It is argued that the epistemology proffered by the SSM advocates does not provide a practical basis upon which to conduct team-based systems development; this is because the SSM advocates over-emphasise the need for subjective certainty and meaning, thus rendering their epistemology over-idealistic. It is concluded that the need for effective communication between team members necessarily implies abandoning the search for subjective certitude and supplanting it with the search for practical "working knowledge" of the actual situation in which IS development occurs.