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End-user application development: practices, policies, and organizational impacts

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SIGCPR '86: Proceedings of the twenty-second annual computer personnel research conference on Computer personnel research conference

October 1986

Pages 102 - 116

https://doi.org/10.1145/317210.317227

Published: 16 October 1986 Publication History

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Abstract

In their study of user managers' systems needs, Alloway and Quillard surveyed 529 managers to determine whether current systems supported their information needs. Managers reported that only 44 percent of the installed base of applications systems, most of which were transactions processing systems, were useful. Inquiry systems, which enabled managers to query data bases and to generate reports, and data analysis systems, which provided opportunities for modeling, simulation, and statistical analysis, were overwhelmingly favored by the managers surveyed.

The findings also showed that the invisible backlog, composed of systems which users needed but which had not yet been approved as projects, consisted primarily of inquiry and analysis systems. The invisible backlog for analysis systems was 784 percent greater than the known backlog of approved development projects, demonstrating a significant shift away from the need for transactions processing type systems of the past (Alloway and Quillard, 1983).

Users have begun to satisfy these systems needs by developing applications using fourth generation languages and microcomputer software. The actual growth of end-user computing within organizations has been overwhelming. In 1970, end-user computing at one Xerox component required very little capacity but by 1980 had grown to almost 40 percent of capacity, an increase of 20 times over the decade, with an expected increase to 75 percent of the total workload by 1990 (EDP Analyzer, 1983). Without question, the emergence of user development means a new style of computing which raises a number of research questions.

References

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Alavi, Maryam, "Some Thoughts on Quality Issues of End-User Developed Systems~" ACM Proceedings of the Computer Personnel and Business Data Processing Research Conference, Minneapolis, MN, May 1985, pp. 200-207.

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Alloway, Robert M. and Quillard, Judith A., "User Managers' Systems Needs," MIS Quarterly, June 1983, pp. 27-41.

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Davis, Gordon, "Caution: User Developed Systems Can be Dangerous to Your Organization," MISRC Working Paper 82-04, University of Minnesota, February 1984.

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Pickard M(2005)Old issues, new eyesProceedings of the first workshop on End-user software engineering10.1145/1083231.1083239(1-3)Online publication date: 21-May-2005
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1083231.1083239
Pickard M(2005)Old issues, new eyesACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes10.1145/1082983.108323930:4(1-3)Online publication date: 21-May-2005
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1082983.1083239

End-user application development: practices, policies, and organizational impacts
1. Applied computing
  1. Enterprise computing

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SIGCPR '86: Proceedings of the twenty-second annual computer personnel research conference on Computer personnel research conference

October 1986

168 pages

ISBN:0897912071

DOI:10.1145/317210

Editor:
Paul S. Licker
Univ. of Calgary, Calgary, Alta., Canada

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 16 October 1986

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Pickard M(2005)Old issues, new eyesProceedings of the first workshop on End-user software engineering10.1145/1083231.1083239(1-3)Online publication date: 21-May-2005
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1083231.1083239
Pickard M(2005)Old issues, new eyesACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes10.1145/1082983.108323930:4(1-3)Online publication date: 21-May-2005
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1082983.1083239

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Information systems strategy and end-user application development

Corporate MIS/DP and end user computing: the emergence of a new partnership

Reconsidering End-User Development Definitions

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Information systems strategy and end-user application development

Corporate MIS/DP and end user computing: the emergence of a new partnership

Reconsidering End-User Development Definitions

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