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limited communication. Further, the project team remarked that many requests for
customization did not surface until users were actually using the system.
While the issues of reflectiveness and motivation were less salient in the IPSI
project, the challenge was still apparent. The development team felt that the law
enforcement stakeholders were highly motivated to participate because of the func-
tionality promised, but ensuring reflection and feedback remained an issue. As the
Project Manager observed:
So we went into the first meeting, distributed this to everyone and said, 'This is the first
cut at a report standardization. Take a look at it, see if it's different from what you have,
and be ready to make some comments.' We went to a second meeting a couple of weeks
later. Some people had looked at it and some people hadn't. This is not their main objective.
Sometimes it's hard to get to cops [i.e., the law enforcement participants].
Overall, it was difficult to ensure that different users would reflect upon their
existing environment to discern additional requirements.
5.3 Perceptual Limitations
In contrast to the field study of development professionals, the cases analyzed did
not reflect a specific focus on the inability of stakeholders to apprehend their existing
IT landscapes and functionality. Indeed, in both cases, the primary concern of users
with respect to the proposed systems was maintenance of existing functionality and
associated work practices. This tendency toward replication of existing practices is
embodied in the theme of paradigmatic constraints.
5.4 Paradigmatic Constraints
The challenge imposed by stakeholders not being able to see beyond their prevail-
ing paradigms was clearly discernible in both of the cases analyzed. For example,
in the IPSI project, the development team struggled to foster openness to alternative
reporting processes and structures among the participating agencies. Each agency
felt that their existing reporting mechanisms were essential. However, given the
multi-party nature of the project, some changes to the reporting processes were nec-
essary. This need for alternative approaches created substantial challenges for the
development team:
They all have different reports. But at least twenty-five percent on each one is different
...
All the reports follow a similar pattern just slightly different
We would have been in
much better shape had it not been for the Prosecutor's insistence on the fact that the report
that's filled out has to be identical. It has to be the exact report.
...
The University SIS project revealed that paradigmatic constraints are not exclu-
sive to end-users. In that project, the development team encountered significant
challenges because of their consultants' insistence upon certain measures that had
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