The Project Multiple Enactments of Systems Development

This article analyzes how a pilot implementation of a maternity care record was approached very differently by potential users. It is argued that conceptualizing the ways in which the new IT system was approached as: (1) ritual, (2) controlled experiment, and (3) learning process, highlights differences in what it meant for participants to be part of the implementation. This is comparable to paradigms in systems development. Rather than aligning the different interests of user groups, the pilot project brought about differences within the project, and thus enacted what is referred to in the article as a project multiple. Based on a characterization of the different modes of participation/systems development paradigms, the contribution of the article is, first, a demonstration of the theoretical ben-efits of the notion of enactment in relation to the management of IT implementation pro-jects. Second, it is to point to the benefits of considering the multiplicity of projects in the practical management of IT projects, where pre-set goals and expectations are transformed as they blend with everyday routines and activities in specific locations.