Adopter-Centric Checklist Application: Product Life Cycle Support Adoption and Diffusion in the UK MoD

Introduction

Standardization is the key to ensuring the interoperability, quality, safety, reliability, maintainability, effectiveness and efficiency of the equipment used by the Armed Forces (UK MoD SSE, 2005a). To realise these benefits, standards have to be effectively adopted and implemented within the MoD. However, what emerged in Chapter Six was that there are a number of factors and barriers critical to the adoption of standards within the MoD. Some factors like organization culture are applicable to the adoption of any standard or innovation within the MoD. However, other factors like standardization policies, standard characteristics and support from the standards community are unique to a particular standard. Therefore the aim of this chapter is two fold:

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  To verify and test the factors identified in the adopter-centric model and note any emergent factors or issues based on the current factors surrounding the adoption of PLCS within the MoD

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  To predict the adoptability of PLCS in light of these issues and factors that have emerged using the ‘Adoption Checklists’

By carrying out this analysis, steps can be identified to help facilitate the widespread adoption of PLCS. This analysis will also demonstrate the potential of using the ‘Adoption Checklists’ as a tool for key stakeholders and decision makers involved in the adoption and diffusion of data-exchange standards within organizations such as the MoD.

As was stated in Chapter 4, the collection of data in this chapter was carried out using a number of methods. The main methods used, and the purposes of the chosen methods are detailed below:

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  Interviews: Two group interviews were carried out. One with three members of the product data standards team and the other with an IPT leader and four members of his team. They provided details on some of the primary and secondary adoption issues that emerged. The interviews were carried out from April 2005 to august 2005.

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  Observations: The observation method was used during the PLCS workshop to note the main questions and concerns raised during the workshop. These were used during analysis of secondary adoption. The attendees were made aware that the author was taking notes of all questions and concerns raised.

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  Questionnaire: This was given out at the end of the workshop to assess participants’ attitudes towards PLCS and to establish if the workshop had impacted the attitudes of the participants.

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  Documentation: Documentation was used to verify and add information regarding different issues raised during both primary and secondary adoption.

The data collected from the above methods was used to answer the questions in the ‘Adoption Checklist’. The completed checklist was used to assess the adoptability of PLCS and provide a basis for recommendations to support the standard’s continued adoption. The methodological approach used in this chapter is, like in Chapter Eight, action research, as was detailed in Chapter 4.

The chapter begins by going through the primary adoption questions. The next sections present the results of the questionnaire and observations made during the workshop that demonstrated the use of PLCS. The concluding section brings together the completed checklist and data from the workshop to assess the secondary adoptability of PLCS and looks at the uptake of PLCS within the UK MoD.

Primary Adoption

Primary adoption represents the adoption decision that needs to take place at a high level in an organization. There are a number of key factors that emerged within the adopter-centric study in Chapter Six, the key factors fall into four main categories: organizational characteristics, standard characteristics, environmental characteristics and decision mechanisms. This section seeks to test and verify if these factors are valid within the adoption process of PLCS.