Disaligning macro, meso and micro due process: a case study of office automation in Quebec colleges
François Blanchard, Alberto Cambrosio · ACM SIGOIS Bulletin · 1988
By drawing on recent studies of computing in the interactionist tradition, and more particularly on the notion of due process, the paper presents a case study of the introduction of office automation in Quebec colleges. Failures to reach negotiated agreements about conflicting representations of ongoing work processes in software systems are categorized by actors as problems of “fitting”, i.e. of achieving a satisfactory balance between needs and technology. Representations of what constitutes an “appropriate fit” are accompanied by representations of the appropriate organizational level at which a “good fit” may be attained. In our study, this has resulted in the displacement over time of the locus of software design. The disalignment of levels of work organization appears to be a central part of the work of achieving a temporary closure of the due process problem and should be taken into account when attempting to provide computational solutions to this problem.