Advancing the IS Curricula: The Identification of Important Communication Skills Needed by IS Staff during Systems Development

Although research indicates communication is important among information systems (IS) staff, users, and managers to ensure successful development projects, the ineffective communication skills of IS staff are often cited as a possible cause of failed IS projects. To develop effective systems, communication between IS users and systems developers is important throughout the development process, and effective communication supports the collaborative process in system development. As found in the IS 2002 model curriculum, IS experts place interpersonal, communication, and team skills as one of four main categories of exit characteristics of IS graduates (Gorgone et al., 2002). Since effective communication among IS project stakeholders is cited as a critical factor of project success, this study identified specific written, oral, and interpersonal communication skills IS staff, IS users, and IS managers perceived to be the most important for IS staff during the systems development process.