A Framework for the Co-design of Business and IT Systems

Abstract

This study deals with the intersection of knowledge and action: how knowledge is developed, transformed, interpreted and used to change systems of business process and IT so that stakeholders may make effective decisions and take effective action in their work. The co-design of business and IT systems is a process within which business systems of human activity and IT systems of information processing are mutually constituted. It requires the negotiation of competing technological frames across multiple knowledge domains. Three major challenges hinder effective innovation: (i) a mismatch between goal-driven IS design methods and the need for cross-functional knowledge-sharing, (ii) the distributed and partial knowledge possessed by stakeholders from diverse groups; (iii) the need to maintain interpretive flexibility across cycles of discovery and analysis. This paper develops an analytical framework for integrating knowledge frames across stakeholder groups, to provide a common language for the co- design of business and IT systems.