What Is Workaround?
Organizations must have contingency plans to cater for their system failures. Most operations within various organizations are likely to stall. Thus, the workaround is significant. Generally, a workaround refers to a basic methodology applied to accomplish specific objectives (Majchrzak & Gasser, 1991).
The application of the process is temporarily and occurs when the normal execution strategy fails. This strategy is applied within operations involving information technology. In such circumstances, the strategy is appropriate in times of system failures. These might involve programming, hardware defaults and communication challenges.
The workaround is used to overcome notable technicalities within the operations in organizations. Once this aim is achieved, the organization may abandon the workaround strategy. Therefore, it is notable that a workaround provides a short-term solution during potential challenges (Gasser, 1986).
Indicatively, these challenges are associated with failures in information technology. It might be extremely challenging to develop innovative and transformative operation systems within most business organizations. The project leaders have the responsibility to establish robust mechanisms to enhance the success of a workaround. The workaround enables the development specialists to concentrate in other vital information technology process within the organization.
The efficiency of the workaround depends on several important factors. For instance, the areas prone to potential challenges must be identified and classified. This requires an application of a comprehensive approach (Reiher, 2012). In addition, the targeted efficiency of the workaround must be determined.
It is the obligation of the developers within organizations to undertake these roles. The efficiency of the workaround depends on the knowledge and experience of the information and technology experts. These significant considerations are appropriate within all organizations. Particularly, this relates to agencies that deal with highly sensitive information and process. Most professionals term the workaround as a “crisis mitigation strategy.” Ideally, this is because it increases the level of efficiency within all processes.
Why to Use Workaround?
The workaround is important in many ways. They form critical components of temporary solutions to constant technological problems within organizations. Certain technological breakdowns might lead to information breaches within organizations. These might include sensitive and confidential information regarding external or internal stakeholders.
However, the application of a workaround helps to rectify the information breach. Therefore, it is a crucial tool for enhancing security. The concept is vital, especially, in the era of increased global threat landscape. The workaround motivates and increases the resilience of the general system within a particular organization. Through its application, the workaround enables the information technology personnel to develop more innovative and resilient strategies (Campbell, 2012).
Risk management is a continuous process within all organizations. Within most agencies, the workaround forms part of the risk management procedure. Observably, it plays a significant role in the reinforcement of risk management initiatives. The workaround helps to sustain production processes within specific entities. Notably, disruptions within organizational operations might cause severe implications.
Consequently, these have the capacity to cause detrimental impacts to all relevant stakeholders of the organization. It is also imperative to note that a workaround helps in saving time (Gasser, 1986). Apparently, there is a lot of time wasted when developers try to restore the normal operations. This is observable during system failures. However, these delays are minimized with the implementation of the workaround processes. These include some of the reasons why a workaround should be applied within all entities.
How to Use Workaround?
The different types of workaround are used in varied mechanisms. For instance, a particular workaround may be applied whenever an individual faces challenges in down loading TV shows. The “turbo mode” helps in this process. Principally, this is evident after accessing the targeted bay through the “opera internet browser.” The “turbo mode” helps to compress and elevate the speed of web browsing (Reiher, 2012).
This process enhances the level of efficiency for all slower connections. The process is one of the direct methods of using a definite workaround. There are critical steps to be observed while using a workaround. For example, the process must involve the identification of the potential challenges. Apart from this, the project managers must be keen to provide sensitive and educative information on how to use the system.
Capacity building is an important component of a workaround process. The initiative is vital for other employees who lack expertise knowledge on information technology. These may also be applicable to all other end users of the system. Different companies and global corporations apply different types of workaround. Apple includes one of the corporations that employ a unique methodology for its workaround process.
The installation of a “SimUText” on the “Mountain Lion Machine” may involve the use of a distinct workaround. An individual must run the “SimUText” after its installation (Ellison, Heino & Gibbs, 2006). There are critical steps to be followed in case of denial of process. This helps to solve the problem of denial. Clicking of the “OK” button helps to rectify the denial dialog box. The setup provides crucial guidelines that must be followed by all users. This process ensures that the challenge is solved.
Where to Use Workaround?
Most competitive organizations apply robust and transformative technologies within their operations. A workaround is appropriate within operations involving confidential and important processes (Karpf, 2010). A workaround is also relevant within continuous operations.
These operations do not require any form of disturbance. The basic aim is to enhance sustainability of these operations. Therefore, customers are able to access the required services and obtain quality attention from the operations. The workaround initiatives may also be implemented during the development of new management information systems within organizations.
The systems developers have to establish innovative workaround mechanisms to combat gross interferences. This is because the development and propagation of new technologies might cause unknown disruptions. There are technicalities related to the operation of new systems.
Therefore, the workaround processes are needed in such circumstances (Gasser, 1986). Other than the stated cases, a workaround is also important in cases where there is upgrading of the basic technological processes. The information and network systems within business organizations require persistent monitoring and development. Such initiatives might interfere with the normal operations within such firms. However, the application of a workaround helps to stop these eminent challenges.
When To Use Workaround?
A workaround program may be applied in different situations. Importantly, it should be noted that system failure provides the basic backbone for any workaround program. Different challenges are faced during emailing processes or while using the internet. These may require the application of a workaround program (Ambrose & Chiravuri, 2010). For instance, files that cause barriers during the emailing operations pose great security threats within all systems.
Evidently, it is upon the various developers to monitor these barriers. Moreover, they also bear the responsibility to execute the appropriate strategies aimed at maintaining the flow of information. In such cases, a simpler methodology would be applied in solving the challenge. A typical workaround methodology for this problem may be the application of another internet program to send the email.
Other unique situations within different agencies may necessitate the use of a workaround program. For example, these include the situations that involve the stripping of codes from the basic “HTML file.” This problematic condition is widely notable when these files are transferred in form of attachments (Reiher, 2012).
The best workaround process is to copy and paste all these contents into the relevant email. The idea is to avoid sending the email in an attachment form to the various recipients. The process demonstrates a typical situation in which a workaround may be necessary.
Workaround Vs Resistance to Change
There are potential impacts of the increased rate of globalization and technological developments. Resistance within organizations is getting more common. There are different reasons why individuals resist change. Generally, most individuals resist change due to fear. Change processes involve unique practices.
These might not sound well to all persons within organizations. Most people use a workaround methodology to resist change. This is observable in situations where the change processes are intensive and time consuming (Campbell, 2012). Resistance to any constructive transformation occurs in diverse forms.
People are more likely to be silent. Conversely, they might work-around the relevant technological applications. The workaround strategy has been applied in most organizations by personalities. The aim is to sabotage critical change processes. The management has the obligation to investigate and correct any instances of workaround aimed at sabotaging change processes.
References
Ambrose, P. J. & Chiravuri, A. (2010). A socio-cognitive interpretation of the potential effects of downsizing on software quality performance. Information Systems Journal, 20 (3), 239–265.
Campbell, D. (2012). Public Managers in Integrated Services Collaboratives: What Works Is Workarounds. Public Administration Review, 72 (5), 721–730.
Ellison, N., Heino, R. & Gibbs, J. (2006). Managing Impressions Online: Self-Presentation Processes in the Online Dating Environment. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11 (2), 415–441.
Gasser, L.. (1986). The Integration of Computing and Routine Work. ACM Transactionson Information Systems, 4 (3), 205 – 225
Karpf, D. (2010). Online Political Mobilization from the Advocacy Group’s Perspective: Looking Beyond Clicktivism. Policy & Internet, 2 (4), 7–41.
Majchrzak, A. & Gasser, L. (1991). On Using Artificial Intelligence to Integrate the Design of Organizational and Process Change in US Manufacturing. Artificial Intelligence and Society, 5 (4), 321-338.
Reiher, M. (2012). Relativistic Douglas–Kroll–Hess theory. WIREs Comput Mol Sci, 2 (1), 139–149.