posted on 2006-04-03, 10:05authored byCrispin Coombs
The factors that influence the ultimate level of success or failure of systems
development projects have received considerable attention in the academic literature.
Two particularly significant areas of interest have been the importance of applying
best practice during systems development and the need to explicitly consider
organisational issues to ensure a positive organisational impact. However, despite
the existence of a well developed best practice literature and an emergent
organisational issues literature, many projects still fail.
The record of the NHS has been particularly poor in terms of the successful
development and implementation of information systems and it was thought that this
area would provide a fertile domain for information system research. Whilst the use
of information systems in community healthcare has increased greatly over the last
ten years the majority of existing research has been conducted in acute hospital
environments with little attention devoted to the community sector. Consequently, this
research project has two main aims: To identify the key best practice variables and
areas of organisational impact associated with the development, implementation and
use of a Community Information System (CIS) in National Health Service Trusts; and
to examine the relationships between these two sets of variables and the system’s
resultant level of effectiveness.
This research project has a number of positive methodological attributes in that it
studies a homogenous organisational sector using a common type of information
system and so minimises the potentially confounding influences of sector and system.
In addition, the research design involves a three stage approach, combining both
quantitative and qualitative research approaches.
The research project has produced several key findings. A positive relationship was
identified between the adoption of best practice and system effectiveness and
similarly, there was a positive relationship between the level of organisational impact
and system effectiveness. In order to ensure a positive organisational impact it was
found that the successful treatment of key organisational issues is required. In
addition, two new variables have been identified, user ownership and positive user
attitudes, that play an important mediating role in ensuring system effectiveness.
Finally, it was also recognised that the adoption of best practice variables had a dual
role, directly influencing the level of perceived system effectiveness but also as a
method of effectively managing organisational issues, user ownership and user
attitudes.
In summary, this study has emphasised the importance of adopting best practice and
assessing and managing organisational impact during a community information
system development project to ensure system success. These results will be of
particular interest to practising IM&T Managers in the NHS and to the wider
academic community. A series of practical recommendations are presented at the end
of the thesis.