From system development toward work improvement: Developmental work research as a potential partner method for EUD

Abstract

The dominant strategy within the field of EUD has been to improve end-user activities within a single software system. This approach has some limitations. First, the work environment often consists of a number of different systems and tools that form an information ecology with which users must cope. Second, the use of computers is embedded in organizational practices that may also need to be changed. Thus, there is a need to combine EUD with a parallel development of work practices. However, common work-development approaches, for example, process improvement, usually adopt a top-down managerial point of view that relies on expert modeling, and are therefore incompatible with EUD ideas. This paper suggests that a work improvement method developed in Finland since the 1980s, developmental work research, is a good candidate for partnering with EUD, because it takes the potential of local grassroots innovation and the development of work practices seriously. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.