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Cost-Effective IT: User Failures
Cost-Effective
IT: User Failures, by Richard Sonnier
Houston
Business Show "Advisor" Richard Sonnier, of the Information
Technology Services firm Nimble Services, Inc., provides weekly
information on our show about business technology issues. He can be
reached at 281-445-4800 x250 or rsonnier@nimbleservices.com.
This week I will continue to discuss
being prepared for IT failures.
User Failures
It might seem strange to discuss user failures in IT. You usually think
of IT has hardware and software, but all the technology in the world is
pretty useless without the human user. In the end, business is about
getting results for human customers by your staff. IT is a means to
that end that gets it done faster with higher quality. Therefore, if
the users cannot get it done with the IT for whatever reason then you
have a failure. User error is the most common IT failure.
User failures with IT cover a large class of problems like:
- Data entry errors
- Incorrect operation of the software or hardware
- Deleting data
- Overwriting data
- Confusion over how the system works
The causes of user failures are:
- Poor system design
- Lack of adequate training
An IT business system must be designed to meet the needs of the
business process and guide the user through that process. It must have
controls within the design that prevent user failures. As the old
saying goes: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." At
Nimble we have another saying: "You can't fix bad design." If an IT
system is designed to allow user error and failure, you cannot patch or
fix it up. You must redesign it to prevent those failures. Also, keep
the systems as simple as possible. Even the best-designed system will
fail if the users are not trained how to use it. User training is
crucial to a successful IT business system and training is often short
changed or skipped. The good news is that the cost of training is going
down due to the Internet.
Thus, to prevent user failures in your IT operations:
- Build well-designed, simple systems implementing clear business
objectives
- Train your people to use those systems effectively
Next week, I
will discuss web-based training.
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