Technology choice as a first step in design
Mark Bergman, Gloria Mark · 2002
Project design involves an initial selection of technologies, which has strong consequences for later stages of design. In this paper we describe an ethnographic-based field work study of a complex organization, and how it addressed the issue of front-end project and technology selection. Formal procedures were designed for the organization to perform repeatable, definable, and measurable actions. Yet, formal procedures obscured much about the processes actually being applied in selecting technologies and projects. In actuality, the formal procedures were interwoven with sensemaking activities so that technologies could be understood, compared, and a decision consensus could be reached. We expect that the insights from this study can benefit design teams in complex organizations facing similar selection and requirements issues.