Soft Systems Methodology, Phenomenology and Information Systems Development: A Critical Analysis

Successful uses of information technologies usually require teams of developers working in concert (rather than individuals working alone); implying that methodological prescriptions for such developers should centre on issues such as communication and co-ordination. Here, it will be argued that the epistemology proffered by the SSM advocates does not provide a practical basis upon which to conduct team-based systems development; because the SSM advocates over-emphasise the need for subjective certainty and meaning, thus rendering their epistemology over-idealistic. It is concluded that the need for effective communication between team members necessarily implies abandoning the search for subjective certitude and supplanting it with the search for practical “working knowledge” of the actual situation in which IS development occurs.