The ®rst organizing principle of the framework is that AIS research should be task focused. Fig. 1 illustrates this principle through the centrality of task characteristics to system design alternatives and task performance. The importance of task focused research is increasingly recognized, both in psychology and accounting (Einhorn & Hogarth, 1981, 1993; Waller & Jiambalvo, 1984). Gibbins and Jamal (1993, p. 453) argue that research without task considerations may be uninformative: ``Without careful observation of the task, it is dicult to relate the research results to important questions about the task and accountants' performance of it, such as eectiveness, eciency, expertise, and value.'' Payne et al. (1993) emphasize that decision-makers can invoke dierent strategies depending upon even seemingly minor task features, such as the number of alternatives or outcomes. A task focus is necessary for designing and implementing systems in consonance with human judgment and decision processes and organizational strategies. Thus, to understand and improve AIS strategies, research must ®rst understand the task demands. This organizing principle extends prior AIS models, such as Reneau and Grabski (1987), which have subsumed task elements within broader categories of environmental factors constraining IS development