Important Human Factors for Systems Development Success: A User Focus

Abstract

Improving user satisfaction with information systems is an important consideration given the amount of resources organizations invest in systems development. Many factors are likely to play a role in enhancing the satisfaction users feel toward their systems, but probably none is as important as having knowledgeable, well-trained users participate in a meaningful way in the system development process. This study empirically tests the importance of user participation, user experience, user/developer communication, user training, user influence, and user conflict encountered during the system development process. A sample of 228 system users were used for a multivariate regression model testing the importance of these factors. The results indicate that user participation, user training, and user expertise can explain 61% of the variance in user satisfaction with their systems. The other factors showed no statistical significance in this study. Based on the results, managerial recommendations are proposed to people responsible for the systems development process in organizations.