Introduction Information technology is changing today at a rapid pace. Emerging technologies include not only new hardware, software, and data communications for user applications but also planning and development tools for IS professionals. In fact, the rate of IT change appears to be increasing dramatically.
New products seem to surface with greater alacrity than ever before in the history of computing.
Research has suggested that this swift change is causing difficulties for today's IS organization. IS professionals on a lengthy development project can witness the emergence of dramatic, new, useful ITs and the passing of others. Capitalizing on the new opportunities while avoiding the risks of the fads can pose a complex challenge to the IS organization. The importance of the rapid change in IT is grounded in both practice and theory. Thus in terms of practice, IT change is clearly a key issue facing IS organizations around the world.