Case Use: Mixed Signals from the Marketplace (Manuscripts‪)‬

ABSTRACT Continuing system development problems are causing organizations to seek methods and tools that will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of system development projects. One set of tools that have long promised to alleviate many system development problems has been computer-aided system engineering (CASE) tools. While these tools have been around for nearly two decades, previous research had indicated that organizations were being slow to jump on the CASE tools bandwagon. This study reports on a survey of IS professionals in the United States to compare CASE tool adopters to non-adopters today with CASE tool adopters and non-adopters of a decade ago. The results indicate that while the number of CASE tool adopters has remained relatively stable, the characteristics of those adopters has changed in some important aspects such as the size of the organization and the seniority of the CASE tool users.