Information Technology And Organisational Change by Ken Eason

Author:Ken Eason [Ken Eason]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2007-03-29T16:00:00+00:00

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Chapter 8

Designing the Technical System for Human Use

Introduction

The selection and design of an information technology system will inevitably involve many technical issues but it must also meet user and organisational requirements. An effective socio-technical system depends upon the compatibility of the two sub-systems. In this chapter we will look at the demands the social system places upon the technical system and how they translate into design criteria. The accent upon human issues will produce a set of criteria which are different from the normal set a technical specialist may use when 'shopping' for a system, for example, cost, reliability, compatibility with existing equipment, capacity, speed, etc. The aim in this chapter is to add to the normal list rather than to replace it and thus to ensure that systems are chosen and developed that are both technically sound and will fit the organisational context.

It is convenient to classify the set of criteria to be examined under four broad areas that have already been presented as human and organisational requirements:

1. Functionality. The technical specification must cover the functions the system will have to be able to perform in order that it can support the required range of organisational tasks.

2. Usability. The system must offer its functionality in such a way that the planned users will be able to master and exploit it without undue strain on their capacities and skills.

3. User Acceptability. The system must offer its services in a way which its users will perceive, as a minimum, as not threatening aspects of their work they hold to be important, and, ideally, they will perceive it as positively facilitating goals they wish to pursue.

4. Organisational Acceptability. The organisation at large has goals, policies and structures and the system must not only serve immediate task needs but must not impede other aspects of organisational functioning. Ideally it will serve as a vehicle to promote wider organisational goals; as a minimum it must provide an 'organisational match'.

In general these criteria reflect the fact that, like any newcomer, the technical system has to serve the specific tasks for which it is introduced but also has to fit the wider, pre-existing context in which it has to operate. Many of the topics that will be discussed are already matters of concern to people purchasing and developing systems but are couched in general terms such as 'it must be user friendly'. If it is not possible to be specific about terms of this kind, or to illustrate how much better one system is than another on this criterion, the factor is not likely to weigh heavily in purchase decisions in comparison, for example, with measurable criteria such as cost and capacity. In examining these issues, therefore, it is necessary, as Bennett (1979) and Shackel (1984) have pointed out in relation to usability, to operationalise these goals as assessable criteria. In this chapter we will be presenting these issues and examining how they may be operationalised.

It will not be possible in one chapter to offer solutions, i.

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