Towards a Taxonomy of Information Systems: Or Does Anyone Need a Taxi?

Abstract

Many academic and practical traditions have been brought to bear upon the field of business information systems in an attempt to understand a rapidly changing subject. The insights provided by traditional disciplines to an essentially multi-disciplinary subject is essential and very healthy. However, there is a danger of proliferating many different, overlapping frameworks of information systems. There is a need to review the frameworks and suggest a way of integrating several approaches. The future research effort depends upon a consistent set of data being available and discussed. This paper reviews previous frameworks used to promote the understanding and discussion of information systems. The one-dimensional approach is rejected in favour of a three-dimensional approach built around three basic questions characterized as the three Ts. What tasks does the information system have to perform? What technology can best deliver the systems? In what timeframe are we operating? The paper concludes by suggesting an integrated taxonomy, based on the three Ts as the basis for future research and discussion.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ackoff

R.L.

(1967). Management misinformation systems. Management Science, 14, 147–156.

Alter

S.L.

(1980). Decision Support Systems: Current Practice and Continuing Challenges (Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts).

Anthony

R.N.

(1965). Planning and Control Systems: A Framework for Analysis (Harvard Business School Press, Boston).

Blume

(1990). Interdisciplinarity in the Social Sciences, IMRAD Working Paper, University of Warwick, 1990.

Burch

J.G.

, and Grudnitski

(1989). Information Systems: Theory and Practice, Fifth Edition (John Wiley, New York).

Burn

, and Caldwell

(1990). Management of Information Systems Technology (Alfred Waller Ltd, Oxfordshire, UK).

Checkland

P.B.

(1988). Information systems and systems thinking: time to unite? International Journal of Information Management, 8, 239–248.

Checkland

P.B.

, and Griffin

(1970). Information systems: a systems view. Journal of Systems Engineering, 1, 29–42.

Earl

M.J.

(1989). Management Strategies for Information Technology, Business Information Technology Series, (Prentice-Hall, London).

10.

Eom

H.B.

, and Lee

S.M.

(1990). A survey of decision support system applications 1971-April 1988, Interfaces, 20, 65–79.

11.

Feigenbaum

, McCorduck

, and Nii

H.P.

(1988). The Rise of the Expert Company (Macmillan, London) pp. 92–114.

12.

Galliers

R.D.

(1991). Choosing appropriate information systems research approaches: a revised taxonomy, in The Information Systems Research Arena of the ‘90s, Nissen

H.-E.

(eds) (Elsevier Science Publications: Amsterdam, The Netherlands).

13.

Galliers

R.D.

, and Sutherland

A.R.

(1991). Information systems management and strategy formulation: the “stages of growth model” revisited. Journal of Information Systems, 1.

14.

Gibson

, and Nolan

R.L.

(1974). The four stages of EDP growth. Harvard Business Review, 52, 74–88.

15.

Gorry

G.A.

, and Scott Morton

M.S.

(1971). A framework for management information systems. Sloan Management Review, 13, 55–70.

16.

Harts

J.J.

, Ottens

H.F.L.

, and Scholten

H.J.

(1990). EGIS'90 and the development and application of geographical information systems in Europe, in Proceedings of the First European Conference on Geographical Information Systems, Vol. 1, EGIS Foundation, Utrecht, The Netherlands, pp. 1–10.

17.

Istel, (1988). A Taxonomy of Information Technology, Internal Paper presented on Business Management Systems course, University of Warwick, July, 1988.

18.

Keen

P.G.W.

(1987). MIS research: current status, trends and needs, in Information Systems Education, Recommendations and Implementation Buckingham

R.A.

, Hirschheim

R.A.

, Land

F.F.

, and Tully

C.J.

(eds) British Computer Society Monographs in Informatics, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge) pp. 1–13.

19.

Knight

A.V.

, and Silk

D.J.

(1990). Managing Information: Information Systems for Today's General Manager, The Henley Management Series, (McGraw-Hill, Berkshire, UK).

20.

Lucas

H.C.

, Clowes

K.W.

, and Kaplan

R.B.

(1974). Framework for information systems, INFOR, 12, 245–260.

21.

Lucas

H.C.

(1986). Information Systems Concepts for Management, Third Edition (McGraw-Hill, Singapore).

22.

Lucas

H.C.

(1990). Information Systems Concepts for Management, Fourth Edition (McGraw-Hill, New York).

23.

Maslow

(1954). Motivation and Personality (Harper, New York).

24.

Nolan

R.L.

(1981). DP must be run as a business within a business, Stage by Stage, 1.

25.

Nolan

R.L.

(1984). Managing the advanced stages of computer technology: key research issues, in The Information Systems Research Challenge, McFarlan

F.W.

(ed) (Harvard Business School Press, Boston).

26.

Pascale

R.T.

, and Athos

A.G.

(1981). The Art of Japanese Management (Penguin, Harmondsworth).

27.

Rockart

J.F.

, and Flannery

L.S.

(1983). The management of end user computing, Communications of the ACM, 26, 776–784.

28.

Sutherland

A.R.

, and Galliers

R.D.

(1989). An Evolutionary Model to Assist in the Planning of Strategic Information Systems and the Management of the Information Systems Function. School of Information Systems Working Paper, Curtin University of Technology, February 1989, Perth, Western Australia.

29.

Tan

J.K.H.

, and Benbasat

(1990). Processing of graphical information: a decomposition taxonomy to match data extraction tasks and graphical representations. Information Systems Research, 1, 416–439.

30.

Zorkoczy

(1985). Information Technology -An Introduction, Second Edition (Pitman, London).