End User Development and Infrastructuring - Sustaining Organizational Innovation Capabilities

Today, both businesses and public organizations need to be able to innovate and continuously develop their services and processes along with the underpinning IT infrastructure. We argue that End-User Development (EUD) becomes a necessary part of the innovation capability that underpins such service and process innovation. The book chapter presents a meta-analysis of two case studies. The analysis shows how the need for change in both cases brought about an organizationally established sustainable practice of EUD, where empowered employees cooperated with IT professionals in the development and evolution of an IT infrastructure based on flexible technologies. The chapter further discusses how such practices are supported by (participatory) organizational IT management structures and processes. Finally, it discusses how EUD in this way contributes to the innovation capability of the organization. The conclusion points to transferability of the insights gained and provides suggestions for future research.