The conditional benefits of early user involvement at employee self-service applications in four Dutch ministries

User participation and user involvement is generally accepted as one of the important factors for IS success. In this paper, several types of early end-user involvement are distinguished and empirically explored through four case studies. The cases concern four Dutch governmental organisations (ministries) that have recently deployed an Employee Self-Service (ESS) application. Interviews were held with developers, project managers and users. It was found that the perceived success of the ESS-systems within the ministries is not directly related to the type or number of user involvement methods applied. Benefits of user participation are conditional, i.e., dependent on timeand culture-related factors. In particular, expectancy management about the project milestones is important, and so is the belief among employees that they can easily use the self-service applications without much support from the