Enterprise systems are developed and tailored in large, long-term projects, sometimes spanning for decades, whereby a network of parties comprising customer and developer organizations, subcontractors, and consultants work together to deliver a successful system. This collaboration is complex; the network and the operating environment are in a constant flux, which creates conflict and challenging situations. Collaboration and ways of working evolve through various crises, internal and external incidents, and project phases. This means that project management practices, communication patterns, contracts, and ultimately personal relationships change.

This longitudinal, qualitative, single case study analyzes a 20-year-old enterprise systems development project, whereby different incidents and crises initiated changes to collaboration practices and the drivers for collaboration. We identified four collaboration modes — contract mode, cooperation mode, personified mode, and process mode — each of which was the main driver in different development circumstances. As a key contribution, we propose the seed of a mid-range theory that provides heuristics for responding to different types of crises that might occur while developing large-scale systems.

企业系统是在大型的长期项目中开发和定制的，有时需要数十年，因此，由客户和开发人员组织，分包商和顾问组成的各方网络将共同努力，以提供一个成功的系统。这种合作是复杂的；网络和操作环境不断变化，这造成了冲突和挑战性局面。在各种危机，内部和外部事件以及项目阶段中，协作和工作方式都会演变。这意味着项目管理实践，沟通方式，合同以及最终的人际关系都会发生变化。

这个纵向的，定性的单案例研究分析了一个已有20年历史的企业系统开发项目，其中不同的事件和危机引发了对协作实践和协作驱动力的改变。我们确定了四种协作模式-合同模式，协作模式，个性化模式和流程模式-每种都是在不同开发环境中的主要驱动力。作为一项重要贡献，我们提出了一种中端理论的种子，该理论为开发大型系统时可能发生的不同类型的危机提供了启发式方法。