Kalle Lyytinen  Professor  Department of Information Systems  Weatherhead School of Management  Case Western Reserve University  Cleveland, Ohio 44106-7235 CV Download: PDF Format(130 Kb) Note: More than 40 Pages long

Systems design methods and design methodologies

I have worked on this topic since mid 80's and I published my dissertation on this topic titled Lyytinen K., "Information Systems Development as Social Action: Framework and Critical Implications," PhD Diss, Jyväskylä Studies in Computer Science, Economics and Statistics 8, 1986. The thesis combined philosophical and social action theoretic foundations to investigate the knowledge foundations and epistemology of systems development. Since then my interest has been to study the application of social action theories and linguistic theories to develop, assess and implement design methods and how they relate to the domain of information systems (what IS and IS?). Much of this line of research has been informed by my interest in Habermas theory of social action, and applications of speech act theory (Searle) to analyze system specification problems. The main result of this line of research was the first and still the only book on the phislophical and conceptual foundations of systems development with Rudi Hirschheim and Heinz Klein (1995). Recently I have also worked on specific issues in the development and evolution of systems development methods and how it relates to fast technological change. In particular I am interested in how Internet and other technologies like mobile platforms change the system development concepts and frameworks and thereafter the practices.

Selected publications

Philosopical aspects of Systems Development and Information Systems

Goldkuhl G. and Lyytinen K., "A Language Action View of Information Systems", in Ross C. and Ginzberg M. (eds), Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Information Systems, pp. 13-31, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1982

Goldkuhl G. and Lyytinen K., "Information System Specification as Rule Reconstruction", in Bemelmans Th. M. (ed), Beyond Productivity - Information Systems for Organizational Effectiveness, North-Holland, pp. 79-95, 1984

Lyytinen K., "Information Systems Development as Social Action: Framework and Critical Implications," PhD Diss, Jyväskylä Studies in Computer Science, Economics and Statistics 8, 1986

Lyytinen K., "A Taxonomic Perspective of Information Systems Development: Theoretical Constructs and Recommendations", in R. Boland and R. Hirschheim (eds) Critical Issues in Information Systems, pp. 3-43, John-Wiley, Chichester, 1987

Klein H., and Lyytinen K., "Towards a New understanding of Data Modelling", in Floyd C., Zullighoven H., Budde R., and Kiel-Slavik D. (eds), Software Development and Reality Construction, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1991 pp. 203-220

Lyytinen K., Klein H. and Hirschheim R., "The Effectiveness of Office Information Systems: A Social Action Perspective", Journal of Information Systems, vol 1, No 1, 1991, pp. 41-60

Lyytinen K., and Hirschheim R.,"Information Systems as Rational Discourse: n Application of Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action", Scandinavian Journal of Management Studies, vol 8, no 1, 1988

Lyytinen K., "Information Systems and Critical Theory", in Alvesson M. and Willmott H. (eds), Critical Management Studies, SAGE, Beverly Hills, 1992, pp. 158-180

Hirschheim R., Klein H., Lyytinen K., Information Systems Development and Data Modeling, Conceptual and Philosophical Foundations, Cambridge University Press, 1995

Hirschheim R., Klein H. and Lyytinen K., "Exploring the intellectual structures of Information Systems Development: A Social Action Theoretic Analysis", Accounting, Management and Information Technologies (AMIT), vol 6, No ½, pp. 1-64, (Special Issue: Research on System Development: Position and Critiques), 1996

Linguistic aspect of systems development and modeling

Lyytinen K., and Lehtinen E., "On Information Modelling Through Illocutionary Logic", in Kangassalo H. (ed): Proceedings of the Third Scandinavian Research Seminar on Information Modelling and Data Base Management, Acta Universitatis Tamperensis, Ser B, vol 22, pp. 35-116, 1984

Lyytinen K., "Implications of Theories of Language for Information Systems", MIS Quarterly, Vol 9, No 1, pp 61-76, 1985

Lyytinen K.,"Two Views of Information Modeling", Information&Management, vol 12, no 1, pp. 9-20, 1987

Auramäki E., Lyytinen K., and Lehtinen E., "SAMPO-approach to Office Information System Analysis", ACM Transactions on Office Information Systems, vol 6, No 2, pp. 126-152, 1988

Auramäki E. and Lyytinen K., "SAMPO as an Information Systems Design Methodology- A Comparison with Data Modeling Approaches", in Besselaer H., Clements A. and Järvinen P. (eds), Information System , Work and Organization Design, North Holland, Amsterdam, pp. 271-282, 1991

Auramäki E., Hirschheim R. and Lyytinen K., "Modelling Offices Through Discourse Analysis: The SAMPO Approach", Computer Journal, 1992, vol 35, No 4, pp. 341-351

Auramäki E., Hirschheim R. and Lyytinen K., "Modelling Offices through Discourse Analysis: A Comparison and Evaluation of SAMPO with OSSAD and ICN, Computer Journal, 1992, vol 35, No 5, pp. 491-500

Auramäki E., Lyytinen K., "Analysis of Commitments in Speech Act Modeling", paper presented at 1st LAP Workshop, Delft University, 1-3.7.1996

Systems development methods and their evolution and change

Lyytinen K.,"New Challenges of Systems Development: a Vision of the 90's," Data Base, Fall 1989, pp. 1-12

Iivari J., Lyytinen K. (1999): "Research on Information Systems Development in Scandinavia- Unity in Plurality", Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, vol 10, No 1-2, pp. 135-185

Lyytinen K., Rose G., Welke R. (1998): "The Brave New World of Development in the internetwork computer architecture (InterNCA): or how distributed computing platforms will change systems development", Information Systems Journal, vol 8, no 3, pp. 241-253

Lyytinen K., Rose G. (2001): "The Quad-Core Model of Information Systems Innovation: Identifying and Confirming the Role of Novel Technological Frames as a Supra-Innovation Core: The Case of Internet Induced IT Innovation", Proceedings of the 22nd ICIS, New Orleans, 17-19.12. 2001

IS research strategy: selection and formulation

I have followed some philosophical and methodological arguments around IS research since the mid 80's. In particular I have been interested in the impact of specific ontological and epistemological choices on IS research settings and methods. I have also commented on specific aspects of relevance vs. rigor debate and the role of source criticism in case research.

Selected publications

Klein H. and Lyytinen K., "The Powerty of Scientism in Information Systems", in Mumford et al. (eds), Research Methods in Information Systems, North-Holland, pp. 131-162, 1985

Lyytinen K. and Klein H., "Critical Social Theory of Jurgen Habermas (CST) as a Basis for the Theory of Information Systems", in Mumford et al. (eds), Research Methods in Information Systems, North-Holland, pp. 219-236, 1985

R. Hirschheim and K. Lyytinen, "Banning Organizational Secrecy Can Threaten Research Too", European Journal of Information Systems, Vol.3, No.2, April 1994, pp.83-84

Lyytinen K. (1999): "Empirical Research in Information Systems: On the Relevance of Practice in Thinking of IS Research", MIS Quarterly, vol 23, No 1, pp. 25-28
IS innovation/implementation and failures

Computer-aided systems engineering environments

I have worked extensively on computer supported systems development since the late 80's. The work has focused both on developing better conceptual understanding of the issues involved in developing computer aided environments, in developing concepts and notations specific and manage methods, and in developing industrial strength environments that have substantial impact on software development. This area has been by far the most influential research area I have been involved. I established a research group MetaPhor in the late 80's that during its existence produced two industrial strength CASE tools, c.a. ten PhD theses and over 50 publications. The major industrial innovation was the development of a flexible metamodelling and method engineering environment MetaEdit+ which has been successfully used in several domain based software development improvements. This was associated with several substantial theoretical innovations like introduction of evolutionary and incremental method engineering principles, the idea of integrating method rationale for method evolution, and development of a holistic framework for both systems component and method component reuse. The MetaEdit environment has been adopted in over 30 countries by several hunders of companies. In some adoptions this has lead to 10 fold increases in software productivity. For example currently c.a. 300 million Nokia phones are powered with software generated through MetaEdit+.

Selected publications

Smolander K., Tahvanainen V., and Lyytinen K.: "How to combine methods and tools in practice- a field study", in Steinholtz B., Sölvberg A, and Bergman L. (eds), Advanced Information Systems Engineering, Second Nordic Conference CAiSE'90, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 436, pp. 195-214, 1990

Smolander K., Lyytinen K., Tahvanainen V., and Marttiin P., "MetaEdit-A Flexible Graphical Environment for Methodology Modelling, in Andersen R., Bubenko J., and Sölvberg A. (eds): Advanced Information Systems Engineering, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, L 498, Springer Verlag, Berlin, pp. 168-193, 1991

Marttiin P., Rossi M., Tahvanainen V-P., and Lyytinen K.: "A Comparative Review of CASE shells- a framework and research outcomes", Information & Management, vol 25, No 3, pp. 11-31, 1993

Tolvanen Juha-Pekka, Lyytinen K., "Flexible Method Adaptation in CASE- the MetaModeling Approach", Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, vol 5, No 1, pp. 551-78, 1993

Rossi M., Gustafsson M., Smolander K., Johansson L-]., Lyytinen K., Metamodelling Editor as a Front-End Tool for a CASE-shell, in Loucopoulos P. (ed), Advanced Information Systems Engineering, Proceedings of the 4th Intl Conference on CAiSE'92, 15-17.5 1992, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 593, Springer Verlag, Berlin, 546-567

Marttiin P., Lyytinen K., Rossi M., Tahvanainen V-P., Tolvanen J-P., "Modelling Requirements for CASE- Issues and Implementation Considerations", in DeGross J, Becker J., and Elam J. (eds): Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Dallas, Texas, pp. 9-20

Rask R., Laamanen P., Lyytinen K., "A Comparison of Albrecht's Function Point and Symon's Mark II Metrics", in DeGross J, Becker J., and Elam J. (eds): Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Dallas, Texas, pp. 207-222

Marttiin P., Lyytinen K., Rossi M., Tahvanainen V-P., Smolander K., Tolvanen J-P., "Modeling Requirements for Future CASE: Modeling Issues and Architectural Considerations" , Information Resources Management Journal, vol 8, No 1, pp. 15-25, 1995

Kelly S., Lyytinen K., Rossi M.: MetaEdit+: A Configurable Multitool CASE environment, Proceedings of the 6th CAiSE Conference, Grete, 20-22.5 1996

Jarke M., Pohl K., Weidenhaupt K, Lyytinen K., Marttiin P., Tolvanen J-P.: "Metamodeling: A formal Basis for Interoperability and Adaptability", to be published in B. Kraemer, G. Papazoglou, and J. Schmidt (eds), Information Systems Interoperability, Research Studies Press, 1997, pp, 202-256

Lyytinen K. Marttiin P., Tolvanen J-P., Jarke M., Pohl K., Weidenhaupt K. (1998): CASE Environment Adaptability: Integrating modeling and process support, In Proceedings of the 9th Workshop on Information Technology Systems (WITS), 12-13.12. Helsinki

Kaipala J., Lyytinen K, Balasubmaraniam R., Rossi M., Tolvanen J-P (2000): "Method Rationale: The Forgotten Element in Method Engineering", in Proceendings of the 34th HICSS, 14-16.1.2000

Zhang A., Lyytinen K. (2001), "A Framework for Component Reuse in a Metamodelling Based Software Development", Requirements Engineering Journal, 6, 116-131

Computer-supported cooperative work

I have worked since late 80's in the theoretical and practical aspects of computer supported cooperative work. In particular I have been interested in how to theoretically capture the role of mediating communication and information technology artifacts in the context of cooperatively organized work practices. Here I have drawn upon both on Giddens' structuration theory and Habermas theory of social action. This has resulted in several theoretical interpretations of the role of IT artifacts in cooperatively organized work. I also worked in the early 90's on a research project that designed the first computer supported meeting environment for multilateral diplomacy to be used in the last European Conference on Cooperation and Security in 1992 in Helsinki. This was a truly innovative and multidisciplinary research project, which involved researchers from the University of Industrial Arts in Helsinki, computer science department at the University of Jyvaskyla and several top level diplomats at the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Lately I have integrated this with some studies of knowledge distribution and sharing in globally managed complex projects that rely on IT systems and artifacts as important boundary objects. Recently I have started a research project with Youngjin Yoo that focuses on the design and impacts of pervasive computing environments for distributed organizational work.

Selected publications

Lyytinen K. and Ngwenyama O., "What does it mean to support cooperative work with computers", Accounting, Management and Information Technology, 1992, vol 2, 2, pp. 19-37

Ngwenyama O., Lyytinen K., "Groupware Environments as Action Constitutive Resources, A Social Action Framework for Analyzing Groupware Technologies", Computer Supported Cooperative Work, The Journal of Collaborative Computing, vol 6, No 1, pp. 1-23, 1996

Lyytinen K., Ngwenyama O. (1999): "Sharrock and Button…. And Much Ado about Nothing: How to build Windmills in CSCW Research and Attack Them", Computer Supported Cooperative Work, The Journal of Collaborative Computing, vol 8, No 3, pp. 285-293

Lyytinen K., Maaranen P., Knuuttila J., "Unusual Business or Business as Usual- an investigation of meeting support requirements in multilateral diplomacy", Accounting. Management and Information Technology, vol 3, No 2, pp. 97-120, 1993

Lyytinen K., Maaranen P., Knuuttila J., "Groups Are not Always the Same: An Analysis of Group Behaviors in Electronic Meeting systems", Computer Supported Cooperative Work, The Journal of Collaborative Computing, Vol 2, No 3, pp. 261-284, 1994

Karsten H, Lyytinen K., Hurskainen M., and Koskelainen T. (2001), " Crossing Boudaries and Conscripting Participation: Representing and Integrating Knowledge in a Paper Machinery Project", European Journal of Information Systems, 6, 2, 89-99

Lyytinen K., Yoo Y. (2002) "The Next Wave of Nomadic Computing: A Research Agenda for Information Systems Research", Information Systems Research (forthcoming)

Diffusion and innovation theory

In this area I have been interested in the growth, evolution and adoption of large technological systems where the evolution and adoption of the system is not dependent on the activities of a singular actor and where both the development and the adoption of the technology must be coordinated and negotiated through a community of stakeholders. I have therefore also been interested in the role of different kinds of coordinating and mediating mechanisms that enable "closures" on design and adoption among a set of stakeholders which do not have shared interests and cannot be centrally controlled. In particular I have examined the role of standards and the processes of high level requirements engineering where heterogeneous "social" engineering is carried around the future socio-technical systems. I have been involved in projects which study the evolution of EDI systems in different socio-political contexts and also studied the evolution of wireless telephony as an example of standard based and driven innovation and diffusion process in a political and heterogeneous industrial field. Much of this research has been been together with Prof Jan Damsgaard at the Copenhagen Business School and professor John King at the University of Michigan (School of Information).

Recently I have also started a line of research, which looks at the innovation activity related to ICT domain. I have studied software development innovations and their evolution over time in one Finnish organization. I have also studied longitudinally innovation and change in eight software houses in the U.S. and Finland in relation to internet triggered development changes. My recent research project (NSF funded study) with Dick Boland and Youngjin Yoo examines the ICT enabled innovation in architecture and construction industry as a result of moving to 3D representations of buildings and their designs.

Representative publications

EDI diffusion research

Damsgaard J., Lyytinen K., "Can the Dragon jump on the EDI Bandwagon: An Institutional and Organizational Analysis of Alternative Diffusion Patterns" in Viborg Andersen K. (ed) EDI and Data Networking in the Public Sector", Kluwer, London, pp. 13-42, 1998
Damsgaard, Jan and Lyytinen, K. (1998). International Trade and Transport Procedures at the Speed of Light - Electronic Infrastructure Development in Hong Kong, Finland and Denmark. In Larsen T. Levine L., DeGross J.I. (eds) Information Systems: Current Issues and Future changes, IFIP Working Group 8.2 and 8.6 Joint Conference Helsinki, Finland, December 10-13, 1998., pp.417-438

Damsgaard, J., & Lyytinen, K. (1998). "Contours of Electronic Data Interchange in Finland: Overcoming technological barriers and collaborating to make it happen". Journal of Strategic Information Systems, vol 7, No 4, pp, 275-299

Damsgaard, Jan and Lyytinen, Kalle (2001). "The role of intermediating institutions in diffusion of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI): How Industry associations in the grocery sector intervened in Hong Kong, Finland, and Denmark", The Information Society, vol 17, No 3, pp. 195-210

Damsgaard, J. and Lyytinen, K. (2001), Building Electronic Trading Infrastructure: A private or public responsibility. Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 131-151.

Lyytinen, Kalle and Damsgaard, Jan (2001): "What's wrong with the Diffusion of Innovation Theory. The case of a complex and networked technology". Proceedings of the IFIP 8.6. Conference, Banf 8-10.4.2001, Canada

Wireless and telecommunications research

Fomin, V. V. and K. Lyytinen (2000). "How to distribute a cake before cutting it into pieces: Alice in Wonderland or radio engineers' gang in the Nordic Countries?" In Information Technology Standards and Standardization: A Global Perspective. K. Jakobs (ed). Hershey, Idea Group Publishing., pp. 222-239

Gao P., Lyytinen K. (2000), "Transformation of China's telecommunications sector: a macro perspective", Telecommunications Policy, 24, 719-730

Lyytinen K., Fomin W, (2002) "Achieving High Momentum in the Evolution of Wireless Infrastructures: The Battle over the 1G solutions", Telecommunications Policy, 26, pp. 149-190

Lyytinen K., King J. (2002), "Around The Cradle of the Wireless Revolution: The Emergence and Evolution of Cellular Telephony", Telecommunications Policy, 26, pp. 97-100

High Level Requirements Engineering Research

Bergman M, King J., Lyytinen K. (2001), " Large Scale Requirements Analysis as Heterogeneous Engineering", Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, vol 12, No 1

Bergman M., King J., Lyytinen K. (2002), "Large Scale Requirements Analysis Revisited: The need for Understanding the Political Ecology of Requirements Engineering", Requirements Engineering Journal (forthcoming)

Innovation research

Mustonen-Ollila E, Lyytinen K.( 2002), 'Why organizations adopt IS Process Innovations: A Longitudinal Study Using Diffusion of Innovation Theory', Information Systems Journal, (forthcoming)

Lyytinen K., Rose G., Welke R. (1998): "The Brave New World of Development in the internetwork computer architecture (InterNCA): or how distributed computing platforms will change systems development", Information Systems Journal, vol 8, no 3, pp. 241-253

Lyytinen K., Rose G. (2001): "The Quad-Core Model of Information Systems Innovation: Identifying and Confirming the Role of Novel Technological Frames as a Supra-Innovation Core: The Case of Internet Induced IT Innovation", Proceedings of the 22nd ICIS, New Orleans, 17-19.12. 2001

System Failures and Risk Management

I did as part of my PhD study one of the first systematic analyses of types of system failures and means to mitigate them. This was published in ACM Computing Surveys in 1987. I expanded this later with Rudi Hirschheim into a survey and analysis of IS failures and their causes. This work has become classic in the field and is still the most extensive analysis of the IS failure phenomenon. Since then I have carried out empirical and conceptual studies on IS failures and their mitigation techniques. In the mid 90's this resulted in a stream of research, which focused on risk management theory and risk management practices. They focused on a more refined definition of IS risks, their classification and also empirical studies of their frequency and severity. I have done also some research lately on risk mitigation effectiveness.

Selected publications

Lyytinen K,"Different Perspectives on Information Systems: Problems and their Solutions", ACM Computing Surveys, vol 19, No 1, pp. 5-44, 1987

Lyytinen K. and Hirschheim R.,"Information Systems Failures- A Survey and Classification of the Empirical Literature, Oxford Surveys in Information Technology, vol 4, pp. 257-309, 1987

Lyytinen K., "Expectation Failure Concept and Systems Analysts' View of Information System Failures: Results of an Exploratory Study", Information & Management, vol 14, 1988, pp. 45-56

Lyytinen K., "Stakeholders, Information System Failures, and Soft-Systems Methodology: an Assesment", Journal of Applied Systems Analysis, vol 15, pp. 61-81, 1988

Ropponen J., Lyytinen K., "Can Software Risk Management Improve Systems Development: an Exploratory study", European Journal of Information Systems, vol 6, No 6, pp. 41-50, 1996

K. Lyytinen, L. Mathiassen, J. Ropponen, "A framework for software risk management", Journal of Information Technology, vol 11, no 4, pp. 275-287, 1996

Keil M., Cule P., Lyytinen K., Schmidt R.: "Against all odds: a new framework for identifying and managing software project risks", Communications for the ACM, November 1998, vol 41, 11, pp. 77-83

Lyytinen K., Mathiassen L., Ropponen J., "Attention Shaping and Software Risk- A Categorical Analysis of Four Classical Approaches" Information Systems Research, September 1998, vol 9, No 3, pp. 233-255

Lyytinen K., Robey D. (1999): "Learning Failure in Information System Development", Information Systems Journal, vol 9, No 2, pp. 85-101

Ropponen J., Lyytinen K. (2000), "Components of Software Development Risk: what influences it- a project manager survey", IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol 26, No 2, pp. 98-112

R. Schmidt, K. Lyytinen, M. Keil, P. Cule (2001), "Identifying Software Project Risks: an International study", Journal of Management Information Systems, Spring 2001, Volume 17, No. 4, pp. 5-36

Cule P., Schmidt R., Lyytinen K., Keil M. (2000): "Heading Off Failure: Strategies for Preempting IS Project Risk", Information Systems Management, 17, 2, pp. 62-73

Copyright © 2002 Kalle Lyytinen