaction with the training, consulting and computing resources made available to them. There were 23 organizations, 40 functional unit managers and 111 user developers represented in the sample analyzed. The predominate type of user development application was report generation with 40 percent of the development being done using stand-alone personal computers. The findings of this study strongly indicate that user developers and the managers of their functional units were very satisfied with the process of user development. Managers were also very satisfied with the cost and intangible benefits being derived from their units' user development activities. There was also strong evidence that managers perceived less severe problems with user development when their user developers were more satisfied with the user development process. The study found that organizational support policies and procedures were far more influential in determining user development success than were control policies and procedures. User development training and consulting support were most influential, along with the ability to easily access quality data. The background of user developers was also related to user development success. More user development experience was associated with higher levels of satisfaction, but more education and training were generally associated with lower levels of satisfaction.