Dustin Stevens-Baier
10-25-05
Assignment #9
This assignment asks you to apply some elements of Coherence and Contextual Design to your own work or home circumstances.
(a) Using the questions for elaborating the viewpoints and concerns in Coherence, study the environment of your workplace, university library or somewhere similar that you know. Begin by deciding which concerns are relevant to each viewpoint, e.g., ask. "Are there paper artifacts used in the workplace?" or "Is local knowledge used?" Then answer the questions of elaboration for the three viewpoints and the four concerns.
Distributed Coordination:
How is the division of labor manifest through the work of individuals and its coordination with other?
Certain people interact with the sales software on a daily basis while others never touch it. The management rarely uses the sales software instead the tell the CSR's what to do and how to do it. A select group of people monitor what is placed on the website and how the website looks.
How clear are the boundaries between one person's responsibilities and another's.
Fairly clear for the managers and higher personnel they seem to know exactly what they are responsible for. For the CSR's and lower level managers it is not the case some manager's do different things and some CSR's have more responsibility than others but is not directly stated.
What appreciation do people have of the work/tasks/roles of other?
Some seem to have a lot of appreciation and others not so much. The upper management seems to have a weird way of showing this appreciation as they randomly decide what rules to enforce and who to promote and give raises to.
How is the work of individuals oriented towards the others?
It really isn't most of the work is self contained. With the exception of problem orders which are then tracked down through people initials. This doesn't work very well as people don't always initial and some people lie.
Plans and Procedures:
How do plans and procedures function in the workplace?
It seems like plans are supposed to be followed but upper management changes them at the last minute quite frequently. The procedures have been in place for awhile but are not always followed or enforced. They generally are put in place by the upper management and then they order the lower management to enforce them the CSR's the choose to follow them or not to.
Do they always work?
They rarely work only when they are enforced regularly and fairly do the work.
How do they fail?
After a while people stop enforcing them or one of the mangers lets their friend slide by then sooner or later everybody is taking shortcuts or not following the dress code.
What happens when they fail?
If there is no professional or monetary reason for the procedure or plan in the first place then usually nothing until the owner sees it. However, if their is money issue then as soon as someone from upper management notices then everyone gets an email saying that the CSR's have to follow the procedure.
How, and in what situations are they circumvented?
People think that the procedures are stupid and some are so they take shortcuts to avoid doing it. A manager sets a bad example so everybody starts doing it the way the manger does it. A friend of a manager who is a CSR does it and then pretty soon everybody is doing it.
Awareness of Work:
How does the spatial organization of the workplace facilitate interaction between workers and with the objects they use?
The computers and phones are on tables in the middle of the room so that all the CSR's can use them the tennis racquets surround these so that CSR's and lower level managers can string them when they are on the phones. The upper level mangers are in the offices surrounding these.
How do workers organize the space around them? Which artifacts that are kept to hand are likely to be important to the achievement of everyday work?
They keep a pen or pencil a pad of paper at each computer desk. These seem important for taking down notes that they might need to take to other people or managers.
What are the notes and lists that the workers regularly refer to?
They make notes of people that called when the system was down and of problem orders so that they can talk to their managers and call them back. The managers make lists of things they have to do like call back problem customers or order product.
What are the locations of objects, who uses them, how often?
The CSR's use the basic computers and the stringing machine all the time. The lower level managers use the computers on occasion and the stringing machines all the time. The upper level managers barely use the stringing machines and only use their personal computers.
Paperwork and computer work:
How do forms and other artifacts on paper or screen act as embodiments of the process?
Certain forms on the computer have to be filled out to make a sale or a return.
To what extent do the paper and computer work make it clear to others what stage people are at in their work?
There is basically an all or nothing approach to this. When making a sale their is a saved command that saves the name of the CSR and the customers info. If the info hasn't been saved then their is no way of telling if the order is for sure or not.
How flexible is the technology at supporting the work process--is a particular process enforced, or are alternatives permitted?
Not very flexible it crashes all the time and you can't add any functionality, you have to make the order in the same order every time and you have to put your initials on everything.
Skill and the use of local knowledge:
What are the everyday skills employed by individuals and teams in order to get the work done?
They have to string racquets quickly and answer phones and take orders. Some have to deal with people who make returns or have problems with their orders.
How is local knowledge used and made available, e.g., through the use personalized checklists, asking experts, etc.?
There are packets that tell employees how to use the software and also give them tennis information. These packets are handed out at the start of employment and periodically required for people to read them although most don't.
To what extent have standard procedures been adapted to take local factors into account?
They seem to have thought about them at least a little bit since the procedure take into consideration how to make people answer the phone quickly and make quick sales so they can move onto the next caller or go string a racquet.
Spatial and temporal organization:
How does the spatial organization of the workplace reflect how the work is performed?
It makes it difficult to get to the computers and the phones because the stringing machines are in the way. Also the phone system itself makes it difficult to talk to people in the warehouse or in the apparel department.
Which aspects of the work to be supported are time dependant?
The only thing that is time dependant is getting to the phone to make sure the customer doesn't hang up and shipping the product once it is ordered.
Does any data have a use by date?
The only data is customer info. We need to make sure that the customer info like address and cc number are up to date every time they call and place an order.
How do workers make sure that they make use of the most up to date
information?
They ask the customer every time they call if their data is correct an dif
it isn't they save it into the customer's file so that the next time they call
they are more likely to have the data in the file.
Organizational memory?
How do people learn and remember how to perform their work?
They read the packet that is given when you start and reread it if they are having trouble remembering how to do certain tasks. As new information becomes available they make sure to memorize it and then use it as necessary. In the beginning CSR's are trained for a couple of days on how to make an order and a return and such.
How well do formal records match the reality of how the work is done?
Pretty well the record are created on computer and saved on a server and in hardcopy. These records are used to pick the order and then ship it. There are rarely mistakes because you have to scan in each item before it goes in the box and the computer lets you know if there is a mistake item or if an item is missing or too many were put in.
Study your answers to the questions and see if you can identify priorities or constraints within the organization that you were not aware of before.
The biggest priority is giving good customer service and shipping the correct product which they do a good job of doing. However, they do a bad job of keeping and maintain their employees interest as they reward and punish randomly.
(b) Again using your workplace or similar location, attempt to draw five Contextual Design work models introduced in Section 9.4.3.
First of all, identify a key player in the workplace. This may be one of the librarians, a clerk, or a manager. If possible, run a contextual inquiry interview by sitting with her while working and asking her to tell you about one major aspect of work. If this is not possible, then identify one of the main tasks that is visible to you, such as the librarian issuing books, and sit and watch how the task is performed.
A CSR taking an order: First they answer the phone with a polite greeting. Then they ask how they can help them. The customer tells them what they want and sometimes the CSR helps them pick it out. Then the CSR makes sure the address, phone, email, credit card and expiration date are correct. Then the CSR asks what type of shipping the want gives them the total for their order and saves the order. Once the order is saved a confirmation number is associated with the order and this is given to the customer.
Draw the models from the information you have collected. If you find that you need more data, go back and collect more. Once you feel that the models are complete, take them back to the person you interviewed and ask for comments.
Sequence model:
Customer (wants items) > CSR (places the
order) > Warehouse
picker (takes the order off of the network and picks the items)
> Warehouse Packer (Takes the items that are
picked and packs them into the box) > Shipper (actually ships the
items) > Customer (receives the items they were looking for)
Comments: They appear to be very simple but they get the general idea across of what goes on at work. In particular they seem to focus on how an order is taken by a CSR and what the steps are to make this order happen. The outline of the building is correct and all the placing of people and devices in the building look good.