ABSTRACT
Information systems development (ISD) researchers have long recognized the importance of creating better environments for ISD teams. However, existing discussions of the effects of environmental characteristics remain largely conceptual in the ISD literature, and the mechanisms through which these factors influence ISD processes and eventually shape the productivity of ISD project teams have not been empirically examined in a thorough manner. To fill the gap, this study proposes an integrative model to investigate the impacts of six environmental characteristics that have been suggested as important in the literature and tests their effects on team productivity, operationalized as team performance and system quality. Team cognition is proposed as a mediating mechanism that transfers the effects of environmental factors into ISD productivity outcomes. The results provide useful evidence on which environmental factors operate through the team cognition mediator and which do not, and generally support the pragmatic approach of “smaller is better” for ISD project teams to achieve overall development success. Implications for future research are discussed, and guidelines for ISD practice are also provided.
