ABSTRACT
SUMMARY The technical and management problems created by the increasing complexity of systems development in organizations are not solved by the alternative approach proposed in this paper: they are set in a new frame. Through a series of cases, ranging from software development to telematics, we show that systems are open, that is, they cannot be fully designed or specified in advance, and are often reinvented by the users; second, we suggest that systems lead to unexpected consequences, some of which may be creative. The real problem of systems development practitioners and methods is to accept such reality. Instead, by adhering to structured methodologies, and given the limited learning capabilities of designers and users, change and innovation potentially introduced by the new technology end up being plainly ignored. In order to better harness social and technical innovations design should give up the pretence of meticulously specifying a rigid waterfall of tasks, activities, documents and programs as they are prescribed by current software engineering recipes. Rather, systems development should be conceived as an online intervention in a social situation. This involves different skills and strategies, more akin to practical experimentation and reflection-in-action than analysis and formal methodology.
