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Time, Narratives and Participation Frameworks in Software Troubleshooting

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Abstract

The paper problematizes diagnostic work as a solely technical and rational activity by presenting an analysis focused on the social and organizational practices in which diagnosis is embedded. The analysis of a troubleshooting episode in an Italian internet company shows how diagnostic work is realized: 1) through collaboration sustained by specific knowledge distribution among designers (different but overlapping competences); 2) intersubjectively and discursively as an activity characterized by specific and diverse forms of participation and interwined with material intervention in the system; 3) following a situated rationality which proceeds by gradual approximations to achieve partial or provisional solutions while also taking account of organizational goals and needs. In particular the paper discusses how diagnosis is shaped by time pressure, flexible roles and distributed responsibilities, absent participants, narratives as specialized discourses.

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Notes

  1. The participants' and the company’s names have been changed, although they agreed to the use of research data for any scientific purpose.

  2. The use of the term “broken” (as the Italian “rotta”) for a page indicates that designers are constantly aware of the programs that are “behind” the website’s pages and make them active and functioning.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, via dei Marsi 78, 00185, Rome, Italy

    Francesca Alby & Cristina Zucchermaglio

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  1. Francesca Alby
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  2. Cristina Zucchermaglio
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Correspondence to Francesca Alby.

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Alby, F., Zucchermaglio, C. Time, Narratives and Participation Frameworks in Software Troubleshooting. Comput Supported Coop Work 18, 129–146 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-008-9090-7

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