organizational analysis in computer science.txt

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massively parallel computing in terms of the scale and unit cost
of computation (Kling, Scherson, and Allen 1992), and the
discussions of networking in terms of the wide data bandwidths
that new technologies offer.

If we ask how these technologies improve organizational
performance, then we have to ask how they can be made usable to
diverse groups. The most powerful modelling system may be of
limited utility if it requires sophisticated programming skills
to create and modify every data transformation. Alternatively,
such a package can be made more widely useful by having the
modelling efforts managed by a programming group whihc provides
added value for added cost.

Few people are capable or interested in primarily using "raw
computing" for their work. The diverse array of "productivity
software" -- such as text processing, presentation graphics,
spreadsheets, databases and so on gain their value when they can
be provided and maintained in a way that matches the skills and
available time of people who will use them. Both skill and time
are scarce resources in most organizations. Skilled time is
especially expensive.

Similarly, the organizational value of digital libraries can't be
adequately conceptualized in terms of simple data-centric
measures, like the number of gigabytes of available files. The
ease of people accessing useful documents is much more pertinent,
although much less frequently discussed today.

In each of these cases, the support systems for the focal
computing system is integral to the effective operation of the
technology. Infrastructure refers to the set of human and
organizational resources that help make it simpler and faster for
skilled people to use computerized systems. Infrastructure should
be part of the conceptualization. Often the support systems for a
computing can involve several different organizations, including
hardware and software vendors, telecommunication support groups,
divisional systems groups, and local experts (Kling, 1992). It
can be organizationally very complex and unresponsive in some
cases and organizationally simpler and more effective in others.
In any case, the infrastructure for systems support can't be
ignored when one is interested in improving organizational
performance.

Repercussions for Systems Design

Even when computerized systems are used as media of intellectual
exploration, Organizational Informatics researchers find that
social relationships influence the ways that people use
computerized systems. Christine Bullen and John Bennett (1991)
studied 25 organizations that used groupware with diverse
modeules such as databases, group calendars, text annotating
facilities and electronic mail. They found that the electronic
mail modules were almost universally valued, while other system
facilities were often unused.

In a recent study, Sharyn Ladner and Hope Tillman examined the
use of the Internet by university and corporate librarians. While
many of them found data access through databases and file
transfer to be important services, they also reported that
electronic mail was perhaps the most critical Internet feature
for them.
     The participants in our study tell us something that we
     may have forgotten in our infatuation with the new
     forms of information made available through the
     Internet.  And that is their need for community.  To be
     sure, our respondents use the Internet to obtain
     information not available in any other format, to
     access databases ... that provide new efficiencies in
     their work, new ways of working.  But their primary use
     is for communication.  Special librarians tend to be
     isolated in the workplace -- the only one in their
     subject specialty (in the case of academe), or the only
     librarian in their organization (in the case of a
     corporate library).  Time and time again our
     respondents expressed this need to talk to someone --
     to learn what is going on in their profession, to
     bounce ideas off others, to obtain information from
     people, not machines.
     There are tremendous implications from the Internet
     technology in community formation -- the Internet may
     indeed provide a way to increase community among
     scholars, including librarians.  The danger we face at
     this juncture in time, as we attach library resources
     to the Internet, is to focus all of our energies on the
     machine-based resources at the expense of our human-
     based resources, i.e., ourselves (Ladner and Tillman,
     1992).
In these studies, Organizational Informatics researchers have
developed a socially rich view of work with and around computing,
of computing within a social world.

These studies have strong repercussions for the design of
software. A good designer cannot assume that the majority of
effort should go into the "computational centerpiece" of a
system, while devoting minor efforts to supporting communication
facilities. One of my colleagues designed a modelling system for
managers in a major telephone company, after completing an
extensive requirements analysis. However, as an afterthought, he
added a simple mail system in a few days work. He was surprised
to find that the people who used these systems regularly used his
crude electronic mail system, while they often ignored
interesting modelling capabilities. Such balances of attention
also have significant repercussions. Many people need good mail
systems, not just crude ones: systems which include facile
editors, ease in exporting and importing files, and effective
mail management (Kling and Covi, 1993).

Assessing people's preferences for systems' designs is an
exercise in social inquiry. While rapid prototyping may help
improve designs for some systems, it is less readily applicable
to systems which are used by diverse groups at numerous
locations. Computer scientists are beginning to develop more
reliable methods of social inquiry to better understand which
systems designs will be most useful (Bentley, et. al. 1992; Kyng
and Greenbaum, 1991). It is particularly helpful to organize
system designs that help minimize the complexity and cost of its
infrastructure (Kling, 1992).

Fish and his colleagues (1993) recently reported the way that the
explicit use of social theory helped them design more effective
group meeting systems. Unfortunately, these newer methods are
rarely taught to CS students. When computer specialists build an
imbalanced system, it should not be a  surprise when the
resulting organizational value of their efforts is very
suboptimal.


System Security and Reliability

In a simplified engineering model of computing, the reliability
of products is assured through extensive testing in a development
lab. The social world of technology use not perceived as shaping
the reliability of systems, except through irascible human
factors, such as "operator errors." An interesting and tragic
illustration of the limitations of this view can be found in some
recent studies of the causes of death and maiming by an electron
accelerator which was designed to help cure cancer, the Therac-25
(Jacky, 1991, Leveson and Turner, 1993).

The Therac-25 was designed and marketed in the mid 1980s by a
Canadian firm, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), as an
advanced medical technology. It featured complete software
control over all major functions (supported by a DEC PDP-11),
among other innovations. Previous machines included electro-
mechanical interlocks to raise and lower radiation shields.
Several thousand people were effectively treated with the Therac-
25 each year. However, between 1985 and 1987 there were six known
accidents in which several people died in the US. Other were
seriously maimed or injured [3].

Both studies concur that there were subtle but important flaws in
the design of the Therac-25's software and hardware. AECL's
engineers tried to patch the existing hardware and (finally)
software when they learned of some of the mishaps. But they
treated each fix as the final repair.

Both studies show how the continuing series of mishaps was
exacerbated by diverse organizational arrangements. Jacky claims
that pressures for speedy work by radiological technicians
coupled with an interface design that did not enhance important
error messages was one of many causes of the accidents. Leveson
and Turner differ in downplaying the working conditions of the
Therac-25's operators and emphasize the flawed social system for
communicating the seriousness of problems to Federal regulators
and other hospitals. Both studies observe that it is unlikely for
the best of companies to develop perfect error-free systems
without high quality feedback from users. Their recommendations
differ: Jacky discusses the licensing of system developers and
the regulation of computerized medical systems to improve minimal
standards of saftey. Leveson and Turner propose extensive
education and training of software engineers and more effective
communication between manufacturers and their customers.

However, both studies indicate that an understanding of the
safety of computer systems must go beyond the laboratory and
extend into the organizational settings where it is used. In the
case of the Therac-25, it required understanding a complex web of
interorganizational relationships, as well as the technical
design and operation of the equipment. Nancy Leveson (1992)
points out that most major disasters technological disasters in
the last 20 years "involved serious organizational and management
deficiencies." Hughes, Randall and Shapiro (1992:119) observe
that British no civil collision in UK air space has been
attributed to air traffic control failures. But their Mediator
control system was failing regularly and had no backup during the
period that they studied it. They observe that the reliability of
the British air traffic control system resides in totality of the
relevant social and technical systems, rather than in a single
component.

The need for this kind of organizational understanding is
unfortunately slighted in the CS academic world today. CTF
discusses only those aspects of computer system reliability which
are amenable to understanding through laboratory-like studies
(Hartmanis and Lin, 1992:110-111). But cases of safety critical
systems, like the Therac-25 and British Air Traffic Control,
indicate why some Computer Scientists must be willing to
undertake (and teach) organizational analysis.


Worldviews and Surprises about Computerization

These few paragraphs barely sketch the highlights of a fertile
and significant body of research about computer systems in use.
Perhaps the most important simplification for traditional
computer scientists is to appreciate how people and their
organizations are situated in a social world and consequently
compute within a social world. People act in relationship to
others in various ways and concerns of belonging, status,
resources, and power are often central. The web of people's
relationships extend beyond various formally defined group and
organizational boundaries (Kling and Scacchi, 1982; Kling, 1987;
Kling, 1992). People construct their worlds, including the
meanings and uses of information technologies, through their
social interactions.

This view is, of course, not new to social scientists. On the
other hand, there is no specific body of social theory which can
easily be specialized for "the case of computing," and swiftly
produce good theories for Organizational Informatics as trivial
deductions. The best research in Organizational Informatics draws
upon diverse theoretical and methodological approaches within the
social sciences with a strong effort to select those which best
explain diverse aspects of computerization.

       ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATICS WITHIN COMPUTER SCIENCE

CTF places dual responsibilities on Computer Scientists. One
responsibility is to produce a significant body of applicable
research. The other responsibility is to educate a significant
fraction of CS students to be more effective in conceiving and
implementing systems that will enhance organizational
performance. It may be possible to organize research and
instruction so as to decouple these responsibilities. For
example, molecular biologists play only a small role in training
doctors. However, CS departments act like an integrated Medical
school and Biology department. They are the primary academic
locations for training degreed computing specialists, and they
conduct a diverse array of less applicable and more applicable
research. In practice, the research interests of CS faculty shape
the range of topics taught in CS departments, especially the 150
PhD granting departments. CS curricula mirror major areas of CS
research and the topics which CS faculty understand through their
own educations and subsequent research. As a consequence, CS
courses are likely to avoid important CS topics which appear a
bit foreign to the instructor.

An interesting example of this coupling can be illustrated by
CTF, in a brief description of public-key encryption systems and