Understanding Special Cause LO4532

Johanna Rothman (jr@world.std.com)
Mon, 1 Jan 1996 08:18:29 -0500

Replying to LO4508 --

At 12:25 AM 12/31/95, ToCOLLABR8@aol.com wrote:
[...]
>About 1 in 12 designers on a particular CAD system has chronic
>difficulties with the system.
[...]
>Supervisors themselves are not proficient in the system. The software is
>progressing so rapidly that it really takes daily use to be proficient.
[...]
>One on one help has been ineffective. I believe the reason is that when
>help is summoned, the intent is "to get the job out."
>
>I feel this situation can be improved by allowing the supervisors to use
>feedback from other designers and engineers (customer) to approach the
>designer and get him/her to buy-in to specialized training. This training
>would be tailored specifically to their needs.
[...]

Sorry if I trimmed too much. I see this kind of problem a lot in complex
computer systems. It's similar to school, when some students just "don't
get it" the way the teacher explains it. Some comments:

I don't think this is a special cause- 8% of all users of a system is a
significant number. These systems are expensive, too expensive for 8% of
the users to be less than proficient. I bet the system developers think
they have a great user interface.

It is extremely difficult to develop a user interface for a complex
computer system that meets these requirements:
- enable novice users
- enable expert users
- adequately represent the feature set to be used

I don't agree with your conclusion that supervisors use feedback from
other peers to get people to buy into training. I'd prefer to have people
use a self-assessment technique, or a one-on-one with a supervisor. Unless
you have specified a matrix organization or a 360 review process, this
kind of feedback can be even more damaging than these folks' inability to
make progress.

Let me pose a question: Is the User Interface is sufficiently flexible for
these people's paradigm of the work? Is that the root cause of this
problem, or have these folks not learned how to do the work? Is the
computer system changing the way these people think, or is it enabling
them to think in the most appropriate way? 

--
Johanna


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