USER PARTICIPATION IN SYSTEM-DEVELOPMENT REVISITED

There is an extensive literature on user participation in system development. Individual papers discuss separate components of the participation issue. Papers study individual factors associated with participation, investigate the process of participation and discuss the link between participation and system success. In spite of the many studies in this area, findings are not consistent or cumulative. One reason for this may be that participation is a nebulous term that is difficult to define clearly: it is a concept with many dimensions. This paper highlights a number of attributes of participation, presents a framework which is used to describe and synthesise existing research findings, and includes an analysis of empirical literature in an attempt to explain inconsistency in findings.