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A critical assessment of team approaches to systems development

The development of systems analysis as an approach for dealing with business problems preceded, to a large extent, wide-spread computerization. However, the systems analyst has historically shared in the growing fascination with technology. Indeed, the “typical” path to a career in systems analysis continues to begin with computer programming experience. Likewise, formal training generally emphasizes computer programming, computer systems hardware and software, and a smattering of Operations Research techniques. All this despite the fact that systems development processes have always required at least as much social and political adoitness as technical skill.
 In recent years, positive experiences in the use of team approaches have served to revitalize interest in examining the social dynamics of the systems process. This is particularly true amongst systems managers who sense that in employing team approaches they have added a new dimension to their work which can affect the timely delivery of quality systems. The purpose of this paper is simply to share with you some observations of what I would term reasonably successful attempts over the past four years to apply team approaches to administrative systems development in a university environment. Actually, observations from four separate projects will be referenced somewhat randomly, and it should be noted that not all projects were conducted at the same institution.