Interaction quality between IS professionals and users: impacting conflict and project performance

Abstract

The quality of the interaction between the information system project team and the users in a development project is not clearly linked to the success of projects in terms of meeting budgets and product goals. Quality interaction may be crucial in understanding why past research is equivocal in support of the development maxim that user involvement is crucial to the success of an information system project. In this study, internal conflict among the IS project team is separated from the conflict of project team members with external users. Both internal and external team conflicts are found to impact interaction quality negatively, which in turn is strongly and positively related to project performance. These relationships indicate that attention to both internal and external conflict is crucial in achieving project goals.