socialmedian: Fighting IT failure with Ethnographic Research

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Fighting IT failure with Ethnographic Research

Source: UsabilityNews: News (full)

Jul 14, 2008

Summary

By Michael Krigsman

Many IT failures are ultimately rooted in negative organizational culture and related political dynamics. For example, failures can arise when critical information is not shared across internal corporate boundaries (or even among members of a single team). Solving these problems can be difficult because cultural issues are hard to measure and transform. Ethnographic research methods offer a way to gain deeper insight into organizational dynamics that contribute to failed IT projects. To learn about ethnographic research and its ability to help explain why IT projects fail, I spoke with Dr. Natalie Hanson, a corporate anthropologist and ethnographer employed by SAP. Natalie manages a team of 30 people in the company’s global Business Operations group. Here are some interesting points from the interview:

ON ETHNOGRAPHIC METHODS

Ethnographic methods are a form of shadowing, or what an anthropologist might call participant observation, which is to embed oneself in an experience with a set of users to better understand that experience.

ON THE RELAT ...Read the full article

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