Abstract

There are many end-user developers but they are quite often left to their own devices when it comes to finding support for development tasks, particularly those who belong to small organisations. With less access to formal support sources we would expect them to turn to more informal as well as on-line sources. However, the use of on-line sources requires skill and confidence in using computers and the Internet. In this paper, we look at a group of small organisations and what impact the skill and demographic factors have on the use of different support sources among existing and potential end-user developers. The analysis was performed using the self-organizing map. It suggests that personal contacts form a default source for people and that increased skills leads to less reliance on these. Computer and Internet skill are the most important factors influencing support use, enabling some end-user developers to “self-help”.

Share

COinS
 

The impact of skills and demographics on end-user developers’ use of support

There are many end-user developers but they are quite often left to their own devices when it comes to finding support for development tasks, particularly those who belong to small organisations. With less access to formal support sources we would expect them to turn to more informal as well as on-line sources. However, the use of on-line sources requires skill and confidence in using computers and the Internet. In this paper, we look at a group of small organisations and what impact the skill and demographic factors have on the use of different support sources among existing and potential end-user developers. The analysis was performed using the self-organizing map. It suggests that personal contacts form a default source for people and that increased skills leads to less reliance on these. Computer and Internet skill are the most important factors influencing support use, enabling some end-user developers to “self-help”.