Open Access

Alfred Holl, Felix Paetzold, Robert Breun

• This study shows a new way of aligning the evolution of an organization’s information system with its own evolution: a methodological guideline for IS consultants is built upon an explicit epistemological basis. In the first part, given the epistemological properties of an organization (a psycho-social, time-sensitive environment), the need of a close cooperation between organization experts and IS experts (“observers” with different points of view) is underlined; “soft” skill training strengthens the effectiveness of communication between the two different perspectives in evaluating the “world” of an organization. A permanent cyclic-iterative knowledge gain is envisaged via the cooperation and convergence of different “scientific disciplines” and “approaches” that enable multi-level learning within the organization. Such learning constitutes a core method of information systems design, development and maintenance. In the second part, information systems are classified and the term information systems aging is defined. According toThis study shows a new way of aligning the evolution of an organization’s information system with its own evolution: a methodological guideline for IS consultants is built upon an explicit epistemological basis. In the first part, given the epistemological properties of an organization (a psycho-social, time-sensitive environment), the need of a close cooperation between organization experts and IS experts (“observers” with different points of view) is underlined; “soft” skill training strengthens the effectiveness of communication between the two different perspectives in evaluating the “world” of an organization. A permanent cyclic-iterative knowledge gain is envisaged via the cooperation and convergence of different “scientific disciplines” and “approaches” that enable multi-level learning within the organization. Such learning constitutes a core method of information systems design, development and maintenance. In the second part, information systems are classified and the term information systems aging is defined. According to Lehman’s laws, a lack of appropriate anti-aging methods leads to an enormous increase in information systems complexity and, in consequence, to a complete loss of usability and maintainability of the information systems affected. Therefore, specific methods against information systems aging are presented for the different phases (analytic, synthetic and maintenance phase) of the information systems life cycle. All of these methods refer to the aspects of temporal dynamics of organizations and / or common responsibility of organization experts and IS experts and can be visualized by cycles of knowledge gain (mayeutic cycles).…