,*,Body Text,Second Level,Third Level,Fourth Level,Fifth Level,Slide Title,Identifying ERP Usability Issues,ERP Research Workshop,Bentley College,October 15,2004,Wendy Lucas,Tamara Babaian,Heikki Topi,Identifying Usability Issues,Anecdotal evidence,Hard to get data into ERP system,Mismatch between ERP terminology and business practices,Even harder to get information out!,Export data to Excel,Access to perform analysis,Forrester Research evaluation*,Tasks require inordinate patience and expertise to complete,Users should demand better usability,*Chew,Orlov,&Herbert,2003,Research Questions,Which characteristics of large-scale enterprise systems have a negative impact on their usability?,How should these characteristics be categorized?,Can collaboration theory be used as a framework for identifying ERP usability problems and designing systems with improved usability?,Multi-Method Study,Field study to identify usability problems,Development of a theoretical model to provide a strong foundation for enterprise system usability design and evaluation,Development of a prototype,Experimental analysis,Organizational Context for Field Study,Division of a very large diversified Fortune 500 corporation,Business:maintenance of complex engineering artifacts,All data collected from a single facility,Method and Informants,Data collection through semi-structured interviews,At this stage,10 interviews lasting on average an hour each,A large variety of organizational roles representing shop floor technicians up through upper middle management,All informants(except one)users of the same large-scale integrated ERP system,Identified Problem Categories,Identification of and access to the correct functionality,Transaction execution support,System output limitations,Support in error situations,Terminology problems,Overall system complexity,Identifying and Finding Correct Functionality,Navigation problems,“Or maybe we have some menus,but presently it may take us four,five or six routes to get us to basically one screen.I dont always see the links.”,Difficulties in understanding the dependencies between the modules,“Theyre warehouse,inventory two separate modules that dont talk to one another.So,that creates that very situation,where somebody can go on the warehousing side,and cancel a transfer order,but they dont know to go look on the materials side of the module,to see what that resulted in.”,Lacking Transaction Execution Support,Unduly complex transactions,Need to enter data repetitively,“why do I have to keep entering the same data over and over?”,Inconsistent behavior,“Well,I mean,were so used to copying and pasting.In some cases,it remembers and will carry over to some of the screens,but not in all cases.”,Lacking Transaction Execution Support,Poor support for exception situations leads to system,avoidance,“Like a specific task,nobody wants to do it in the system.You know,theyre used to just going and getting the part and manually doing the paperwork and just taking the part and just telling the buyer-planner later about it.,“,SystemOutput Limitations,Inabilitytoget required output,“IttheERP doesntgiveyouthe information youneed,anditjustmakesyourworkmore difficult,Ifounditnot easytouse,notthe right information,didntupdate correctly,didnt havealotofflexibility.”,Need to useexternaltoolstoprocess thedata further,“And unlessI exportthat downintoan Excel fileorsomething,thesystem isnot capableofcompressingthatdata,to minimize it,reduceit.”,Cognitivecomplexityofquerytools,Its justthatyouneedtobea brain surgeontoactuallygoout and,produce yourown queries.,Support in Error Situations,Incorrectorinsufficient error messages,“Youve gottogoseesomebodyabouthow comeit,sred.Butthatsafteryourtransactioniscompleted.Itjustsays transaction failedorsomethinglikethat.”,Lack of specificity,“Wehavea screenwherewetryand returnpartstothewarehouse andifthatsalreadybeen done,thetransactionhasalreadybeen done,it says,1045error,on thebottomofthe screen.Whatexpletivedoes thatmeantoanybody?”,Missing error messages,“Wehad thecustomized front-endandwehad to hittwobuttonstoexecute atransaction.Butthesystem willallowyou justtohit one.Sothe guyswouldhit oneandeverythingwouldbegreen,hey,I mustbeokay,but theynevercreatedtheotherrequirements thatwerenecessarytocomplete thetransaction.”,TerminologyProblems,Unfamiliar systemlanguage,“The Helpisworthlessbecauseits definitelyprogrammers language based.Sohavingthe Helpcustomized forbusinessprocesseswouldbeanimportantpiece.“,“Well,itwaslikethespaceshiphadlanded,andtheseouterspacecreaturestrainersgotoff,andstartedtalkingtousabouthowweweregoingtodoourjob,becausenobodyunderstoodwhattheyweresaying.,”,”,Needforaglossary,“Iputtogetheraglossaryofhowthevocabularychangedfrompre-ERPtopost,becausepeopledidntunderstandtheterms.,”,”,OverallSystemComplexity,Generalfeelingofoverwhelmingcomplexityleadingtofeelingsoffear,“Itsaveryintimidatingsystem.,“,“,“,hewaslikeadeer;itwaslikehegotsoupsetbecauseitwassooutofhiskingdom,sooutofhisnormal-he