Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Does the positive relationship between system quality and user satisfaction discussed
in the organizational information systems literature hold in the end user development domain?
The system quality of the spreadsheet applications from the initial study was measured
following the development of an instrument to do so. The data were then compared with the
user satisfaction data from the initial study. The results of the study indicated that although
a positive relationship existed between system quality and user satisfaction when the user
of the application was not the developer, that relationship was not present when the user was
also the developer. The results of this study were published in the
Proceedings of the 11
th
Australasian Conference on Information Systems
(McGill et al., 2000). Five of the six students
involved in this project continued on to enroll in a Ph.D. program.
Both of the projects described above followed the intention of the instructor fairly
closely. However, this is not always the case. In one project, the group had difficulty reaching
a decision about what they wished to research. The students were uninterested in the
tentative topic provided by the instructor, yet found it difficult to settle on another topic.
Eventually (after being asked not to leave a meeting until a research question was chosen),
they chose the following research question:
What is the relationship between end user developer satisfaction with applications they
have developed, and satisfaction with the development tools used to create the applications?
After an instrument had been developed to measure satisfaction with a development
tool, the research question was addressed via a survey of 120 business students who had
recently used Microsoft Excel
©
to develop a spreadsheet as part of a major assignment.
Satisfaction with a user-developed application was found to be significantly correlated with
satisfaction with the tool used to create the application. The role of experience in this
relationship was also explored. The results of this study were published in the
Proceedings
of the 2001 IRMA Conference
(McGill, van der Heyden, & Hopkins, 2001).
CONCLUSION
This chapter reports on an approach to getting information systems research students
started. The approach involves beginning research students undertaking a structured group
research project in which the instructor is an active participant. The major purpose of this
group project is to provide a gentle, supportive, structured introduction to information
systems research. This approach benefits students by ensuring that they have participated
in a complete research project before they have to assume complete responsibility for their
first large individual project. In general, students have participated well, learning from their
own experiences and the experiences of others in the group. While the individual papers
produced by students at the end of the project have not been of publishable quality, many
of the students have gone on to publish the results of their Honors projects (i.e., their second
attempt to write a conference paper), something that occurred rarely prior to students
participating in this kind of a project.
ENDNOTES
For examples, see the following Web sites: http://cisnet.baruch.cuny.edu/phd/
U821.htm; http://cisnet.baruch.cuny.edu/phd/U822.htm; http://infosys.massey.ac.nz/
papers/pn/157720.html; and http://cis.gsu.edu/~drobey/syl9300_new.htm.
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