Understanding Software Maintenance Work
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
The integration of computing and routine work
ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS) - Special issue: selected papers from the conference on office information systems
Analyzing due process in the workplace
ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS) - Special issue: selected papers from the conference on office information systems
ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS) - Special issue: selected papers from the conference on office information systems
The social dynamics of routine computer use in complex organizations (work, management, sociology)
The social dynamics of routine computer use in complex organizations (work, management, sociology)
Work structures and shifts: an empirical analysis of software specification teamwork
ICSE '89 Proceedings of the 11th international conference on Software engineering
| Hi-index | 0.00 |
By drawing on recent studies of computing in the interactionist tradition, and more particularly on the notion of due process, the paper presents a case study of the introduction of office automation in Quebec colleges. Failures to reach negotiated agreements about conflicting representations of ongoing work processes in software systems are categorized by actors as problems of “fitting”, i.e. of achieving a satisfactory balance between needs and technology. Representations of what constitutes an “appropriate fit” are accompanied by representations of the appropriate organizational level at which a “good fit” may be attained. In our study, this has resulted in the displacement over time of the locus of software design. The disalignment of levels of work organization appears to be a central part of the work of achieving a temporary closure of the due process problem and should be taken into account when attempting to provide computational solutions to this problem.