Perceptions of the Relative Importance of Conditions that Facilitate Implementation

Implementation is a phase included in nearly all instructional development models, yet literature on instructional design and technology reveals little about implementation's nature and the special conditions that must be considered as users go beyond adoption (Ely, 1999). Ely (1990b; 1999) contends these conditions include dissatisfaction with the status quo, leadership, commitment, participation, resources, time, incentives and rewards, and knowledge and skills. When employing Ely's conditions as a framework for investigation, attention is shifted away from the innovation to the environment where the innovation has actually been adopted and utilized as a facilitating factor in implementation. The move to online and software-based environments in recent years is accompanied by a need for additional research to further validate Ely's conditions within this new context. This exploratory study identified and analyzed user pre and post-implementation perceptions regarding the relative importance of Ely's conditions for the successful implementation of an actual innovation, a product management system. An online survey, the Implementation Profile Instrument created by the founders of iphase.org, was adapted and utilized to capture user perceptions. Descriptive statistics and factor analyses revealed important differences with past innovations and contexts, and between pre and post implementer groups and pre and post-implementation stages.