The trade union-related project showed us that the properties of an information system did not only depend upon the specifications stated but also on the characteristics of the actual implementation process. Thus, the system development processes must be studied as important elements in the class of the phenomena belonging to the domain of informatics.

From 1974 on research in system development became a major part of my work. Associated with this effort was the building up of teaching and research groups in Oslo and Aarhus. The work of these and cooperating groups is often referred to as the "Scandinavian School" in system development. A summing up of this work is found in

"Program Development As a Social Activity"

Invited Lecture at IFIP '86, the World Congress of the International Federadtion of Information Processing Societies, Dublin 1986