Beyond GSS: fitting collaboration technology to a given work practice

  • Authors:

  • Tanja Buttler;Jordan Janeiro;Stephan Lukosch;Robert O. Briggs

  • Affiliations:

  • Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Technology Policy and Management, Delft, The Netherlands;Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Technology Policy and Management, Delft, The Netherlands;Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Technology Policy and Management, Delft, The Netherlands;MIS Department, San Diego State University, California

  • Venue:
  • CRIWG'11 Proceedings of the 17th international conference on Collaboration and technology
  • Year:
  • 2011

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Abstract

Collaboration has become a critical success factor for many organizations. Collaboration is however not without challenges. Free riding, dominance, group think or hidden agendas are but a few phenomena in group work that make it a non straight effort. In addition, tools and technology that supports collaboration exists in a variety of shapes from complex group support systems (GSS) to simple boxes with cards and pencils. GSS often only offer a limited set of tools with a limited set of configurable features. Organizations, however, face an unlimited variety of problems with an unlimited variety of structures. In this article, we present a component-based groupware approach that goes beyond current GSS and allows collaboration engineers to fit the collaboration technology to a given work practice. We illustrate the feasibility of our approach by reporting on first experiences on supporting a requirements engineering work practice.