lecture 8: collaboration with users

Question 1

user involvement

Answer 1

user involvement can have different purposes - improving the requirement of the system or the design to make the implementation easier.

its important to remember that user involvement can take place in different stages, be achieved by different methodes and can be both symbolic involvement or strong control involvement

Question 2

frame

Answer 2

a build-up repertoire of tacit knowledge that is used to impose structure upon, and impact meaning to, otherwise ambitious social and situational information to facilitate understanding.

Question 3

nature of technology

Answer 3

images/understanding of technology

Question 4

technology strategy

Answer 4

why organizations acquire and implement technology

Question 5

technology-in-use

Answer 5

how it will be used

Question 6

technological frame

Answer 6

Subset of members’ organizational frames that concern the assumptions, expectations, and knowledge they use to understand technology in organizations.
• This includes not only the nature and role of the technology itself, but the specific conditions, applications, and consequences of that technology in particular contexts of use.
How to use: Examining the underlying assumptions, expectations, and knowledge that people have about technology.

Question 7

Change agent

Answer 7

a change agent is a person or a group mostly from inside the organization who helps an organization transform itself by focusing on such matters as organizational effectiveness, improvement and development.

Question 8

how to manage user involvement properly

Answer 8

Know the work the system should support: Users typically have significant knowledge of the application domain, the tasks they perform, work practices, context of the system use and their behaviour and preferences.

Some knowledge is tacit: A part of the knowledge is tacit thus difficult to be articulated with typical elicitation techniques (such as interviews).

Better requirements and solutions: User involvement might improve the quality, accuracy and completeness of requirements.

Question 9

The role of user involvement: analysis

Answer 9

Involving users during early phases of development like requirements elicitation is necessary to capturing their needs and to make sure that systems are aligned with business processes.

Question 10

The role of user involvement: Design

Answer 10

having users participate in prototyping. By involving user in design the IT-systems and future work practices can be aligned. Furthermore requirements can be validated.

Question 11

The role of user involvement: Programming

Answer 11

answering questions and clarifying requirements.

Question 12

The role of user involvement: Testing

Answer 12

Verifying that the system actually comply with the requirements and is useful.

Question 13

The role of user involvement: implementation

Answer 13

change agents.

Question 14

benefits: phycological

Answer 14

user satisfaction
user system acceptance
facilitating change
better users attitude toward system
increasing relevance to the system by users
increasing customer loyalty
assist in maintaining long term relationship with users

Question 15

benefits: Managerial

Answer 15

better communication
improved management practice
developing realistic expectation
reducing cost of conflict resolution

Question 16

benefits: Methodological

Answer 16

better understanding of user requirements
improving quality of resultant application
improving quality of design decision
helping in overcoming in implementation failures

Question 17

benefits: culture

Answer 17

increased system usage
facilitating knowledge sharing
improving user skills

Question 18

benefit: political

Answer 18

democracy in workplace

Question 19

challenges: phycological

Answer 19

users lack of motivation
user behavior problem
user expertise
not appreciate idea of change
confidentiality concerns
users expectations

Question 20

challenges: Managerial

Answer 20

system complexity
communication skills of users
budget
lack of top management support
project uncertainty 
effort required by users 
ineffective user representation
user training

Question 21

challenges: mehological

Answer 21

task complexity
user identification
impact of change

Question 22

challenges: cultural

Answer 22

impact of changes

Question 23

challenges: political

Answer 23

degree of involvement
conflicts
power assymetry

Question 24

identify the users

Answer 24

• Who will be affected?
• What are the characteristics of people in each user category?
• What are the characteristics of the task performed by each user category?
• What do different users like and dislike about their jobs?
How are the different users likely to react to the system? Who might help / inhibit implementation?

Question 25

where to achieve the benefits

Answer 25

To achieve the benefits in methodological and psychological perspectives, user involvement in requirements phase seems to be the most effective.

For political and cultural benefits, users need to be involved in design and implementation phases

Question 26

shape understanding and action

Answer 26

By shaping individuals’ interpretations of organizational phenomena, frames implicitly guide individuals to make sense of and take action in organizations

Question 27

sharing frames

Answer 27

members of a community often have individual interpretations but share some core values/frames - These frames are transmitted e.g. through training, socialization and community membership.

Question 28

Create shared understanding between users and developers

Answer 28

By analysing and aligning users and developers technological frames.