Knowledge Sharing in Information Systems Development: A Social Interdependence Perspective

As organizations increasingly rely on information systems (IS) for strategic and operational purposes, information systems development (ISD) has become an important organizational activity. ISD involves the analysis, design, and implementation of information technology (IT) systems and applications to support business functions (Xia and Lee, 2005). It is typically a knowledge-intensive process requiring diverse expertise, with business and IT knowledge being the most critical constituents. Knowledge regarding business requirements and business processes/workflow is needed to provide the logic driving the new IS while IT knowledge related to the use and technical possibilities of the new system is needed by business professionals to fully realize the potential of the new IS (Ko et al., 2005; Rus and Lindvall, 2002). The extent to which such knowledge is effectively shared between business and external IT professionals has been shown to be a key antecedent of ISD project performance (Joshi et al., 2007; Ko et al., 2005).