Designing tools for system administrators: An empirical test of the integrated user satisfaction model

System administrators are unique computer users. As power users in complex and high-risk work environments, intuition tells us that they may have requirements of the tools they use that differ from those of regular computer users. This paper presents and empirically validates a model of user satisfaction within the context of system administration that accounts for the needs of system administrators. The data were collected through a survey of 125 system administrators and analyzed using structural data modeling techniques. The empirical results of this preliminary investigation demonstrate that user satisfaction models are appropriate in the context of system administration and support the idea that system administrators have unique system and information needs from the tools they use.