User involvement in software development and system success: a systematic literature review

Context: In the last four decades involving users in the software development process is claimed to have a positive impact on the success of that software. However, previous reviews on this topic have produced conflicting results. Objectives: Our aim is to present a review on user involvement in software development process and investigate its relationship to software system success. Methods: For our exploration, we performed a Systematic Literature Review using the guidelines provided in the Evidence Based Software Engineering literature. Results: 87 relevant empirical studies were selected and reviewed that investigate various perspectives and concepts of user involvement in software development process during the period of 1980-2012. Among 87 studies reviewed, 59 report that user involvement positively contributes to system success, 7 suggest a negative contribution and 21 are uncertain. Conclusions: Our results show an overall positive impact of user involvement on system success. It also suggests that the relationship between user involvement and system success is neither direct nor simple, and it depends on many different factors and conditions surrounding systems development processes. Copyright 2013 ACM.