The impacts of user review on software responsiveness: Moderating requirements uncertainty

Rapidly changing business environments and evolving processes increase the uncertainties in IS development. To produce a high-quality system that responds to user needs is challenging. We attempted to determine whether user reviews during the development process could reduce uncertainties and improve the product. Technology structuration theory indicated that users, as actors participating in reviews during the development of a system, could help reduce uncertainty in the organizational requirements and thus improve the software product. A survey of system developers indicated that user requirements uncertainty had a direct, negative effect on software responsiveness but that user review, serving as a moderator, could reduce this effect.