Abstract

Information systems development (ISD) is fundamentally a search process by which the team seeks to find an optimal system configuration that produces the highest performance. As information systems are embodiments of business-domain knowledge and technical knowledge, ISD requires both. The business unit is ultimately responsible for making business design choices whereas the IS unit is largely responsible for making technical design choices. Complexity in ISD arises when these design choices are interdependent. We argue that knowledge overlaps between business and IS play an important role in the ISD process. Using an NK fitness landscapes model of ISD, this research investigates how knowledge overlaps influence ISD performance (1) when the level of interdependencies among design choices varies, (2) for different distributions of within-unit and between-unit interdependencies, (3) when between-unit interdependencies are balanced or skewed, and (4) when inter-unit trust exists or doesn’t. We report the results of a simulation study and discuss their implications and insights.

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