1. ¹Department of Information Systems, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, U.S.A.
2. ²College of Business and Economics, Washington State University, Vancouver, WA, U.S.A.

Correspondence: Gregory M. Rose, College of Business and Economics, Washington State University, 14204 NE Salmon Creek Ave, Vancouver, WA 98686, U.S.A. Tel: +1-360-546-9766; Fax: +1-360-546-9037; E-mail: grose@wsu.edu

³Authorship order is alphabetical to recognize equal contributions

Received 18 May 2005; Revised 19 June 2005; Accepted 9 January 2006.

Abstract

Information System Development (ISD) agility is concerned with why and how ISD organizations sense and respond swiftly as they develop and maintain Information System applications. We outline a theory of ISD agility that draws upon a model of IT innovation and organizational learning. The theory adopts March's concepts of exploration and exploitation to investigate agility in the context of ISD organizations. Depending on their learning focus, ISD organizations make choices as to what sensing and responding swiftly means. This is reflected in how they value speed in relation to other ISD process goals, including quality, cost, risk and innovative content. The paper examines two specific Research Propositions: (1) ISD organizations locate themselves into different innovation regimes with respect to their need for exploration and exploitation, and (2) their perceptions of agility differ in those regimes as reflected in their process goal priorities. We validate these propositions through an empirical investigation of changes in ISD organizations' process goals and innovation practices over a period of over 4 years (1999–2003), during which time they shied away from exploration to exploitation while innovating with Internet computing. These ISD organizations viewed agility differently during the studied time periods as reflected in how they traded innovative content or speed vis-à-vis the other process goals of cost, risk, and product quality. In conclusion, this paper discusses implications for future research on agility in ISD organizations.