Despite the numerous stories in academic journals and the business press of systems that fail to deliver anticipated benefits, mobile information systems (IS) are still gaining ground. The nature of mobile IS introduces additional aspects that require attention during the development process, compared to more traditional information systems built for stationary computers. The underlying assumption in this paper is that successful management of these aspects is crucial in order to harness the possibilities of mobility. This paper presents the AUDE- (Application, User, Device, Environment) framework; an analytical framework that addresses the additional aspect of mobile IS. The framework integrates previous research on mobile IS and is tested retrospectively on a case with mobile service technicians. Of the 19 attributes covered by the AUDE framework 2 attributes were not applicable in the investigated case. Of the remaining 17 attributes only 6 were actively handled (3 of them only partly), 8 were not taken into account, and for 3 we were not able to retrieve data. With the ignorance of specific attributes for mobile IS development it was possible to explain why the developed IS did not meet expectations and was considered a failure by its users.