The Work System Method

The Work System

Method Introduction, Motivation and Definitions

Definition

• Work •  The application of resources such as

people, equipment, time, effort, and money to generate products and services for internal or external customers

Work System • Work System - 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.

• Every work system can be viewed as a subsystem of a larger work system, the boundaries of a work system are treated as a carefully considered decision by the work system modeler.

• In general, the relevant work system for a particular analysis is the smallest work system that exhibits or possesses the problem, issue, or opportunity that prompted the analysis

Work Systems

• 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.

• Every work system can be viewed as a subsystem of a larger work system, the boundaries of a work system are treated as a carefully considered decision by the work system modeler.

• In general, the relevant work system for a particular analysis is the smallest work system that exhibits or possesses the problem, issue, or opportunity that prompted the analysis

© Steven Alter, 2009, all rights reserved

Examples of Work Systems (from papers by MBA students at Georgia State Univ. )

Calculating rates for insurance renewals

Managing software development projects

Acquiring clients at a professional service firm

Receiving materials at a large warehouse

Approving real estate loan applications

Planning and dispatching trucking services

Performing pre-employment background checks

Performing financial planning for wealthy individuals

Scheduling and tracking health service appointments

Operating an engineering call center

Purchasing advertising services

Determining salary increases

Collecting and reporting sales data for a wholesaler

Planning for outages in key real time information systems

Invoicing for construction work

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Example work Systems Work system #1: How a bank approves commercial loans. Work system #2: How a software vendor tries to find and qualify sales prospects. Work system #3: How Zoo Atlanta defines its membership recruitment process. Work system #4: How A major bank authenticates callers to be bona fide customers before connecting to a call center.

© Steven Alter, 2010

A Limiting Paradigm…

�  Viewing Systems as IT-based tools that are used by users.

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Work systems are NOT Information Systems

Information Systems

Work systems supported by information systems


Work System Framework

One Lens Fits Almost All

� Work system

� Service system � Information system

� Project � Supply chain � Use of e-commerce web site

(c) Steven Alter 2012


�  System and Problem �  Define work system based on problem �  Summarize “as is” using work system snapshot

�  Analysis and Possibilities �  Drill down using work system elements and alignment

within the work system

�  Recommendation and Justification �  Summarize “to be” using work system snapshot �  Drill down to understand impact of changes �  10 questions related to recommendation and justification

Basics of Work System Method

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A Starting point: The Work System Snapshot

•  a highly summarized but balanced view of a work system that a business professional can produce quickly or can understand quickly when it is presented.

• uses six central elements to summarize what a system is and what it produces. At this summary level distinctions between technology and technical infrastructure are unimportant.

Work system snapshot example


Customers Products & Services Loan applicant Bank’s Risk Management Department and top management

(a secondary customer) Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) (a secondary

customer)

Loan application Loan write-up Approval or denial of the loan application Explanation of the decision Loan documents

Major Processes and Activities Loan officer and loan applicant discuss the client’s financing needs and discuss possible terms of the proposed loan. Loan officer helps loan applicant compile a loan application including financial history and projections. Loan officer and senior credit officer meet to verify that the loan application has no glaring flaws. Credit analyst prepares a “loan write-up” summarizing the applicant’s financial history, providing projections explaining

sources of funds for loan payments, and discussing market conditions and applicant’s reputation. Real estate loans all require an appraisal by a real estate appraiser.

Loan officer presents the loan write-up to a senior credit officer or loan committee. Senior credit officers approve or deny loans of less than $400,000; a loan committee or executive loan committee

approves larger loans. Loan officers may appeal a loan denial or an approval with extremely stringent loan covenants. Depending on the size of the

loan, the appeal may go to a committee of senior credit officers, or to a loan committee other than the one that made the original decision.

Loan officer informs loan applicant of the decision. Loan administration clerk produces loan documents for an approved loan that the client accepts.

Participants Information Technologies Loan officer Loan applicant Credit analyst Senior credit officer Loan committee and

executive loan committee Loan administration clerk Real estate appraiser

Applicant’s financial statements for last three years Applicant’s financial and market projections Loan application Loan write-up Explanation of decision Loan documents

Spreadsheet for consolidating information

Loan evaluation model MS Word template Internet Telephones

Explain why the following is or is not a good work system snapshot


Customers Products & Services Applicant Loan

Major Processes and Activities

* Find applicants * Produce loan application * Approve or decline * Send paperwork

Participants Information Technologies

* Applicant * Loan office *Committee

* Application * *

* Telephone * Spreadsheet * Word processor

Characteristics of a good work system snapshot?

�  Describes the relevant work system �  The smallest work system that has the problem or

opportunity that is being analyzed �  The boundaries of a work system are not known in

advance.

�  No more than one page

�  Internal consistency: See Guidelines following


Customers § The people who receive, use, or benefit directly from products and services that a work system produces.

§ In most cases they can experience or perceive the quality of those products and services.

§ Customers include external customers and internal customers.

§  External customers receive and use the economic products and/or services that a firm produces. Firms exist to produce those products and services.

§ Internal customers are employees or contractors who receive and use a work system’s products and/or services while performing work in other parts of the same firm’s value chain.

Products and Services

• the combination of physical things, information, and services that the work system produces for its various customers.

• products and services may take various forms, including physical products, information products, services, intangibles such as enjoyment and peace of mind, and social products such as arrangements and agreements.

Intermediate Products and Services

§ intermediate products and services --used by other activities within the work system.

§ not considered to the products and services of the work system unless they are received and used by the customers of the work system for some purpose outside of the work system.

§ E.g., assume that a loan approval process produces a formal evaluation of a loan.

§ The approval is considered to be among the products and services of the work system if it goes to a work system customer for some purpose outside of the work system.

§ If the approval process is only used to make a decision in a subsequent activity and then discarded; it is an intermediate process.

Participants § People who perform the work

§ The 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.

§ Customers are participants in many work systems.

§ Minimal involvement-- such as when their request launches a production process that they are not involved in.

§ Vs quite involved (e.g., selecting furnishings for a room with the help of a designer or sales person, learning in a classroom with the help of a teach, and helping a doctor perform a medical examination).

§ A strong trend -- toward self-service work systems whose customers perform much of the important work (e.g., paying bills online, using an ATM, or doing research on the internet about a possible car purchase).

Information § Includes codified and non-codified information used and created as participants perform their work.

§  Codified information is the pre-defined information used in tracking packages, entering orders, and performing repetitive financial transactions.

§ In each case, each data item must be defined precisely, and the information is usually processed using explicit rules.

§ Uncodified information includes computerized or handwritten documents, verbal agreements, and formal or informal conversations. Information may or may not be computerized.

§ Knowledge can be viewed as a special case of information.

§ Explicit knowledge is recorded in documents, images, rules, and other forms.

§ Tacit knowledge exists in people’s heads and is not explicit.

Technologies

§ Tools that help people work more efficiently or that perform automated work steps autonomously.

§ Some technologies, such as search engines, cell phones, spreadsheet software, and automobiles, are general-purpose because they can be applied in a wide range of business situations.

§ Other technologies are tailored to specific situations.

§ Examples include a spreadsheet model for calculating mortgage interest and a software package for designing kitchens.

Infrastructure

§  Human, informational, and technical resources that the work system relies on but are outside the work system and are shared resources with other work systems. § Human infrastructure -people and organizations that supply services shared by different work systems.

§  For example, training organizations, internal consultants, and human resources departments are typically considered part of the human infrastructure that may be relevant to a work system.

§ Information infrastructure -- information shared across various work systems, such as mutually accessible databases and other enterprise-wide information.

§ Technical infrastructure includes the Internet, corporate computer networks, database management software, and other technologies shared by multiple work systems and often hidden or invisible to work system participants.

§  e.g., Enterprise software such as ERP suites is technical infrastructure that is shared across multiple work systems. A specific program or module in an ERP suite can be viewed as technology within a work system.

Environment

§  The organizational, cultural, competitive, technical, and regulatory environment within which the work system operates.

§ Factors in the environment affect work system performance even though the work system does not rely on them directly in order to operate.

§ The organization’s general norms of behavior are part of the culture in the environment that surrounds the work system, whereas…

§ Behavioral norms and expectations about specific activities within the work system are considered characteristics of processes and and activities within the work system.

Strategies

§  The guiding rationale and high-level choices within which a work system, organization, or firm is designed and operates.

§  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.

§ A work system’s strategy (its guiding rationale and high-level choices) should be aligned with the strategy of the organization and firm that it serves.

§ E.g., a work system designed to produce the highest quality products might not fit in an organization operating under a cost minimization strategy.

Internal consistency guidelines for a work system snapshot

�  Processes and activities are complete sentences that identify actions and who performs the actions.

�  Participants perform at least one step

�  Customers receive and use products and services.

�  Any information mentioned is used or produced in at least one process or activity

�  Any technology mentioned is used or produced in at least one process or activity.

�  Every customer group that is mentioned receives or uses at least one of the products and services


Typical problems in work system snapshots

�  Describing the whole company, not just one work system

�  Viewing programmers as participants in a system that uses IT

�  Viewing department managers as participants in operational systems that they only supervise

�  Treating technology as the product of the system

�  Ignoring ways in which customers are participants


Analysis of Systems �  Describe

�  Identify Criteria

�  Evaluate in Relation to Criteria

�  Draw conclusions or make recommendation


Metrics �  Metrics are measures of performance during a time

period, not built-in characteristics.

�  Metrics are related to management issues, such as speed, accuracy, rate of output, cost, reliability, and conformance.

�  A metric includes a unit of measure such as: �  Units per hour �  Defects per 1000 �  Minutes from start to finish �  Percentage of rework during a week �  Downtime percentage �  Cost to the customer �  Cost of production per unit

Metrics

• The value of a metric is a number describing how well a work system or part of a work system is currently operating or operated in the past. Here are some examples:

Metrics and Performance Gaps


Aspect of performance

Metric (specific measure of performance in this situation)

Current value of metric

Realistic desired value of metric

Amount of production Total output per week 50 units per week 60 units per week

Speed Average time to resolve customer questions

4 hours 2.5 hours

Cost Cost per invoice handled

$5.35 $2.00

Inefficiency due to rework

Rework rate 10% 3%

Errors Error rate in calculations

3% 0.5%

Customer satisfaction Customer satisfaction ratings from a survey

6.2 out of 7.0 on a monthly survey

6.7 out of 7.0 on a monthly survey

Equipment utilization Uptime of equipment 99.5 % 99.8%

Metric examples

Level of Abstraction & Analysis

•  Organizational Analysis levels (include ) … the entire enterprise, … a department within an enterprise, ….a work system within a department within an enterprise, … a subsystem of the work system.

The person doing the analysis should decide on the right organizational level for the analysis that needs to be done.

• The level of detail differs across the roles and across different situations.

• In all cases, the analysis and design of a system should include typical steps of identifying the problem and system, performing an analysis, and producing a justified recommendation. • People in different roles should use the framework and related ideas at different levels of depth.


Premises of the Work System Method �  The goal: Improving business performance.

�  Assumption: Business performance is generated by operation of sociotechnical work systems.

�  Improvement process: Changing work systems, not just creating, installing, or using information systems or IT.

�  Links to more formal ISA&D techniques (UML, SOA, etc.) �  Decompose work systems into smaller work

systems: �  some of which are sociotechnical �  some of which are autonomous computerized

agents.


Q: Should Business Professionals Analyze Systems for Themselves?

�  Can they be trusted?

�  Do they have the appropriate skill and knowledge?

�  IF NOT: How is it possible for them to do their work and manage organizations?

�  IF NOT: How is it possible for them to participate in the development of information systems?

�  èWhat system should be analyzed?


Typical Systems Analysis Methods are created for IT

Professionals

�  Mostly about documentation, not really about analysis

�  Emphasis on precision and completeness

�  Complex, opaque terminology

�  Emphasis on use of tools, not on business performance


Work System Method: a kind of Systems Analysis for Everyone

Else

�  Aha! Business professionals need to focus on work systems, not just IS or IT.


Positioning of Work System Approach

Tools , algorithms, computer programs

IT-reliant work systems in

organizations

Predominance of design and social science

Predominance of engineering and computer science

Enterprise level

Local level

Links that ignore IT-reliant work systems with in organizat ions

Links that emphasize IT-reliant work systems within organizations

Localized rules and routines

Technical in frastructure

Organizational archi tecture

Chapter 1 Systems a mess: Seven Common

Temptations •  Temptation #1: Viewing technology as the system.

•  Temptation #2: Assuming technology is a magic bullet.

•  Temptation #3: Abdicating responsibility for systems.

•  Temptation #4: Avoiding performance measurement

•  Temptation #5: Accepting superficial analysis.

•  Temptation #6: Accepting one-dimensional thinking.

•  Temptation #7: Assuming desired changes will implement themselves

“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 è 10 ways to measure accuracy

�  Speed è how do you measure speed?

Work System Analysis Feed (forward & back),

common misconceptions, errors, pitfalls and

challenges you will likely face

Use the template tool

�  Name the snapshot

�  Complete the cover and required forms last �  Identify the industry and problem time �  Complete the informed consent form

�  Complete the WHOLE template

Professor Truex

Work system analysis assumptions �  You are doing a preliminary analysis.

�  Remember that your recommendation will go to a management committee that will decide whether to start a project to implement your recommendations.

�  Include a bit of the background: �  Don’t assume that everyone knows the environment and background and

acronyms �  Select and pertinent aspects of the situation needed to understand the analysis

�  Your analysis must: �  Start with a clear problem definition followed by problem-related facts,

conclusions, and logic.

�  Your recommendations should: �  Your view of what actions should be taken to address the problem. �  Be specific because the reader sees little value in vague recommendations. �  Refer to measures and a base-line comparison �  Be measurable and if possible quantitative, e.g. provide a 30% reduction in hold

times

Common pitfalls �  Is the Work System identified-and named?

�  Is the topic really a Work System? �  Important: Recall that an ERP or any other IS by itself is NOT a work system, but may

be part of a WS, or an instance of part of a WS

�  Is this work system worth analyzing?

�  Is there a chance for innovation?

�  Do the recommendations make sense?

�  Is the analysis and paper convincing?

�  Is the paper readable �  or is it repetitious, inconsistent, etc. �  Does it read like a draft (because no one proof read it?)

Probable challenges you faced in the assignment…

�  Scoping, choosing the boundary

�  Choosing the right level of abstraction �  How high, how deep or how ‘close to the bottom’ do I go?

�  Naming �  “So in naming meaning begins” (poet M. vanTilberg, 1972)

�  Not getting ahead of yourself �  Do not jump to the solution before examining the problem

Professor Truex Course name


Four key parts of The Executive Summary

1.  Brief Context of the WS’s environment

2.  Description of the Work System �  WS Name is/does the following �  Here are key parameters of performance

3.  Description of the issues with the as-is WK �  E.g., “The systems has these problems/issues…” �  This is why those problems matter �  Here are metrics needing a fix

4.  Describe alternatives and the proposed ‘fix’ �  We propose to do x, …y,… and z… �  This is the estimated gain in doing these things… �  What are the measures and the metrics?

Grammar Matters �  Algorithm for improved writing:

�  Think, and plan a structure of the ideas/analysis �  Loop::

�  Write a draft �  Read the draft critically, �  edit, revise, & improve

�  Repeat… until done

�  Read your text aloud, ask another to proofread when possible. �  switch on MS Word’s grammar and spelling tool


Extensions to the basic Work systems modeling

concept.

Work System Life Cycle Model

Initiation

Implementation

Development

Operation & Maintenance

Work System Life Cycle Model (continued)

�  Planned and unplanned change �  Planned change is achieved through formal projects

�  Unplanned change occurs through adaptations, workarounds, experimentation

�  Relevant to work systems in general, not just IT projects.

�  Relevant to recommendations for improving any work system �  Recommendations must be implemented.

Terminology for Talking about Work System Life

Cycles �  Iterations �  From one version of a work system to the

next version of the work system

� Phases

�  Operation and maintenance

�  Initiation

�  Development

�  Implementation

Terminology for Talking about Work System Life Cycles

(continued)

�  Rework �  Re-doing work within a phase �  Returning to a previous phase to resolve

difficulties in the current phase

�  Adaptation and experimentation �  Small changes within a phase; not a separate

project involving allocation of significant resources

�  Continuous vs. discontinuous change �  Continuous: small adaptations, experimentation �  Discontinuous: formal projects directed as

significant changes

Clarifications of the Life Cycle Model

Initiation

Implementation Development

Operation & Maintenance

Initially, “as-is” work system;

Later, “to-be” work system

Ongoing adaptations, experimentation, etc.

A small work system in its own right; often a cause of failure

Need to revisit initiation is often ignored

May or may not involve software development

Possibilities for adaptations and discoveries

Refers to the work system, not just the IS

Assumptions built into the work system life cycle

model �  Systems evolve through iterations

� WSLC includes planned and unplanned change

�  Adaptation and experimentation are positive, not negative

�  “System development life cycle” (SDLC ) often mentioned by IT professionals is basically a project from initiation to implementation

Operation and Maintenance � Operate and monitor work system

� Continuous improvement of work practices through analysis, experimentation, and adaptation

�  Information system maintenance including bug fixes and minor improvements

Initiation �  Clarify the reasons for changing the work

system

�  Identify the people and processes that will be affected

�  Describe in general terms what the changes will entail

�  Allocate the time and other resources necessary to accomplish the change

�  Feasibility study �  May produce functional specification

Results of Initiation Phase � Vision for the new work system

� Operational goals

� Allocation of resources and clarification of time frames

� Evaluation of economic, organizational, and technical feasibility

Development •  Process of specifying and creating or

obtaining the tools, documentation, procedures, facilities, and other physical and informational resources needed before the desired changes can be implemented in the organization.

�  Even if software development is involved, business professionals still have responsibilities.

Results of Development Phase �  Detailed requirements for the new work system,

including information system requirements

�  Software production, modification, or acquisition and configuration

�  Hardware installation

�  Acquisition and installation of other required resources

�  Documentation and training materials

�  Debugging and testing of hardware, software, and documentation

Implementation � Process of making the desired changes

operational in the organization.

�  Implementation activities include: �  planning the rollout �  training work system participants

�  converting to the new work methods

�  following-up to ensure the entire work system operates as it should

Implementation (continued) �  Implementation approach and plan (pilot?

phased? big bang?)

�  Change management efforts about rationale and positive/negative impacts of changes

�  Training on details of the new work system, including information system usage

�  Conversion to the new information system and new work system

�  Acceptance testing

Conversion to the new work system

� Not just attaining usage of new software

� Occurs after work system participants are trained

� To reduce risk, may require double work in transaction processing systems

Typical Issues within Each Phase

Initiation * Can we agree on the purposes and goals of the proposed changes? * Are the proposed changes feasible economically, technically, and organizationally? * Are the changes unnecessarily elaborate and expensive?

Development * Can we assure that the work system changes genuinely solve the problem? * Do the information system changes conform to the organization’s expectations and standards for technical quality?

Typical Issues (continued)

Implemen-tation

* Can we convert effectively and painlessly from the old work system to the new work system? * Can we resolve personal and political issues related to changes in work patterns and power relationships?

Operation and Maintenance

* Can we attain acceptable work system performance? * Can we maintain and improve performance with incremental changes, adjustments, and experimentation?

Four Types of Development Models for Information Systems

(most overlap with the development phase within the WSLC)

�  Waterfall software development �  Create a specification and built to it

� Prototyping/ agile �  Build and test multiple versions

� Commercial application package

�  Buy software instead of building it

� End – user development

The Work System Method

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