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How well do we Understand Boundary Practices? Empirical Evidence from a Practice of Business Analysts
conference contribution
posted on 2023-05-23, 05:40 authored by Vashist, R, McKay, J, Marshall, PWhile there is a growing literature in boundary spanning, there is very little research that (a) examines boundary practices (b) empirically locates boundaries in experiences and expectations of actors involved in boundary interactions and (c) provides actionable advice to practitioners in boundary roles. This paper attempts to address such concerns by investigating the boundary practice of business analysts (BAs) that connects users and IT staff. We report findings from an interpretive case study of a group of business analysts working in a large company that provides mail and parcel services. For boundary practice, our findings include: (a) boundary practice introduces new boundaries (b) „boundary practitioners‟ face challenges not only in spanning boundaries between practices they connect but also in negotiating boundaries that they introduce. For BAs, we note that (a) having business and technical knowledge is not the most important requirement to meet expectation of users and IT staff (b) they would better meet expectations by focusing on analytical abilities and enabling users to better understand their requirements (c) they are expected to play an increasing role throughout the project lifecycle and (d) they are expected to increase their solution orientation.
History
Publication title
Proceedings ECIS 2011 - Proceedings of the 19th European Conference on Information SystemsEditors
V Tuunainen, J Nandhakumar, M Rossi & W SolimanPagination
EJISBN
978-952-60-3574-1Department/School
School of Information and Communication TechnologyPublisher
Aalto University, FinlandPlace of publication
Helsinki, FinlandEvent title
The 19th European Conference on Information SystemsEvent Venue
HelsinkiDate of Event (Start Date)
2011-06-09Date of Event (End Date)
2011-06-11Rights statement
Copyright 2011 AIS Electronic Library (AISeL)Repository Status
- Restricted