Having outlined our conception of actions, we now turn to what makes an action ‘routine’, relating routinisation of actions to increased efficiency and effectiveness. We start by defining what we mean by efficiency and effectiveness of actions.
A common measure of efficiency is the minimisation of the expenditure of resources to achieve specified goals (Agerfalk and Eriksson, 2006). Bevan (1995) identifies three dimensions of efficiency. Although Bevan’s work is about developing a measure for software quality, these dimensions are equally applicable to the characterisation of the efficiency of a system of actions. They are, firstly, temporal efficiency, or the minimisation of the expenditure of time; secondly, human efficiency, or the minimisation of mental or physical effort; and thirdly, economic efficiency, or the minimisation of financial cost.
One can measure the efficiency of the following three aspects of actions:
What action is done?
How is the action done?
When is the action done?
Note that because each action is itself comprised of lower order actions, the answer to the question ‘How is the action done?’ gives answers to the question ‘What action is done?’ lower down the action abstraction hierarchy. For example, for the action ‘Communicate account number’, the answer to the question ‘How is the action done?’ may be ‘Look up record and read out number over the phone’. This description of how, ‘Read out number over the phone’, is the answer to ‘What action is done?’ further down the action abstraction hierarchy.
A standard measure of the effectiveness of something is whether or not it leads to achievement of the intended goals. Two aspects of effectiveness mentioned in the international standard ISO 9241-11 are completeness and accuracy (Agerfalk and Eriksson, 2006).
In the chemotherapy example four goals were identified, including administering chemotherapy and providing a high standard of patient care. High quality patient care included answering patient queries, and liaising with other health professionals involved in the patient’s care, such as the dietician and social worker. Hence, in the chemotherapy example, completeness requires, not only that chemotherapy is efficiently administered, but also that nurses have time to attend to patients’ other needs Accuracy entails correctly administering the correct dosage of the correct treatment to the right patient.
In order to act, an actor needs to select what to do next, how to do it, and when to do it. Another way of saying this is that in order to perform an action, an actor needs to know that action is feasible in the world (i.e. that they have the authority and skills to perform that action at the time, in the space, and with the resources at hand). The actor also needs to know that the action is possible now (i.e. that the action dependencies have been satisfied).
Routine action is characterised by the removal of discretion in the conduct of an action in one or more of the following aspects: what action is done, when the action is done and how the action is done. This is, however, removal of discretion at a meaningful grain size rather than the complete removal of discretion. Given a small enough grain size, there will always be some discretion in what, when and how an actor does something. For example, even if a doctor has to physically sign a chemotherapy order in order to authorise it, he or she has discretion over what sort of pen is used, how the pen is held, the exact form of the signature, and so on.
In later examples, we show how routinising action can improve the effectiveness and efficiency (economic, human and/or temporal) of action. Although temporal and human efficiency are related to economic efficiency, since time and people cost money, they are important aspects in their own right. Economic efficiency has always been an important driver of conventional information system design, and the importance of temporal efficiency is starting to be recognised (e.g. in JIT systems). However, the importance of human efficiency is often overlooked in conventional information systems. In situated analysis and design, we give explicit recognition to the cost of wasted human effort, including the human cost of unnecessary actions such as searching for information or resources.
Temporal efficiency is required for effectiveness in time-constrained environments; for example, a ward that has to administer chemotherapy to all patients during operating hours. Effectiveness is also increased by structuring the organisational and physical environment to limit the possibility for human error; that is, to avoid incorrect (and, in this case, possibly dangerous) actions.