User certification of workplace software: assessing both artefact and usage

Abstract

This article summarises activities and results from the quality assessment project 'Quality Assurance of IT Support at Work' (ITQ) which has been performed by Swedish researchers in close cooperation with trade unions 1999-2005. The ITQ project is part of a network, UsersAward, which works for the goal to develop and implement a strategy for good software products on the work floor. A main result of the ITQ project is the first version of a software certification programme, User Certified 2002, which is described in some detail. The underlying theoretical arguments for its design and the performed pilot projects which have informed its implementation are also presented. The outcome of performed certifications is discussed in terms of stakeholder response; in terms of whether to certify artefact, processes, or both; and in terms of the relationship between software certification, standardisation, and public procurement agreements. One conclusion from the project is that a viable software certification programme has to cover the software's built-in features, its deployment process, and its actual situated usage. A second conclusion is that the buying organisation has to implement integrative processes in which its organisational development and its implementation of IT systems are coordinated. Conclusions are also drawn with respect to the set of organisational patterns underlying the UsersAward initiative -certifications, user panels, user surveys, user conferences and a yearly IT Prize contest. Finally, implications and plans for the future, especially international research and union cooperation activities, and further development of the certification process are described.

The Platform Review Alliance Board: designing an organizational model to bring together producers and consumers in the review and commissioning of platform software

“…This call is reinforced by Vandaele (2018), who calls for guild-like organizations and worker-led platform cooperatives, aligning with trade unions in the platform economy. Unions have been the main mechanism for collective action in the working environment since their origins in the 1920s as craft unions, through their shift to collective bargaining with a single employer from the 1930s onwards, then to their current strategic role as work becomes more fragmented between employers, including forging alliances (Benner 2003) and setting quality standards (Walldius et al 2009). This strategic role thus becomes key to how unions might be relevant in the platform economy.…”

“…The UserAward software certification program was launched in 1998, initiated by the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) in cooperation with the Swedish Confederation for Professional Employees (TCO) (Walldius et al 2005). The main activities of the UserAward program were to involve users of the software in its deployment, use, and eventual redesign in the workplace through a process of user-driven software quality assessment, where a key finding of an evaluation of the program was that it needed to consider its effects on both direct and indirect stakeholders (Walldius et al 2005(Walldius et al , 2009(Walldius et al , 2015.…”

Strategy mapping: a method for making value tensions explicit in design and deployment of IT systems

“…In a workplace software quality evaluation program results regarding some 30 quality criteria were presented in certification reports and yearly user survey. During the first 5 years of this 11-year program, tables, bar chart diagrams and quotes from interviews with users and management personnel were used to present the results in protocols and survey reports (Walldius et al 2009). In the 6th year an economist and management consultant recruited to the research group extended the project's methodology with the strategy map method.…”

UTOPIA: Participatory Design from Scandinavia to the World

“…A current project based on the UTOPIA experience is user assessment of IT quality in workplaces, the Users Award [25]. Other researchers and developers in the cooperative design tradition could extend the list of projects considerably.…”

“…in UsersAward [25], as the more "fancy" new mobile workplaces for media design etc. We need to work with all, old and new, workplaces in the spirit of "Digital Bauhaus" [26].…”