Understanding the Client and the Organization: Working Effectively for Project Success

1. Understanding the client and the organization I. Working with the client • Taking the client’s point of view • Formal communication with the client II. Understanding the organization • Organizational informatics III. Working with the user • User needs and information seeking behavior

2. Understanding the client and the organization I. Working with the client Managing the client is essential to the success of the project Who is the client? The client can be a person, a group, a department, or a company Who signed the contract? What are the best strategies for developing and maintaining good relations with the client? You are working to ensure that the client will trust you throughout the project

3. Internal clients These clients are within your own company You must understand how the project fits into the company’s organizational structure and processes This is an exercise in systems analysis and competitive intelligence Who supports the project? Why? What are the political risks? What is the budget? What will be necessary to build and maintain consensus?

4. External clients These clients sign a contract with your company You are trying to understand where the client fits in the organization Does he or she have the authority to make decisions about the project? Does he or she have good relations with superior, peers, and subordinates? It is important to get the client to “buy in” What are the best ways to do this? It will depend on your ability to communicate with the client throughout the development process

5. • Taking the client’s point of view You should expect that your client will not be as interested in or knowledgeable about web development as you are Education is important The client should understand How the project will be carried out Steps, phases, responsibilities, and deliverables What critical factors could affect the project What the level of client involvement should be throughout the project

6. One key is understanding what the client thinks about the project This means envisioning the project from the client’s point of view Why does the client want this project done? Where does this project fit into the client’s overall view of the business? Is it central? Peripheral? What is at stake for the client in this project? What is critical to the success of the project? What resources are necessary? What people are necessary?

7. Try to determine the client’s understanding of the client Who do they think their users are? What type of experience do they want these users to have when they use the site? What do they want users to do? Where do they want users to spend the most time? Do the research Learn about the client’s business What is their value proposition? What are the main ways in which they generate revenue?

8. Communicating the work process to the client is a good way to build a relationship This indicates your professionalism What is the methodology? What are the deliverables? What will you deliver to the client and when? What does the client have to deliver to you so that you can meet your goals? What approvals are necessary? These should always be in writing The client should understand your policies

9. Sample methodology (from Burdman) Kickoff meeting, followed by a strategy and planning phase Preparation of the scope document Conceptual development Design and specification Quantifies deliverables Creative and technical specifications Final fixed cost for project completion

10. Methodology (cont.) Signoff Production Testing Delivery Launch Post-launch support Troubleshooting Maintenance and updating

11. The process of information architecture Maintenance and updating Planning and strategy: predesign analysis Feedback and redesign Conceptual design: prototyping Information organization: Content development Launch Production: Navigation systems Search tool Labeling systems Operations Testing: Quality assurance and usability

12. • Formal communication with the client Legal communications Letter of agreement Your company has been contracted to do the work Work begins after receiving a deposit Brief description of the project Non-disclosure agreement This protects the exchange of confidential information It protects both parties intellectual property Contracts Specifies the constraints and deliverables of the project

13. Project communications It is important to document project-based communication Assumptions should be discussed openly and early What are your responsibilities? What are the client’s responsibilities? What steps depend on deliverables from the client? Scope and costs What is the size of the project? What are the deadlines? Should emphasizetime frames and costs

14. Approval documents It is important to have the client sign off on each benchmark and deliverable These detail the various components and features of the site Could include: high-level information architecture, prototype navigation, search functions, forms, database design Site reviews Purpose of the review is to obtain client feedback and maintain communication and buy in You explain how your design fits their needs

15. Conducting the site review It involves presenting the creative concept to the client Can be done on or offline Prepare in advance by reviewing the site with the team Anticipate the client’s reactions based on what you have learned Frame the concept around the objectives of the site Be ready and able to explain the reasoning for the design decisions Clearly link these decisions to the project objectives and requirements

16. Understanding the client and the organization I. Working with the client • Taking the client’s point of view • Formal communication with the client II. Understanding the organization • Organizational informatics III. Working with the user • User needs and information seeking behavior

17. II. Understanding the organization • Organizational informatics This is the study of organizations and their uses of information and ICTs The people using the ICTs are within organizational boundaries A main focus is on the social organization of work The social shaping of technology in the workplace Digital technologies are embedded in a “web” of computing This includes the machines, those who use and maintain them, those who pay for them, those setting policies for their use…

18. The context of ICTs use directly affects their meanings and roles Design of ICTs is linked to social and organizational dynamics, and these dynamics are contextual ICTs are always linked to their environments of use ICTs are not value neutral They are often designed, implicitly or explicitly, to support social and organizational structures ICT use leads intended and unintended consequences Use has moral and ethical aspects and these have social consequences

19. ICTs are configurable They are collections of distinct components These are assembled into unique collections for each organization or group The multiple functions and ability to reprogram them means that ICTs highly re-configurable ICTs follow trajectories that favor the status quo. They are an evolving series of products or versions with a history and a future Preexisting relationships of power and social life are often maintained and strengthened Since ICTs are socio-technical entities, their evolution is as much social history as technical progress

20. Understanding the organization’s business strategy Business strategy and IA are interrelated Organizational communication should support the strategy Web sites, extranets, and intranets play key roles in defining relationships between a company and its customers, investors, suppliers, and employees The design, implementation, and maintenance of these channels become critical success factors They should be carefully aligned with business strategy This requires a clear understand of the organization, its structures and processes, and culture

21. A graphical depiction of business strategy Morville (2000) http://argus-acia.com/strange_connections/strange006.html

22. A graphical depiction of IA Morville (2000) http://argus-acia.com/strange_connections/strange006.html

23. Organizational size matters There are differences between large and small organizations There are differences in working on large and small scale sites And between single and multi-departmental sites Who is responsible for doing the work? Who manages the workflow? “Ad-hoc” coalitions are typical (Burdman; 112) What are the benefits of this approach? What are the costs? Does the organization need a dedicated team to manage the site?

24. How does the web fit into the overall organizational culture and structure? Who funds the web work? How does this process work? What are the major groups that are involved in developing and maintaining the site? This may be individuals instead of groups What is the role of IS? Marketing? What is the position of the major stakeholders (executives and decision makers) with regard to the web effort? What do they want from the site?

25. Multiple departments and groups may be involved Typically they provide content How can their needs be met and balanced against each other? What do these stakeholders want from the site? Who gets onto the home or top level pages and why? Managing this issue becomes more complex if these groups contribute financially to the costs of the site Having a clear sense of the larger organizational business strategy is essential here Understanding organizational politics is important Practical issue: who is your point of contact?

26. Understanding the client and the organization I. Working with the client • Taking the client’s point of view • Formal communication with the client II. Understanding the organization • Organizational informatics III. Working with the user • User needs and information seeking behavior

27. III. Working with the user • User needs and information seeking behavior Modeling user behavior How can we do this? Stimulus response model Query to the system System processes query [black box] Response from system This is a mechanistic model based on a systems metaphor The user engages in predictable behaviors Under what type of conditions does this work?

28. A different approach is based on information needs and information seeking behavior Why is it important to understand the user? Users have information needs Where do information needs originate? ASK, gaps, anomalies Information needs lead to information seeking behaviors These behaviors vary as the needs vary Browsing Broad searching Directed searching

29. Types of information seeking Direct answer (“perfect catch”) You know exactly what you want The criteria for relevance are precise Exploratory searching (“lobster trapping”) You are asking an open-ended question As you browse, a range of answers will be relevant The criteria for relevance are vague and emergent Thorough searching (“indiscriminate driftnetting”) The purpose is an exhaustive gathering of information The criteria for relevance may or may not be precise but are broad

30. Information seeking as a process It is a bounded series of one or more episodes Integration Using two or more of these components in a single episode This allows comparison and expansion of the process Iteration Repeating the process in a single session by returning to areas of the site or resource This can lead either to query expansion or contraction How do people know when to stop? Satisficing (Simon)

31. Another approach Berry-picking (Bates, 1989) Begin with a need Formulate a query Move iteratively through a system, gathering information along the way Using a range of available resources The need and the query may change as you move Chaining (“pearl growing”) Start with information that is exactly right Search for more like it Search for sources it cites or that cite it

32. Using social network analysis to understand users in organizations Assumption: Patterning in social relationships is social structure These patterns persist over time Organizations are individuals linked as members of social networks In their networks, they share common information behaviors Interpreting, creating, sharing and acting on information and knowledge Some belong to multiple networks Boundary spanners

33. Organizational structure is the pattern of connections and interdependencies among members Key elements include: Authority relationships: who reports to whom Informal organization, or the actual communication and information exchange: who communicates with whom Structuring and flow of work: who depends on whom Social relationships: who likes whom, who is similar to whom..) These patterns can be categorized by interaction choices Informal communication structure for coordinating a task vs. for seeking expert advise.

34. Viewing the organization as a network of actors, structure, forms is the basis of the analysis The effects of ICTs can be seen by describing links among human or computer-based actors Useful for studying ICTs designed and implemented to change organizational communication and information exchange Also for understanding social influences on communication and information technology use Factors include Organizational culture, power and its distribution The social norms, habits, practices, expectations and preferences of the organization about its present and past

35. The technique of social network analysis Social networks are a “formalism,” based on graph theory It represents relations as nodes and links Nodes may be people, technology, groups, or entire firms This depends on the unit of analysis Uses qualitative and quantitative data gathering Looking for individuals’ patterns of interactions and role sets Assumes: our beliefs, feelings, and behaviors are driven by the patterns of relationships among individuals Not by the attributes of individuals