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I just found out how SAP handles software updates and bug fixes for their mySAP installations. Let’s start with this. First, you do your installation and get your systems up to speed. Then, depending on your own internal schedules, system issues, usage, and so forth, you go from there.

There is a hierarchy that you must keep in mind going forward. At the top level you have service packs. At the next level down, you have patches for the service packs. And at the lowest level, you have hot fixes for the patches.

Now, I am not a system administrator so this stuff just makes my head swim. I honestly don’t know how these folks stay on top of this material day in and day out. Setting schedules, viewing error logs, restarting services, and rebooting servers. Eeek! I’m glad that some people enjoy this stuff and can wrap their minds around it.

These things are often documented very well. Administrators are surprisingly good at writing stuff down. However, the issue that I see repeatedly is that these materials are not tied together or put in a large map. It is often very difficult to know how the various components in the system relate to each other. If often takes a systems analyst to put together the big picture.

If your back end is not running properly it doesn’t matter how good your interface is. Back end usability, including documentation, system stability and uptime, is no joke.

Usability is not just about the interface, it is about the back end systems too. Take the time to have usable documentation and learn how the back end drives the front end, and how the front end pours in data. Usability is much more about the “big picture” than most people realize. Expand your scope and your definition to include everything that impacts your users and customers, don’t just look skin deep.

I’ll end with an analogy. If you promote a web site that has poor usability you are wasting your money. The same applies to the back end of your web site. If you promote a web site that looks great and has great usability, but it is slow or buggy, then design and usability don’t matter. You’re wasting your money.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 26th, 2004 at 3:11 pm and is filed under Usability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.