PinPoint Performance Solutions Blog (Legacy Content)

A reader took me to task on a recent blog post I made where I ranted about how bugs and workarounds shouldn't be acceptable or "a way of life".

Patrick Neeman at Usability Counts made two valid points in his response to my post that resonated with me:

1. Test early and test often
2. We live in a beta test world

Forgive the rant, but I'm speaking from experience.  When it comes to technology in business, I believe do it right or don't do it at all.

Over the years, and especially in recent months, I have encountered many proprietary applications not ready for their debut and falling short of their expectations.  Good intentions are there but the applications rolled out to the end-users with much fanfare, who are expected to use them and leverage them to their advantage in their daily work, fall flat.  Instead of full functionality, speed and efficiency, end-users encounter bugs, slow downs and errors.

Sadly, bugs and inefficiencies in applications get passed off as being acceptable and part of the design, development and deployment process.  It's not fair to make your target audience or end users unknowingly be your beta testers.  They shouldn't have to put up with such frustrations if they are being asked to use what really boils down to be a prototype application to do their work.  They should be able to use the application with minimal or no bugs and it should work the way they expect it to. Applications should support work performance, not be a barrier to work performance.

I understand that it may be nearly impossible to release a flawless application.  However, rather than put the end users through this trouble developers and stakeholders should take the time to conduct user-centered design, do quality assurance and build an objective usability test where beta testers can contribute in a meaningful way to find the bugs that are "show stoppers".

Find he bugs, fix them and release.

In the end when a fully functional, working application free of major bugs is released it will work as intended and boost productivity and performance in the workplace.

Training is a crucial part of successfully implementing technology in the workplace to improve overall performance. It goes without saying, but if people don't know how to use the technology to their advantage it will be treated as an obstacle and ultimately rejected.

Many people I have met in the IT industry are bright and talented when it comes to the technical aspects of their job, but some have admitted to me personally when they need to link the people to the technology they are using - teaching them how to use the technology - it's not one of their strengths.

A Knol has been created on this topic, Building Effective Training in Five Easy Steps. I think it will help those in the industry who have been assigned to conduct training in their workplace and I invite anyone to read it and contribute to it if they have any additional insight on the subject.

Training doesn't have to be a difficult task if you know and understand its fundamentals.

At first I thought it was seeing things. I thought I hadn't had enough coffee when this morning I watched a story on Fox News about a ban on wi-fi hotspots at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.

It seems the president of the university, Fred Gilbert, has determined that wi-fi poses a health risk to the student population based on studies that radio transmissions are linked to brain tumors and leukemia. Mind you, these studies are inconclusive and a report from Health Canada will be published later this year establishing that wi-fi networks pose no health risks to humans.

Still, this means little to the Lakehead University who says they are doing this ban as a precaution. It also means very little to Lakehead University that wi-fi operates on radio waves, which are naturally occurring. Food for thought.

You can read more about this issue here and here.

All of this occurred around February of this year and perhaps you are hearing about it for the first time just like me. Knee-jerk reactions similar to what the Lakehead president did are not only ridiculous, they do more harm to the performance of the intended audience than good. Banning or limiting technology and accessibility creates an unnecessary barrier to performance regardless if it happens to students or business professionals in the workplace.

If people don't have the tools to do their job effectively, don't expect them to perform how you want them to. Some might say that wi-fi is not a necessity, but it sure makes work and life a whole lot easier!

Last week I had an interesting conversation with a colleague that included a discussion of Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS).

An EPSS is an integrated electronic system that is easily accessible by a user when it is needed. The information provided is individualized and likely in context to the situation that is encountered by the user.

I've always been interested in EPSS as it relates to business, training and support. The basis of my conversation with my colleague was that an EPSS can help lower support costs by providing just-in-time training and information (i.e. - feedback). If the end-user can solve their problem before calling upon support staff to assist or to halt their work to research the problem, they can continue to concentrate on their task at hand and still maintain a high level of productivity while receiving assistance.

You may have encountered an EPSS without realizing it. Do you remember the old Microsoft Office 97 Assistant, Clippy? Annoying as he was, Clippy was actually an embedded EPSS that monitored the performance of the end-user. As the end-user performed certain actions, Clippy would provide feedback, suggestions or assistance to maintain or increase performance.

Imagine how you could provide an EPSS with your technology your workforce uses in your business to maintain or increase performance. If this topic intrigues you as much as me, here are some additional resources for you to investigate the topic further.

• EPSScentral - home of Gloria Gery, an independent consultant and authority on EPPS.
• Types of Electronic Performance Support Systems - authored by Deborah Alpert Sleight

One of my favorite websites, BNET, has put together a feature on Web 2.0 and how it can work for you in your business.

Not only are you able to find out what it is and what specific tools are at your disposal, you can also learn how to put it to use in your company. I encourage you to read this article as well as others in the feature if you are considering using Web 2.0 technologies in your organization.

Here are some highlights from the article and some thoughts I have on this topic:

• Web 2.0 - simple deployment, simple management and lower overall costs. There is typically no software to buy and configure on a network server or desktop. Management and maintenance of the application is often minimal. Somebody else is usually responsible for the "dirty work".
• Implementing Web 2.0 in an organization should be done out of a need to improve performance, productivity and communication. It shouldn't be done for the sake of the technology or just because "everybody else is doing it." The solution the technology provides should be to evolve current processes and practices, not to revolutionize what is currently being done. The key is to have minimal pain and minimal resistance during a time of change. Otherwise, your initiative could be rejected by the end users. Find a champion for your cause that people respect and are willing to follow. It could be you or it could be someone else.
• Some Web 2.0 applications have poor usability or counter-intuitive interfaces. This is a young field and there are bound to be many bugs, glitches and overlooked features that may be important to you. In this day and age, beta is the new "final release". It just comes with the territory.
• Be willing to experiment. Find the root causes to performance problems and identify whether or not a technology solution is the answer. If so, choose an application and see if it works for you. If not, you are out very little due to the nature of the technology. Simple deployment, simple management and low cost make it affordable to try on different hats until you find the one that is the best fit.

I would be very interested in learning what you discover in these articles. Perhaps you'll come to the same conclusions or arrive at your own. Enjoy!

Here's an interesting article that I think marks a paradigm shift in the way technology is viewed and used in large corporations.

ITPro reported on the keynote address of Forrester Research chief executive George Colony to the IT Forum EMEA 2007. In his address he noted that the future of business is less about the management of its information by means of technology, its more about technology professionals communicating with the captains of industry, those with lofty titles such as CEO or CFO, and how, when, what and where they intend to use technology in their day to day business. It shouldn't be information technology, it should be business technology.

So much of our business depends on technology that works smoothly and seamlessly integrates with our processes. According to Colony, most executives do not know how technology plays a role in their business, presently or in the future. Some countries are ahead of the curve in the number of technology savvy executives. Here in the U.S., 11 out of top 20 companies have board-level technical representation versus just 6 out of the top 20 companies in Europe.

What do I think all of this means? Colony is explaining that technology is really a means to and end. Technology is a tool and should be about what business processes it supports and the people that are using it.

I want to apologize for being somewhat of a shill for my company and a Boise-area organization I support. We upgraded our website and we threw our support behind Kickstart, an entrepreneur event happening in April. Last week's posts has little to do with PinPoint Performance Solutions and our overall mission to help companies implement technology in their organizations to improve performance. Still, why be in the blogging game if you can't do a little self-promotion from time to time and advocate a cause or two?

This week, I thought I'd dedicate a couple posts to my "roots". I started out my professional career as an instructional designer and human performance improvement specialist. Those titles may seem a little foreign to you, but that's OK. Before the week is out you'll have a better understanding of where I'm coming from, how it all falls into place and drives PinPoint Performance Solutions. All you really need to know about my previous career is that much of what I was taught and what I practiced supported the human resources function of an organization (or at least that's where it originated). I had a strong interest in technology and over time I found ways to merge my interest and my profession.

It wasn't all that hard to do. The fields of instructional design and human performance improvement today leverage technology and use it as a driver for many of the solutions that are developed. I'm sure you heard of e-learning. Well, that's an instructional design (i.e. - training) solution and if it is determined after an analysis conducted under the umbrella of human performance improvement that it will benefit the end-user and the organization, true performance emerges that is objective and measurable.

So how does this all tie in to what PinPoint Performance Solutions is doing today? I feel that technology, whether software, websites or web applications, even hardware products like hand held devices, is sometimes hastily implemented. In other words, the technology solution is created for the sake of the solution and not to address the true need or real performance problem in the organization. We get so excited about the possible outcome, but we have a clouded vision of what lies between the perceived need and potential solution.

The model I use at PinPoint Performance Solutions to validate the need to implement a technology solution in business, is Gilbert's Behavior Engineering Model. The link will take you to a PDF file with a copy of the model I have posted on my website. Gilbert, Thomas F., is considered the father of human performance technology. It basically boils down to this - problems in the workplace usually stem from either the business environment or the individual. Each have three sub-sets or areas where the problem(s) is usually centered upon.

Environment:

• Information
• Resources
• Incentives / Consequences
  

• Knowledge / Skills
• Capacity
• Motivation