The Organization of End User Development in an Accounting Company - End User Computing Challenges and Technologies: Emerging Tools and Applications - page 120

tivities and collected data by interviewing regular
users, super users, and the application coordina-
tor. In the analysis, we identified the importance
of the professional language of accounting as a
boundary object, as well as the VB application as
a mediating artifact . The primary result of these
activities is a tailored set of VB solutions. These
local solutions are created with the help of super
users and the application coordinator in collabora-
tion, and professional developers are sometimes
involved, but it is the regular users (accountants)
who identify the need for the solutions. This is a
bottom-up process of problem identification and
problem solving, and a top-down process of spread
of innovation (globalization), making generally
useful local adaptations available throughout the
Company. These processes span multiple activity
systems (clients, regular users, super users, ap-
plication coordinator, professional developers).
By taking a sociocultural approach (Wertsch,
1998), we have focused on the overall organization
of EUD activity, and by applying basic concepts
from activity theory (Engeström, 1987) (objects,
mediating artifacts, communities, division of la-
bor, multiple activity systems, rules), we are able
to explain a set of inter-related phenomenon. The
object of activity is the not-quite-ready generic
application Visma Business, which is transformed
into a user-oriented application supporting ac-
countants in their interactions with clients and
with the domain knowledge held by the experi-
enced accountants (here VB serves as mediating
artifact). The regular users, the super users, and
the application coordinator are the community
that shares these objects, occasionally joined by
one or more professional developers. There is a
certain division of labor within the community:
(1) between the regular users and the super users,
(2) between the super users and the application
coordinator, and (3) between the application co-
ordinator and the professional developers. There
is also a set of rules, defined by tax laws and
contractual agreements between the Company and
the super users, or implicit by a general working

culture established in the Company as the users
work together. The “business logic” programmed
in VB components also provides rules at a more
detailed level. In the application transformation
process from problem identification to ICT solu-
tion, the professional language of the domain
(accounting) and the application system language
(e.g., application modules, tailoring tools, and
business logic) interact. Various tools mediate
this, VB, and the already established (physical
and conceptual) tools used in the company.
Our main findings from the analysis are three
criteria we believe important for an organization
desiring the successful implementation of a com-
plex computer application:

• Institutionalization of super user initiative:

EUD became institutionalized in the Com-
pany with the strategic decision to involve
super users in the implementation process.
This was in response to the complexity of a
large and multipurpose application system
(VB). The role of super users was established
through a contract, which guaranteed that the
super users had time to perform the activities
the role required.
Two-way grounding: The Company chose
to have a distributed network of super users
located at all of its offices (1 super user for
every 10 accountants). The grounding was
accomplished in two ways: (1) geographical
distribution of super users and (2) utilization
of super users with a background in the same
profession as the regular users.
Local developer as coordinator: The Com-
pany chose to have one person holding the
position as an application coordinator. This
person's responsibility is primarily to perform
EUD activities at a general level and work
closely with some of the more experienced
super users in the offices as well as commu-
nicating with the professional developers.
This person generalizes the results of useful
EUD activities and makes local solutions

•

•