The information system that is used by the at-home healthcare aids organization has several important problems that undermine the operations of the organization and damage its reputation among its clients and partners. Due to the fallacies in the design information system does not incorporate several important business rules of the discussed organization. As a result these rules should be abided manually by operators of the system. This creates a significant possibility of the human error which according to the story can be as high as 20%. Therefore, the most important recommendation for this organization is to implement the major business rules into the information system in order to minimize the possibility of wrong actions of the operator. Secondly, I can also recommend the company to revise the training techniques of its staff. From the story we know that many of the employees did not feel confident while using the system which implies that 6 hour training session in not enough and additional session may be assigned. Finally, absence of the technical documentation resulted in additional costs required for the information system update. Therefore it is recommended for the company to require proper documentation for all information systems it develops.
In general, all the problems associated with the information system and discussed above address fallacies in the communication. Effective communication process requires two parties to understand each other and to provide adequate feedback on each other’s actions. Surely, technology may be involved to address issues in both of these domains. Computer-based education system may be used to improve employee training process and to assess their skills with the help of tests to ensure that employees can effectively communicate with the information system. Moreover, better design of the system should involve feedback in the form of notifications which appear when operator is doing something wrong. Finally, better communication between software developers and organization is required. Proper supervision and assessment from the organization representatives during the process of design and development of the information system should assure that all the requirements to the system are followed and proper documentation is created.
Thus, to solve the communication problems of the company in the story it is highly recommended to modify the existing information system. For example, the business rule that forbids one order to have insurance payment and self-payment options at once may be implemented in the system such that when operator choses one option the other becomes unavailable. Moreover, it might be a good idea to allow employees who do not feel confident using the information system to undergo training one more time.
The issues that were discussed in this case are quite common for the custom information systems. Organizations such as retail businesses should be aware of business rules that are not implemented in the information system. They should either modify the system or ensure that employees receive adequate training in order to minimize the possibility of human error and associated losses for the business. Moreover, one more lesson that can be earned …