What is Project Cancellation

The goal of any product is to be used. In a very real sense, people judge the success or failure of any product by the extent to which it is used by intended users in their daily practice. Understanding a product from the perspective of the end-user is one of the most important and often overlooked keys to the success of any project. Many products suffer from a lack of widespread utilization because developers and managers often have a deterministic view of the relationship between technology and users. This deterministic view leads to an over reliance on technical specifications as the driving force in the end users’ decision to adopt and use a product. However, a wide variety of human, organizational, social, and cultural factors also affect the acceptance and use of any product. Any organization, even those in the most highly technical and advanced fields, is, in reality, a dynamic example of a sociotechnical system in which people and machines interact, negotiate usage, compete for primacy, and generally co-exist. This chapter will provide a broad theoretical overview of the critical role that end-users play in the adoption, implementation, utilization, and institutionalization of any technology. A number of relevant theories will be discussed, including diffusion theory (e.g., Rogers, 1995), technological determinism (e.g., Ellul, 1967), sociotechnical systems (e.g., Volti, 2006), and utopian and dystopian philosophical perspectives (e.g., Rubin, 1996). In addition to a theoretical overview, this chapter will provide practical recommendations for developers and managers who wish to increase the utilization of their products by bringing the user into the development process. The practical recommendations will include a discussion of Ely’s (1999) conditions that facilitate the implementation of innovations. These conditions include developing a sense of dissatisfaction with the status quo, providing sufficient time to become familiar with a new technology, and generating meaningful commitment to the project by upper level managers. Also included in the practical recommendations will be a brief discussion of various organizational components that enable the introduction of innovations (Surry, Ensminger, & Haab, 2005). These components include the development and maintenance of an adequate infrastructure of supporting technologies, an emphasis on shared decision making, and ongoing support systems. Other recommendations to be discussed in this chapter will be derived from rapid prototyping models of development (e.g., Tripp & Bichelmeyer, 1990) and recent surveys of user-centered design methods.