Vacation Exchange Management

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Tobias Tensmyr

Vacation Exchange Management

Investigating the Vacation Exchange Process at

Karlstad Municipality Through Document Analysis,

Interviews, and Task Analysis to Elicit System

Requirements

Information Systems

Bachelor Thesis

Term: Spring 2020

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Abstract

The study aims to investigate the current process for vacation exchange at Karlstad municipality to elicit system requirements for a future system. The investigation includes creating an under-standing of the vacation exchange process, the roles involved, and their tasks performed in the process. Further, the limitations, the information used, and the decisions made in the vacation exchange process were also a part of the investigation.

The investigation of the vacation exchange process is performed by analyzing an internal doc-ument from Karlstad municipality and interviews conducted with the three roles involved in the process. The interviews are transcribed, summarized, and modeled by process models using 2c8 Modeling Tool to explain the vacation exchange process, inputs, and outputs, and the tasks each role performs.

The findings showed three specific categories in the vacation exchange process that should be improved when a future system is designed and developed to support the process. The three found categories were: lack of information, information flow, and distribution of responsibili-ties.

In conclusion, the future system should have a function to notify the roles involved. Information used in the vacation exchange process should be gathered and easily accessible in the future system. Further, the future system should support communication between the roles involved in the vacation exchange process, as well as include functions for back-up, digital sending of documents, and facilitate rarely performed tasks. Lastly, the future system should define the responsibilities for each role to balance the tasks each role performs in the process.

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Preface

The thesis includes an external document with appendices that are referred to throughout the thesis. All appendices, except Appendix G, are in Swedish. The external document consists of the following appendices:

 Appendix D: Interview Questions for the Applicant

 Appendix E: Interview Questions for the Department Manager  Appendix F: Interview Questions for the Payroll Administrator  Appendix G: Follow-Up Questions E-Mail

 Appendix H: Transcription: Applicant

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Glossary of Terms

Vacation Exchange is an employment benefit at Karlstad municipality to exchange vacation pay for additional vacation days with pay.

Vacation Exchange Process is the name of the process at Karlstad municipality regarding the vacation exchange.

Vacation Exchange Paper Form is the format of the vacation exchange form when it has been printed into a paper form from the intranet.

Vacation Exchange Application is the format of the vacation exchange form when it has been printed to a paper form and filled in by the applicant.

Vacation Exchange Criteria are the criteria that have to be met by applicants to be eligible for vacation exchange.

Heroma is the personnel administrative system currently used by Karlstad municipality. Solsidan is the name of the intranet that is used by Karlstad municipality.

The Applicant is the role involved in the vacation exchange process who performs the process of submitting an application.

The Department Manager is the role involved in the vacation exchange process who performs the approval or rejection of a submitted application.

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1 Introduction

Technology has a significant role when it comes to society at large. Not only individuals but also businesses are impacted. Regardless of whether the technology has evolved, and created a path that many can follow, there are still some businesses that have not fully incorporated tech-nology into their business processes. For example, there may be businesses that have multiple processes that have not yet been digitized and therefore are performed manually.

Karlstad municipality still performs some of its processes manually, e.g., the submission and forwarding of documents between administrations are carried out manually. Processes that are manually performed can be improved with today’s technology. However, before reengineering a process by including technology, a further investigation of the current process is necessary. The process for vacation exchange at Karlstad municipality includes three different roles. The roles can be categorized from the tasks they perform in the vacation exchange process. Firstly, an employee who wants to apply for a vacation exchange, therefore, has the role of the appli-cant. Secondly, the department manager either approves or rejects the vacation exchange ap-plication submitted by the applicant. Lastly, the payroll administrator registers the received vacation exchange application from the department manager in the personnel administrative system Heroma.

An implementation of a future system that supports the vacation exchange process could affect the three roles involved positively and the organization as a whole.

1.1 Problem Background

The origin of this study is Karlstad municipality’s interest in creating and implementing a standalone e-service integrated with the personnel administrative system Heroma for vacation exchange.

Karlstad municipality is currently investigating a solution to digitizing the manual handling of physical paper forms. Primarily, it is department managers and payroll administrators who look positively at the digitizing of the vacation exchange process. The solution of an e-service inte-grated with Heroma could create easier handling of the paper forms.

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consulting in the future rather than administrative work i.e., manually performed tasks in the process.

The interest in investigating a possible e-service was because up until 2013, before Karlstad municipality implemented Heroma as a personnel administrative system, all documents were manually administrated by the payroll administrator. For instance, forwarding of all documents required the documents to be manually delivered in person or by internal post.

Continuing in 2013, with Heroma implemented, Karlstad municipality wanted to reduce manual handling and introduced a “self-service” feature. The self-service feature made it possible for the employees to enter and report data to the system themselves, thus removing the manual process of, e.g., filling in a form. However, it has been problematic to introduce this due to different factors, such as getting users involved. The paper forms do still exist and continue to require manual processing; the vacation exchange paper form is one of these manually pro-cessed paper forms still in use at Karlstad municipality.

Parallel to this study, another bachelor thesis study in the field of computer science at Karlstad University regarding the vacation exchange process at Karlstad municipality was carried out. 1.2 Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the vacation exchange process at Karlstad munici-pality and identify requirements for a future system. The investigation is conducted through an analysis of the current vacation exchange process at Karlstad municipality, including the roles, their tasks performed, and the decisions made.

1.3 Target Group

The target group of this thesis is the designers of information systems and fellow academics interested in the analysis and process modeling of internal processes.

1.4 Research Questions

The following three questions are the research questions that the present study tries to answer. Each research question is referred to as “RQ” and a number to keep them separated. After each question, there is an explanation of what it aims to answer.

RQ1: What is the vacation exchange process at Karlstad municipality?

RQ1 aims to gain a complete understanding of the vacation exchange process by investigating the information needed and decisions made in the process. It is also essential to understand the limitations of the process, i.e., where the vacation exchange process begins and ends.

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RQ2 addresses the roles involved in the vacation exchange process. It is crucial to understand the roles involved, as well as the tasks performed by each role.

RQ3: What are the current problems within the vacation exchange process at Karlstad mu-nicipality that could be improved when designing and developing a future system?

RQ3 is connected to RQ1 and RQ2. When the vacation exchange process at Karlstad munici-pality has been investigated according to RQ1 and RQ2 it will be possible to identify areas where problems might occur. Problems may impact how the future system should be designed and developed to support the process. Based on the found problem areas, recommendations for the future system can be identified.

1.5 Data Collection Method

This study uses a qualitative research approach. Primary data is gathered through document analysis and interviews. Primary data refers to data that is from, e.g., interviews or unpublished documents, and secondary data refers to any gathered data that has already been published, e.g., general information on websites. Primary data brings value since it is unique for a particular research project (Myers, 2020, p. 147). No secondary data was used in this study since the study focuses on an internal process, and data that are needed to answer the research questions are not available to the public.

Data gathered from the document analysis is used to understand the vacation exchange process, the decisions made in the process, and where the vacation exchange process begins and ends. Interviews are used to complement the document analysis, the interviews may reveal undocu-mented parts of the process and possible problems that occur. Interviews are also used to gather information about the roles and their performed tasks in the vacation exchange process. The methods used for data collection are explained in detail in section 3 Design of the Study. 1.6 Selection of Literature and Scientific Articles

This study has gathered literature using the databases available through Karlstad University’s library, i.e., ACM Digital Library and IEEE Xplore. Further, Google Scholar and printed liter-ature have been used.

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4 1.7 Outline of the Thesis

Chapter 2 gives the reader a necessary background of the theoretical points and introduces a previous study in the field.

Chapter 3 explains the data collection and analysis method used in the study. Thereafter, relia-bility, validity, and ethical considerations are presented. Further, the limitations of the study, and how the interviews and process modeling were conducted. Lastly the chapter discusses the methods used.

Chapter 4 presents the findings of the study. The findings include the document analysis, inter-view summaries, and lastly two process models for each role based on the findings.

Chapter 5 interprets the findings in relation to the theoretical points in the analysis.

Chapter 6 summarizes and discusses the fulfillment of the three research questions of the study. Chapter 7 compiles the conclusions of the study and ends with a list of recommendations for the future system from the three categories presented in the analysis.

The references used in this study, and the appendices referred to regarding the orientation script, information letter, and consent form, are lastly presented. Appendices that are referred to, but not included in the thesis, can be found in a separate external document. All appendices, except Appendix G, are in Swedish. The external document consists of the following appendices:

 Appendix D: Interview Questions for the Applicant

 Appendix E: Interview Questions for the Department Manager  Appendix F: Interview Questions for the Payroll Administrator  Appendix G: Follow-Up Questions E-Mail

 Appendix H: Transcription: Applicant

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2 Theoretical Starting Points

In this chapter, the theory about the definition of a process, business process management, and three different degrees in a process are explained. Further, task analysis is defined together with included factors, the efficiency and effectiveness of use, and when task analysis can be used. Thereafter, organizations and systems, and usable systems are introduced. Lastly, a previously conducted study by Smart Cities regarding improving business processes and delivering better e-services is presented.

2.1 The Definition of a Process

The term “process” is used in a variety of contexts, and even though the confusion around its definition has been reduced, there are still misunderstanding and uncertainty through its wide-spread use (Ljungberg & Larsson, 2012, p. 59). Ljungberg and Larsson (2012, p. 60) express that a process is usually described as “a chain of activities”, and this is one of the most common everyday descriptions.

In continuation, three different definitions of a process are elucidated by the previously men-tioned authors. The definitions will likely mean a substantially different focus for an organiza-tion’s process work and will produce completely different results (Ljungberg & Larsson, 2012, p. 60). The three different definitions (translated from Swedish to English) presented are:

1. A process is a collection of linked activities that transforms inputs to create outputs. 2. A process is a chain of activities that in a recurring flow creates value for a customer. 3. A process is a repetitively used network of sequentially linked activities that uses infor-mation and resources to create the value based on a given need to satisfy that need.

Ljungberg and Larsson (2012, p. 61) say that the first definition is simple and attracts the tech-nician, or the mechanic, because of the lack of understanding of the organization as a social system. The concepts of input-transform-output are describing the process and are, therefore, reduced to a machine that performs a specific output with some input (Ljungberg & Larsson, 2012, p. 61). Lastly, Ljungberg and Larsson (2012, p. 61) say that the definition assumes that the closed system is in full control and can easily be analyzed and affected if there is any cause or effect.

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be related to both another process or be a part of a network of multiple complex processes. Further, the activities in a process could, in different ways, be connected in a network rather than a sequence chain (Ljungberg & Larsson, 2012, p. 61). A strict sequence description of a process works as a model to explain, or as an introduction, but will be dangerous if it is to guide the business development (Ljungberg & Larsson, 2012, p. 61). It is no coincidence that organ-izations often tend to focus on the concrete and straightforward processes that are easy to work with, but having a sequential approach contributes to a deceptive and misleading simplicity (Ljungberg & Larsson, 2012, p. 62). Doing this prevents the business from working with pro-cesses that perhaps are more abstract but more decisive.

The third definition is a complete description of what a process is, what it includes as well as how it refers to the surrounding business environment (Ljungberg and Larsson (2012, p. 62). Firstly, the sequential approach is replaced with a network approach, which relates more to the surrounding business environment. Secondly, the process is delimited. The process has a dis-tinct beginning and a definite end based on the customer’s needs and satisfaction. Lastly, the definition highlights the necessity of information and resources for the process to create value. Ljungberg and Larsson (2012, p. 62) express that a process is vacuous, meaning that it does not include human or other resources. When these are added, it can create value, or any other trans-formation can occur. A process requires intrans-formation exchange to function effectively (Ljung-berg & Larsson, 2012, p. 62).

Ljungberg and Larsson (2012, p. 63) say that through descriptions of processes, it becomes easier to not only understand how the various parts of the organization work together but also how they collectively create value for customers. Processes aim to satisfy customer needs, and customers can both be internal or external, but without any customer, the process lacks eligi-bility (Ljungberg & Larsson, 2012, p. 62). A process begins with an identified customer need and ends with that need being satisfied, making the customer pleased. The identification of the need triggers a number of activities, which together contribute to the need being satisfied. A distinctive feature of a process is the fact that it can be used over and over again, and the repeatability means that an in-depth analysis of the process becomes meaningful because even small improvements can give rise to great results (Ljungberg and Larsson, 2012, p. 63). When mapping a process, the process is made visible as a structure, or path. There is no requirement of any select type of process, customer, or need. Regardless of the process, the principle is the same (Ljungberg and Larsson, 2012, p. 64).

2.2 Business Process Management

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Weske (2010, p. 4) points out that both information technology in general, and information systems more specifically, are two critical roles in business process management since activities within a company often have support from information systems. Business process activities can be performed by either the company’s employees manually or by the help of information sys-tems without any human involvement (Weske, 2010, p. 4).

Further, in many companies, there is a gap between the organizational business aspects and the information technology that is currently used (Weske, 2010, p. 4). Narrowing this gap between organization and technology is, therefore, an essential part since a company can reach efficiency and effectiveness in their business goals if people and other enterprise resources, e.g., infor-mation systems, play together well (Weske, 2010, p. 4). Even though, while at an organizational level, the understanding of business processes is fundamental, such as to understand how com-panies operate, business processes have an essential role in both design and realization of flex-ible information systems (Weske, 2010, p. 4).

2.3 Three Different Degrees in Processes

Weske (2010, pp. 19-21) presents three different degrees of a business process. These will be forwarded in the following three subsections separately, and the three different degrees are au-tomation, repetition, and structuring.

2.3.1 Degree of Automation

Business processes and automation can diverge. For example, there are business processes that are fully automated and do not need any human involvement at all. In other words, buying an online ticket is manually performed by a person through a Web interface. On the other hand, the process is considered fully automated with no human involvement on the system side. There are, however, business processes that require manual activities, as well as they include auto-mated activities. It could be that a person enters data manually to a system, and the system automatically stores the data.

2.3.2 Degree of Repetition

Business processes can be classified by their degree of repetition, e.g., highly repetitive, fre-quently, etc., depending on if there is human involvement or not. Automated tickets are highly repetitive, and insurance claim processing with human involvement occurs frequently. Weske (2010, pp. 19-20) says that if a business process is highly repetitive, then investments in both modeling and supporting the automatic enactment of these processes pay off. The pay off is created from the number of process instances, which then can benefit from the investments (Weske, 2010, p. 20).

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However, most of the time, the business processes that have a low degree of repetition are not automated as well as they have a collaborative character. When process modeling a collabora-tive business process, the goal is to trace what has been done, and which casual relationships that have occurred between the project tasks (Weske, 2010, p. 20). Therefore, the implementa-tion of an automatic soluimplementa-tion is not needed, and this further lowers the cost (Weske, 2010, p. 20).

2.3.3 Degree of Structuring

A structured process means that its activities and how they should be performed, and in which specific order, is described in detail (Weske, 2010, p. 20). When the process involves the par-ticipation of knowledge workers and structured processes, Weske (2010, p. 20) says that a struc-tured process is seen as a hindrance rather than a benefit. If a user interface accepts the knowledge worker and sees the knowledge worker as an essential source to both improve and control the process, then it will contribute with more user acceptance (Weske, 2010, p. 19). If the participant performing their activity within the process is experienced and can themselves decide how, and in which order, an activity should be performed, a structured process will force the knowledge worker to perform all activities in a specific order within the process, even if they are deemed unnecessary. A possible solution to this is ad hoc activities, which, when in-cluded in a process, provide knowledge workers the opportunity to execute, and achieve the goal of the activity, in the order they decide is most suitable. Weske emphasizes that ad hoc activities are essential in “supporting unstructured parts of processes” (2010, pp. 20-21). 2.4 Task Analysis

This section will enlighten the reader with the definition of task analysis and what it includes. Later, the reader will be introduced to factors in task analysis, the use of task analysis, and when task analysis could be used.

2.4.1 What is Task Analysis?

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9 2.4.2 Factors in Task Analysis

Task analysis, according to Benyon (2014, p. 239), is the study of the performance of a “work system” in an application domain where the interaction between people and technology, in an application domain, is performed to accomplish a change. Application domain, or only “do-main”, is an abstraction of the real world, such as a website or a database (Benyon, 2014, p. 239). Performance may refer to, i.e., reaching a certain level of competence within a system (Benyon, 2014, p. 239).

Furthermore, different factors that one should include during a task analysis are the following: tasks and their actions, agent, technology, and goals. Benyon expresses the following definition of a task: “A task is a structured set of activities required, used, or believed to be necessary by an agent to achieve a goal using a particular technology” (2014, p. 240). Benyon (2014, p. 240) describes goals as a state that the work system wishes to achieve of the application domain, and the definition of goals allows for artificial entities (technologies or agents, etc.) to have goals. For example, a goal could be an organizational goal of a company, behavior of system software, or an agent trying to achieve a goal such as writing a letter (Benyon, 2014, p. 240). The defini-tion of an agent is, therefore, both people and software that are trying to achieve a state of the application domain, and technology is used as terminology for physical devices, information artifacts or software systems, etc. (Benyon, 2014, p. 240). The main interest is to achieve the goal, which could be completed in different ways, and the state in the application domain has to be changed to do so; from one state to the required state (Benyon, 2014, p. 240). Benyon reports that regarding goals, tasks, and actions, the analyst needs to consider two different as-pects. The first aspect is the goal-task mapping, wherein it is essential to know what to do to achieve some goal, and the second aspect wherein it is important to know that you can do some-thing in the first place by considering the goal formation stage (Benyon, 2014, p. 241).

Task analysis can be divided into two different methods. Firstly, methods where the logic of tasks are the focus, such as the sequence of steps by a work system to achieve a goal. Secondly, methods with a focus on cognitive aspects (Benyon, 2014, p. 241).

2.4.3 The Use of Task Analysis

The use of task analysis and its’ different approaches could lead to a more efficient and effective integration of the human element into system design and operators (Kirwan & Ainsworth, 2005, pp. 1-2). It can be argued by, i.e., engineers, that the human element is included in the system design. However, even though this is true in most cases, it is unlikely that the human element will be optimized, and potential errors will be minimized. Therefore, the usage of task analysis is essential (Kirwan & Ainsworth, 2005, p. 1).

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through good design for human operation. Productivity in terms of that task analysis can help to make decisions where to automate processes, or how to determine staffing requirements. It can also help to ensure how to train staff and ensure efficiency, and the identification of poten-tial errors will also enhance efficiency. Person specifications in such a way that definitions of personnel’s characteristics and capability requirements come up and those are needed to help them to carry out the task effectively. Staff and job organization are used to find the number of staff required, which team members are in the organization, and further communication require-ments as well as the allocation of responsibility.

2.4.4 When Task Analysis Can be Used

Kirwan and Ainsworth (2005, p. 3) say that task analysis can be used in three different ways, and those are when designing a system, evaluating a system design, or if a human-machine system performance problem has been targeted to be analyzed and resolved.

Task analysis is an integral part of system development; however, it is undertaken at different times for different purposes (Benyon, 2014, p. 243). Benyon (2014, p. 243) says that one thing people agree upon with task analysis is that the result will be a task model, and these models can take very different forms.

Paternò and Alfieri describe task models as ”logical descriptions of the activities to be per-formed in reaching the user’s goals” (2001, p. 1). An important aspect of the task model is that it should include all the main activities which are needed to perform an activity and reach the desired goal, and this from all the different ways possible to accomplish the goal. Even though there are many tools available for a designer to build rapidly, e.g., user interfaces, it is still challenging to design interactive applications. One problem is to identify interaction and presentation techniques, which is more effective in supporting the possible tasks. Further, an-other problem is that end-users find their interfaces difficult to understand and to use to achieve their goals (Paternò & Alfieri, 2001, p. 1). Paternò and Alfieri (2001, p. 1) bring up a possible fact to this; that the end-users in most cases do not understand, e.g., how their tasks are sup-ported, or how they should associate the desired logical actions with physical actions to achieve their goal by using the user interface. Furthermore, this problem could be solved or assisted if the designer had (and used) models, methods, and tools to represent task models. These ways of representing task models could then contribute implications of the most effective interaction and presentation techniques, which would support the end user’s activities in the best possible way (Paternò & Alfieri, 2001, p. 1).

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Later, when task analysis has been used, and a task model is in place, Paternò and Alfieri (2001, p. 2) bring up different purposes where task models can be useful. For example, to understand an application domain. An application domain requires precise identification of its main activ-ities and their relationship, and by achieving this, it may help to clarify issues that from the beginning were not visible. Further, a task model could help to design new applications con-sistent with the user conceptual model. Even though it is a very important part, the conceptual model is often overlooked while developing an interactive system. A conceptual model that is well designed will help people to develop an accurate mental model of the system because the conceptual model shows the main objects, their attributes, and the relationships between them in a system (Benyon, 2014, p. 68). This would help since the lack of structured methods often is designed completely based on ad-hoc, according to Paternò and Alfieri (2001, p. 2). There-fore, if an application was designed following a task-based approach, the application would be useable as well as the user requirements captured in the task model would be implemented. 2.5 Organizations and Systems

Beynon-Davies (2013, p. 40) express the importance of effective information systems within modern organizations. In contrast, modern organizations are referred to as systems of activity, and that they would collapse without IS. Further, Beynon-Davies introduces the term “system-ics” and defines it as “[t]he study of the general properties and behaviour of all systems” (2013, p. 40). Systemics is a term that is synonymous with "systems theory", or "systems thinking", and it is a discipline devoted to the study of the general nature of systems (Beynon-Davies, 2013, p. 41). Systemics has been applied to two different types of systems, both hard and soft systems. Hard systems refer to systems with a physical or technical sense, such as ICT systems (Beynon-Davies, 2013, p. 42). Soft systems refer to systems that are social in nature, which most human systems are, such as organizations (Beynon-Davies, 2013, p. 42).

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not belong to any of its constituent parts, but emerge from the relationships or interaction of its constituent parts” (2013, p. 41).

Systems, such as organizations, have activities within a boundary. Those activities have a pur-pose, and it is achieved from the coordination of activities of a multitude of different actors (Beynon-Davies, 2013, p. 42). Beynon-Davies (2013, p. 41) refers to an "actor" as an entity that can act, such as humans, animals, and machines. The use of the term actor, therefore, replaces the term "person". Beynon-Davies (2013, p. 42) introduces the Greek origin of the term “sys-tem”, and in very broad terms, the definition refers to a set of objects that create a collection. This is from a static point of view, and from a dynamic point of view, objects in a system potentially influence each other (Beynon-Davies, 2013, p. 42).

From the continuous broad and general aspect of the definition of a system, Beynon-Davies (2013, p. 42) introduces the term “open systems” which generally is represented by certain types of objects and relationships. Open systems can be portrayed through an input-process-output entity within a specific environment (Beynon-Davies, 2013, p. 42). Further, open sys-tems can be represented through the following elements: one or many operational processes (to achieve the purpose defined), sets of inputs and outputs to actors in the environment, and lastly one or many control processes (to maintain operational processes in the desired direction) (Beynon-Davies, 2013, p. 42). Inputs and outputs are referred to as the resources a system gains from actors in the specific environment, and then supplied back to actors in the environment (Beynon-Davies, 2013, p. 42). The previous explanation can be understood in a simple way, however open systems such as organizations (that are open systems because they interact with actors in an environment) can be complex systems as well. They are complex because they need to adapt to changes in their environment (Beynon-Davies, 2013, p. 43).

Organizations as systems, together with a systemic approach, are interested in understanding the process of organizing, and the entity of the organization (Beynon-Davies, 2013, p. 51). An organization is like a river, whereas the entity of an organization arises from the process of organizing, and therefore is in a continual state of flux (Beynon-Davies, 2013, p. 51). It can be seen as actions within an organization recreate it, and actions are, therefore, the motor of this organizational change. For example, organizations are typically structured from the perspective that actors perform the processes by the defined structure depending on their roles. By perform-ing their processes, actors recreate the organization. Even though the structures are defined and followed, technological innovation can cause organizations to reassess their way of doing things to change, or adapt, the organization to remain viable in times of environmental disturbance (Beynon-Davies, 2013, p. 51).

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to design new ones (Beynon-Davies, 2013, p. 51). Activity systems refer to sets of logically related activities, and by these activities, organizations accomplish their goals. Therefore, we should be able to define the key process of the system together with inputs and outputs to and from each process (Beynon-Davies, 2013, p. 51). The transformation undertaken by each pro-cess needs to be defined as well. Beynon-Davies says that to maintain an organization's identity, it needs to be controlled – but control is not a process of regulation, “it is also a process of adaption” (2013, p. 51). Control is, therefore, in this dual sense, the essence when it comes to the process of organizing within activity systems (Beynon-Davies, 2013, p. 51). To get effective control, a controller needs a model of the system, which means that modeling has its utility in managing complexity when problems arise. The role of the model is to express the assumptions underlying performance within a domain that is usually implicit. This means that organizational models have several usability areas (Beynon-Davies, 2013, p. 51). For example, it helps man-agers better gain an understanding of the organization for which they are responsible, and that it can be helpful in decision-making as well as seeing the effects of decisions (Beynon-Davies, 2013, p. 51). However, it is worth mentioning that the model is not the system, which is a mistake that often is made. The model approximates the representation of the system, and there-fore it is generally a much smaller variation than the system itself. Beynon-Davies (2013, p. 51) says that, typically, the model will have less variety than the system itself. The development of information and communications technology (ICT) came to the aid of the concepts of systems and control, and it influenced the design of the units (e.g., modern computer) (Beynon-Davies, 2013, pp. 52-53). Beynon-Davies says that ICT is a key agent for organizational change mostly because the approach of treating organizations as systems “[...] is based on the assumption that organisations can be designed by modelling them in system terms and implementing new pro-cesses within organisations to improve performance" (2013, p. 53).

2.6 Usable Systems

The implementation of a new system is equal to having business processes that support the system to its fullest potential, rather than only focusing on the technical implementation (Flo-dén, 2013, p. 90). Flodén (2013, p. 90) further says that it is inefficient to have an advanced new information system that is more advanced than the business process within an organization. One should not try to use an advanced system with a bad business process. For a system to be successful, Flodén (2013, p. 94) says that the users should be involved because they have a lot of knowledge of the current business process. In other words, knowledge of what is currently working and what they want to improve. Flodén continues that for a system to be successful it has to be accepted by the users, and that “[s]everal studies have shown that the most common reason for the failure of a new system is lack of user acceptance” (2013, p. 94). Involving users should be because they are not experts, and as a result of not being experts, they will see what experts do not see. By involving the user, the user will also feel that they are involved and that they have an opportunity to improve “their” system.

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different techniques that is used to understand and analyze the users’ goals (Benyon, 2014, p. 141). Since it is not the designers themselves who will use the system, the designers need to understand the requirements by conducting interviews or by observing people who are going to use the system later on. By engaging with the future users of the system, the designers will gather important stories that will form the basis of the analysis work, i.e., the information col-lected will conclude what the current tasks are and if there are any issues (Benyon, 2014, p. 141).

When developing any product, the main goal is to enable users to perform their tasks as accu-rately and efficiently as possible to achieve their specific goals, i.e., the product should be usa-ble. The use of the product will then help the user to make a higher degree of effectivity and efficiency in their work, as well as prevent human errors. Further, a high degree of usability in a system helps to reduce the resistance from its users in their interaction with the system (Jit-nupong & Jirachiefpattana, 2018, p. 1).

Spolsky, a veteran in the software industry, brings up many guidelines for user interface design. Even though there are a lot of principles to follow when creating good design, it is possible to use the same principles to improve and evaluate an existing design. When starting to create a good design, however, it is important to understand the activity that the user is doing, and then create an easy way for the user to accomplish this activity (Spolsky, 2001, p. 81). Another way of helping the design of a system is by using imaginary users, which create a base for the users who will later use the system. The imaginary users, who most likely have different experiences or tasks, will impose requirements that the designers need to keep in mind. Spolsky says that having these imaginary users invented, “thinking about whether your design is appropriate be-comes much easier” (2001, p. 86). An example of one of Spolsky's guidelines is “People Can’t Read”. This guideline implies that users might not have the manual, and even though they do have it, they still would not read it because they do not want to. The reason for this is that the user wants to accomplish something, and reading the manual is perceived as a waste of time (Spolsky, 2001, pp. 61-62). Spolsky (2001, p. 62) also claims that if a usability test with a user interface full of helpful text in dialogs is conducted, the user will still not read these dialogs. The more words you put on a screen, the fewer people will read it.

2.7 Smart Cities: The Common Process Model

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The guidance concerns the perspective of the municipality and its customers, i.e., the citizens. However, it is also possible that the scope of process mapping could choose to focus on internal processes as well. Defining the scope of the business process mapping means that all relevant stakeholders must be involved, e.g., all the municipal departments involved in existing business processes.

Christansson (2011, p. 4) says that every municipality wants to not only improve the daily op-erational work and its performance but also to develop its business. Since the business processes are the operational activities that deliver services, whether they include electronic or digital support or not, some employees use a variety of information technology support in their work. E-services are defined as a collection of administrative processes that help, e.g., municipalities, to provide services for their customers through web sites. Further, an e-service might help the customer to interact with the municipality by asking questions, receiving answers, obtaining documents, file applications, etc. Even though the government has put a lot of emphasis on e-services as a part of improving service delivery, business development requires a broader view, as opposed to a front-end perspective. It is important to acquire information about all the busi-ness processes that affect the performance of a service. This would then help customers and employees. The customer, however, is important to consider when improving e-services, since they participate by triggering a process by requesting a service, and then receive information, etc. (Christiansson, 2011, p. 5).

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As previously mentioned, the guidelines included in The Common Process Model are mainly addressed to public services, meaning services the municipality provides to its citizens. Chris-tiansson lists ways that organizations can improve their customer service, and the two applica-ble to internal processes are the elimination of “manual business processes wherever possiapplica-ble”, and “reducing the complexity of service delivery through automation and 24/7 access” (2011, p. 22). A way to define how tasks could be automated is through process maps (Christiansson, 2011, p. 20).

Moreover, even though an e-service would include technology, it is not solely the “e” an ganization should focus on. It is important to acknowledge the fact “that IT fits within an or-ganisational environment; it is an enabler for the business and customers in a specific context” (Christiansson, 2011, p. 7). In other words, one could argue that IT and systems enable business processes and support them.

Process mapping could be used to review existing processes, i.e., the “as-is” processes. This map could then be used to analyze and evaluate the current service (Christiansson, 2011, p. 19). For example, the “as-is” process description would help to identify and explain any issues in the current process, which would then provide information on how they could be improved. The description of a process would provide data that would help to develop a specification for the design of an e-service that would be “close to business” (Christiansson, 2011, p. 26). “Alt-hough process mapping can be a complex task, the real challenge is to use this knowledge to improve business processes” (Christiansson, 2011, p. 30).

2.8 Discussion of Literature and Scientific Articles

The literature about processes has helped the understanding of what a process is, what a process includes, and that a process could include different degrees. This information has formed a perspective regarding the view of a process from the perspectives of automation, repetition, and structuring. Further, from an RQ3 perspective, where the interest is to understand the current problems, these degrees have had an impact on the recommendations given when designing and developing a future system for the vacation exchange process. The literature has helped to de-fine some current definitions that are used for a process. RQ1 and RQ2 have been affected by this, and the understanding has been applied when investigating the vacation exchange process at Karlstad municipality.

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to an understanding of the officially documented tasks in the process and facilitated investigat-ing unofficial possible tasks and perceived problems in the process through the interviews. The literature also showed that task analysis can be used as a tool when deciding about the automa-tion of processes, and discovering problematic areas which affect the efficiency negatively. The interviews and their transcriptions have been a basis for the task analysis, and the elaborate information gathered has helped to make the process models more detailed.

Literature regarding the organizations and systems, and usable systems, has contributed to a deeper understanding of how organizations are structured, and that organizations themselves can be systems. The understanding of this as a whole has continued to contribute to how a future system should be designed and developed to be usable for Karlstad municipality and the vaca-tion exchange process while considering the roles involved and their tasks performed.

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3 Design of the Study

In the following subsections, the document analysis and the structure of the qualitative inter-views are presented. The analysis method for the findings and the reliability, validity, and eth-ical considerations for the study are presented. Further, the limitations are explained. Thereaf-ter, the conducting of the interviews is detailed, and the modeling tool used is introduced. Lastly, the data collection of tasks by interviews is discussed.

3.1 Document Analysis

Interviews are a technique that can be used at different stages during a comprehensive task analysis activity, and it might sometimes be the only form of data collection that is used (Kirwan & Ainsworth, 2005, p. 63). However, interviews are likely to be supplemented by other tech-niques. Kirwan and Ainsworth (2005, p. 32) say that document analysis is important, and sug-gest that it should be performed before the task analysis since the analyst otherwise might waste time trying to obtain information which is already well-documented.

In this study the internal collective agreement document for vacation exchange at Karlstad mu-nicipality was analyzed.

3.2 Qualitative Interviews

The interview questions had a high degree of standardization and a low degree of structuring. The following two subsections will describe these two concepts further and why they were used.

3.2.1 High Degree of Standardization

While developing the interview questions, a high degree of standardization is used. This means that the interview questions are asked in a specific order, rather than a low degree of standard-ization which enables the interviewer to change the order of the interview questions based on what is best suited to the individual interview (Patel & Davidson, 2003, p. 72).

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However, the interview questions are not fully standardized because of two factors. Firstly, there is a different number of questions depending on the interviewee’s role. The number differs because the roles handle different amounts of tasks within the vacation exchange process. Sec-ondly, some questions are phrased differently depending on the interviewee’s role to adapt the question to the role’s perspective of the tasks in the vacation exchange process. By posing sev-eral questions to each of the interviewees regarding the parts of the process where the roles interact, it is possible to gather data about these aspects of the process from different perspec-tives.

3.2.2 Low Degree of Structuring

The interview has a low degree of structuring to allow the interviewee to answer each question openly with their own words (Patel & Davidson, 2003, p. 72). Additional roles could be dis-covered by providing the interviewees the opportunity to, in their own words, describe their role and work in the process aided by open questions during the interviews. Hidden tasks that are not documented could also be exposed, as well as perceived problems in the process. In other words, comparing interview answers with documented information from Karlstad munic-ipality’s collective agreement could provide insight into undocumented parts of the vacation exchange process.

3.2.3 Transcription

To “transcribe” means to write out the interview. Since the interviews were conducted in Swe-dish, the transcripts presented in the external appendices are in Swedish. The quotations in the findings (see 4.2 Interview Summaries) are, therefore, translated from Swedish to English to give the reader a better understanding. Patel and Davidson (2003, p. 104) say that during the transcription process, there is often a more or less conscious influence on the basis for the anal-ysis. For instance, spoken and written languages are not the same; therefore, e.g., stress and body language disappear when transcribing the conversation into text (Patel & Davidson, 2003, p. 104). Furthermore, Patel and Davidson (2003, p. 104-105) say that while doing a transcrip-tion, it might be tempting to form sentences, add commas, and to skip breaks to make the tran-scribed text clearer. Spoken language can be characterized as incomplete sentences and include grammatical errors (Patel & Davidson, 2003, p. 104).

3.3 Data Collection of Tasks by Interviews

While doing literature studies on task analysis, the author of this study concluded that most of the task analysis methods gather data through observations. Observation connotes observing an actor performing a task. Observational techniques have the objective of obtaining data by di-rectly observing the activity, or behavior, under a study (Kirwan & Ainsworth, 2005, p. 49). This study did not use any type of observation or recording of tasks being performed by an actor.

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be gathered from interviews as well as from different sorts of documentation. Furthermore, it is essential but not easy for the analyst to identify what data can be collected from the method(s) used. This helps the analyst to be aware of what sorts of data might have been missed. Another skill that the task analyst should have is recognizing how data conflict, and, e.g., to see that the official way of doing a task is at odds with actual practice (Diaper & Stanton, 2004, p. 31). In conclusion, the task analyst who collects the data needs to understand the possible task range before collecting data about the phenomenon (Diaper & Stanton, 2004, p. 33).

3.4 Analysis Method

The analysis of the findings was performed in two separate tasks to elicit requirements for the future system to support the vacation exchange process at Karlstad municipality.

First, a table was created with five different columns (see Table 1). The table was used to cate-gorize and connect the findings from the different process models to the theoretical starting points in 2 Theoretical Starting Points. The table consists of the following five columns:

 Section heading: denotes in which section in the thesis the findings are found.  Finding: an excerpt communicating the main points of the finding.

 Category: used to categorize each finding.

 Comment: summary of the finding and how it is problematic in the process.  Theory: quote of relevant theoretical points connected to the finding.

Second, once the table was created and populated with the main findings, the findings were grouped by their categories, and thereafter the comment from the table as well as the theoretical points was compiled in the written analysis. The analysis included the role involved, what the current problem is, and a connection to the theory. Lastly, a suggestion of change to improve the problem was discussed.

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Table 1. Analysis table for system requirements.

Section heading

Finding Category Comment Theory

4.3.4 Process Model: De-partment Manager (Overall Per-spective)

The fact that the pro-cess is not per-formed frequently could impact the re-membrance of, e.g., the criteria for vaca-tion exchange. This could also have an impact on the next year's process, when the process is re-peated, and the de-partment manager has to spend time and look up the in-formation for deci-sion support and/or criteria again.

Information Flow

There is infor-mation for de-cision support, and there is in-formation for the criteria that have to be met for vacation exchange. However, these can be forgot-ten, which is an argument for both the infor-mation and the criteria to be accessible in an easy way in the future system.

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Patel and Davidson (2003, pp. 102-103) state under the heading of “Quality in Qualitative Stud-ies” that the ambition of a qualitative study is to discover phenomena or to describe perceptions, etc. Reliability has separate definitions depending on the quantitative or qualitative approach. In a quantitative interview where the same question is asked but contributes with different an-swers, it is considered as a sign of low reliability (Patel & Davidson, 2003, p. 103). Whereas, an interview where the same question is asked but contributes with different answers in a qual-itative approach, it does not have to be considered a sign of low reliability (Patel & Davidson, 2003, p. 103). The different answers in a qualitative interview could be a result of that the interviewer may have, e.g., changed perception or the person concerned has gained new insights (Patel & Davidson, 2003, p. 103). Furthermore, Patel and Davidson (2003, p. 103) believe that reliability should instead be viewed in the light of the unique situation prevailing at the time of the investigation. If the questions during the interview instead succeed in capturing the unique situation, and this manifests itself in the variation in the answers, then it is seen as more im-portant than if the same answers are always obtained (Patel & Davidson, 2003, p. 103). 3.5.1 Pilot Testing of the Interview Questions

The interview questions were pilot tested before the interviews were conducted at Karlstad mu-nicipality to increase the reliability. The pilot tests of the questions for each role were conducted to ensure that the interviewees perceived the questions correctly. If ambiguities, or unclear phrasing, were discovered, the questions would be clarified and improved if needed.

With the aim to collect relevant information solely based on the purpose of this study, each question was selected exclusively to assist the data collection through pairing with one or more research questions (see 3.9.3 The Relevance of the Interview Questions). The pilot tests also aided in screening the interview questions to review that they provide the data to support the research questions they are connected to. However, nothing was found in needed of change. 3.6 Validity

The validity, like reliability, has a separate definition within the quantitative and qualitative approach (Patel & Davidson, 2003, p. 103). Validity permeates all parts of the research process in qualitative research, not solely the data collection (Patel & Davidson, 2003, p. 103). Patel and Davidson (2003, p. 103) refer validity to how the researcher succeeds in capturing what is ambiguous or possibly contradictory.

A commonly used term is “triangulation”, and it can take place in the data collection where several different data methods can be applied, e.g., documents or interviews (Patel & Davidson, 2003, p. 104). The information from these two are then weighed together in the analysis to give an as accurate and detailed picture as possible (Patel & Davidson, 2003, p. 104).

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p. 104). The researcher can study the same phenomenon in different contexts to interpret the variation in the phenomenon.

Data are collected through both document analysis and interviews to ensure a correct under-standing of the phenomenon; in this study, the vacation exchange process. Triangulation is used to validate through various data sources, i.e., conducting interviews with different roles within the vacation exchange process at Karlstad municipality.

3.7 Ethical Considerations

Ethical considerations regarding questions concerning the individuals involved in the study must be reviewed. The privacy of the individual must be protected both when information is obtained about the individuals, or if the individuals themselves provide the information (Patel & Davidson, 2003, p. 60).

The following sections describe how ethical principles were applied during the study. 3.7.1 Objectivity

Prior to the study's origin, there was no contact or relationship between the author and Karlstad municipality. This contributes to an objective approach to the study and its purpose for the vacation exchange process.

3.7.2 Information Letter

The information letter (see Appendix B: Information Letter) contained information about the purpose of the study, the objective of the interview, the approximate time duration, and the expected contribution from the interviewee. The interviewees were also informed that their par-ticipation is voluntary and can be canceled at any time without giving cause. Additionally, in-formation on the processing of personal data and audio recording of the interview sessions was presented.

3.7.3 Consent Form

A consent form (see Appendix C: Consent Form) is used to confirm whether each interviewee consented to participate in the interview and the audio recording of their participation (Veten-skapsrådet, 2017, p. 27). All interviewees signed the consent form and thereby agreed to par-ticipate in the interview and to the session being audio recorded. The interviewees were in-formed that they can stop the audio recording at any time, and answer any specific question without the audio recording.

3.7.4 Confidentiality and Anonymity

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Anonymity has been used in this study. It is not possible to discern who said what, and it is not possible to identify the person in the findings presented. Personal data, gender, names, work titles, and numbers referring to the size of departments have been deleted.

3.7.5 Utilization

“Information collected about individuals may only be used for research purposes” (Veten-skapsrådet, 2009).

3.7.6 GDPR and Swedish Legislation

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and Swedish legislation require that all work with personal data should be performed transparently, correctly, and securely (Karlstad University, 2019). After examining the thesis work, and after course results have been registered, the per-sonal data material that has been collected and processed during this study will be deleted. Before the interviews were conducted, a form was sent to Karlstad University to register the processing of personal data, and a further form will then be sent after the examination on the subject has been completed. This means that processed data has ceased in Karlstad University’s register of personal data processing in the thesis (Karlstad University, 2019).

3.8 Limitations

The study focuses solely on the city management in Karlstad municipality. The vacation ex-change process is the only process that is investigated, mapped, and analyzed.

All data collection regarding the process comes exclusively from the city management at Karls-tad municipality.

Any implementation of the proposed recommendations for the design and development of a future system is not included in the scope of this study.

Concerning the transcriptions of the interviews, which were the fundamental source of infor-mation for the findings, there were no follow-up interviews to discuss the interpretation. 3.9 Conducting the Interviews

In this section, the interview sessions are described as well as the selection of the interviewees. Thereafter, the impact on further interviews due to COVID-19 is discussed. Lastly, the rele-vance of the interview questions paired with their respective research questions is presented in table form.

3.9.1 Interview Sessions

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the interviewee the opportunity to ask questions in case of any misunderstandings or clarifica-tions needed. During the orientation script, the interviewee signed the consent form if not signed prior. Before starting the interview, the interviewer ensured that there were no misunderstand-ings regarding the information given in the orientation script or other questions regarding the proceeding of the interview session. The interviewer asked if the interviewee consented to be contacted after the interview session in case any further information or clarification of their answers was needed—all interviewees approved to be contacted. After the consent form was signed, the audio recording and the interview started.

The information letter, consent form, and interview questions were sent out to the interviewees in advance before the scheduled interview sessions.

One out of the three interviewees had read the information letter before the interview. One had not had the time, and one had not yet received the information letter.

Out of the three interviewees, one had signed the consent form before the interview. The other two signed the consent form during the introduction to the interview session. All interviewees signed the consent form.

None out of the three interviewees had had the opportunity to read through the interview ques-tions before the interview. All interviewees answered all quesques-tions concerning their role regard-ing the vacation exchange process.

3.9.2 Selection of Interviewees

The study had three interviewees in total, and each interviewee had a different role in the vaca-tion exchange process. The following roles were interviewed: the applicant, the department manager, and the payroll administrator. These three different roles were interviewed simply because of two things. Firstly, they are participants in the vacation exchange process. Secondly, they will help the study to understand the process, both from a role’s perspective but also give insight to cooperation with other roles. All interviewees worked at the city management at the time when the interviews were conducted.

It is worth to mention that the department manager interviewed is not the department manager of the applicant who was interviewed.

3.9.2.1 COVID-19’s Impact on the Interviews

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3.9.3 The Relevance of the Interview Questions

In the following three subsections, Table 2-4 map each interview question to the corresponding research question(s). Each table shows the research questions this study focuses on paired with the interview questions used during the qualitative interviews. This to ensure that the correct data was collected.

Before each table, a description of why the interview questions provide the relevant data to answer the paired research question is presented.

The questions presented in the tables are translated from Swedish to English. The interviews were conducted in Swedish, and each set of interview questions are presented in the external document as Appendix D-F.

As previously mentioned in section 3.9.2.1 COVID-19’s Impact on the Interviews, follow-up interviews were not able to be conducted. Therefore, follow-up questions were asked by e-mail. The follow-up questions are presented in the external Appendix G: Follow-Up Questions E-Mail. The answers gathered through the follow-up questions were used to complete and clarify the missing gaps regarding the tasks performed in the vacation exchange process.

In Table 2-4 the column “Q ID” (Question ID) helps to identify the role the question concerns, i.e., “A” for “Applicant”, “DM” for “Department Manager”, and “PR” for “Payroll Adminis-trator”. The number in the “Q ID” refers to the question number. The numbers presented follow the order in which they were asked in the interview, i.e., the interviews for each role started with either the question A1, DM1, or PR1. The column “Interview Questions” presents the interview question asked in the interview. Lastly, the column “R RQ” (Related Research Ques-tion) pairs the interview question together with the research question(s) it is related to.

3.9.3.1 Interview Questions: Applicant

Interview questions A1 - A4, presented in Table 2, were asked to gather the necessary infor-mation to ensure that the interviewee took part in the vacation exchange process in the role of the applicant. A4 was specifically asked to clarify whether the interviewee could answer the questions based on prior experience regarding the tasks the applicant performs in the process. A5 and A6 were asked to identify any problems in the preparations the applicant needs to per-form in other to complete their tasks in the vacation exchange process.

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A8 was asked to get an understanding of the timing of the applicant’s submitting of the vacation exchange application compared to the documented deadline in the collective agreement. A9 - A11 were asked to gather information about how the forwarding of documents is per-formed, and to whom, to compare the information to the documented course of action in the collective agreement.

A12 was posed as an open question to gather the applicant’s perceived difficulties in the pro-cess, to identify areas for improvements within the vacation exchange process related to the design and development of a future system.

A13 concerned the end of the applicant’s process, e.g., the wait after submitting the application until the process is completed.

A14 and A15 also regarded the end of the applicant’s process. These questions were asked to gather information about interaction with other roles as well as how the applicant receives in-formation.

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Table 2. Interview questions for the applicant.

Q ID Interview Question R RQ A1 What is your work title? RQ2 A2 How long have you been working at Karlstad municipality? RQ2 A3 For what reason would you apply for vacation exchange? RQ2 A4 Have you applied for vacation exchange? RQ2 A5 Do you know where you can find the vacation exchange paper form? RQ3 A6 Do you have a clear understanding of what criteria have to be met to be

eli-gible to apply for vacation exchange?

RQ3

A7 Can you describe what you do from when you decide that you want to apply for vacation exchange, to when you have applied?

RQ1, RQ2, RQ3 A8 During the year, when do you usually fill in the form and apply for vacation

exchange?

RQ1

A9 How do you submit your application? RQ1, RQ2 A10 Who do you submit the application to? RQ1, RQ2 A11 Have you ever had to make changes to your application? RQ1, RQ2 A12 Have you encountered any problems while applying for vacation exchange? RQ3 A13 How long does it usually take to get a reply to your application? RQ1 A14 Who informs you about the decision of your application? RQ2 A15 How do you receive the decision? RQ1 A16 Do you have any ideas about how the vacation exchange process could be

improved?

RQ3

Vacation Exchange Management

Tobias Tensmyr