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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Work system has been used loosely in many areas. This article concerns its use in understanding IT-reliant systems in organizations. A notable use of the term occurred in 1977 in the first volume of MIS Quarterly in two articles by Bostrom and Heinen (1977). Later Sumner and Ryan (1994) used it to explain problems in the adoption of CASE (computer-aided software engineering). A number of socio-technical systems researchers such as Trist and Mumford also used the term occasionally, but seemed not to define it in detail. In contrast, the work system approach defines work system carefully and uses it as a basic analytical concept. A work system is a system in which human participants and/or machines perform work using information, technology, and other resources to produce products and/or services for internal or external customers. Typical business organizations contain work systems that procure materials from suppliers, produce products, deliver products to customers, find customers, create financial reports, hire employees, coordinate work across departments, and perform many other functions. The work system concept is like a common denominator for many of the types of systems that operate within or across organizations. Operational information systems, service systems, projects, supply chains, and ecommerce web sites can all be viewed as special cases of work systems.
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An information system is a work system whose processes and activities are devoted to processing information. A service system is a work system that produces services for its customers. A project is a work system designed to produce a product and then go out of existence. A supply chain is an inter-organizational work system devoted to procuring materials and other inputs required to produce a firms products. An ecommerce web site can be viewed as a work system in which a buyer uses a sellers web site to obtain product information and perform purchase transactions.
The relationship between work systems in general and the special cases implies that the same basic concepts apply to all of the special cases, which also have their own specialized vocabulary. In turn, this implies that much of the body of knowledge for the current information systems discipline can be organized around a work system core. Specific information systems exist to support (other) work systems. Many different degrees of overlap are possible between an information system and a work system that it supports. For example, an information system might provide information for a non-overlapping work system, as happens when a commercial marketing survey provides information to a firms marketing managers In other cases, an information system may be an integral part of a work system, as happens in highly automated manufacturing and in ecommerce web sites. In these situations, participants in the work system are also participants in the information system, the work system
cannot operate properly without the information system, and the information system has little significance outside of the work system.
Contents
1 Work system framework 2 Work system life cycle model o 2.1 Operation and maintenance o 2.2 Initiation o 2.3 Development o 2.4 Implementation 3 Work system method
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encompassing role of work system participant is more important than the more limited role of technology user (whether or not particular participants happen to be technology users) Information includes codified and non-codified information used and created as participants perform their work. Information may or may not be computerized. Data not related to the work system is not directly relevant, making the distinction between data and information secondary when describing or analyzing a work system. Knowledge can be viewed as a special case of information. Technologies include tools (such as cell phones, projectors, spreadsheet software, and automobiles) and techniques (such as management by objectives, optimization, and remote tracking) that work system participants use while doing their work. Products and services are the combination of physical things, information, and services that the work system produces. This may include physical products, information products, services, intangibles such as enjoyment and peace of mind, and social products such as arrangements, agreements, and organizations. Customers are people who receive direct benefit from products and services the work system produces. They include external customers who receive the organization's products and/or services and internal customers who are employees or contractors working inside the organization. Environment includes the organizational, cultural, competitive, technical, and regulatory environment within which the work system operates. These factors affect system performance even though the system does not rely on them directly in order to operate. The organizations general norms of behavior are part of its culture, whereas more specific behavioral norms and expectations about specific activities within the work system are considered part of its processes and activities. Infrastructure includes human, informational, and technical resources that the work system relies on even though these resources exist and are managed outside of it and are shared with other work systems. For example, technical infrastructure includes computer networks, programming languages, and other technologies shared by other work systems and often hidden or invisible to work system participants. Strategies include the strategies of the work system and of the department(s) and enterprise(s) within which the work system exists. Strategies at the department and enterprise level may help in explaining why the work system operates as it does and whether it is operating properly.
regardless of whether application software is acquired, built from scratch, or not used at all. The terms development and implementation have business-oriented meanings that are consistent with Markus and Maos (2004) distinction between system development and system implementation. This model encompasses both planned and unplanned change. Planned change occurs through a full iteration encompassing the four phases, i.e., starting with an operation and maintenance phase, flowing through initiation, development, and implementation, and arriving at a new operation and maintenance phase. Unplanned change occurs through fixes, adaptations, and experimentation that can occur within any phase. The phases include the following activities:
Operation of the work system and monitoring of its performance Maintenance of the work system (which often includes at least part of information systems that support it) by identifying small flaws and eliminating or minimizing them through fixes, adaptations, or workarounds. On-going improvement of processes and activities through analysis, experimentation, and adaptation
Initiation
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Vision for the new or revised work system Operational goals Allocation of resources and clarification of time frames Economic, organizational, and technical feasibility of planned changes
Development
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Detailed requirements for the new or revised work system (including requirements for information systems that support it) As necessary, creation, acquisition, configuration, and modification of procedures, documentation, training material, software and hardware Debugging and testing of hardware, software, and documentation
Implementation
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Implementation approach and plan (pilot? phased? big bang?) Change management efforts about rationale and positive or negative impacts of changes Training on details of the new or revised information system and work system Conversion to the new or revised work system Acceptance testing
As an example of the iterative nature of a work systems life cycle, consider the sales system in a software start-up. The first sales system is the CEO selling directly. At some point the CEO cant do it alone, several salespeople are hired and trained, and marketing materials are produced that can be used by someone less expert than the CEO. As the firm grows, the sales system becomes
regionalized and an initial version of sales tracking software is developed and used. Later, the firm changes its sales system again to accommodate needs to track and control a larger salesforce and predict sales several quarters in advance. A subsequent iteration might involve the acquisition and configuration of CRM software. The first version of the work system starts with an initiation phase. Each subsequent iteration involves deciding that the current sales system is insufficient; initiating a project that may or may not involve significant changes in software; developing the resources such as procedures, training materials, and software that are needed to support the new version of the work system; and finally, implementing the new work system. The pictorial representation of the work system life cycle model places the four phases at the vertices of rectangle. Forward and backward arrows between each successive pair of phases indicate the planned sequence of phrase and allow the possibility of returning to a previous phase if necessary. To encompass both planned and unplanned change, each phase has an inward facing arrow to denote unanticipated opportunities and unanticipated adaptations, thereby recognizing the importance of diffusion of innovation, experimentation, adaptation, emergent change, and path dependence. The work system life cycle model is iterative and includes both planned and unplanned change. It is fundamentally different from the frequently cited Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC), which actually describes projects that attempt to produce software or produce changes in a work system. Current versions of the SDLC may contain iterations but they are basically iterations within a project. More important, the system in the SDLC is a basically a technical artifact that is being programmed. In contrast, the system in the WSLC is a work system that evolves over time through multiple iterations. That evolution occurs through a combination of defined projects and incremental changes resulting from small adaptations and experimentation. In contrast with control-oriented versions of the SDLC, the WSLC treats unplanned changes as part of a work systems natural evolution.
Results from analyses of real world systems by typical employed MBA and EMBA students indicate that a systems analysis method for business professionals must be much more prescriptive than soft systems methodology (Checkland, 1999). While not a straitjacket, it must be at least somewhat procedural and must provide vocabulary and analysis concepts while at the same time encouraging the user to perform the analysis at whatever level of detail is appropriate for the task at hand. The latest version of the work system method is organized around a general problem-solving outline that includes:
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Identify the problem or opportunity Identify the work system that has that problem or opportunity (plus relevant constraints and other considerations) Use the work system framework to summarize the work system Gather relevant data. Analyze using design characteristics, measures of performance, and work system principles. Identify possibilities for improvement. Decide what to recommend Justify the recommendation using relevant metrics and work system principles.
In contrast to systems analysis and design methods for IT professionals who need to produce a rigorous, totally consistent definition of a computerized system, the work system method:
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encourages the user to decide how deep to go makes explicit use of the work system framework and work system life cycle model makes explicit use of work system principles. makes explicit use of characteristics and metrics for the work system and its elements. includes work system participants as part of the system (not just users of the software) includes codified and non-codified information includes IT and non-IT technologies. suggests that recommendations specify which work system improvements rely on IS changes, which recommended work system changes dont rely on IS changes, and which recommended IS changes wont affect the work systems operational form.