“Drops Hollowing the Stone”: Workarounds as Resources for Better Task-Artifact Fit

Abstract

The paper reports on a systematic survey of the literature around the manifold theme of workarounds in computer-supported cooperative work and in so doing presents a range of definitions that focus on different aspects of this phenomenon. We also report a case study in a large hospital where we discussed with some key users the opportunity of a tool that could promote awareness of existing workarounds, as a way to provide feedback on the actual use of an IT application in a bottom-up fashion. This case study led to the design of a simple process annotation tool, where users could distinguish between different kinds of workarounds: either as misalignments with respect to the organization procedures, or circumventions of the technology supporting them, or both. The potential of this and similar tools is discussed in letting workarounds emerge and become opportunities for IT artifact evolution.