Application stewardship: a user responsibility approach to post-implementation application performance

Abstract

This paper makes the argument that an important mediating influence on the value of the usage of an information systems application is a set of activities called application stewardship. These activities, when performed effectively, tend to increase the value of applications in the hands of users and, when performed organization-wide, increase the orientation of the organization with respect to its usage of IT resources, including information itself, thereby reducing the gap between IT and its internal clients. The paper provides the rationale for extending application responsibility to the user side and lays out the definition of application stewardship and its relationship to delivering value in the hands of users. We develop a theoretical framework showing where stewardship activities enhance value in the hands of users, including a model of the forces tending to enhance or diminish stewardship effectiveness. The paper finishes by integrating the idea of application stewardship with the concept of organizational IT orientation.