Cowboy, cataloguer, methodist, magician, and master : gestalts of analysis and design

Box, I

Cowboy, cataloguer, methodist, magician, and master : gestalts of analysis and design

Box, I

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Publication Type:: Thesis
Issue Date:: 2013

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Box, I
dc.date.accessioned	2013-04-10T05:41:02Z
dc.date.available	2013-04-10T05:41:02Z
dc.date.issued	2013
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/21839
dc.description	University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.	en_US
dc.description.abstract	Business information systems (BIS) projects succeed or fail because of people. A better understanding of the people who analyse/design BIS could lead to more successes. This study of the qualitatively different ways that analyst/designers’ conceive of and approach their work improves our understanding. Twenty interviews with analyst/designers with varying expertise and years of experience were analysed, interpreted, and described using a research method that evolved from orthodox phenomenography. This evolved method itself contributes to phenomenography. The significant contributions are: 1) GIFTed data analysis, a data analysis technique incorporating Gestalt theory, types of intentionality, and Gurwitsch’s field theory of consciousness; 2) a generic conception-of analytical framework; 3) a generic approach-to analytical framework. The categories resulting from the phenomenographic analysis, and which describe analyst/designers’ awareness of analysis/design, are treated as Gestalts. The categories form two sets: conceptions and approaches. The five conception categories are: 1) Differentiate analysis/design as something other than programming; 2) Catalogue separate analysis/design tasks into a sequential and orderly activity; 3) Idealise analysis/design as how to deliver what the client wants; 4) Contrast actual and ideal analysis—what and design—how; 5) Integrate exploring the organisation and problem with creating an abstract solution. The four approach categories are: 1) An ad hoc process that as quickly as possible delivers something to the client and solves the problem; 2) An atomistic process that produces artefacts to show that some analysis and design took place; 3) A circumscribed process that produces the best artefacts and solution; 4) An adjustable process that shares an understanding of the problem and a vision of the solution to satisfice stakeholders. Ten relationships between conception and approach categories were deemed rational. Five relationships, which are the relationships between the highest approach category to which a conception category is related, were selected for closer examination. These five Gestalts of analysis/design, the cowboy, the cataloguer, the methodist, the magician, and the master are described as parallel Gestalts at the field or theme level of the categories and as development life cycles. All these results reveal at a collective level a number of different ways analyst/designers experience analysis/design, thus contributing to a people-centred foundation for research aimed at increasing BIS project successes.	en_US
dc.format	Thesis (PhD)	en_US
dc.language.iso	en	en_US
dc.relation	https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/21839/2/02Whole.pdf
dc.rights	au.edu.uts.lib/ppc
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights	The author owns the copyright in this thesis including all reproduction and reuse rights for the work. The work may not be altered without the permission of the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from this thesis.
dc.subject	Business information systems.	en
dc.subject	BIS.	en
dc.subject	Business intelligence.	en
dc.subject	Experiential learning.	en
dc.subject	Learning.	en
dc.subject	Psychology.	en
dc.title	Cowboy, cataloguer, methodist, magician, and master : gestalts of analysis and design	en_US
dc.type	Thesis
utslib.copyright.status	open_access

Abstract:

Business information systems (BIS) projects succeed or fail because of people. A better understanding of the people who analyse/design BIS could lead to more successes. This study of the qualitatively different ways that analyst/designers’ conceive of and approach their work improves our understanding. Twenty interviews with analyst/designers with varying expertise and years of experience were analysed, interpreted, and described using a research method that evolved from orthodox phenomenography. This evolved method itself contributes to phenomenography. The significant contributions are: 1) GIFTed data analysis, a data analysis technique incorporating Gestalt theory, types of intentionality, and Gurwitsch’s field theory of consciousness; 2) a generic conception-of analytical framework; 3) a generic approach-to analytical framework. The categories resulting from the phenomenographic analysis, and which describe analyst/designers’ awareness of analysis/design, are treated as Gestalts. The categories form two sets: conceptions and approaches. The five conception categories are: 1) Differentiate analysis/design as something other than programming; 2) Catalogue separate analysis/design tasks into a sequential and orderly activity; 3) Idealise analysis/design as how to deliver what the client wants; 4) Contrast actual and ideal analysis—what and design—how; 5) Integrate exploring the organisation and problem with creating an abstract solution. The four approach categories are: 1) An ad hoc process that as quickly as possible delivers something to the client and solves the problem; 2) An atomistic process that produces artefacts to show that some analysis and design took place; 3) A circumscribed process that produces the best artefacts and solution; 4) An adjustable process that shares an understanding of the problem and a vision of the solution to satisfice stakeholders. Ten relationships between conception and approach categories were deemed rational. Five relationships, which are the relationships between the highest approach category to which a conception category is related, were selected for closer examination. These five Gestalts of analysis/design, the cowboy, the cataloguer, the methodist, the magician, and the master are described as parallel Gestalts at the field or theme level of the categories and as development life cycles. All these results reveal at a collective level a number of different ways analyst/designers experience analysis/design, thus contributing to a people-centred foundation for research aimed at increasing BIS project successes.

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