3TZ collaborative team environments incorporating the hybrid holonic architecture

The paper describes a business reengineering process (BPR) approach to address multi-timezone (3-timezone or 3TZ) collaborative teamwork environments by combining the Holonic architecture with the Zachman Metamodel Framework. While the use of collaborative project systems is not new, the methodology to share time resources from different timezones seeks to address pedagogical and engineering process concerns in team-based project development. The benefits of collaborative project management tools go beyond a uniform platform to deploy project resources, but to also enhance systemic processes and engineering practice. This facilitates team members to dedicate their time towards common work tasks, delineates individual and shared work packages, and improves student-tutor feedback techniques as teachers can actively monitor progress of development throughout the project lifecycle. © 2010 IEEE