Information Technology Reference
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mechanisms as training and clear definition of
roles and responsibilities.
Those who had and those who had not previ-
ously developed Web pages were compared with
respect to their perceptions of the importance
of the approaches to reducing the risks of Web
development. As with perceptions of risks, those
who had previously developed Web pages tended
to rate the importance of the approaches lower
than did the end users who had not, although
the differences were only significant for two ap-
proaches: standards for purchases of hardware
and software activities (t(52) = 2.80, p = 0.007),
and scope of Web-related activities (t(52) = 2.22,
p = 0.031).
Web development is becoming popular amongst
end users both as part of work responsibilities and
in pursuing personal interests. This popularity
is likely to increase. Yet, consistent with other
kinds of end-user development, end users receive
little formal training to prepare them for it. The
end users surveyed recognised the importance
of training and considered it to be the most im-
portant strategy for reducing the risks associated
with end-user development of Web applications.
This finding was not however mirrored in the
Nelson and Todd (1999) study. The information
technology staff in that study considered training
to be one of the less important strategies. Given
the potential impacts of end-user developed Web
applications, organizations increase the risks by
not adequately preparing end users.
The end users surveyed showed a good aware-
ness of the risks of end-user Web development.
All potential risks of Web development were rated
fairly highly with averages above the midpoint of
the scale, which implies a good awareness of the
problems that can plague end-user development.
It is reassuring that end users do not discount the
main end user web
development issues
The study reported on in this chapter explored
the nature of the emerging area of end-user Web
development. A range of areas were investigated
and Table 9 below summarises some of the main
issues that emerged. The study highlighted that
Table 9. Summary of main issues
Issue
The study found …
Over half of the spreadsheet developers surveyed also
develop Web pages.
Extent of Web development
40% of end users who had developed Web pages had
received no formal training.
End users receive little formal training
End users consider training to be the most important
strategy for reducing the risks of end-user Web
development
The average importance rating for training was 4.39 (out
of 5).
All potential risks of Web development had averages
above the midpoint of the scale (i.e., were considered
important).
End users have a good awareness of the risks of end-
user Web development
End users recognise the need for complementary
approaches to risk reduction
All strategies for risk reduction had averages above the
midpoint of the scale (i.e., were considered important).
Web development was rated very highly for improving
accessibility of information, but significantly less
important than spreadsheets for improving decision
making effectiveness.
End users appear to be becoming more sophisticated
in matching tools to applications.
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