Is professionals in a virtual is context: the “to do what?” component of a qualitative study

The present paper plans shares the results of a study that was driven by the awareness that few activities and professions have seen such a rapid change over the past years as those related to the field of Information Systems (IS). According to these principles, this paper aims to present findings and propositions about the evolution of the context where these activities are performed, in order to contribute to the ongoing debate about IS professionals and IS function development. Despite the fact that the main concern of the global research project was people (IS professionals - the “who” part of the project) this paper is purposeful in the IS management activities (the IS function or the “to do what” part of the project). Ontological and epistemological fundamentals of interpretative research based the research process. Theories and models were derived from the empirical material gained from near 30 leading experts from the IS area in Portugal, both academic and practitioners. Grounded theory has been used as supporting method and semi-structured interview was selected as a technique to collect data. To understand the transformation process, forces that affect different IS dimensions have been identified and a dynamic model that supports IS context transformation is proposed. This model aims to explain how relations between different actors, IS tasks, roles and responsibilities have evolved and to predict scenarios in the present virtualized context where IS activities are performed