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ABSTRACTPrevious literature has treated software functionalities as a binary choice between informating and automating, based on Zuboff’s definitions. We suggest that the space between the role of a user engaging with a system (informate) and what the system can accomplish for the user (automate) has increasingly become blurred, moving toward a more nuanced continuum. We present a user-system interaction framework that analyzes this continuum with a focus on the user’s perspective. Using cases from archival data, this paper provides an analysis of what goes well and badly in the locus of control handoff between users and systems, highlighting the implications of software that is created in one region but used globally. The paper contributes to the literature by extending Zuboff’s informate vs. automate discussion and identifying design decisions that could help to avoid potentially catastrophic design errors. Using the interaction framework, we argue that it would be beneficial for system designers to move toward the informate end of the continuum, when designing systems for users with a high level of domain knowledge and expertise, and when there are significant differences between the environment in which the system is designed and the one in which the system is used. more...

When an organization mindfully adopts an IT innovation there is a better chance that the innovation will meet the organization’s requirements (Swanson et al., 2004; Butler et al., 2006). Agile development principles (such as valuing individuals and interactions over processes and tools, and responding to change over following a plan) and practices (such as communicating frequently with users, and developing and releasing functionalities in short iterations) have the potential to increase organizational mindfulness during the development and adoption of an IT innovation. Action research in an organizational setting was used to study 1) the application of agile development principles and practices in developing an IT innovation and 2) whether the application of agile principles and practices could enable the organization to mindfully adopt that innovation. The lessons learned from the action research project are discussed using specific examples. more...