The Socio-Technical Walkthrough (STWT): A Means Of Research-Oriented Intervention Into Organizations

The socio-technical walkthrough is a methodological approach to take this multitude of aspects into account and to make them the subject of analysis, communication, negotiation and decisions in the course of the development of socio-technical systems. The documents which accompany the STWT mirror these aspects and build bridges between the developing competencies, organizational change, programming or configuration of software and identification of appropriate hardware. We suggest that the expectations of the various stakeholders being involved are better met the more technical and organizational structures as well as relevant competencies are integrated and aligned to each other, and the more the different perspectives of the stakeholders are taken into consideration, valued and integrated during the discourse which accompanies the participatory design and evolution of socio-technical systems.