Examining System Administrators’ Verification Information to Enhance IT Training Design

ABSTRACT

System administrators are faced with a broad range of responsibilities for highly complex environments. They need the ability to verify the work they have done. That verification comes from accurate and available information that we refer to as information credibility. This exploratory research aims to address the relationship between task complexity, task risk, and verification information seeking in graphical user interface (GUI) tools used by system administrators. This research also illustrates the use of verification information as a starting point for a content-centered training design. Potential antecedents of verification information are identified and a model is proposed that addresses how aspects of the task and environment affect the need for verification. Findings suggest that task complexity is a significant indicator of the need for verification information. In addition, findings also suggest that this verification information provides a logical foundation for improving knowledge acquisition of the system administration team.

Keywords:

• System administrator
• information seeking
• verification
• IT training
• content-centered design