What Makes Information System Developers Produce Defective Information Systems For Their Clients?

Quality problems in information systems and software (IS/SW) are common technological problems. A number of different development methods and mature models have been proposed to address these challenges. Recent research on agile and lean SW development methods suggests that companies often speed up IS/SW development by omitting necessary quality procedures. While agile methods are commonly used in SW development, however, we have found no research that specifically explores why deficient IS/SW emerges. We therefore interviewed IS/SW developers in two rounds (n = 20 and n = 9) in order to inductively build a theoretical model that explains this issue. We identified two processes that lead to deficient IS/SW and the factors that affect the emergence of this problem. Results suggest that economic factors pressure developers to omit important quality controls in different stages of IS/SW development. Our resulting theoretical model belongs to the process theory paradigm of dialectical process theory. Based on our findings, implications for practice and research are proposed. Our results shed new light on how developers’ omission of quality controls can be overcome so that the quality of IS/SW can be improved.