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Mr. Teixeira maintained that Norwest did not engage in
research and experimentation because "At all times after the design
phase, Norwest was working with just one option--not a set of
alternatives." Mr. Teixeira identified two main attributes of
technology research in the banking industry:59 The "primary
deliverable" and the "project approach". According to Mr.
Teixeira, the primary deliverable in technology research in the
banking industry is information which helps make decisions about
other information technology projects rather than a production
system. He further stated that the project approach60 in technology
58(...continued)
Further, through his understanding of the Software
Development Methodology, Mr. Teixeira claimed that most risk
would be resolved before the logical design phase (the business
requirements phase), which is where only 20 to 30 percent of all
expenditures in information technology projects occur in average
U.S. banks. Mr. Teixeira asserted that very little of the work
prior to the logical design phase involved research or
experimentation.
59 Mr. Teixeira noted that many top U.S. banks fund a
technology research entity within their information technology
organization for the purpose of "understanding when a technology
is sufficiently mature for use within the bank and working with
the lines of business to determine where the technology may be
deployed effectively". These research groups account for less
than one-half of 1 percent of the total information technology
organization's budget, and even less at a bank of Norwest's size.
Given these percentages, Mr. Teixeira projected that Norwest's
expenditures for research and advanced development were over 50
times greater than he would have expected from an entity of its
size.
60 The technology research project approach has a pattern
of: (1) Posing a question (stating what information the project
is trying to determine); (2) performing targeted work (e.g.,
model, prototype, or literature review aimed at resolving the
(continued...)
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