Why "users" is a dirty word
I want to ban the word "users" from our (that is, the IT industry's) vocabulary - in the same way that others want a
moratorium on the use of the word "consumer" in the context of ISP connectivity. In time, I'd like to see it disappear from the vocabularies of organisations' IT departments, too. Why? Well, it seems that a lot of people are spending a lot of time thinking and talking about "IT-business alignment" (we're among those who think the most about it, I would hope). But how many of us can be really serious about helping close the gap between business and IT, while we still deliver technology solutions to, and seek the "acceptance" of, "users"?
Let me take a step back.
The idea that language shapes behaviour is hardly new - just take a squint at "
linguistic determinism". It has long been argued that the language we use, shapes the thoughts that we tend to think (unsurprisingly, the same is also thought to be true of programming languages). I'm a firm believer in this idea - and in my book, that means that there are two big things that are wrong with (particularly casual or lazy) use of the word "users".
Firstly, referring to "users" reinforces the idea that a tool is created by IT, and then it is turned over to a group of individuals who use it. This reinforces the idea that the IT organisation is a provider of tools. If we're trying to align IT with the business, this is wrong. The IT organisation needs to be thought of as a service provider, working in collaboration with the business to maximise the utility and value of all the amazing technology and skill that exists.
Secondly, increasingly it's becoming apparent that the real value of IT within a business context has got very little to do with the specific relationships that individuals have with a particular piece of technology. Rather, the value comes from the way that technology can provide structured support for a business activity or process, in which individual businesspeople are actors playing roles. So focusing on individual "users" can make people miss the point.
On top of this, through interest in web services and SOA, increasingly the consumers of technology services aren't just individual people. Increasingly, software systems have to interact with other systems in order to support business processes - as well as interacting with businesspeople.
So: don't ask whether "the users" "accept" a system that's been delivered. Ask if the system delivers value to the business. And next time you hear someone (or hear yourself) saying "the users just don't understand
[insert your favourite IT project or issue here]" - replace "users" in your mind with "the business". Or even replace the word with "the entity that generates the revenue to pay my salary". And then think again.
