Ken Eason

The change and evolution of requirements as a challenge to the practice of software engineering

The difficulty of handling changing requirements within traditional development processes is described. The origins of changing user and organizational requirements are discussed and different types are classified. The author identifies a number of ways in which different approaches to design may help to deal with change as well as mechanisms which should underpin effective communication between users and designers.<<ETX>>

Towards the experimental study of usability

Abstract Usability is presented as a concept which can limit the degree to which a user can realize the potential utility of a computer system. A field study is presented to illustrate the manner in which usability problems inhibit usage. The study examined a banking system which provided staff with 36 ways of extracting information from a customers account. The usage log shows that four ‘codes’ accounted for 75% of usage and many codes’, although designed specifically for known banking tasks, were virtually unused. An investigation was undertaken in 15 branches to identify what happened when staff were confronted by tasks for which unused facilities had been designed. The results showed that staff were able to use a small set of well-known facilities for most purposes, albeit inefficiently and sometimes ineffectively. The strategy adopted was to avoid searching unknown facilities except as a last resort. From this and other field studies a framework is presented to summarize the variables affecting the ...

Local sociotechnical system development in the NHS National Programme for Information Technology

The National Programme for Information Technology is implementing standard electronic healthcare systems across the National Health Service Trusts in England. This paper reports the responses of the Trusts and their healthcare teams to the applications in the programme as they are being implemented. It concludes that, on the basis of the data available, it is likely that the emergent behaviour of healthcare staff will serve to minimise the impact of the systems. The paper looks at the opportunities within the programme to undertake local sociotechnical system design to help staff exploit the opportunities of the new electronic systems. It concludes that there are opportunities and offers one case study example in a Mental Health Trust. However, it concludes that there are many aspects of the technical systems themselves and also of the approach to implementation, that limit the opportunities for local sociotechnical systems design work.

Patterns of use of electronic journals

On the basis of a twenty‐two month transaction log of SuperJournal and using K‐Means cluster analysis, this paper classifies a spectrum of user behaviour with electronic journals into a typology of eight categories of user (or eight patterns of use): the searcher, the enthusiastic user, the focused regular user, the specialised occasional user, the restricted user, the lost user, the exploratory user and the tourist. It examines the background and experience with SuperJournal of each type of user to illuminate its formation. The examination shows that the contents (both coverage and relevance) and ease of use of a system as they were perceived by the user were the most significant factors affecting patterns of use. Users’ perceptions of both factors were affected by a range of intervening factors such as discipline, status, habitual approach towards information management, availability of alternative electronic journal services, purpose of use, etc. As any service is likely to attract a great variety of users, so will it lead to differing patterns of use. This paper demonstrates the need for a service to meet the requirements of users with these varied patterns.

The use and usefulness of functions in electronic journals: the experience of the SuperJournal Project

This paper examines the general value to users of a range of electronic journal functions and their usefulness in the specific context of the SuperJournal Project. For the evaluation of each of the functions three types of data were analysed in relation to each other and in light of other contextual data: logged data of usage, survey data on user satisfaction, and survey data on the perceived importance of the function. The analysis shows that basic browsing, printing and search make up the core functions of electronic journals; other functions, such as saving of bibliographic data, alerting, customising, links with external resources and communication, serve as peripheral functions. The usefulness of both the core functions and the peripheral functions in a specific service is influenced by various implementation factors. However, it is the realised usefulness of the core functions which determines the use of a service.

Representing socio-technical systems options in the development of new forms of work organization

Abstract It is widely accepted that effective implementation of new technology into work organizations needs an integrative approach in which developments in both technical and social systems are considered. Furthermore, success depends upon the effective participation of significant stakeholders in this process. This article reviews the methods available for this purpose and concludes that a particular weakness is the methods that can be used to generate and review socio-technical system opportunities early in the development process. Whilst methods exist to support stakeholder participation at this stage, they need to represent future socio-technical opportunities if they are to make an effective contribution. This article presents the ORDIT (Organizational Requirements Definition for Information Technology Systems) methodology, which uses responsibility modelling as a basis for constructing socio-technical systems opportunities. The application of telemedicine in health care is presented as a case stud...

Understanding the Organisational Ramifications of Implementing Information Technology Systems

Publisher Summary Information technology is a major force for organizational change. Every organization that applies the technology experiences organizational ramifications. This chapter charts the development of different models of organizational effects over a 40-year period. During the 1960s and 1970s, many studies of organizational impact were undertaken that produced conflicting results. As a result, a contingency model of computer impact emerged that accounted for the different impacts by reference to different forms of technology and application. In the last decade, it has become clear that this is also an inadequate model because it does not allow for the active nature of organizations that act to shape the impact of the technology. The chapter examines nine case studies to explore the processes by which organizational impact takes place. The active manner in which these processes operate is summarized in model three. This is an organizational assimilation model in which the three sub-systems of an enterprise interact and create outcomes in each sub-system. The chapter ends with a review of the many methods now available to support this approach and outlines the need for organizational stakeholders to play significant roles in new system developments.

Early Evaluation of the Organisational Implications of CSCW Systems

Computer systems which support cooperative work will undoubtedly change the way people interact with one another in a working setting. In stimulating these changes, the CSCW system will be a force for organisational change. Over the past twenty years there has been a tradition of impact research, in which investigators have studied the impact computer-based information systems implemented within organisations have had upon those organisations. The results have been many and varied. Some studies show that computer systems lead to the centralisation of power (Whisler 1970), while others show decentralisation of power (Blau and Schoenherr 1971). At the level of the individual job there are studies which show the empowerment of the individual (Long 1987) and the opposite: the creation of the “white collar assembly line” (Downing 1980). Buchanan and Boddy (1983) demonstrated both job enrichment and deskilling from two different computer systems in the same organisation. There is widespread agreement that there can be substantial change, but very little agreement on the form that it takes. We have argued elsewhere (Eason 1988) that the reason for these diverse results is that computer systems are not deterministic, and that they can be used to achieve many different organisational effects. There is an opportunity in the design and development process to plan the organisational outcomes and to achieve the impact that is desired by the members of the organisation.

The implications of e-health system delivery strategies for integrated healthcare: lessons from England.

PURPOSE This paper explores the implications that different technical strategies for sharing patient information have for healthcare workers and, as a consequence, for the extent to which these systems provide support for integrated care. METHODS Four technical strategies were identified and the forms of coupling they made with healthcare agencies were classified. A study was conducted in England to examine the human and organizational implications of systems implemented by these four strategies. Results were used from evaluation reports of two systems delivered as part of the NPfIT (National Programme for Information Technology) and from user responses to systems delivered in two local health communities in England. In the latter study 40 clinical respondents reported the use of systems to support integrated care in six healthcare pathways. RESULTS The implementation of a detailed care record system (DCRS) in the NPfIT was problematic because it could not meet the diverse needs of all healthcare agencies and it required considerable local customization. The programme evolved to allow different systems to be delivered for each local health community. A national Summary Care Record (SCR) was implemented but many concerns were raised about wide access to confidential patient information. The two technical strategies that required looser forms of coupling and were under local control led to wide user adoption. The systems that enabled data to be transferred between local systems were successfully used to support integrated care in specific healthcare pathways. The portal approach gave many users an opportunity to view patient data held on a number of databases and this system evolved over a number of years as a result of requests from the user community. CONCLUSIONS The UK national strategy to deliver single shared database systems requires tight coupling between many users and has led to poor adoption because of the diverse needs of healthcare agencies. Sharing patient information has been more successful when local systems have been developed to serve particular healthcare pathways or when separate databases are viewable through a portal. On the basis of this evidence technical strategies that permit the local design of tight coupling are necessary if information systems are to support integrated care in healthcare pathways.

Division of labour and the design of systems for computer support for cooperative work

The design of systems which provide computer support for cooperative work (CSCW) has been dominated by models of collaborative teams in academic or design environments. Such settings are characterized by a relatively egalitarian power distribution and a division of labour established locally by the collaborating parties. This paper describes other types of collaborative work in which the rôles of participants are characterized by pre-established divisions of labour and unequal power distribution. A case study is presented of a collaborative group allocating and scheduling service calls in an electricity company. Using the Organizational Requirements Definition for Information Technology (ORDIT) methods for responsibility analysis a number of alternative organizational structures are described which may serve this task. The alternatives are based upon different job design structures which distribute responsibilities to work roles by different rationales. An analysis is offered of the different CSCW systems that would be necessary to support these alternatives. The paper concludes by examining the implications of pre-established but variable organizational structures for the design of generic CSCW systems.