This article describes how usability issues can alter the success rate of a new enterprise system.
Usability Issues in Enterprise Architecture
Kevin Rio
Krio Media, LLC
www.krio.me
2008
Usability generally falls into two broad categories; a top-down approach and a bottom-up approach. The bottom-up perspective concentrates on the use of the product, such as a piece of software. This perspective details a products ease of use in terms of a user’s ability to become familiar with a systems user interface and other essential functions. When purchasing software, many companies will perform a learning curve analysis to estimate the time it will take its workers and other users to become accustomed to the system. When comparing different software packages, it is essential to keep the learning curve as flat as possible. A different approach is a top-down perspective, which analyzes a systems ability to perform its intended duty. This is a much broader definition of usability that is essential in determining a systems meaningfulness. Both are important in analyzing a systems usability, however it is important to not rely exclusively on one method. For example, a system may have a flat learning curve making it extremely usable; however it may not be useful. This shows that enterprise architects and analysts must view new systems from many angles when making decisions so that they can best judge how the new system will improve performance.
Many challenges are presented when attempting to ensure usability in a system. One way of ensuring a systems usability is by prioritizing the development of features based on the its value to users. This helps to ensure that the most used features of a system are concentrated upon during development. Another way of increasing usability is by ensuring that all members of the development team are communicating. This helps to fulfill the projects goals and increases usability as a result. Usability tests should be conducted regularly and the cost-benefits should be reported so management can evaluate the tests usefulness in financial terms. Usability should be the responsibility of a development team member, such as the project lead who can create usability goals rather than an outside promoter. These are all ways in which usability can be ensured during the development process. When attempting to design a system that fosters high-quality usability, there are techniques that can be utilized to accomplish this. The techniques can be spread across stages. During the requirements stage, necessary features are gathered an analyzed, a cost-benefit is performed, user surveys are taken, and rapid prototyping may be performed, along with many other activities for the purpose of providing a system with the best possible usability. Next, is the design, development, and testing stages where a functional system is created. Development concepts, such as JAD and parallel design, among others, can be implemented during this stage. During the final stage, deployment and refinements, testing has been completed and usage statistics are taken. Log files may be examined and interviews taken to ensure the system is performing as designed. These techniques have been found to be effective when attempting to design a system with high usability. Through the use of collaboration, extensive testing, job distribution, and strong user interaction, firms can ensure that they achieve high usability in their systems.
http://www.eelke.com/files/pubs/2005_ISD_gaps.pdf
There is often a gap between usability engineers and software engineers. This causes an inability to achieve the highest level of usability possible because many times architecture cannot be altered to allow for usability after software development has ensued. It is imperative that usability is in the forefront of development from the beginning so that software rewrite is never necessary. Firms often spend a large percentage of developmental costs on fixing usability issues that could have been predicted if proper usability techniques were utilized from the projects conception.
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2008/12/the-user-experience-of-enterprise-software-matters.php
Since software developments inception, the buying market has demanded that applications foster strong usability. There is one market, however, that has not. Enterprise software has the poor stigma of being inefficient and difficult to learn and remember. The blame can most effectively be placed on the software selection process that businesses use. They are not assessing the usability of the products they purchase and because of this poor process; they are incurring significant long-term costs associated with usability.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/enterprise.html
Usability goes beyond a single user operating a piece of software. It encompasses entire organizations attempting to utilize multiple types of applications. Usability has an effect on long-term costs that must be viewed from the enterprise level. Increasing usability at the enterprise level can have significant long-term cost improvements.
Chorafas, D. (2002). Enterprise Architecture and New Generation Information Systems. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, LLC.
McGovern, J., Ambler, S., Stevens, M., Linn, J.,Sharan, V., & Jo, E. (2004). A Practical Guide to Enterprise Architecture. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc..
