Flensburg P: Personlig databehandling - Per Flensburgs hemsida

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Per Flensburg: Personlig databehandling Irrespective of the tools they are using, the people were satisfied with the choice and the way of working with them. On the other hand, they do not seem to perform any deep evaluation either of tools or of suitable applications. The choice seems to be more or less randomly. No company have any well planned strategy for introducing this new way of working. But the people using the support systems are all convinced about the profits, both in money terms and particularly in terms of quality of work performance. They all think they could do a much better job than before and also do things they had not previously conceived of doing. I have found it relatively easy to detect effects on job skills since the people, without exception so far, think the use of a user-developed support system has greatly improved their ability to do a good job. Concerning the other job satisfaction factors, no effects have been detected. Some people admit they have more influence due to their improved job performance, but that is all. I also distinguish two or maybe three levels of using the tools. The occasional user who uses a prewritten procedure in order to get a report from the data base or some computations in the spreadsheet program or a picture plotted with the graphical system can illustrate the first level of use. (S)he also might use the command mode of the query language or the spread-sheet program in order to answer some ad hoc questions. The local expert, who can write procedures, create new files and help other people with more complex questions, can illustrate the second level of use. People from the information centre who help the local expert with the more complex jobs or when the system has broken down might illustrate the third level. People use the support system to produce reports, which they are working with at their desks. The terminals are not necessarily located on the users desks, but can be found in another room, enabling more people to make use of it. However, people working with large calculations seem to require the terminal at the desk. Response times fluctuate widely. I have seen applications with surprisingly quick response times but also applications where response time could be up to 15 minutes. As a rule, people think they are rather slow, but it is not considered to be a serious problem. Knowledge of the data model (the system) is more important than knowledge of the tools. The data bases used by the companies are usually complex and require great skill from the users of the support systems to make effective use of them. Thus the local experts are experts both on the tool and on the data model. Perhaps they can be considered as local data base administrators. 7.3.2 Comments to the case studies The purpose of the research was to get a brief overview of empirical experiences and to describe what people thought about their job with user developed systems. Some 192
Per Flensburg: Personlig databehandling common patterns emerged, and hypotheses were formulated (section 7.4.1). What remains is designing experiments or investigations in order to verify or falsify them. Since the interviews were quite free (rather conversations), I hope the most important effects and experiences from the users' point of view, have emerged. However, people saw me as a computer expert and they often thought I required certain answers. In such cases they often unconsciously gave me just these answers. Another important question is how do I know that my six main areas (p 191) are the important ones. They are only a structure. I tried to collect and report the data in such a way that I was not restricted to these areas. But of course you cannot get answers to questions not asked. Other types of investigations must thus supplement this investigation. I have considered individuals all the time, not organizations. This orientation is perhaps disadvantageous but my reason is I think not many investigations that have been undertaken from the individual perspective. It is, however, possible to compare people working in the same organization and perhaps find some common patterns due to organizational factors. 7.4 The action oriented approach The case studies describe the phenomena of user development from the observer’s point of view. They do not provide any inside or in depth knowledge of effects that might occur during the implementation of user development in an organization. I think that process too must be documented, in order to avoid pitfalls and to gain knowledge about the user development process. The question for whom I gather this knowledge and which Nissen (1984) discusses, is in this case a very important question. In the case study part of the project, I achieve a rather generalized knowledge. In the second part of the project, which I call the action oriented approach; my role as a researcher is not so clear-cut. I can choose the role of an observer only and document what happens without any intervention. This is suitable when I know nothing about the problem. But in this case I do. I have gained some knowledge from the case study part of the project and I have a strong belief that the users ought to have great influence. I believe it is wrong and ethically unacceptable to act only as an observer and not try to help people involved in the development. The possibilities for achieving generalised results are almost zero, but the possibilities of achieving valuable knowledge for the people involved in the project are enormous! I try to act as a change agent and obtain acceptance for the idea of user developed support systems in the organisation. Often I feel like a salesman of ideas. I believe my ideas to be good for the organisation, but cannot prove it. 193
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Flensburg P: Personlig databehandling - Per Flensburgs hemsida

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