Procuring usable systems

Organisational goals and usability are assumed, but seldom explicitly stated, when procuring computer systems. The project explores the procurement process from a usability and organisational standpoint in order to develop understanding and models for good procurement practices. Apart from running over time as well as budget, it is common knowledge that large amounts of unplanned development activities are consequences of neglected usability issues early in projects. Developing procurement competence must deal with those issues. So far research has focused on different forms of user involvement and usability assessments, all from the producer's perspective.

The goal is to produce a practical and theoretically grounded procurement model, which take the procurer perspective and is based on the users' needs and actual system use. The project is studying procurement and systems design - for the best of both worlds. The studies are expected to contribute knowledge and experience from industrial cases and field experimentation, which will help procurers demand and formulate user centred processes. The project is carried out together with Linköping University and KTH and a number of companies and public-sector organization with funding from Vinnova.