users were accustomed to. We suggest
using this principle to assess the available knowledge base for the software
package.
Principle Six:
choose packaged software with
the right type of standardization.
Standardization can be achieved at
various levels and in many forms in
packaged software. Here, we provide
an overview of the most common types
of standardization because it is important to choose the type that is right for
the particular organization, according to its available resources and constraints.
Standardization of user interface is
a common strategy employed to limit
the need for user training. After some
experimental implementations of information systems of a particular type,
a dominant design typically emerges,
resulting in striking similarities of
user interfaces among different software systems. Referring to Web site design guru, Nielsen, 27 users spend most
of their time on other sites, and therefore prefer new Web sites to be designed similar to the sites with which
they are familiar. Dominant designs
sometimes become static and end up
as anachronisms when the surroundings change. For example, the diskette
icon featured in most software applications invokes the “save” function,
even though no files are ever saved to
diskettes and personal computers no
longer have disk drives.
In standardization of output, the
software package’s only compatibility restraint is that it must produce an
output that can be used by recipient
users or software. One example is that
of Web page production, where different departments in an organization may use very different production
techniques as long as their Web pages
satisfy agreed-upon requirements.
This standardization strategy has the
strength of allowing users greater freedom to optimize and personalize their
production methods. The strategy also
has serious drawbacks if the users ever
need to share intermediate data; we
would thus not recommend this strategy for most organizational standardization issues.
An organization might choose
standardization of data structure for one of
By choosing
an open standard,
an organization
can usually choose
between numerous
compatible
software packages,
thus bringing the
simple advantage
of choice.
two reasons: seeking backward compatibility with data stored in legacy
systems, or seeking to ensure access
to the data from other information
systems in the future; that is, forward
compatibility. By choosing an open
standard, an organization can usually
choose between numerous compatible software packages, thus bringing
the simple advantage of choice. The
disadvantage is that the user organization must abstain from using any proprietary features or extensions of the
packages chosen (the false gold mentioned in Principle Four) in order to
maintain strict data standardization.
Examples of data standards with wide
vendor support are the all-purpose information formatting languages XML
and the database query language SQL,
although both are also subject to standard deviations among the implementations from various producers.
More advanced modes of standardization of data interfaces include
inter-connectivity and interoperability. 4
In-teroperable information systems are
able to communicate during the execution of a particular task. An everyday
example is that the functionality of an
electronic spreadsheet program can
be employed by a word processing program to perform a calculation inside a
text document. More advanced implementations allow interoperability between software running on separate
computers - even in different locations
or organizations such as most Web
services organized in serviced oriented
architectures (SOA). 14 Features such
as these will have far-reaching implications for the implementation of
standard software packages and inter-organizational information systems in
the coming years.
Organizations may choose
standardization of skills by employing only
people with a particular education or
skill set, or if necessary, to carry the
cost of training new employees to some
formalized level of training (see Principle Five). Organizations can choose
to standardize two types of skills: generic or specific skills. Generic skills
are skills that are acquired through
education, such as critical thinking,
programming, business knowledge,
and so on Specific skills encompass
a user’s qualifications with a particular software package, and these may
