Office Automation: A User-Driven MethodEvery pioneer takes large risks, hoping that the new frontier he seeks will provide the benefits of independence and good fortune. Don Tapscott is such a pioneer in the area of office automation. He has been a true pioneer, having entered the field in its early days and taken the risk of working not in technol ogy, which was fashionable, but in the field of the problems of organizations, which was less fashionable, but in many ways more important. The utilization of computers for data processing, accounting, inventory, and other "bread and butter" applications is now well entrenched in our society and culture. The process of designing such systems tends to focus on the needs of the company and the constraints of the equipment, leading to efficient systems with little tolerance for the variety of people who must use or interface with them. Within the office automation area, these methods do not work nearly as well. The frequency and amount of human interaction in the office environment, and the wide variety of situations and reactions there in, demands a different design methodology. |
Contents
The Advent of Integrated Office | 1 |
List of Illustrations | 16 |
4 | 59 |
Copyright | |
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action research activities administrative applications approach areas assessment Bell-Northern Research benefits client cost-benefit analysis costs data bases data processing decision support systems document production Douglas Englebart effectiveness efficiency electronic employees enable evaluation example Figure framework functions hardware identified implementors important improvements increase input integrated office system interactive interactive statistics interface internal investigation involved job design knowledge workers mation measurement instruments ment messaging system methodology office automation office sys office system design office system implementation office workers ongoing operational system opportunities organization Organizational Communication organizational scan output overall performance phase pilot group pilot systems analysis posttest problems procedures questionnaire relationship responsibilities result sociotechnical systems theory specific strategy structured techniques teleconferencing telephone tion tional traditional user acceptance User-Driven Design validity variables various vendors videotex word-processing