Academic distinction to 3 researchers from Department of Informatics

In the Information Systems Journal (ISJ) Best Paper 2007 selection the article "Persistent problems and practices in information systems development" by Karlheinz Kautz, Sabine Madsen & Jacob Norbjerg, Information Systems Journal, vol. 17, no. 3, July, 2007, pp. 217-239, received a distinction as highly commended paper which deserved special mention (runner up in the selection process).

The editors of the ISJ write in their laudation: In this paper the authors compare ‘traditional’ and present day ‘Web-based’ information systems development (ISD) and suggest that the differences can be explained as an accentuated evolution of well-known challenges which remain persistent. The claim in the literature that modern Web-based information systems demand new development paradigms because Web development is fundamentally different is examined critically. Two representative case examples that contrast Web-based and traditional practices are analysed and compared to show that they have more in common than might be expected. A particularly interesting feature of the paper is that the authors adopt a hermeneutic approach to understanding contradictions in the ISD literature. In this process they analyse a previous paper, Baskerville & Pries-Heje (2004), published in the ISJ. However, they derive different conclusions than those of the original authors. The associate editor of the paper, Duane Truex, thought it appropriate to ask Richard Baskerville and Jan Pries-Heje to comment on it. They, along with Balasubramaniam Ramesh, have provided a thoughtful response in the same edition of the ISJ that also recognizes the significance of the agile movement in software development as potentially the major change, rather than merely one branch of development for Web applications. Following tradition, we allowed the original authors a chance to respond again. Whatever ‘side’ you decide to take, we are grateful to all these authors for allowing us to be a party to their written academic debate. Unfortunately this is not frequent enough in the IS literature and we would like to see more opportunities for such debate.