In Sion, how can managers prepare for tool adoption before closing a project?
A digital project can meet its acceptance criteria without users actually incorporating the tool into their working practices. The management question is specific: what should be checked before project closure to prepare for actual use?
What the literature establishes
Fred Davis (1989, MIS Quarterly) shows that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are associated with acceptance of computer-based tools, with a stronger relationship for perceived usefulness in the studies reported. Perceived usefulness means believing that the tool improves job performance, rather than simply regarding it as modern. For a project manager, this suggests checking what users believe they will be able to accomplish better, rather than only asking how satisfied they are after a demonstration.
Usefulness takes shape in a work context
Viswanath Venkatesh and Fred Davis (2000, Management Science) examine the social influences and cognitive processes contributing to perceived usefulness and intention to use through four longitudinal field studies. Their model includes job relevance, output quality and the extent to which benefits can be made apparent. A feature presentation therefore answers a different question from a trial involving a real task: the former outlines possibilities, while the latter allows their relevance to be tested.
The premature conclusion
One might conclude that convincing users of the tool’s usefulness is enough. This would conflate favourable perceptions, stated intentions and actual use, while overlooking practical or organisational obstacles. A trial may also reveal that the solution is poorly suited to the work required: preparing for adoption then means changing the deliverable, not just the message accompanying it. (our executive and employee training programmes)
What these findings cannot promise
These studies concern acceptance of information systems; they do not provide general evidence covering every type of project deliverable. Their findings do not establish that a contextualised demonstration or training alone is sufficient to produce lasting adoption. Within SHR’s Project Management programme, they can provide a framework for distinguishing technical acceptance, the ability to complete a task and integration into working practices, without claiming to guarantee the latter.
A practical check in Sion
In Sion, this check could involve a tool for tracking hydropower maintenance, coordinating healthcare, ensuring wine traceability or managing Alpine tourism bookings. Before project closure, select a recurring task with future users and run a trial under representative conditions, using fictitious data where confidentiality requires it. Measure the proportion of participants who complete the task to the expected outcome without help from the project team, recording participant numbers, success criteria and observed obstacles. Repeating the same check after corrections makes progress verifiable: this indicator measures immediate independence, not yet lasting adoption. To go further: explore the Project Management training in Sion in the canton of Valais, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.
In pictures: Project Management in Sion
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