WORK SYSTEM

The term “work system” has been used loosely in many areas. A notable use of the term
occurred in 1977 in the first volume of MIS Quarterly in two articles by Bostrom and Heinen
(1977). Later Sumner and Ryan (1994) used it to explain problems in the adoption of CASE
(computer aided software engineering). A number of socio-technical systems researchers such
as Trist and Mumford also used the term occasionally, but seemed not to define it in detail. In
contrast, the work system approach defines work system carefully and uses it as a basic
analytical concept.

Definition. A work system is a system in which human participants and/or machines perform
work using information, technology, and other resources to produce products and/or services
for internal or external customers. Typical business organizations contain work systems that
procure materials from suppliers, produce products, deliver products to customers, find
customers, create financial reports, hire employees, coordinate work across departments, and
perform many other functions.

Special cases. The work system concept is like a common denominator for many of the types
of systems that operate within or across organizations. Operational information systems,
service systems, projects, supply chains, and ecommerce web sites can all be viewed as
special cases of work systems. An information system is a work system whose processes
and activities are devoted to processing information. A service system is a work system that
produces services for its customers. A project is a work system designed to produce a product
and then go out of existence. A supply chain is an inter-organizational work system devoted
to procuring materials and other inputs required to produce a firm’s products. An ecommerce
web site can be viewed as a work system in which a buyer uses a seller’s web site to obtain
product information and perform purchase transactions. The relationship between work
systems in general and the special cases implies that the same basic concepts apply to all of
the special cases, which also have their own specialized vocabulary. In turn, this implies that
much of the body of knowledge for the current information systems discipline can be organized
around a work system core.

Specific information systems exist to support (other) work systems. Many different degrees of
overlap are possible between an information system and a work system that it supports. For
example, an information system might provide information for a non-overlapping work system,
as happens when a commercial marketing survey provides information to a firm’s marketing
managers. In other cases, an information system may be an integral part of a work system, as
happens in highly automated manufacturing and in ecommerce web sites. In these situations,
participants in the work system are also participants in the information system, the work
system cannot operate properly without the information system, and the information system
has little significance outside of the work system.

Work System Framework

The work system approach for understanding systems includes both a static view of a current
(or proposed) system in operation and a dynamic view of how a system evolves over time
through planned change and unplanned adaptations. The static view is summarized by the
work system framework, which identifies the basic elements for understanding and evaluating
a work system. The work system itself consists of four elements: the processes and activities,
participants, information, and technologies. Five other elements must be included in even a
rudimentary understanding of a work system’s operation, context, and significance. Those
elements are the products and services produced, customers, environment, infrastructure, and
strategies. This framework is prescriptive enough to be useful in describing the system being
studied, identifying problems and opportunities, describing possible changes, and tracing how
those changes might affect other parts of the work system.

This slightly updated version of the work system framework replaces “work practices” with
processes and activities.

The definitions of the 9 elements of a work system are as follows:

Processes and activities include everything that happens within the work system. The term
processes and activities is used instead of the term business process because many work
systems do not contain highly structured business processes involving a prescribed sequence
of steps, each of which is triggered in a pre-defined manner. Such processes are sometimes
described as “artful processes” whose sequence and content “depend on the skills,
experience, and judgment of the primary actors.” (Hill et al, 2006) In effect, business process is
but one of a number of different perspectives for analyzing the activities within a work system.
Other perspectives with their own valuable concepts and terminology include decision-making,
communication, coordination, control, and information processing.

Participants are people who perform the work. Some may use computers and IT extensively,
whereas others may use little or no technology. When analyzing a work system the more
encompassing role of work system participant is more important than the more limited role of
technology user (whether or not particular participants happen to be technology users)

Information includes codified and non-codified information used and created as participants
perform their work. Information may or may not be computerized. Data not related to the work
system is not directly relevant, making the distinction between data and information secondary
when describing or analyzing a work system. Knowledge can be viewed as a special case of
information.

Technologies include tools (such as cell phones, projectors, spreadsheet software, and
automobiles) and techniques (such as management by objectives, optimization, and remote
tracking) that work system participants use while doing their work.

Products and services are the combination of physical things, information, and services that
the work system produces. This may include physical products, information products, services,
intangibles such as enjoyment and peace of mind, and social products such as arrangements,
agreements, and organizations.

Customers are people who receive direct benefit from products and services the work system
produces. They include external customers who receive the organization's products and/or
services and internal customers who are employees or contractors working inside the
organization.

Environment includes the organizational, cultural, competitive, technical, and regulatory

environment within which the work system operates. These factors affect system performance
even though the system does not rely on them directly in order to operate. The organization’s
general norms of behavior are part of its culture, whereas more specific behavioral norms and
expectations about specific activities within the work system are considered part of its
processes and activities.

Infrastructure includes human, informational, and technical resources that the work system
relies on even though these resources exist and are managed outside of it and are shared with
other work systems. For example, technical infrastructure includes computer networks,
programming languages, and other technologies shared by other work systems and often
hidden or invisible to work system participants.

Strategies include the strategies of the work system and of the department(s) and
enterprise(s) within which the work system exists. Strategies at the department and enterprise
level may help in explaining why the work system operates as it does and whether it is
operating properly.

Work System Life Cycle Model

The dynamic view of a work system starts with the work system life cycle (WSLC) model,
which shows how a work system may evolve through multiple iterations of four phases:
operation and maintenance, initiation, development, and implementation. The names of the
phases were chosen to describe both computerized and non-computerized systems, and to
apply regardless of whether application software is acquired, built from scratch, or not used at
all. The terms development and implementation have business-oriented meanings that are
consistent with Markus and Mao’s (2004) distinction between system development and system
implementation.

This model encompasses both planned and unplanned change. Planned change occurs
through a full iteration encompassing the four phases, i.e., starting with an operation and
maintenance phase, flowing through initiation, development, and implementation, and arriving
at a new operation and maintenance phase. Unplanned change occurs through fixes,
adaptations, and experimentation that can occur within any phase. The phases include the
following activities:

Operation and maintenance

•Operation of the work system and monitoring of its performance
•Maintenance of the work system (which often includes at least part of information systems
that support it) by identifying small flaws and eliminating or minimizing them through
fixes, adaptations, or workarounds.
•On-going improvement of processes and activities through analysis, experimentation, and
adaptation
Initiation
•Vision for the new or revised work system
 •Operational goals
•Allocation of resources and clarification of time frames
•Economic, organizational, and technical feasibility of planned changes
Development
•Detailed requirements for the new or revised work system (including requirements for
information systems that support it)
•As necessary, creation, acquisition, configuration, and modification of procedures,
documentation, training material, software and hardware
•Debugging and testing of hardware, software, and documentation
Implementation
•Implementation approach and plan (pilot? phased? big bang?)
•Change management efforts about rationale and positive or negative impacts of changes
•Training on details of the new or revised information system and work system
•Conversion to the new or revised work system
•Acceptance testing
As an example of the iterative nature of a work system’s life cycle, consider the sales system
in a software start-up. The first sales system is the CEO selling directly. At some point the
CEO can’t do it alone, several salespeople are hired and trained, and marketing materials are
produced that can be used by someone less expert than the CEO. As the firm grows, the sales
system becomes regionalized and an initial version of sales tracking software is developed and
used. Later, the firm changes its sales system again to accommodate needs to track and
control a larger sales force and predict sales several quarters in advance. A subsequent
iteration might involve the acquisition and configuration of CRM software. The first version of
the work system starts with an initiation phase. Each subsequent iteration involves deciding
that the current sales system is insufficient; initiating a project that may or may not involve
significant changes in software; developing the resources such as procedures, training
materials, and software that are needed to support the new version of the work system; and
finally, implementing the new work system.

The pictorial representation of the work system life cycle model places the four phases at the
vertices of rectangle. Forward and backward arrows between each successive pair of phases
indicate the planned sequence of phrase and allow the possibility of returning to a previous
phase if necessary. To encompass both planned and unplanned change, each phase has an
inward facing arrow to denote unanticipated opportunities and unanticipated adaptations,
thereby recognizing the importance of diffusion of innovation, experimentation, adaptation,
emergent change, and path dependence.

The work system life cycle model is iterative and includes both planned and unplanned
change. It is fundamentally different from the frequently cited system development life cycle
(SDLC), which actually describes projects that attempt to produce software or produce
changes in a work system. Current versions of the SDLC may contain iterations but they are
basically iterations within a project. More important, the system in the SDLC is a basically a
technical artifact that is being programmed. In contrast, the system in the WSLC is a work
system that evolves over time through multiple iterations. That evolution occurs through a
combination of defined projects and incremental changes resulting from small adaptations and
experimentation. In contrast with control-oriented versions of the SDLC, the WSLC treats
unplanned changes as part of a work system’s natural evolution.

Work System Method

The work system method was developed as a semi-formal systems analysis and design
method that business professionals (and/or IT professionals) can use for understanding and
analyzing a work system at whatever level of depth is appropriate for their particular concerns.
It evolved iteratively starting in around 1997. At each stage, the then current version was
tested by evaluating the areas of success and the difficulties experienced by MBA and EMBA
students trying to use it for a practical purpose. A version called “work-centered analysis” that
was presented in a textbook has been used by a number of universities as part of the basic
explanation of systems in organizations, to help students focus on business issues, and to help
student teams communicate. Ramiller (2002) reports on using a version of the work system
framework within a method for “animating” the idea of business process within an
undergraduate class. In a research setting, Petrie (2004) used the work system framework as
a basic analytical tool in a Ph.D. thesis examining 13 ecommerce web sites. Petkov and
Petkova (2006) demonstrated the usefulness of the work system framework by comparing
grades of students who did and did not learn about the framework before trying to interpret the
same ERP case study.

Results from analyses of real world systems by typical employed MBA and EMBA students
indicate that a systems analysis method for business professionals must be much more
prescriptive than soft system methodology (Checkland, 1999). While not a straitjacket, it must
be at least somewhat procedural and must provide vocabulary and analysis concepts while at
the same time encouraging the user to perform the analysis at whatever level of detail is
appropriate for the task at hand.

A problem solving approach. The latest version of the work system method is organized
around a general problem-solving outline that includes:
•Identify the problem or opportunity
•Identify the work system that has that problem or opportunity (plus relevant constraints and
other considerations)
•Use the work system framework to summarize the work system
•Gather relevant data.
•Analyze using design characteristics, measures of performance, and work system
principles.
•Identify possibilities for improvement.
•Decide what to recommend
•Justify the recommendation using relevant metrics and work system principles.
For business professionals. In contrast to systems analysis and design methods for IT
professionals who need to produce a rigorous, totally consistent definition of a computerized
system, the work system method:
•encourages the user to decide how deep to go
•makes explicit use of the work system framework and work system life cycle model
•makes explicit use of work system principles.
•makes explicit use of characteristics and metrics for the work system and its elements.
•includes work system participants as part of the system (not just users of the software)
•includes codified and non-codified information
•includes IT and non-IT technologies.
•suggests that recommendations specify which work system improvements rely on IS
changes, which recommended work system changes don’t rely on IS changes, and
which recommended IS changes won’t affect the work system’s operational form.