OPEN SYSTEM CONSTRUCTION- A STRATEGY FOR TURBULENT TIMES

pressures in a way that requires information systems to be implemented quickly and effectively. This can be critically important to the competitive advantage of a business enterprise. effort has Productivity in system development is not enough, however. Development to be well directed and at first sight the new ideas for strategic analysis of information systems are very attractive. By drawing UpOn a real case study where strategic analysis techniques were used it is possible to show that strategic analysis requires its own discipline if it is to succeed, and that it will lead to new pressures on the system development process. The mixing of bespoke, packaged and reusable system components from different sources will become an important factor in implementation, and what we know as system development will become more a process of system construction. If this is to be possible a new “open” approach to the whole process will be required. There is a new international standards initiative which should make an important contribution to this problem. Where the OS1 reference model provided a framework for open system interconnection, it is hoped that a new reference model for system development will provide a framework for open system construction (OS