Developing Software Systems to Facilitate Social Organization

Developing the next generation of advanced computing systems will change the patterns of work in software system development organizations. Based on empirical studies of how new computing systems are developed, we find that major system engineering problems require organizational solutions rather than just technical solutions. We continue to investigate organizational settings where large software systems are being developed to study these problems and examine possible solutions. Our experience to date indicates that we can successfully incorporate findings from social analyses of computing into system development, and use them to find more effective ways to organize system development work. Further, we believe that system development strategies that follow from such findings when applied may lead to a more participatory, democratic workplace, rather than one that is just increasingly automated and bureaucratic. 1Appears in M.J. Smith and G. Salvendy (eds.), Work with Computers, Vol. 12A, Advances in Humans Factors and Ergonomics, Elsevier, New York, pp. 64-72, (1989)