Participatory IT Design : Designing for Business and Workplace Realities

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Summary: Learn about and learn to do participatory IT design
Review: Design of IT is not just about designing interfaces or about designing software code structures. Success of information systems heavily depends on changing organization and the workplace environment. Participatory IT Design nicely bases on a wealth of examples from various projects to show the multiplicity of problems that IT-Designers have to deal with in practice.

The method (MUST) is based on principles which focus attention on several aspects of a project:
A coherent vision for change is needed -- where is this project going regarding technical, organizational and qualificational aspects...
Genuine user participation -- how to learn from and with, who know best what they need...
Firsthand experience -- get in touch with the practice...
Anchoring visions -- the vision needs a broad support from management to practitioners...
Conflicts and dilemmas -- be aware of differing views and conflicting interests - they need to be considered...

These principles, which pervade the whole book, stress personal and project management attitudes rather than classical IT-Design qualities. Like the authors, I believe that these are more important for successful projects. The process of the method is structured into five phases: Initiation, In-Line Analysis, In-Depth Analysis, Innovation. These give a guideline how to proceed during a project. Fulfilling the necessities of the project phases, the book presents a large variety of facilitating methods (techniques) which can be applied in the course of a project. Together both parts (phases and techniques) are a handbook for practitioners, supporting in application of the method.

Readers who expect a oversimplified step-by-step recipe for a project, like other method descriptions, will be disappointed, but readers having some practical experience and therefore a realistic view on how IT projects actually happen will find practical assistance for various situations with this book.