Virtual Teams: Towards Improving Work Effectiveness through Collaboration Process Structure Training

Organizations are increasingly using virtual teams to execute business processes by leveraging a distributed workforce and advanced communication and collaboration technologies. Given the growing use of virtual teams in work-place settings, there is a need to impart students with collaboration skills in virtual environments to enable them to perform efficiently in a globalized economy. Due to the complex nature of collaboration in distributed and virtual environments, past research indicates that formalized structured processes are key to successful collaboration and group performance. In this paper, we propose a training program to teach students how to collaborate in virtual settings by focusing on the process aspect. The structuring of the collaboration processes is suggested through the application of successful collaboration patterns deemed thinkLets. These structured templates may be instantiated using common collaboration tools to generate desired collaboration patterns and group processes

Design Requirements for Collaboration Processes to Increase Customer Trust in Mobile Banking Platforms

Banks expect the mobile channel to become more important for collaborating with customers. However, a lack of trust continues to prevent a faster dissemination of such mobile banking services, especially for the private banking customer segment. Hence, this paper discusses various determinants of trust and follows a theory-driven approach rooted in the collaboration engineering methodology. Grounded in the calculativebased, relational-based and institution-based views of trust, we derive the following design requirements for collaboration processes on mobile banking platforms: security, privacy, transparency, familiarity, social presence and normality. By validating these requirements with expert interviews, we contribute to existing theory by adding transparency as a design requirement for a collaboration process that fosters trust. Moreover, contrary to existing theory, we did not confirm familiarity as a requirement in this study

Planning and Design Considerations for Computer Supported Collaboration Spaces

Architects have long been aware of the need to design for the behaviors a space is meant to support. However, neither the seminal works on architectural programming or collaborative engineering address the linkages between physical environment design and collaborative work practice. This paper posits that the design of collaboration environments should stand as a third pillar of collaboration engineering, suggests four ways in which physical environment design and collaboration engineering might mutually inform the other, and specifies several dimensions of physical environment affordance collaboration engineers might consider when developing requirements for collaboration space

Enhancing E-learning using Artifact-Based Collaboration

Given the increased focus on e-learning, educators are interested in finding new ways to incorporate techniques that foster active learning. To leverage the asynchronous nature of e-learning settings and provide collaborative learning opportunities for participants that go beyond mere information exchange, this paper proposes an integrated model of collaboration and elearning. This approach ties together two research streams, namely the distributed e-learning environment research and the information systems collaboration research. Further, descriptive categories of collaboration approaches are presented: solution-based collaboration and artifact-based collaboration. An artifact-based collaborative e-learning tool is developed and discussed with the aim to improve the collaborative, e-learning process

Principles in Patterns (PiP) : Evaluation of Impact on Business Processes

The innovation and development work conducted under the auspices of the Principles in Patterns (PiP) project is intended to explore and develop new technology-supported approaches to curriculum design, approval and review. An integral component of this innovation is the use of business process analysis and process change techniques - and their instantiation within the C-CAP system (Class and Course Approval Pilot) - in order to improve the efficacy of curriculum approval processes. Improvements to approval process responsiveness and overall process efficacy can assist institutions in better reviewing or updating curriculum designs to enhance pedagogy. Such improvements also assume a greater significance in a globalised HE environment, in which institutions must adapt or create curricula quickly in order to better reflect rapidly changing academic contexts, as well as better responding to the demands of employment marketplaces and the expectations of professional bodies. This is increasingly an issue for disciplines within the sciences and engineering, where new skills or knowledge need to be rapidly embedded in curricula as a response to emerging technological or environmental developments. All of the aforementioned must also be achieved while simultaneously maintaining high standards of academic quality, thus adding a further layer of complexity to the way in which HE institutions engage in "responsive curriculum design" and approval. This strand of the PiP evaluation therefore entails an analysis of the business process techniques used by PiP, their efficacy, and the impact of process changes on the curriculum approval process, as instantiated by C-CAP. More generally the evaluation is a contribution towards a wider understanding of technology-supported process improvement initiatives within curriculum approval and their potential to render such processes more transparent, efficient and effective. Partly owing to limitations in the data required to facilitate comparative analyses, this evaluation adopts a mixed approach, making use of qualitative and quantitative methods as well as theoretical techniques. These approaches combined enable a comparative evaluation of the curriculum approval process under the "new state" (i.e. using C-CAP) and under the "previous state". This report summarises the methodology used to enable comparative evaluation and presents an analysis and discussion of the results. As the report will explain, the impact of C-CAP and its ability to support improvements in process and document management has resulted in the resolution of numerous process failings. C-CAP has also demonstrated potential for improvements in approval process cycle time, process reliability, process visibility, process automation, process parallelism and a reduction in transition delays within the approval process, thus contributing to considerable process efficiencies; although it is acknowledged that enhancements and redesign may be required to take advantage of C-CAP's potential. Other aspects pertaining to C-CAP's impact on process change, improvements to document management and the curation of curriculum designs will also be discussed

Collaboration Engineering for Incident Response Planning: Process Development and Validation

Contains fulltext : 34998.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)HICS

Tycho: Facilitation Support for Groupware User Tests

Running user tests for groupware requires tracking the progress of multiple users performing co-dependent tasks, while facilitating and observing their coordinated actions. This requirement negatively impacts the main objective of user testing, which is detecting usability flaws. User testing of groupware becomes more challenging when run remotely. Even if there are tools for remote user testing that can get the job done for a single user, they are not prepared for collaborative scenarios. In this paper we argue that tool support for the facilitation of user tests of groupware is missing. Consequently, we propose a method for user tests with tool assistance that makes it possible to automate task synchronization, especially for different workflows that must be run concurrently. We evaluated our proposal by comparing it to a manually facilitated approach during on-site coordinated user tests. The results indicate that, while the task of designing and running user tests with tool support takes more time, it allows the testers to better focus on detecting usability problems.Fil: Grigera, Julián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Informática. Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzada; Argentina. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas; ArgentinaFil: Gardey, Juan Cruz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Informática. Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzada; ArgentinaFil: Fernandez, Alejandro. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Informática. Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzada; Argentina. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas; ArgentinaFil: Garrido, Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Informática. Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzada; Argentin

Концепция построения коллаборативных систем поддержки принятия решений: подход и архитектура платформы

The paper describes a general conception of collaborative decision support systems, in which teams providing decision support a) are formed flexibly in accordance with the problem and b) consist of both human experts and intelligent agents implementing AI methods and techniques. An analysis of the key problems of creating collaborative decision support systems based on the collaboration of humans and AI is carried out, the following problems are highlighted: ensuring interoperability (mutual understanding) between heterogeneous team members, reconciling differing positions of participants, ensuring trust between participants, ensuring the effectiveness of joint actions planning and maintaining a balance between predefined workflows and self-organization. Principles for constructing such systems have been formed, offering solutions to the identified problems. In particular, it is proposed to employ an ontology-oriented representation of information about the problem (in the form of multi-aspect ontology), a set of methods for monitoring team activities, reputation scheme, elements of explainable AI, as well as mechanisms of limited self-organization. The proposed concept forms the basis of a software platform for the development of collaborative decision support systems, the main architectural provisions of which are also presented in the paper. The use of the platform is illustrated by an example from the field of rational management of road infrastructure and the creation of a collaborative DSS for the development of measures to reduce road accidents.В статье описывается общая концепция построения коллаборативных систем поддержки принятия решений, в которых коллективы, осуществляющие поддержку принятия решений, а) формируются гибко в соответствии с задачей и б) состоят как из людей-экспертов, так и из интеллектуальных агентов, реализующих те или иные методы искусственного интеллекта. Проводится анализ ключевых проблем создания коллаборативных систем поддержки принятия решений, основанных на взаимодействии человека и искусственного интеллекта. В частности, выделены следующие проблемы: обеспечение интероперабельности (взаимопонимания) между разнородными участниками коллектива, согласование различающихся позиций участников, обеспечение доверия между участниками, обеспечение эффективности планирования совместных действий и соблюдение баланса между предопределенными потоками работ и самоорганизацией. Сформированы принципы построения подобных систем, предлагающие решения выделенных проблем. В частности, предлагается онтолого-ориентированное представление информации о проблеме (в частности, применение мультиаспектных онтологий), набор методов для мониторинга деятельности команды, схема репутации, элементы объяснимого искусственного интеллекта, а также применение механизма ограниченной самоорганизации. Предложенная концепция положена в основу программной платформы для создания коллаборативных систем поддержки принятия решений, основные архитектурные положения которой также представлены в статье. Применение платформы иллюстрируется на примере из области рационального управления дорожной инфраструктурой и создания коллаборативной системы поддержки принятия решений для разработки мероприятий по снижению аварийности