"Ironically, efforts to communicate more can result in knowing less. Rules that guarantee wide distribution of information can increase the amount to the point that a lot is not read. Transaction systems, designed to promote knowing, can also be the source of structural secrecy, concealing even as they reveal. Information is relayed on standardized forms, in standardized formats, then coded into categories, based on special organizational language. Fine distinctions tend to disappear in the interest of computerized processing, storing, and retrieving masses of information. If a category is not established, that information is not readily available. The whole enterprise is undermined by the ease of producing information with computer technology. Masses of information, even though in categories, is not useful, except in a symbolic sense. The ability to produce, accumulate, store , and exchange information using sophisticated transaction systems has become a symbol of legitimacy for many organizations. Obfuscation parades as clarity; they produce too much, obscuring rather than enlightening."
Diane Vaughn - The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA.
I bet up until the time you read "NASA", you thought this was about a hospital implementing an EMR. Should we not be learning from these painful lessons of the past? BQ