1. Systems maintenance & adoption
Asper School of Business
University of Manitoba
Systems Analysis & Design
Instructor: Bob Travica
Systems maintenance & adoption
Updated: November 2017

2. Outline Maintenance concept Maintenance types Maintenance costs
System adoption
Counter-Adoption methods
Management of Counter-Adoption

3. System Operation as System Life Stage
Systems operation (production stage) – period after deployment (rollout, going live, cutover) in which a system is used in daily work
Management activities: Promoting system adoption
Technical activities : Fine-tuning & upgrading of the system - maintenance activities

4. System Maintenance
Usually, more human resources are involved in maintaining systems than in developing new systems.
Upgrades can accumulate over time to the extent that a resulting system is significantly different from the initial system - hard to differentiate between maintenance and development. U U U U U
New system vs old system?

5. Maintenance types
Corrective maintenance - Fixing software bugs (70% of all maintenance)
Responsive maintenance - Respond to business needs (add a function, add storage, etc.)

6. Maintenance types (cont.)
Preventive maintenance – Modify system to anticipated business needs
Perfective maintenance – Changes of existing functions etc. toward technical perfection

7. Maintenance Cost Factors
Number of clients (users) of the system
Quality of code & overall design
Quality of system documentation
Quality of maintenance personnel
Availability of automated tools $
No. of clients $
Code quality, Documentation quality,
Personnel quality, Automated tools

8. System Adoption
Process of making a system part of routine work. Includes motivating end-users. Management issue involving higher IS managers and biz managers.
Speed of adoption:
End-users
(primary, secondary)
Earlier Adopters (50%)
- Early adoption majority (34%)
- First adopters (16%)
Later Adopters (50%)
- Late adoption majority (34%)
- Resistors/Laggards (16%)

9. Speed of adoption Assumes normal distribution Historical trend
Number of users
2.5% Self-starters,
no incentives needed
2.5% Resistors
(incurable)

10. Counter-Adoption Methods
1) System is “not-Invented here” ( “system developers don’t really
understand our needs” even though the system may be good)
2) System is “hard to use” (Ease of Use is the key cause to system
adoption in Technology Acceptance Model, but here a
system’s difficulty is amplified, used an excuse for rejection)

11. Counter-Adoption Methods
3) Money is tight (decision makers cut funds for software, hardware, labor to block system development, arguing that there are priority needs)
4) Withholding resources needed for adoption (blocking system by limiting other than $ - time for new system learning, training for system upgrades, office space, incentives)

12. Managing Counter-Adoption
Taking leadership via several methods:
Involve end-users in system development
Promote change agents (get managers aboard, give incentives,
train users motivated to educate others)
Educate end-users and managers on benefits from the system.
Note that each group may have different benefits.
Deal proactively with costs:
End-users (learning new skills; loss of old skills)
Managers (e.g., power loss issues)
Organizational costs (manage time, plan temporary
efficiency loss, manage moral)