Plans and situated actions: the problem of human-machine communication
Plans and situated actions: the problem of human-machine communication
The marks are on the knowledge worker
CHI '94 Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Taking email to task: the design and evaluation of a task management centered email tool
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
UMEA: translating interaction histories into project contexts
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
"Constant, constant, multi-tasking craziness": managing multiple working spheres
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
What a to-do: studies of task management towards the design of a personal task list manager
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Sphere Juggler: Fast Context Retrieval in Support of Working Spheres
ENC '04 Proceedings of the Fifth Mexican International Conference in Computer Science
Field studies of computer system administrators: analysis of system management tools and practices
CSCW '04 Proceedings of the 2004 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work
Activity-based management of IT service delivery
Proceedings of the 2007 symposium on Computer human interaction for the management of information technology
Managing currents of work: multi-tasking among multiple collaborations
ECSCW'05 Proceedings of the ninth conference on European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work
A service delivery platform for server management services
IBM Journal of Research and Development
Information needs of system administrators in information technology service factories
CHIMIT '11 Proceedings of the 5th ACM Symposium on Computer Human Interaction for Management of Information Technology
Knowledge and information and needs of system administrators in IT service factories
Proceedings of the 10th Brazilian Symposium on on Human Factors in Computing Systems and the 5th Latin American Conference on Human-Computer Interaction
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Many recent studies provide evidence of the challenges experienced by knowledge workers while multi-tasking among several projects and initiatives. Work is often interrupted, and this results in people leaving activities pending until they have the time, information, resources or energy to reassume them. Among the different types of knowledge workers, those working directly with Information Technology (IT) or offering IT services -- software developers, support engineers, systems administrators or database managers --, experience particularly challenging scenarios of multi-tasking given the varied, crisis-driven and reactive nature of their work. Previous recommendations and technological solutions to ameliorate these challenges give limited attention to individual's preferences and to understanding how and what tools and strategies could benefit IT service workers as individuals. Based on the analysis of characteristics of IT service work and a consolidation of findings regarding personal activity management processes, we present the design of a software tool to support those processes and discuss findings of its usage by four IT service workers over a period of eight weeks. We found that the tool is used as a central repository to orchestrate personal activity, complementing the use of e-mail clients and shared calendars as well as supporting essential aspects of IT-service work such as multi-tasking and detailed work articulation.