Web Services System Development: A Grounded Theory Study

This study in progress presents a grounded theory analysis of a case study in the banking industry with a view to showing the role of “Web services” technology in information systems development practices. The case study relates to the implementation in the Central Europe Bank (a pseudonym) of a new software application based on Web services technology. In particular, the focus is on the following research question: what are the peculiarities of the Web services software development process? A tentative answer to the question is advanced here in the form of a preliminary formulation of a descriptive theory of the Web services ISD process. In particular, an effort is made to understand whether the Web services ISD process can be considered as a short-cycle development process (Baskerville and Pries-Heje, 2004). The process under observation might be categorised in a preliminary way as a “hybrid” one lying between methodical and amethodical development processes. Indeed, the data collected and analysed so far confirm the complexity and richness of the situation taken into consideration, offering useful insights to complete and further extend both theoretical and empirical analysis.