Page 51 - EngineerIT October 2022

TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION

Do we pay enough consideration to usability when

selecting data management tools?

By Gary Allemann, MD at Master Data Management*

ay back there was a joint course that combined students from the Computer
Science (CS) department, which, at the time, was very focused on algorithms
Wand programming skills, with students from the Business Information Systems
(BIS) department – a more commercially oriented and less technical group.
At one stage the students were asked to do a practical task – back in the days of
command line and green screen. The BIS group, by and large, delivered code with a lot
of focus on the user interface. The user was given clear instructions about what needed
to be captured and what it was to be used for. However in many cases, the underlying
program didn’t work correctly and the results calculated and presented, however
beautifully, were incorrect.
By contrast, the CS group all produced functioning code. At face value this would
seem better, right? However in this case, many of the interfaces were unusable, except
for the person who had written the code. In one extreme case the user was presented
with a series of flashing cursors (prompts) and was required to enter the required values
in the correct order with absolutely no instructions. uptake is often (unsurprisingly) poor and
In light of the above example, from an IT perspective, we often make technology expensive investments are wasted.
choices based on technical factors that make life easier for the IT department. Going back to those days – neither
the BIS nor the CS choices were better.
These may include: Of course, technical concerns around
• Existing vendor: It can be painful to onboard a new vendor, deal with procurement scalability, performance, integration,
and legal, and build and manage a new relationship. security and all-around effort to support
• Integration: How easily will the proposed solution “fit” into our existing landscape? and maintain any platform are legitimate
• Scalability: Can the proposed solution cope with our volumes and complexity? and must be considered. But business
• Security: Is the proposed solution secure? users’ needs around adoption and usability
must also be seriously considered. Both
In many cases, we end up with technology choices that a business-user community really business and IT should engage in finding
struggles to understand and use. Often, we expect users to adapt and use multiple tools solutions that work and provide business-
to do similar things but in very different ways. For occasional users in particular, these first, consistent interfaces for usability
seemingly minor quirks and differences in interfaces and how they look and feel, can across multiple use cases.
become major obstacles to getting their jobs done.
When business users complain that the response from IT is often “make it work”, Email: gary@masterdata.co.za

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