1. Paradigms and the Development of Information System
By Wendy Wang

2. What does paradigm mean
Paradigms are the set of the most fundamental assumptions shared by a professional community that allows its members to have the same conception to the similar questions.
Paradigms consists of assumptions about knowledge, how to acquire it, and about the physical and social world.

3. Classification of paradigms
The functionalism -- providing explanations of the status quo, social integration, consensus need, satisfaction and rational choice.
The social relativism -- There is no consensus reality, the reality is different for everybody.

4. Classification of Paradigms
The radical structuralism -- focus on the limitations of existing social and organizational arrangements and the need to overcome these obstacles
The neohumanist paradigms for destroying the barriers to emancipate, barriers in ideology, power, psychological compulsions and social constraints.

5. Paradigms and its corresponding system development
Functionalist paradigms: System focuses on profit maximization. management specifies the end of the system outcomes, system developers are expected to be the experts of technology, tools, methods of system design and project management, less reliance on human intuition, judgement and politics.

6. Paradigms and its corresponding system development
Social relativism: System objectives emerge and become legitimized through continuous modification. Management tries to find out the ends and means and the system developer facilitate this process.

7. Paradigm and its corresponding system development
Radical structuralism: Information systems are developed to support managerial control. The developers intervenes in the conflicts between social classes for prestige, power, and resources.

8. Paradigm and its corresponding system development
Neohumanism: System development leads to an emancipation from all unwarranted constraints and compulsion towards a state of justice, freedom and material well-being for all

9. Methodology
Purpose: a) If the developers really have paradigm when they conduct the system development. b) If certain paradigm really leads to the corresponding approaches of system development.
Subject: fifteen males and fifteen females students who graduated from CS or MIS department in Olemiss three years ago.

10. Methodology
Process: a) Questionaires will be sent to the subjects: this questionairs include two sets: the first set include questions like: when you do a system development design, do you think that: the explanations for the four paradigms will be listed, but their names are not included.

11. Methodology
Process: The second set of questionnaires will include scales to operationalize the relationships of the approaches that system developers might take and the objectives of the system development.

12. Methodology
Statistical test: a) T-test will be run to see if the hypothesis that the system developers always have a paradigm when they develop the information system is true. b) Another t-test and X2 will be run to see if there is really a relationship between the paradigms that the system developers have and the types of information system that they design