An empirical study of users as application developers

Avaliação de sistemas de informação: revisão da literatura

Revisão da literatura sobre avaliação de sistemas de informação. Analisa 104 artigos Publicado sem 14 diferentes periódicos entre 1974 a 1997. Identifica, analisa e sistematiza as variáveis dependentes adotadas para avaliação de sistemas de informação ao longo deste período. Enfoca especificamente os atributos referentes à qualidade da informação e qualidade de serviço em sistemas de informação. Apresenta a literatura referente à utilização do instrumento da área de marketing de serviço chamado SERVQUAL, bem como sua aplicação na área de sistemas de informação.

Development of a measure to assess the quality of user-developed applications

For several years now, software quality has been a major concern for those involved in the area of software engineering, and researchers as well as practitioners of the domain have proposed instruments to measure it. Application quality is also a concern for researchers and managers involved in the area of end-user computing. However, since end-user computing research is in a much earlier stage than research in software engineering, relatively few efforts have been made to assess the quality of user-developed applications. Building on earlier work in software engineering and in end-user computing, this study developed and assessed a measure of user-developed applications quality. The quality construct comprises eight dimensions: reliability, effectiveness, portability, economy, user-friendliness, understandability, verifiability, and maintainability. In turn, each quality dimension is composed of a set of criteria. Finally, each criterion is measured by a series of items. The instrument was tested by means of a survey involving 110 end-users. Confirmatory factor analysis, using the partial least squares technique, was conducted. The results indicate that the 56-items instrument is reliable and valid, and that it may be a useful tool for researchers and for practitioners alike.

The effect of expertise on software selection

Selection of hardware and software is a complicated task involving the consideration of multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) as well as the expertise of the decision maker. Two MCDM studies examined whether or not expertise in database management systems (DBMS) would facilitate selection among DBMS alternatives. The results of the first study suggest that (I) experts seemed to exhibit more agreement on criterion weights than did novices, (2) experts were about twice as consistent in applying the weights they assigned to the choice task compared to novices, (3) novices tended to rate criteria with scores that were closer to the neutral midpoint than did experts, and (4) experts made different choices than did novices. Consistency was assessed using two different quantitative measures; one was based on ordinality and the other on position. In the second study, concurrent verbal protocols showed that experts tended to bring their own experience to the choice task, were distracted less frequently, and used superior strategies in elimination of weakest alternatives. This implies that staff members with significant domain expertise should be used in DBMS acquisition tasks. Future research should determine whether or not these findings generalize to other task domains.

Quality end user-developed applications

This article examines the dimension of quality in end user-developed applications. Quality is defined as the degree to which an application of "high grade" accomplishes or attains its goal from the perspective of the user. We propose a definition for "quality" as a combination of end user information satisfaction and application utilization. We then discuss three measurement instruments that were developed to capture the dimensions of quality and assess their psychometric properties.

Intensity of end user computing

Much has been written in recent years on end user computing, based on assumptions concerning the motivations and attributes of end users. Most of this research has been descriptive in nature with little theoretical basis. The empirical study described in this paper was intended to assess factors affecting the intensity of participation in end user computing, while at the same time grounding the research on a firm theoretical base.Theory suggested three major groups of variables affecting intensity of participation in end user computing - organizational factors, top management leadership, and individual factors. Examination of survey data indicated that organizational and top management factors played no part in determining the intensity of EUC while there is a strong relationship between individual factors and intensity of EUC. The individual factors found relevant were reasons for using EUC, use made of the outputs, rank in the organization, years of experience with computers, and the type of hardware used.