Investigating principles of stakeholder evaluation in a modern IS development approach

This paper investigates how stakeholder evaluation strategies may be embraced into a modern IS development approach – the Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM). DSDM is currently the de facto standard for rapid application development (RAD) in the UK. Theoretically, the participative and iterative nature of DSDM can facilitate effective IS evaluation strategies of an interpretive and informal nature. Using both the object system class framework [Hirschheim96], and the informal findings of a recent survey of DSDM-affiliated UK organisations, the authors produce results encouraging to those proponents of a more holistic approach to IS evaluation. The disparate nature of DSDM in practice also serves as a warning that the success of such evaluation strategies may depend heavily on how the organisation embraces specific IS development strategies.