IT Development:

Abstract

The overwhelming evidence of contemporary information technology (IT) design failures, or “soft-core disasters,” and the dynamic synergy within the IT industry promote an urgency for the adoption of new methodologies that will facilitate design-in-action and promote an organizational ability for “learning to learn.” An examination of the various methodologies and management techniques that underlie the IT industry reveals a common strategy of dividing organizational functions into tasks in a “top-down” fashion. One engineering analogy, the cybernetic control model, has been a major influence on IT management and design, and it underlies much of the management thinking of the engineer, the auditor, and, as such, IT design. The research and development approach is recommended for design-in-action development and an open-ended IT strategy to facilitate an organizational ability for learning to learn.