A case study of user adherence and software project performance barriers from a sociotechnical viewpoint
Paper in proceeding, 2019

A marine propeller company and a technical university collaborated to optimize the company’s existing propeller design software. This paper reviews the project based on a sociotechnical perspective to organizational change on (a) how the university-company project and user involvement were organized, and (b) what the main management barriers were and why they may have occurred. Fieldwork included interviews and observations with university and company stakeholders over thirteen months. The data was analyzed and sorted into themes describing the barriers, such as lack of a planned strategy for deliverables or resource use in the project; the users exhibited low adherence towards the optimized software, as well as there was limited time and training allocated for them to test it. Lessons learned suggest clarifying stakeholder roles and contributions, and engaging the users earlier and beyond testing the software for malfunctions to enhance knowledge mobilization, involve them in the change and increase acceptance.

User participation

Software development

Sociotechnical systems

Organizational change

Knowledge transfer

Author

Nicole Almeida Costa

Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Maritime Studies

Florian Vesting

Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Marine Technology

Joakim Dahlman

Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Maritime Studies

Scott MacKinnon

Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Maritime Studies

Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing

21945357 (ISSN) 2194-5365 (eISSN)

Vol. 787 12-23
978-3-319-94229-2 (ISBN)

AHFE 2018
Orlando, Florida, USA,

Subject Categories

Work Sciences

Other Engineering and Technologies not elsewhere specified

DOI

10.1007/978-3-319-94229-2_2

More information

Latest update

3/21/2023