Making Sense of Stories: the development of a new mobile computer game

This paper analyzes the retrospective stories of a four person team responsible for developing a new computer game for mobile phones. Our theorizing is based on an in-depth, two year, case study. The research contribution this paper makes is threefold. First, it outlines and discusses some of the analytical issues at stake in the adoption of a storytelling approach to understanding IS developments. Second, we show how individuals' work stories are tools by which they make sense of organizational events and read meaning into their working lives and relationships with others. Third, we illustrate the roles that individuals' work stories play in bolstering their self-esteem by attributing positive outcomes to the self and negative outcomes to external forces, and in their strategic presentation of the self to others. Finally we outline some implications for managing the mobile game development process