And just-in-time.... (just-in-time systems)

It's no secret that systems development has and remains a scarlet letter in the business community. Poor project performance often ours with poor systems performance. In the end, no one is happy, not the end-user, not senior management, and not the information systems (IS) professional.

So why does the dismal record continue? Is it because the technology is not mature? Is it because of poor training? Is it because of inadequate tools? Is it because of a lack of money or time?

In some cases, the answer is yes to such questions. Yet, even under the best conditions, systems development remains a challenge.

What's the reason? The answer lies in paradigms, or mental models of how the world operates.

Systems development historically functions through one of two paradigms.

Under the first paradigm, developers view building systems as delivering a technological wonder rather than a business solution. In fact, they see building a technical solution as the focus and bottom line, not defining and solving a business problem. With little emphasis on defining and solving the problem, everything has equal weight or priority.

Developers then attack the entire system as one big entity with all technical details being equal. What makes matters worse is that the technical side receives premier attention. All other aspects of systems development (i.e., training, project planning, and documentation) are considered "administrivia" and nice to do if time permits. This paradigm is archaic.