![]() The reality is that the organisational information technology resources are not providing the features required. How the gap is overcome is mediated by the available resources and support. This mismatch can arise due to characteristics of the people, business processes, organisation and technology. The model suggests that shadow systems are created by a gap between the needs of organisation and its use of information technology and the features provided by the organisational IT systems. The realityīehrens and Sedera (2004) developed a model (shown below) in an attempt to explain why shadow systems exist. I find it increasingly interesting that the purpose of the commercial website is promote the idea of business intelligence applications and if you dig a bit further is associated with a company selling “ERP” solutions. I find it particularly interesting that the current Wikipedia page on shadow systems seems to contain much of the same content that appears on a commercial website that is linked to from the Wikipedia page. Shadow Systems typically ignore this kind of rigor, making them much faster to implement, but less reliable and more difficult to maintain. This increases the amount of time and effort it takes to put a rigorously engineered solution in place. The various skills that are required to achieve all of this means that inevitably a number of different people will all be involved in the task of creating the new report. Quite properly, when a reporting system is put together by IT professionals, they need to consider all aspects of how the system will be used. The description of this “benefit” on the page places shadow systems in a negative light and uncritically accentuate the positives of centralised IT divisions. This gets a mention but in a negative way as a cause of shadow systems, not as a benefit. Often shadow systems will enable the real work of the organisation to go ahead in spite of unresponsive IT systems. One potential benefit that is somewhat mentioned gets twisted. There is no mention of any potential benefits that shadow systems may provide. ![]() Including, poorly designed, not scalable, poorly documented, untested, may allow unauthorised access to information, easy to introduce errors, one hard disk failure away from disaster, and several versions of the truth. Problems – a larger list of the problems shadow systems exhibit.Cause – some general points about what leads to the development of shadow systems.Overview – general summary of shadow systems and what they are. ![]() The content of the current wikipedia page on shadow systems gives some insight into this view. This is the idea that underpins much of the existing IT development practice within organisations. All IT development must be done by the heroic, rigorous and knowledgeable folk within the central IT division. These horribly inefficient, unscalable, incorrect toys cobbled together by amateurs create problems for the organisation with no corresponding benefit. The typical response of organisational officialdom is that shadow systems are horrible, beastly things that must be stamped out. Applications of information technology that arise within organisations without the knowledge of, and often in spite of, the official, centralised information technology division. I find some connection with this section due to my interest in shadow systems. Elliot’s poem The Hollow Men has a section that goes
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |