Systems maintenance & adoption Asper School of Business University of Manitoba Systems Analysis & Design Instructor: Bob Travica Updated: November 2013

2 of 9 Outline Maintenance concept Maintenance types Maintenance costs System adoption Counter-Adoption methods Management of Counter-Adoption

3 of 9 System Operation Systems operation (production stage) – period after deployment (cutover, rollout, going live) in which a system is used in daily work Technical activities : Fine-tuning & upgrading of the system - maintenance activities Management activities: Promoting system adoption

4 of 9 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.

Corrective maintenance - Fixing software bugs (70% of all maintenance) Responsive maintenance - Respond to business needs (add a function, user interface fix, add storage, etc.) Preventive maintenance – Anticipate business needs (examples as for responsive maintenance) Maintenance types

6 of 9 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

7 of 9 Process of making a system part of routine work. Includes motivating end-users. Management issue involving higher IS managers and biz managers. System Adoption End-users Early Adopters Later Adopters Resistors Speed of adoption:

8 of 9 Counter-Adoption Methods Not-Invented Here Syndrome (“system developers don’t really understand our needs”) vs. actually expert/vendor-imposed solution System is hard to use (Ease of Use is the key cause to system adoption in Technology Acceptance Model) Withholding resources needed for adoption (end user support, time for learning, money/time for training for upgrades) vs. legitimate prioritizing Money is tight (cutting funds for software, hardware, labor to halt system development vs. a real need for savings)

9 of 9 Managing Counter-Adoption Involve end-users in system development Educate end-users and managers on benefits from the system. Note that each group may have different benefits. Deal 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 ) Promote change agents (get managers aboard, give incentives, train users motivated to educate others)