Respondent Perceived Threat During the Information Systems Requirements Determination Process: Understanding and Mitigation

Authors

Alfred Castillo, Florida International UniversityFollow

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Major/Program

Management Information Systems

First Advisor's Name

George M. Marakas

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Chair

Second Advisor's Name

Xia Weidong

Second Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Member

Third Advisor's Name

Debra VanderMeer

Third Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Member

Fourth Advisor's Name

Dinesh Batra

Fourth Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Member

Fifth Advisor's Name

Peter J. Clarke

Fifth Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Member

Keywords

requirements determination, passive resistance misuse, respondent threat, interview, ISD, protection motivation

Date of Defense

8-25-2017

Abstract

Requirements determination is a critical driver in a successful software development process. Despite decades of research prescribing various software development methodologies, intended to aid in achieving an eventual convergence between the user’s mental models and an informationally equivalent representation that is codified within an information system, we can still attribute many of the deficiencies in software development projects to the improper or ineffective execution of the requirements determination process. This study draws on the user resistance, software development, and psychology literature to discuss how perceived threats by potential users and key respondents can result in sub-optimization of a proposed information system via reduction in the quality of their responses during the requirements gathering phase. A laboratory experiment was carried out to explore the sources and effects of various threat perceptions and the effectiveness of techniques intended to detect and mitigate such perceptions of threat. The results confirm that perception of threat does lead to a degradation in response quality, with perceived adaptability fully mediating the relationship. The findings on whether interviewer reassurance has a moderating effect on the relationship between threat and perceived adaptability had interesting results, which are discussed.

Identifier

FIDC004017

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3498-2415

Recommended Citation

Castillo, Alfred, "Respondent Perceived Threat During the Information Systems Requirements Determination Process: Understanding and Mitigation" (2017). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3549.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/3549