System Development: A Strategic Framework looks at one of the key issues in the design and development of IT systems: the fact that the bulk of system development projects undertaken will fail to meet originally defined objectives. Using a number of case studies, it analyses the reasons for this poor performance and provides the reader with a pattern of well-defined failure mechanisms which are especially relevant to large, long-term projects. With these established, the book then generates a set of planning procedures and corporate guidelines which will substantially reduce the impact and probability of financial and performance disasters in future projects. Accessible to the professional and non-technical reader, this book will prove invaluable to project managers, development managers, IT controllers, project engineers, and systems analysts as well as MSc and MBA students studying computer system development.