A genealogical study of boundary-spanning IS design

This paper presents the design of a business-aligned information system (IS) from an actor-network perspective, viewing non-human intermediaries jointly as inscriptions and boundary objects. This field study presents a situated view of IS design over time. The design process is assessed through analyzing the intersected activities of a team of seven organizational managers who were defining changes to business processes, information technology, and organizational roles and responsibilities. This view of design presents a very different view to the rational, analytical process that is usually encountered in the IS literature. Instead of an orderly progression, we see a trajectory of design definition, as the team responds to the contingencies and instrumentalities that prevail during the course of a design inquiry. These managers enacted a new reality through their interactions with external stakeholders, senior managers, specifications, procedures, business documents, and IT systems. This study provides much needed rich insights into the complexities of systems definition and negotiation, explaining the situated rationalities underlying IS design as the co-design of business and IT systems. A fifth form of boundary object is suggested by this analysis, which is based on the need to align interests across a network of actors.