Socio-Technical and Human Cognition Elements of Information Systems
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Binding: Digital Format: Download: PDF Label: Information Science Publishing Manufacturer: Information Science Publishing Number Of Pages: 300 Publication Date: 2002-08-09 Publisher: Information Science Publishing Release Date: 2002-10-01 Studio: Information Science Publishing
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Customer Rating: Summary: An academic's view Comment: E.W. Dijkstra, one of the founders of computing science, noted a long time ago that when computers first appeared the goal of our programs was to instruct our machines, but now the goal of our machines should be to execute our programs. Similarly, the goal of IT systems should be to satisfy well-defined business needs instead of -- as it often still happens -- directing businesses in their operational, tactical, or strategic work. When IT provides opportunities as a business enabler, the business (including social) and IT aspects of an organization are intertwined and thus have to be specified and reasoned about explicitly. In all cases, reasoning about IT systems (which never exist in isolation) and their organizational contexts should be done using concepts and terms understandable to all stakeholders, from business decision makers to IT developers. This interesting book shows various approaches of doing just that. Customer Rating: Summary: A consultant's view Comment: Too many IT systems have failed because assumptions (often tacit), norms and values of IT system designers and developers differ from those of their various business and organizational customers. This has been recognized both in academia and in industry, and the book's thirteen papers propose interesting and promising ways of improving this unfortunate state of affairs. In many cases, the authors of this thought-provoking book do not deliver answers, but rather recognize and clearly formulate problems, thus leading to an essential framework for solving these problems. Several papers provide sincere and often eye-opening assessments of important IT usage failures. And all authors show interesting and useful models that help to determine how business and organizational issues -- including political ones -- ought to be treated in an explicit, rigorous and proactive manner before, during and after IT system design and development.
Information resource management is too often seen as a domain dominated by technology, or, at best, one in which human considerations are secondary to and dependent on technological systems. Socio-Technical and Human Cognition Elements of Information Systems brings together chapters from Europe, Australasia, Canada and the Americas, all drawn together by the common theme of the book. It will present information management not as technology influenced by people, but as fundamentally a people-centred domain.
