Thursday, December 4, 2008

What are the two most frequently experienced causes of frustration in IS professionals and users while working on an IS plan?

I can’t find the exact answer to the questions but I guess I will have my own opinion regarding these major causes of frustration in Information System professionals and users while working on IS plan. The first thing that coming to my mind is that one of the problems is the user and the developer doesn’t communicate well or understand each other well. The main reason I guess is that usually the user doesn’t have any specific background regarding making an IS plan or worst the user don’t really know what and IS plan all about. If this will occur at most cases the developer will have to explain all in a sudden about the plan and they will end up arguing to each other because of the conflicts of ideas…mostly if the developer will be assigned or handle the things it will have bigger chance of being a bossy and to oblige violations and user will oppose for that manner…and it is frustrating to see that projects will have to be delayed because of this issue…so I will have to suggest that in making an IS plan with a user the user should some basic responsibilities. Not just taking up a project without any background…I suggest that user should know his responsibilities like Learn basic computer skills in order to understand the basic of IS plan. Learn standard techniques and procedures for using application, the user must know how to use a certain applications how to deal with it. The user should know the basic of security, how to deal with password protections. He should know how to back up files for certain emergency needs. Use computer resource according organization policies. Install authorized software with license or an out-source softwares. He should also know how to apply software patches and fixes. Actively participate in defining the requirements for new systems especially the one on the IS plan. Avoid reporting trivial problems because if not it will cause frustration to the developer.

According to an article that I’ve read regarding conflicts between IS professionals and user is the lack of priorities among the subjects of moral obligations. Obligation to one party may collide with obligation to another party. Protecting one’s employer’s interests may harm the public; protecting a colleague’s interests may contradict obligations to one’s employer; etc.

For example, consider this scenario. A programmer working for a consulting firm is involved in a large project for a client. The programmer comes to realize that some of the code she is developing will not be compatible with other systems employed by the client. When she brings the new facts to the employer, he demands that she follow his instructions. Her responsibility to the employer is to obey the instructions. However, her obligation to the client is to inform him about the incompatibility. The programmer is faced with an ethical dilemma to which there is no solution in any of the above ethical codes. The codes require that the member not divulge confidential information of the client. Now, let’s assume that in the course of the member’s work, the member received information of acts committed by the client, or the employer, that could harm the public. Should the member abide by the rule? Should he or she be “more ethical” toward the public, or toward the employer or client? These questions are some of the very confusing and frustrating to answer. A conflict should not always be resolved in favor of the same constituent. Each case should be carefully examined by the individual before making a decision, and the responsibility of judgment should rest with the individual. Still, a code of ethics should try to help make the judgment.
According also to the article that I have read there are lot of attitudes that can cause frustration between the relationships of IS professionals and users. According to their test they examined how IS-staffs and users feel to each other. The first one is the negative attitude of both parties regarding agreeing and disagreeing although it is an individual problems. Next is the feeling of being threatened. The findings suggested that the more common explanations of the reasons behind user-IS problems may need to be reinterpreted. Communication gaps, personality clashes, or misalignment of goals may be superficial manifestations of an underlying power of relationship rather than causes of the problem. If their unequal access to power is a common cause of user - IS problems, attempts to identify solutions will have little effect on the basic relationship unless the balance of power between the groups is somehow altered. I found out that the only if users were able to exert influence in the systems development process was participation effective in reducing conflict.

To avoid this conflicts that causes frustration between IS professionals and user, they should know their own capability before making the entire plan…they should question their own selves if they can handle it together. The IS-professionals and users should have formal relationships to each other; there should be policies that give one group the ability to command actions during the development of the plan. If the user don’t know or doesn’t understand about the system the IS professional has a responsibility to share and to give the scope of the system and to explain it further. Typically, practical solutions to this problem have focused on specific problems in specific contexts and have ignored the group relationship itself. IS professionals especially, have tended to look at good individual and project relations, and then wondered why user’s attitudes were still so negative. I suggest that if the problem of poor user - IS relationships to be adequately addressed , it must be treated as a problem between organizational groups, since this relationship affects all other contexts in which users and IS people interact. In this solution problems may easily be fix because they will meet the problem as a whole not individually.

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The User/Information Systems Relationship: A Study in Power and Attitudes.pdf
Ethical Standards for IS professionals.pdf

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