Participatory analysis of flexibility: Some experiences

Abstract

Analysis conducted according to conventional systems development approaches focuses on standard data formats and general data flow. The growing concern for tailorability issues reflects an increased attention towards the need to consider the variations in the work activities. The general argument for the need to use participatory approaches holds even stronger when it comes to understanding the variation and flexibility aspects of a workplace, since flexibility concerns not the general procedure and standard way of doing things but the unexpected, the unprecedented, the exceptional cases, situations and events that are only experienced by the people who do the day to day work. In this paper we report our experiences of applying participatory techniques in addressing the flexibility aspect of a specific workplace: the radiology department of a hospital. Though Blueprint Mapping, one of the techniques, was intended to represent the general way things are done at the department, the map also triggered statements about variations and unexpected situations. And though the Organizational Game, the other technique, originally was not invented with flexibility issues in mind, the idea of starting out from cards describing specific situations proved to be very successful for this purpose.