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Explaining Change Paths of Systems and Software Development Practices

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Information Systems Development

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Abstract

This chapter discusses how systems development practices are shaped. Based on interviews conducted in ten development organizations and previous literature, we identify eight types of change paths in systems development practices: emergence, adoption, idealization, formalization, abandonment, informalization, entropy, and disobedience. We argue that the eight change path types provide an integrated theoretical framework on the study of how systems development practices change in organizations, projects, and among individual developers in a given context. We discuss how this framework complements existing theories and concepts of the contemporary literature on systems development.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Most of the quotations are translated from Finnish or Norwegian.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Technology, Lappeenranta University of Technology, P.O. Box 20, 53851, Lappeenranta, Finland

    Kari Smolander

  2. Department of Information Systems, University of Agder, Serviceboks 422, 4604, Kristiansand, Norway

    Even Åby Larsen & Tero Päivärinta

Authors
  1. Kari Smolander
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  2. Even Åby Larsen
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  3. Tero Päivärinta
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kari Smolander .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Durham University, Durham, DH1 3LE, United Kingdom

    William Wei Song

  2. , School of Information Technology, Jiangxi University of Finance and Econom, Nanchang, 330013, Jiangxi, China, People's Republic

    Shenghua Xu

  3. Finance & Economics, School of Information Management, Jiangxi University of, Fenglin Rd., Nanchang, 330013, Jiangxi, China, People's Republic

    Changxuan Wan

  4. UFIDA Software Technology College, Jiangxi University of Finance & Economic, Fenglin Rd., Nanchang, 330013, Jiangxi, China, People's Republic

    Yuansheng Zhong

  5. College of Business & Economics, Dept. Information Technology &, Boise State University, Univesity Dr. 1910, Boise, 83725-1615, Idaho, USA

    Wita Wojtkowski

  6. College of Business & Economics, Dept. Information Technology &, Boise State University, Univesity Dr. 1910, Boise, 83725-1615, Idaho, USA

    Gregory Wojtkowski

  7. Fac. Information Technology, Monash University, Clayton, 3800, Victoria, Australia

    Henry Linger

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© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Smolander, K., Larsen, E.Å., Päivärinta, T. (2011). Explaining Change Paths of Systems and Software Development Practices. In: Song, W., et al. Information Systems Development. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7355-9_34

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7355-9_34

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-7205-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-7355-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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