Fallacies of technological determinism — Lessons for asset management

Abstract

Engineering asset lifecycle management is information intensive and represents a complex set of activities and processes. These processes generate enormous amount of data, which is captured both electronically and manually, in a variety of formats, shared among an assortment of off the shelf and customized operational and administrative systems, and communicated through a range of sources to an array of business stakeholders. Adoption of information systems for asset management should, therefore, not be treated as technical constructs. In fact, these are social systems, which influence and are influenced by their context. Critical aspects of information systems adoption are to account for organisational culture, social infrastructure, and skills set of employees, and to find the fit between asset lifecycle processes maturity and selected technologies. This paper reports on a case study of a public sector organisation that managing infrastructure assets in one of the largest Australian states. The case indicates that owing to a technologically deterministic view of information system adoption, the promise of an integrated view of asset lifecycle has resulted in a mere historical record of individual activities performed at each stage of lifecycle. The main impediment, among others, has been the fact that technology planning and implementation has been carried out independent of the context, as well as social, organisational, and technical maturity of the organisation.