Infrastructure support for software import substitution

• Main Authors: V. K. Grigoryev, A. A. Biryukova, M. A. Ovchinnikov
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Plekhanov Russian University of Economics 2018-06-01
• Series: Otkrytoe Obrazovanie (Moskva)
• Subjects: transition to the russian software; advancing training of users of the software; import substitution of software; advanced learning technology; methodology of the correspondence between the mental model and the model of representation
• Online Access: https://openedu.rea.ru/jour/article/view/530

The purpose of the research is to improve the efficiency of software import substitution processes. In the process of import substitution, we highlight two issues: the issue of retraining a huge number of employees of organizations where it is necessary to carry out import substitution (hundreds of thousands of software users) and the issue of the process of choosing domestic software to replace the imported one. There are a huge number of organizations in which it is necessary to replace foreign software with the Russian one; several hundred large organizations. The number of Russian software products, such as office software, in the registry exceeds 200 copies. Each time the choice involves both the purchase of small licenses, and the deployment and testing of specific software in its entirety, as well as its analysis by experts. This process takes a long time if it is implemented without technical support.The authors put forward a hypothesis that these two problems: choice and retraining – can be effectively solved by the author’s technology of advanced training and instrumental complex that supports this technology. The article analyzes the possibility of using this technology for retraining and examines the beneficial side effects in the form of assessing the quality of interfaces. The types of users in your organization are also analyzed. The authors conclude that the majority of users in the organization belong to the class of mass professional users. In this case, the quality of the interface is crucial when choosing a software product to use. Based on the concepts of mental models and view model proposed by Alan Cooper, the authors have developed a method of selection of the domestic software product. The procedure is based on quantitative indicators obtained by active situational familiarization/training of potential users with the help of a computer training program, which is an accurate (in the sense of Kripke) functional and interface model of the selected software. This procedure ensures the effectiveness of choice of the domestic software due to the introduction of intermediate infrastructure element in the form of the organization of instrumental and methodical support search processes.It is concluded that such an organization of process not only improves the efficiency of the import substitution process, but also makes it possible to make general proposals on the direction of work to improve the quality of the interface of the domestic software. Implementation and development of the proposed methodology, based on the technology of advanced training of mass professional users, in the form of the infrastructure part of the program of transition to the Russian software will provide:confidence in the possibilities of the Russian software to replace painlessly the used foreign products;simplification and acceleration of the process of implementation of the developed software, by reducing the time of user training and minimizing the time of distraction of developers;obtaining objective quantitative results of advanced functional and interface beta testing of the implemented software;obtaining an effective tool to support the implementation and quality assessment of the Russian software by collecting statistical data for the analysis of the implemented software product.