Systems maintenance & adoption Asper School of Business University of Manitoba Systems Analysis & Design Instructor: Bob Travica Systems maintenance & adoption Updated: November 2017

Outline Maintenance concept Maintenance types Maintenance costs System adoption Counter-Adoption methods Management of Counter-Adoption

System Operation as System Life Stage Systems operation (production stage) – period after deployment (rollout, going live, cutover) in which a system is used in daily work Management activities: Promoting system adoption Technical activities : Fine-tuning & upgrading of the system - maintenance activities

System Maintenance Usually, more human resources are involved in maintaining systems than in developing new systems. Upgrades can accumulate over time to the extent that a resulting system is significantly different from the initial system - hard to differentiate between maintenance and development. U U U U U New system vs old system?

Maintenance types Corrective maintenance - Fixing software bugs (70% of all maintenance) Responsive maintenance - Respond to business needs (add a function, add storage, etc.)

Maintenance types (cont.) Preventive maintenance – Modify system to anticipated business needs Perfective maintenance – Changes of existing functions etc. toward technical perfection

Maintenance Cost Factors Number of clients (users) of the system Quality of code & overall design Quality of system documentation Quality of maintenance personnel Availability of automated tools $ No. of clients $ Code quality, Documentation quality, Personnel quality, Automated tools

System Adoption Process of making a system part of routine work. Includes motivating end-users. Management issue involving higher IS managers and biz managers. Speed of adoption: End-users (primary, secondary) Earlier Adopters (50%) - Early adoption majority (34%) - First adopters (16%) Later Adopters (50%) - Late adoption majority (34%) - Resistors/Laggards (16%)

Speed of adoption Assumes normal distribution Historical trend Number of users 2.5% Self-starters, no incentives needed 2.5% Resistors (incurable)

Counter-Adoption Methods 1) System is “not-Invented here” ( “system developers don’t really understand our needs” even though the system may be good) 2) System is “hard to use” (Ease of Use is the key cause to system adoption in Technology Acceptance Model, but here a system’s difficulty is amplified, used an excuse for rejection)

Counter-Adoption Methods 3) Money is tight (decision makers cut funds for software, hardware, labor to block system development, arguing that there are priority needs) 4) Withholding resources needed for adoption (blocking system by limiting other than $ - time for new system learning, training for system upgrades, office space, incentives)

Managing Counter-Adoption Taking leadership via several methods: Involve end-users in system development Promote change agents (get managers aboard, give incentives, train users motivated to educate others) Educate end-users and managers on benefits from the system. Note that each group may have different benefits. Deal proactively with costs: End-users (learning new skills; loss of old skills) Managers (e.g., power loss issues) Organizational costs (manage time, plan temporary efficiency loss, manage moral)