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Chapter 7 Processes, Organizations, and Information Systems
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So Workflow Problems
WhAt?

According to John Halamka, CIO of the Harvard Medical School
and Group Health System, “Most IT problems are workflow
3
problems, not software problems.” Using the knowledge of this
chapter, you know that workflow problems concern either efficiency
(ratio of costs to value delivered is too high) or effectiveness (not
contributing to the competitive strategy). So what?
Who fixes a workflow problem? A computer programmer?
A network engineer? A database administrator? No, no, and no. So
who? Someone with knowledge of the business and, if the workflow
involves an information system, someone who is knowledgeable
and comfortable working with technical people.
Consider an example close to home. Suppose your university
has a limited number of classrooms with sophisticated audiovisual Source: Franz Pfluegl/Fotolia
display, and those classrooms are frequently assigned to professors
who specialize in old-fashioned lecture and don’t use audiovisual
display. Meanwhile, professors who want to use, say, Learning To do this well, you need to know IS_and_something: IS_and_
Catalytics in their classrooms are making do with poor-quality, marketing, IS_and_ operations, IS_and_finance.
hard-to-view computer-based display.
How would you fix that problem? Change the software that Questions
allocates classrooms? But how? Who decides what changes need to
be made? And does it need to be done in software? Could it be done 1. Using your own words, explain the meaning of the statement
by fixing a workflow? Is there a convenient point in the professor– “Most IT problems are workflow problems, not software
class assignment process in which professors (or department problems.”
chairs) can indicate which professors should teach in which 2. Consider the classroom assignment problem. Briefly describe
classrooms? Or are classrooms allocated on a university-wide basis? three ways of solving that problem. Which of those three is the
Or maybe the audiovisual system is already generating metadata most promising? Why?
about its use, and without requiring anyone to provide any extra 3. In your opinion, is the demand for professionals who know
data, someone in the Assign-Classroom workflow could use this IS_and_something going to decrease? Increase? Stay about
data to allocate the classrooms? the same? Justify your response; search the Internet for data to
Who develops these alternatives? Who evaluates them? Who
implements them with the workflow workers? You! Or it could be support your claim.
you. As you’ll learn in Chapter 12, a business analyst is someone 4. If you were to become an expert in IS_and_something, what
who knows business, who understands an organization’s would the something be? Search the Internet for employment
competitive strategy and ways to implement it, and who knows prospects for that career choice.
enough information systems technology to be able to model and 5. Examine your current plan of courses before you graduate.
design workflow changes and to work with technical personnel, What courses do you need to add to your plan to learn IS_and_
when needed, to effectuate changes to information systems. something? Will you add these courses? Why or why not?