The Human Factor in ICT

Edward Foster, Dec 09

The Obsession with 'T'

Too often in the world of ICT, it is the 'T' that receives the most attention. Experts in ICT are often assumed to be experts in the 'T'(echnology), which is odd if you stop to consider that the technology is only really enabling the flow of the 'I'(nformation) and 'C'(ommunications). To understand the role of technology and the requirements for the development of new technologies, it is essential to develop an understanding of the information and the communication requirements. Delving into this territory, we quickly find that there are very human processes and motivations that drive the need for information and communication, and indeed the 'human factor' plays a huge part in the development of ICT.

 The Dot Com Boom (and bust) and Other Cautionary Tales

 The Internet boom in the 1990s saw a number of companies formed in the expectation of generated huge profits from the technology. Many of these companies went bust, and it became clear that many had simply assumed that their association with the Internet would be the key factor in the success. In most cases the reality was that the failed companies had not thoroughly researched what their potential customers would actually want from an Internet-based business. Business still ultimately depends on people parting with money, and understanding what customers want and how they want to procure and pay for it is essential to success.

Similarly, many mainstream companies have tales of computer system development and implementation projects that have ended badly. Several studies quote alarmingly high rates of failure in such projects, and often quote human factors as the primary causes of failure. Devising and/or implementing a new system can be a seductive path to follow, particularly for people eager to make their mark and impress employers, peers and clients, but if the business goals are unclear then this is very likely to end in disaster.

Failure can occur at different levels. The implementation of a computer system often involves a high degree of change in the human processes in an organisation, and changes to the organisation itself. If the senior management of the organisation is not united in the drive for change, then the project will quickly come to a halt. On the other hand, if the staff that need to operate the system do not like the look and feel of the system or feel threatened by the changes, then they are likely to resist the implementation. Often, it is the layers of management in between that provide much of the resistance, since they may have put in their own working methods that are now to be overturned by the new system, and feel undermined as a consequence.

Consider how you yourself feel when you come across technology that does not seem to be 'human friendly'. You have probably encountered the voice activated telephone menu system that sends you around endless loops and seem designed to prevent you achieving your goal, or websites that are either unfathomable in presentation or so overly laden with technically impressive features that they work very slowly or not at all with your own pc installation. You probably have not persisted in your relationships with companies offering this kind of experience.

 The Human Factor - Avoiding the Pitfalls

 The good news is that ICT can be highly effective and successful when projects give sufficient consideration to the human factor. Amazon and Facebook are enormously popular, since those behind the initiatives have clearly thought carefully about who will use the technology, for what purpose and how. The websites are not over burdened with technical gimmicks, but founded on fairly solid principles of human requirements and processes. Consider the websites that you like to use, and don't like to use – what do you think makes them successful?

Companies have become increasingly aware of the importance of the human factor in their own system development and implementation projects, and there are nowadays several frameworks and techniques available to help project managers and sponsors avoid the common traps. These frameworks typically address “project governance”, which aims to ensure that business goals are clear and accepted by key players in the organisation and often advocates the establishment of a “board” or “steering committee” of very senior stakeholder representatives to review the project at regular intervals. Project communication processes also come under the spotlight, since targeted and frequent communication can do much to build confidence in and acceptance of the project. There are also approaches for structuring the project team itself, and ensuring that it includes 'end users' with direct experience of the underlying business processes affected by the project – this ensures that user requirements and perceptions are taken into account, and often these members of the project team play a key 'ambassadorial' role when it comes to implementation.

Development methodologies also place heavy emphasis on the analysis of the business processes and the user expectations and experiences. Correcting a mistake in a line of computer code is usually a relatively straightforward exercise, but correcting mistakes in the business logic or process flow upon which the system is based is normally a far more complex, time consuming and costly exercise. Using formal techniques to perform business analysis thoroughly will invariably lead to better results.

The complex human challenges inherent in most projects has also led to the emergence of 'Change Management' as a professional competence. Change management actively seeks to predict and address the human factors that would otherwise hinder a project. Various structured methods are used, but the discipline also requires a high degree of political sensibility and acumen to be performed successfully.

So, before you dismiss ICT as a predominantly the territory of those obsessed with technology, or before you dive back into that Java code you've been working on, I would encourage you to give some thought to the role played by the human factor - it can make all the difference to the success of ICT projects!