User participation in implementation

Systems development has been claimed to benefit from user participation, yet user participation in implementation activities may be more common and is a growing focus of participatory-design work. We investigate the effect of the extensive user participation in the implementation of a clinical system by empirically analyzing how management, participating staff, and non-participating staff view the implementation process with respect to areas that have previously been linked to user participation such as system quality, emergent interactions, and psychological buy-in. The participating staff experienced more uncertainty and frustration than management and non-participating staff, especially concerning how to run an implementation process and how to understand and utilize the configuration possibilities of the system. This suggests that user participation in implementation introduces a need for new competences. Our results also emphasize the importance of access to fellow colleagues with relevant experience in implementing systems.