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LINKING WORK SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND TECHNICAL ANALYSIS USING A CONCEPTUAL MODEL UNDERLYING THE WORK SYSTEM FRAMEWORK

Steven Alter, Narasimha Bolloju, Douglas Vogel

University of San Francisco, City University of Hong Kong, City University of Hong Kong alter@usfca.edu, isnarsi@cityu.edu.hk, isdoug@cityu.edu.hk

Abstract

Establishing traceable links between the analysis a nd design of socio-technical work systems and that of c omputerized tools re quired to support thos e work sy stems is necess ary part of implementing systems in organizations. This paper explains aspects of a conceptual model related to wo rk systems, pro cesses, a ctivities, a ctors, and techno logies th at esta blishes a lin k b etween work system analysis by business professionals and analysis and design work by technical experts. An approach for identifying scope of sociotechnical systems, esp ecially the extent of automation for the activities identified using the work systems method, is described. Keywords: work systems framework, conceptual model, systems analysis

1. Introduction An important interdisciplinary frontier in systems analysis and design is the establishment of traceable links between the analysis and design of socio-technical (ST) work systems and that of computerized tools that support those work systems. Use case modeling and other common approaches for modeling processes are widely used even though they do not fully capture many important aspects of ST work systems, such as the characteristics and incentives of human participants, variability in the accuracy of information, impacts of errors and exceptions, and so on. Work system concepts and the work system method (Alter 2006, 2008a, 2008b) address the latter issues, but lack fully realized links with technical analysis tools such as UML. This paper demonstrates progress toward establishing interdisciplinary links between business analysis using work system concepts and technical analysis using tools such as UML. After...