The Obvious & The Essential: Interpreting Software Development & Organizational Change

Examining how our basic values affect development processes is the overall theme of this thesis. In practice, the question is investigated in relation to software development and organizational change and in research, in relation to science and its relationship to common sense, specifically within the area of Human Computer Interaction. The thesis discusses how it might be possible to discover what is essential for development processes and why the essential may be interpreted as something other than the simply obvious. This thesis examines ways of studying and understanding our social environment and development processes, particularly those concerning people, organizations and software. The empirical examples deal with a software development project and a project that scrutinized the strategy for a governmental authority’s business and information technology. Attitudes are discussed in terms of how they view the user, the customer, the software developers, the software, organizational and implementation processes, organizational management, aesthetic values, functionality and use, research, methods, paradigmatic approaches, ethical issues, psychological reactions, sociological prerequisites, categorizations of people and stress-related health consequences. One particular prerequisite for developing superior computer-supported office work has repeatedly presented itself: an open, questioning attitude towards the software development process, towards organizational change and towards the people working in the organizations. A similar attitude towards research and its design can be crucial to the development of new knowledge. This circumstance can be interpreted as an indication of how important it is that we be aware of and question our preconceived notions, in order to develop an autonomous behavior where we take responsibility for our actions. By doing so, we can avoid misinterpretations and not get trapped into making categorizations that are simply obvious. This is essential and must be emphasized in our search for the path to »healthy work«.