Client/Server System Success: Exploring the Human Side

Abstract

Client/server systems (CSS) are emerging as the new paradigm for systems development, replacing or integrating legacy applications with systems that provide higher quality user interfaces on the client component and substantial user‐transparent data processing capability on one or more servers. Due to the dramatically different CSS development approach and the CSS emphasis on user friendliness, research findings based on non‐CSS should be retested in the CSS context. Using a relatively well‐established theoretical foundation, this study focuses on the human aspects of CSS implementation. Specifically, four major factors important to success with this emerging technology are studied: the degree of end‐user involvement in the CSS development process, end‐user characteristics, developer skills, and management support for the CSS project. The measures of CSS success are end‐user satisfaction with the CSS, system usage, and its impact on end‐users' jobs. The results indicate that the four independent variables explain a significant percentage of the variance in the dependent variables. Based on the results, recommendations are made for the management of CSS implementation and for further research on this important emerging technology.