It will be the purpose of this thesis to describe and analyze the events and factors which shaped installation of the first electronic data processing system acquired by the City of Denton, Texas--a "medium-sized" municpal organization operating under the council-manager plan. Because the environment may have some degree of effect upon such an effort within the public sector, a certain amount of space will be given over to description of the community as a geographic location, as an aggregation of people engaged in varied activities, and, by implication, as a background for the operation of a municipal government.