Lecture 5 - Developing Systems That People Want To Use

Question 1

What are the basic concepts of this chapter?

Answer 1

The IS Succes model by Petter et al. - System quality, Information quality, Service quality etc.

Trust: Trust is defined as an individual’s willingness to depend on another party because of the characteristics of the other party.

Implementability: Companies should design and build implementability into information systems (e.g. that systems helps users achieve goals that are supported by incentives)

Question 2

Explain the main model in this chapter.

Parts:
Analysis, Design, programming, Test (look in slides for reference)

Answer 2

Analysis - in the phase you identify the business needs and the understanding of the context.

Design - In this phase you design a solution of how you think the IS should look and be used. .

Programming - This is the software and databases that is going to be implemented in this project.

Test - you test the system in action and evaluate whether you should upgrade the quality of etc. software.

Overall implementation and project management is also a part of this model.

Question 3

Explain the IS Succes Model.

Answer 3

Users perception of system quality, information quality and service quality has impact on the user intention to use, and use, of systems and im- pact on user satisfaction.

Not only the actual use, but also the level of satisfaction matters for the creation of net benefits.

Users that are unsatisfied with a system might only use it as little or possible, and unwillingly, which affects net benefits.

• System quality, Information Quality and Service quality.
• The use of the model.
• User satisfaction
• Net benefit.

Question 4

What is the definition of Information Quality? - Please give examples of measures.

Answer 4

Desirable characteristics of the system outputs (content, reports, dashboards).

Examples - Relevance, understandability, accuracy, conciseness, completeness, understandabillty, currency, timelines, usability.

Question 5

In this chapter we depict between two system development methods; The agile approach and the plan based. Explain the two methods.

Answer 5

Plan-driven development: Discrete stages with a specific end product, stage-limited commitment, specialization, bureaucracy, documentation. Used when uncertainty is low, or if complexity is high.

Agile development: Short iterations, feature planning, dynamic prioritization, feedback and change. Used when uncertainty is high and complexity is low.

Question 6

During all activities in the main model, from this chapter, what is important?

Answer 6

It is important to always have the IS susses model in mind. We have to mange the impact of all the quality factors in every step(analysis, design, programming and test).

Question 7

What is the three things that you should try to measure and improve when implementing an Information System?

Answer 7

System quality, information quality and service quality - with focus on the users.

User perception of these factors has major impact on their intention to use the system, their satisfaction with the system, and actual use of the system.

Question 8

What is the definition of Service Quality? - Please give examples of measures.

Answer 8

Quality of the service or support that system users receive from the IS organization and IT support personnel in general or for a specific IS.

Examples - Responsiveness, accuracy, reliability, technical competence, empathy of the personnel staff.

Question 9

Analysis 1 - identify
In a specific project you can focus on the three factors from the perspective of which benefits should be created. But which question should you ask in order to identify the benefits?

Answer 9

Systems quality – How should “ease of use” be interpreted in this project – what does it mean precisely in this project?

Information quality – What is “desirable characteristics off output” in this project: When does the user think that it is OK?

Service quality – In the same way. How important is support, and what does “high quality support” mean in this project?

Question 10

Analysis 2 - Validate
In this analysis you should try to validate whether you have understood the customer / users correctly. How can this be done?

Answer 10

In an agile project you might show early prototypes to the onsite-customer during iterations and specifically ask the him/her about some of the quality aspects. Other aspects, such as e.g. reliability, must the validate in other ways (e.g. stress testing early versions). For each of the quality aspects (including service quality) you have to design some kind of evaluation that has a high likelihood of identifying any problems with the requirements.

In a plan-based project the same applies. For each of the quality aspects you have to find a way to validate whether the requirements are the right ones.

Question 11

Design phase - Incorporate
What should you incorporate into your design?

(have the system development methods in mind when answering this question)

Answer 11

You should incorporate all the quality requirements into your design (e.g. if something should be “easy to use” you have to incorporate that into your design and later verify that the design actually fulfill the requirements.

In an agile approach with short iterations you discuss e.g. “how to make the design easy to use” with the on-site customer (even though this probably isn’t sufficient), and might postpone the verification until you release a version to the customer – but make sure that the evaluation performed by the customer actually address all the requirements to software quality, information quality and service quality. In the agile approach you will face the challenge that there are no documents describing the relationship between the requirements and the design.

In a plan-based project the same applies: You have to incorporate the quality requirements into the design, and you have to verify that it is done correctly. However it will be a more formal and documented approach.

Question 12

Programming phase – frequent delivery & SQA
What is done during this phase and what should you always have in mind when programming the systems?

(have the system development methods in mind when answering this question)

Answer 12

During programming and internal test the programmers are supposed to base the programs on the design and therefore incorporate the quality requirements into code.
In real life this is seldom the case – reliability suffers, performance is not OK, the system is not as usable after all etc. etc.

• In agile development – some of - the problems are found fast due to the frequent releases (some problems might turn up later as the system gets bigger and more users are added).
• In plan-based development there are all kinds of SQA activities that are designed to identify the problems, but history shows that this is poorly executed in many projects.

Both approaches should design some mechanisms that make sure that the quality requirements are actually implemented in the code.

Question 13

What is the definition of System Quality? - Please give examples of measures.

Answer 13

Desirable characteristics of an IS.

Examples - Ease of us, system flexibility, system reliability, and ease of learning, as well as intuitiveness, sophistication, flexibility, response time.

Question 14

Test phase
What is the purpose of the test?

(have the system development methods in mind when answering this question)

Answer 14

The purpose of test is to find problems in the code regarding these quality attributes, as well as errors regarding the functional aspects of the code.

One of the major benefits of agile development is that you test often and also get frequent feedback about the quality, that can be used in later iterations. It is however important that these test / evaluations cover all the quality requirements in a systematic way.

The plan based approach has a long history of designing tests for all the different kinds of quality. Performance test, usability test, deployment test….. But in practice these tests are not executed properly in many cases.

Question 15

During which phases will you consider the following Dimensions(explain for each of them):

• Task
• Users
• Project
• Organizational

Answer 15

Task:

• During plannning you will plan the project based on your understanding of task difficulty (e.g. allocate more time for analysis if task difficulty is high).
• During analysis you will try to understand the task (the business process).
• During design you will focus on task compatibility.
• During SQA you could use usability-test to evaluate the compatibility.

User:
- During analysis you will try to understand the users, and you will use that knowledge in the project

Project:
- You will take this into consideration when staffing, organizing and planning the project.

Organization:
- During planning and analysis you will try to understand the organization, and you will use that knowledge in the project.

Question 16

FACTORS THAT IMPACTS THE SUCCESS FACTORS IN THE MODEL - Task

Explain Task Compatibility and Task Difficulty.

Answer 16

Task compatibility: the alignment of the technology with the work processes or work
styles.

Task difficulty: task difficulty has an inverse relationship with IS success. The easier the task is to support using IS, the more successful the IS.

Question 17

FACTORS THAT IMPACTS THE SUCCESS FACTORS IN THE MODEL - User

Explain the following:

• Enyoyment
• Trust
• Users expectations
• Attitude toward technology
• Organizational role
• Technology experience
• Self-efficacy

Answer 17

Enjoyment: the degree to which users have a positive affect toward the use oftechnology or an IS.

Trust: in the technology or IS.

User expectations: reasonable expectations toward an IS by users is a precursor to IS success.

Attitudes toward technology: the users general attitude towards the use of technology.

Organizational role: a user’s role in an organization does affect the user’s resistance to a new IS.

Technology experience: the users experience with technology in general (good or bad).

Self-efficacy: one’s belief that he or she is capable of performing tasks with an IS.

Question 18

FACTORS THAT IMPACTS THE SUCCESS FACTORS IN THE MODEL - Project

Explain the following:

• User involvement
• The relationship with developers
• Domain expert knowledge

Answer 18

User involvement - has long been associated with IS success.

The relationship with developers - the relationship between the IS group and the users, has been shown to have a positive effect on several dimensions of IS success. This relationship between the users and developers is maintained through a partnership, shared knowledge, trust, and effective communication during the development process.

Domain expert knowledge - has not been studied much, but when it has been included as an independent variable predicting IS success, there is often support for this relationship.

Question 19

FACTORS THAT IMPACTS THE SUCCESS FACTORS IN THE MODEL - Organization

Explain the following:

• The use of extrinsic motivation
• IT infrastructure
• Management support
• Organizational competence
• Management processes

Answer 19

The use of extrinsic motivation - such as incentives or pressure by the organization to use the IS, has strong support as a predictor of IS success.

IT infrastructure - the sophistication or level of IT infrastructure.

Management support - management support refers to the willingness to allocate time, resources, and encouragement for the use of an IS.

Organizational competence - managers with higher levels of IT knowledge and competencies affect the adoption of IS and the extent of use of IS within the organization.

Management processes - such as the culture, bureaucracy, or change control processes, also affect IS success. When management invokes processes that encourage open communication or strongly inform users about the benefits of the new IS, more use of the IS seems to follow.

Question 20

What does trust mean in regards to IS and this chapter as a whole?

Answer 20

When trusting an IT system we generally believe that it has the needed functionality, is helpfull and reliable.

If users trust a specific IT systems that we have developed / bought and implemented, they are more likely to:

• To explore the IT system and investigate how the system could be used to improve how work is accomplished.
• To fully use the the IT system to support work (deep structure use).

Question 21

What does “Trust” Depend on?

Answer 21

Individual user Characteristics - People with higher propensity is more likely to trust technology than other people.

Situational Normality - “If it’s normal, It’s safe” meaning that if the organization is used to use etc spreadsheets, they may be more open to new spreadsheet applications.

Strutural Assurance - This refers to the infrastructure supporting technology use.

Knowing how a technology will respond - Trust in specific technology depend on users’ knowing the technology sufficiently well that they can anticipate how it will respond under different conditions.

Question 22

How can we manage trust?

Answer 22

You could try to assess Propensity to Trust in order to understand the challenges you are facing, and you can address the factors in which trust depends on (e.g. structural assurance).