Transcript Document

Groupware
Failure
Or
Re-alignment
Another definition
• First and foremost, groupware supports the efforts of teams
and other paradigms which require people to work
together, even though they may not actually be together, in
either time or space. Groupware maximizes human
interaction while minimizing technology interference
– David Coleman
• http://www.collaborate.com/publication/publications_resou
rces_groupware_book_section_1_1.htm
Re-defining Groupware
• Groupware is a relatively new term, first coined in 1978.
The following definitions, the most commonly used, are
presented by industry leaders:
• Intentional group processes plus software to support them.
Peter and Trudy Johnson-Lenz, 1978
• A co-evolving human-tool system. Doug Englebart, 1988
• Computer-mediated collaboration that increases the
productivity or functionality of person-to-person processes.
David Coleman, 1992
CASE Study
• SmithKline Beecham
– http://www.brainstorm.co.uk/CSCW/Case_study/cs4.html
• .. estimates that every groupware user needs to access
the system for an average of two hours per day for it to
be effective
– At first, many senior managers, who championed the
use of groupware, failed to show personal commitment
in the use of the system.
• … now faces the opposite problem, where users are
using groupware too much
– … employees receive a barrage of information from
Notes, and by email.
• … This affects the ability of some staff actually to do
their work, we have to guard against information
overload. The average manager gets such a bucketful of
email every day, that handling it becomes a real
problem.
• And equally they are swamped with Lotus Notes
databases. On my desktop I have 20-odd databases, a
lot I need to review at least once a week, and some I
need to review on a daily basis. I can't cope with that
• For example, people were unable to assimilate the
huge amount of competitive information on rival
suppliers published in one Lotus database.
SmithKline Beecham reacted by shutting the
database down.
SYCOMT Project, carried out in
a major clearing bank in the UK
• Re-alignment to centralised processes using Groupware
• http://orgwis.gmd.de/~prinz/cscw96ws/rounce.html
• … consequence of this dispersal has been the development
of a blame culture
• … in which they don't understand the pressure/procedures
• facing a highly distributed organisation with such a
complex division of labour is that of communication,
ensuring that work proceeds smoothly from one phase of
activity to the next, is passed on in a timely and coherent
fashion
Conclusions
• the limitations of "shrink-wrap" software
• the level of expertise and experience of the staff
using the system
• the need to provide a simple process to allow users
to configure their work
• a series of issues concerned with management in a
period of change is a complex and difficult
process,
– especially when the changes - organisational,
technological & cultural are being introduced
concurrently.
Expanded with
• the changes in culture, organisational structure and
technology do not all originate from a single integrated
strategy and inevitably tensions arise which involve
reconciling what can turn out to be incompatible goals;
• the need for a clearer understanding of the necessary
support at lower-levels for implementing and managing
changes;
• the problems which arise in implementing strategically
formulated change policies in particular localities within
the organisation;
• the practical prioritisation and reconciliation of long term
policy and short term contingencies
Orlikowski, 1992
• http://www.ai.univparis8.fr/corpus/papers/brown/chapter2.html
• describes the unsuccessful attempts to implement Notes
use in a large international consultancy firm.
• Orlikowski covers a number of reasons, given by the
employees, why Notes wasn't used.
• Follows on from (Grudin, 1989) listed the potential
reasons why groupware implementations fail.
• The reasons Orlikowski gives for the failure of Notes fit
neatly into Grudin's categorisations. Both papers are
summarised on the next slides
(Grudin, 1989): Reasons why
groupware fail applications
• Poor
intuitions
about
groupware
(Orlikowski, 1992): Learning
from Notes
• Inappropriate Training Employees
couldn't grasp what Notes was
• No Motivation to do training
Employees had low motivation to
understand Notes
• Top down installation Use was
management rather than peer
encouraged
• Employees worried about database
information being mis-interpreted No
intuition about the status of `shared
information' inside databases
• Violated Social • Worries about security
Security was a `norm' which
Taboos
has to be shown to be
respected - Notes was not
demonstrably secure
• Client lists were employees'
• Threatened
power bases so they didn't
existing power
want to share them with
distributions
others
• Disparity in
Benefit
• Individuals got no benefit from
sharing information, only risks
if information was
misinterpreted Employees
worried about information being
shared and mis-interpreted.
GROUPWARE AND SOCIAL DYNAMICS: EIGHT
CHALLENGES FOR DEVELOPERS
•
http://www.ics.uci.edu/~grudin/Papers/CACM94/cacm94.html
1)
The disparity between who does the work and who gets
the benefit
Critical Mass and Prisoners Dilemma Problems
Social, Political and Motivational factor
Exception handling in workgroups
Designing for infrequently used features
The underestimated difficulty in evaluating groupware
Breakdown of intuitive decision making
Managing acceptance
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
Building and Prototyping
Groupware
• http://www.hiraeth.com/alan/tutorials/groupware/groupware.pdf
• Its is hard
– Interface building + networking
– HCI people know about the former !!!!
– Concentrate on networking
• But it has to be good
– Crash in single-user
• One sad user
– Crash in groupware
• Disaster
– Concentrate on networking
Causes of failure
1.
2.
3.
4.
Hardware failures
Programming errors
Unforeseen sequence of events
System does not scale
• Large number of components
– 1 is more frequent
• Complexity of algorithms
– 2 more likely
• Interleaving and delays
– 3 difficult to debug
• Limited testing conditions
– 4 unexercised
Survival
• Network or server failures
– Robust, reconfigure, resynchronise
• Software faults
–
–
–
–
–
Defensive programming
Use simple algorithms
Verify
Unforeseen sequence of events
Debugging and testing
What’s so hard about Groupware?
•
http://idm.internet.com/features/groupware-1.shtml
• Before you start implementing groupware on your
intranet, I suggest you to take a look at what makes it
so hard to implement, and sometimes even causes it to
fail. What's so hard about groupware? Very simply, it's
people. They're not only the hardest part, they're also
the most important part. It's these people issues that
make IT folks very uncomfortable. We can deal with the
technical stuff, but it's just so much harder to deal with
the people issues. That's why most IT groups are
unprepared to implement groupware, and why these
projects are fraught with risk.
• Groupware projects fail when companies try to use them
after downsizing to replace people and to improve
productivity. That's a mistake, because groupware only
works when employees feel secure.
• They don't need to get some technology shoved down
their throats to cause them even more anxiety!
• It's crucial for employees to know that the organization is
implementing groupware to help them and support them.
• Groupware depends upon sharing, an alien concept in
many corporations today.
• Employees who value their autonomy and feel that
groupware brings Big Brother down upon them. For them,
their schedules become public knowledge and available for
other people to manipulate.
• Employees and managers who hoard information and
believe that it gives them power. When everyone has
information, they lose that power and no longer have an
edge over their competition.
• Secretaries and clerks who have everything under control.
Their efficiency gives them power, but when orderly files
no longer matter, they risk losing their power base.
Factors That Contribute to a Successful Groupware
Implementation
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Change the culture to support collaboration.
Make sure employees feel secure and supported by the organization
because groupware only works when employees feel secure.
Make it the users' project. Business users should own it and make
the product decisions.
Ensure good communication among everyone participating in the
project. Start the communication early and keep it up.
The role of IT is to support and coordinate, not to dictate and
control. IT should create and support the network infrastructure,
provide communications, and provide the resources necessary to
make the project successful.
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Don't dictate or decree anything.
Executive leadership and support can help to start the change
process and can eliminate obstacles. You don't necessarily have to
have executive leadership at the very beginning when you do pilots,
but it can be helpful later to eliminate the inevitable resistance. If
senior managers make it known that the best way to contact them is
through a specific groupware tool, then others will start using it as
well.
Enroll the thought leaders and influencers early.
Plan for helping people with change.
Help people to see why they should want groupware.
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Have evangelists promote the idea at every opportunity.
Plan for any training and support that you need. Do you need more
people or specialized training programs? If so, get them. You won't
get the results you expect unless you anticipate and cover all the
users needs.
Plan for growth and be prepared to ramp up quickly, just like with
the intranet.
Groupware must provide benefits every day to users and should be
so compelling that they want to use it because it improves their
work life.
Apply the lessons learned at each stage to the next rollout or
application.
Measure the results if you can, but don't rely upon results to sell the
project. Many of the results are intangibles.
• Thank you and enjoy your movie