A Rural Tale

A Rural Tale

The case study shows a typical problem of systems failure,but first of all we need to have a basic understanding of what exactly system failure is?

System failure occurs when a system

·         is not operational at a specified time

·         cannot be used the way it was

       intended

·         Usually accompanied by multiple,

parallel manual procedures

 The failure of the implementation of IS in this case could have resulted from many reasons some of which are as follows

1.       Cultural differences,In rural areas people pride themselves in hard work or labor which is not aided by the use of any machine,they believe that working with their hands signifies a lack of laziness,this could have been the result of their unexpected rejection of the new low tech solution.This means that the solution was incompatible with the people’s culture or lifestyle

2.       Low adaptation;It often takes time for people to accept something before they have had time to adapt to it,as a result of the people’s low ability to adapt to the new tech solution they rejected it instead,this may have been because of their inability to see the benefit of the solution to them.

3.       Inability to use equipment; The villagers may have been unable to use the taps and that’s why they rejected them .

4.       Low awareness; before a system can be implemented people should be well educated about the solution because not everyone would be literate in that particular area,so failure to educate people about the solution could have been the reason why they rejected it in the first place.

5.       Lack of comprehensive  planning,there is a saying that when we don’t plan ,we plan to fail,if the Foreign aid workers had planned out the solution and made sure they tested its implementation with at least a few families before doing it for the entire village they may have been able to identify potential problems that would lead to the failure of  their solution

Solutions to the problems

1.       Conducting a survey;the foreign workers could conduct a survey to find out what people think about the solution,this will help them identify the problem that the solution is causing amongst the people.They could also include a recommendation or suggestion area within the survey to make things easier for them.

2.       Analysis of the environment; according to the fault tree construction strategy there is a need to analyze the environment in which the system is to be implemented,this is where the foreign workers would be able to get a feel of the lifestyle of the people, their beliefs concerning certain issues in order to better combat the problem of cultural differences

3.       Spreading awareness on the use of the system and also the benefits;after they have understood the people’s needs and views about their solution then only do they start to  spread the awareness with the highest priority being given to the benefits of the solution to the people and exactly how they can use the system to best benefit them.