Scenarios for system development: Matching context and strategy

A comparison of seventeen contingency models for system development (SD) led to the conclusion that no model supports all requested activities: diagnosing the context, describing alternative approaches, matching context and approach, looking at social organizational issues, and supporting a dynamic ® t between context and approach. This study paid special attention to the social and organizational aspects of system development. Our contingency model speci® es ® ve possible types of risk (functional uncertainty, con ̄ ict potential, technical uncertainty and resistance potential) in system development that should be controlled. For each type, a corresponding proposition about its control was derived from this model and analysed in seven system development processes. We succeeded in explaining the outcome of the development process through the ® t between context and situation, thereby gaining some preliminary support for the model. Still, the limitations of such a contingency model are to be taken seriously.