Trust and Control in Complex Information Systems Development

Much research has been devoted to the study of methods that help managing ISD projects. So far, this resulted in a large amount of literature on a variety of often normative ISD methods, generally categorized into plan-based and agile approaches. ISD method research has been driven by the common understanding that a high level of complexity calls for methodologically sound management and rule-based interaction in the development team. In this paper, we propose that high levels of inter-organizational and inter-personal trust can reduce the need for method-based interaction. We present the case of a successful ISD project set in a complex organizational setting with high success pressure. Our findings reveal that when method influence is low and only very lose control mechanisms are established, the trusting relationships within both the organizations and the developers highly affect the success of the project.