Www.monash.edu.au IMS5401 Web-based Systems Development Topic 3: Development for the web 3(g) Development in practice: organizational behaviour.

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IMS5401Web-based Systems Development

Topic 3: Development for the web

3(g) Development in practice: organizational behaviour

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Agenda

1. Common patterns of adoption of technology

2. Monash as a case study of web use in an organisation

3. Case study lessons

4. Implications

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1. Common patterns of adoption of new technologies

• Diffusion of innovation typically follows certain patterns among organisations and within an organisation

• Common phases in the diffusion of technologies:• Initiation • Contagion and growth• Control and development of standards• Maturity and ‘normalisation’• ‘Second wave’ developments?

• Note: these are stereotypes; should not be adopted as universal truths

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Technology Adoption

Source: Geoffrey Moore: Crossing the Chasm

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Technology Adoption

Source: Geoffrey Moore: Crossing the Chasm

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Technology Adoption

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2. Organisations and the web: Monash as a case study

• Use of web technology at Monash reflects the size and diversity of the organisation

• Parts of the organisation fit across all elements of the stereotypical adoption patterns

• Monash may not be a ‘typical’ business organisation overall, but its experiences reflect some common organisational responses to the web

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Initiation

• Techos and the internet; the early web• Small band of enthusiasts; visions and

grand ideas; diverse views• Technology too complex and diverse for

the non-technical to do anything• Simple enough and (exciting enough)

concept for some of the non-technical to become dangerous

• Limited number of small applications; pattern of early use• Sporadic/Experimental/Ad hoc/Uncontrolled

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Contagion

• Industry success stories and competitive pressure

• Customer demands and expectations• The business environment and the quest

for new business models (Berwick and its consequences)

• User and staff attitudes and understanding

• Managerial ignorance of realities and pressure for results (or appearances of results)

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Control

• Perceived waste and lack of results • Proliferation of approaches to web usage• Uncertainty about progress; fears of lost

opportunities• Concern for corporate image• Desire for consolidation (build on

successes) and economies of scale (support, etc)

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Maturity and ‘normalisation’

• Consolidation of some key applications• Acceptance (to some extent) of

organisational standards• Establishment of ‘normal’ development/

management patterns for applications• Substantial reduction in hype/

expectations

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Current situation

• Support for ‘core’ businesses in teaching and research (communications and document exchange with customers/clients)

• Intranet: Support for key internal administrative systems (e-mail, diary systems, internal publications, etc)

• Support for corporate promotion and marketing

• Interface for other corporate systems (WES, Allocate+, library , etc)

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The ‘second wave’?

• Not much in sight at present• Still believed by some to be on the way• Greater degree of scepticism second time

around

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3. Case study lessons (my perception!)

• Current situation• Usage patterns• Technical issues• Managerial issues• How typical is Monash?

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Current situation

• Continuing (generally non-critical) problems with technical issues

• Continuing problems with developing, maintaining and enforcing standards

• Continuing problems with developing user expertise

• Pressure to develop web-based access to more systems

• Desire for all-embracing “information repositories”

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Usage patterns

• Types of use:• Intranet• Internal transactional • Customer services - transactional• Customer services - non-transactional• Promotional

• Customer attitudes and expectations• Staff attitudes and expectations

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Managerial issues

• Managing growth• Experimentation and failure• Identifying and promulgating ‘good

practice’• Establishing policies and controls for

users and customers• User training and commodification of

expertise• Controlling costs and unauthorised use

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Technical issues

• Setting up and maintaining the infrastructure - network, servers, proxies, domain names, etc

• Developing support services• Fostering user expertise• Establishing and enforcing technical

standards

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Information issues

• Desire for ‘Big-bang’ all-singing all-dancing systems

• Attempts to bring together multiple information types and usages

• Achievability?• Stability of information types and needs?

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Development issues

• Types of development activity – from small-scale local incremental development to large-scale systems

• Development processes?• Development standards?• Expertise?

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4. Implications

• Deciding what the web is for:• Internal focus• External focus

• Deciding what level of control is needed:• Applications• Standards• Development processes

• Deciding who should have control:• Local/central/outsourced

• Getting acceptance of control structures

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Organisational realities

• Technologists believe that web technology will shape the organisation

• In practice, organisations will shape the web

• The use of the web is as much a result of organisational politics as it is of technological capabilities

• Beware unrealistically idealised pictures of organisations, technology and people!

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Web site standards

• W3C technical standards • Gurus of design/interaction/usability/

accessibility/etc • Which aspect of development should be

standardised? • Which guru should be followed?• Note:

• Range/diversity of application types • Lack of certainty over standards• Lack of established norms against which to verify standards

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Web site development teams (from last week)

• ‘Traditional’ IS development team• Business analysts• Systems analysts• Programmers• Specialists (database, application software,testing, etc)

• Web development team?• …??

• Note:• Lack of certainty over roles• Diversity of specialist backgrounds• Lack of established norms for collaboration

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Development processes (from last week)

• ‘Traditional’ IS processes• Waterfall SDLC

• Prototyping/RAD/JAD/iterative/etc

• Structured methodologies

• Web development processes• …??

• Note: • Lack of clearly-defined processes

• Diversity of process models

• Lack of established norms/structures for development process

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An analogy with the past (from last week)

• Computer systems development before IS professionals

• The evolving role of the IS professional• Systems analyst/Business analyst/Technical

analyst/Application specialist?

• Are we about to see this pattern repeated (or is it all just a continuation of the same pattern)?

• Web professionals:• Content creators/web page designers/information

architects/usability engineers/etc?

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Mainstream IS worldMainstream web systems world

Database design

Systems design

ERP systems

Development methods

Data warehousing

Decision support

MIS Digital media

CRM systems

Web publishingSystems analysis

Content creation

Content management

Corporate intranets

Graphic design

Search engines

Mobile computing

E-commerce

Etcetera, etcetera

O-O development

Data modelling

Process modelling

Web interfacesSite architecture

Corporate promotion

Virtual communities

Mark-up languages

Etcetera, etcetera

What role can IS play? The IS-Web system relationship

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The future

• Commodification of applications• Identification and commodification of

‘best practice’ processes and techniques• Evolution of specialised skills• Commodification of technologies;

impact on skill requirements• Organizational recognition of needs• Development of specialised development

processes