Countering user risk in information system development projects
User related issues have long been broadly discussed in the information system development (ISD) projectresearch area. In this study, we focus on user risk and identify two risk countering approaches to demon-strate how to deal with user risk and its negative impact on ISD projects. We hypothesize that (1) userrisk has a negative impact on project performance, (2) users’ bond with the project and the developmentteam can help reduce user risk, and (3) developers’ task knowledge and vertical coordination can ease thenegative impact of user risk and increase project performance. A quantitative approach with survey datacollected from 240 practitioners confirmed our hypotheses. In addition, we interviewed seven developersand three user representatives to complete our understanding of this issue. Implications for academiaand practitioners are discussed at the end of this paper. Suggestions for future research directions arealso provided.