High failure rates of information systems development (ISD) projects continue to trouble organizations and information systems practices. Such a state of affairs has been of great concern for the information systems discipline for decades, motivating information systems researchers to focus on and extensively study ISD project failure. However, the increasing complexity and uncertainty of ISD projects and contemporary system development processes are challenging ISD project failure scholarship. In this article, we ask the questions: What are the contributions and weaknesses of the extant ISD project failure/success literature? What are potential avenues to move the ISD literature forward? To answer these questions, first, we present a literature review that assesses research contributions within the major perspectives on ISD failure (i.e. rationalist, process and narrative). While the extant research within all perspectives make significant contributions to knowledge, we find that researchers remain preoccupied with ‘project failure’ as an end state of an ISD project. They pay little attention to problematic situations arising during ISD projects before they become failed projects. Based on the review and critique of the literature, we then argue that there is a significant benefit in extending research focus from ISD project failure to ‘ISD project distress’, which we define as a harmful project condition involving dynamic and fluid constellation of critical problems that are difficult to identify, understand and resolve. While ISD project distress is an increasingly perilous and consequential phenomenon, little is known about its nature and potential responses. Drawing from the sensemaking literature, we propose a multilevel theoretical framework for understanding the nature and sources of ISD project distress that provides a foundation for exploring early detection and timely response. We demonstrate the theoretical and practical relevance of the concept of ISD project distress and propose a corresponding research agenda.

中文翻译：

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信息系统开发项目失败文献的回顾与批判：探索信息系统开发项目困境的论据

信息系统开发 (ISD) 项目的高失败率继续困扰着组织和信息系统实践。几十年来，这种情况一直是信息系统学科的极大关注点，促使信息系统研究人员关注并广泛研究 ISD 项目失败。然而，ISD 项目和当代系统开发过程的日益复杂和不确定性正在挑战 ISD 项目失败奖学金。在本文中，我们提出以下问题：现有 ISD 项目失败/成功文献的贡献和弱点是什么？推动 ISD 文献向前发展的潜在途径是什么？为了回答这些问题，首先，我们提供了一篇文献综述，评估了 ISD 失败主要观点内的研究贡献（即 理性主义者、过程和叙事）。虽然所有观点的现有研究都对知识做出了重大贡献，但我们发现研究人员仍然专注于将“项目失败”作为 ISD 项目的最终状态。在 ISD 项目成为失败项目之前，他们很少关注 ISD 项目中出现的问题情况。基于对文献的回顾和批评，我们认为将研究重点从 ISD 项目失败扩展到“ISD 项目困境”有显着的好处，我们将其定义为涉及关键问题的动态和流动星座的有害项目条件难以识别、理解和解决。虽然 ISD 项目困境是一种日益危险和后果性的现象，但对其性质和潜在反应知之甚少。从意义构建文献中，我们提出了一个多层次的理论框架，用于理解 ISD 项目困境的性质和来源，为探索早期发现和及时响应奠定了基础。我们展示了 ISD 项目困境概念的理论和实践相关性，并提出了相应的研究议程。