Achieving solution success: An investigation of user participation approaches

User participation and its relationship to system success have been discussed in the information systems (IS) literature from many theoretical and practical perspectives. In reality, most of this discussion is grounded in empirical research that has yielded mixed results on the importance of user participation and its relationship to system success. The goal of this dissertation is to extend the line of inquiry into user participation during information system development by providing information systems researchers and IS practitioners with both a valid theoretical and practical investigation of a successful IS solution. This investigation organizes the study within a descriptive model that emerges from the different traditions of prior research and uncovers the approach to user participation in a successful IS solution. This user participation approach (UPA) model becomes the structure for the systematic arrangement of user participation approaches into a four-fold typology according to criteria or extrinsic information attributed to them in the research literature. A case study analysis and social network analysis of a successful IS solution will be used to describe, map and measure the relationships, activities, processes, and flows between participants, thus providing a descriptive and visual analysis of the relational structure that emerges. Indeed, these methodological approaches conceptualize the attributes and the relations of user participation during information system development and give insightful perspectives on how a successful IS solution is developed and implemented. The resulting outcome is a description of a successful approach to user participation and some practical recommendations on how to increase the chance of success in a system solution.