Designing alignment and improvising change: Experiences in the public sector using the SPRING methodology

If information systems (IS) are to yield real benefits for organisations, it is critical that they support the business goals of the enterprise and that they are successfully assimilated into routine use by organisational members. The conventional solutions to the achievement of strategic alignment and the management of change in IS development are typically top-down, relying in both areas on a rational, planned approach. This paper describes a BPR framework, known as SPRINT, which adopts a different strategy. Following Ciborra (1997), it is argued that alignment is most effectively achieved when “designed into” the whole IS life-cycle (including evaluation) as an omnipresent issue of ongoing concern to all participants. Regarding change, an incremental approach is advocated, drawing on the improvisational change model of Orlikowski and Hoffman (1997). The paper provides an overview of SPRINT followed by a case study illustrating its use in a local authority on a project to re-engineer IS support for the authority’s decision-making process. The methodology has now been deployed on a number of projects, with generally positive results. This is adduced as strong evidence for the methodological validity of the framework, especially in the two key areas of alignment and change. Other aspects of SPRINT are discussed, in particular the use of methodology as a tool for knowledge management. David Wastell, Peter Kawalek, Mike Willetts 1126