ABSTRACT
It is reasonable to argue that any information systems action to improve or change an organization in some way would be expected to be based on some sort of implicit or explicit ‘diagnosis’ of the ‘problems’ and the ‘problematic context’. Undertaking a diagnosis can be considered to be an inquiring activity that focuses on perceived ‘problems’, social, political and economic issues, revealed through a variety of expressions of anxiety, frustrations and concerns etc., of client groups in a given organizational situation. A diagnosis may be undertaken intuitively, or it may have been the result of an explicitly designed analytical inquiring process. It may be more or less justifi able. But one aspect of information systems work is (i) the consideration of, and putting into practice, diagnosis-type inquiring activities that can in some way reveal some of the contextual challenges, and (ii) be able to critique the diagnosis upon which actions are planned, or have been taken.
