Now that Summer 2007 is finally here, it is time to step back for a couple weeks and spend less time in front of the computer. As I mentioned earlier, I'm going to use some of this time to publish online a professional report I did on IT user support. This report was submitted a couple years ago as a requirement for a Master of Science in Administrative Studies with an Information Systems track. You'll get bits and pieces of it in the following weeks and once I'm done, I'll regroup them similar to the research paper I posted earlier this year.
The report is titled, "Analysis and Recommendations for Information Technology User Support Provided to a Government Field Office". I'll be putting out the first part of the report later this week into next week. The following is the abstract for the professional report.
Information technology users in government field offices require a user support program that addresses their needs for successful completion of job duties. Providing the necessary user support is a challenge for office management and the information technology staff. An assessment is made on the intended goals of the user support program for providing information system maintenance and documentation to the user of a selected government field office. A comparison is then made between the physical processes involved within the "ideal" information systems for user support with current information systems utilized by the organization. Based on the evaluation of the performance of the current information systems, recommendations for improving the information technology user support program at the government field office are presented.
For some of you, this paper is going to be very dry and bore you to tears. Adding to the misery is the fact that I'm going to be filtering out some some of the content to provide anonymity for my employer and quite frankly to keep my job secure. However, I'm also hoping others will be able to move beyond the distractions and enjoy reading the paper. Providing the proper support needed by the IT user is probably the most difficult yet most important job those of us in IT have. In the report, I've tried to look at IT user support as an information system in itself and by doing so, some innovative solutions can be found for our users, customers, and clients. It is my hope that the paper will help move your own program in IT user support toward the right direction.