Work Systems and Information Systems

(Tips from Steve Alter—used by permission)

“From a business viewpoint, the work defines the system, not the technology that is used to do the

work.” •  An organization as a group of work systems. •  It is possible to view an entire organization as a

single work system. •  In most situations, however, is better to view an

organization as a combination of many smaller work systems.

•  Viewing an entire firm as a single work system tends to produce a bloated analysis that covers too many groups of people performing too many different types of roles and activities.

Different types of overlap between work systems and IS

Scoping the Work System •  …the work system being analyzed should be defined as the smallest

work system that has the problems or opportunities that launched the analysis.

•  The work system’s outputs are the products and services it produces for its customers.

–  Those customers are often participants in other work systems that use the products and services.

•  The work system’s inputs are information and other resources it receives from other work systems and from other sources.

–  Some of the inputs a work system receives are not important enough to list on a one-page summary.

–  Those that are important enough to include should be mentioned explicitly in the activities listed under work practices.

–  For example, a sales system might start with a prospect list produced by a different work system. In that case, the first activity listed under work practices would be something like “salesperson contacts prospect on prospect list.”

Consistency guidelines…

Step 2: Change what?

Metrics?

•  Derived form an improvement attribute – Accuracy 10 ways to measure accuracy – Speed how do you measure speed?