paper: groupware and social dynamics

Kicking off a batch of papers on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) is Grudin's list of challenges to the CSCW developer...

Groupware and Social Dynamics: Eight Challenges for Developers
Jonathan Grudin
Communications of the ACM

Groupware is introduced as software which lies in the midst of the spectrum between single-user applications and large organizational information systems. Examples include e-mail, instant messaging, group calendaring and scheduling, and electronic meeting rooms. The developers of groupware today come predominantly from a single-user background, and hence many do not realize the social and political factors crucial to developing groupware. Grudin outlines 8 major issues confronting groupware development and gives some proposed solutions.

The disparity between who does the work and who gets the benefit
Consider a shared calendaring system: A meeting organizer gets the benefit of automatically scheduled meetings, but it is all the involved employees who must do the work to maintain their calendars, and who might have no inclination to do so otherwise. Hence such features are rarely used.
Solution: Design processes that create benefits for all group members.

Critical Mass and Prisoner’s Dilemma Problems
Most groupware is only useful if a high percentage of group members use it. How useful is workplace IM if no one at work uses it…
Solution: Reduce work required of users, build incentives for use, suggest benefit-enhancing processes of use.

Social, Political, and Motivational Factors
Groupware will be resisted if it interferes with group social dynamics, e.g. a computer mistakenly schedules a manager’s unscheduled “free” time.
Solution: Contextual inquiry, domain familiarity / understanding.

Exception Handling in Workgroups
Much human problem-solving is ad hoc, often giving rise to exceptions and deviations from “standard process”. Systems that impede this are well situated for failure.
Solution: Again, contextual inquiry. Also, good configurability, though difficult, can help.

Designing for Infrequently Used Features
Groupware often focuses on communication and collaboration, but more is not necessarily better, and can lead to inefficiency, drawing away from the more frequently used single-user features. Groupware features should be known and accessible but not obtrusive.
Solution: Add groupware features to already successful applications if possible. Then create awareness and access to infrequently used features.

The Underestimated Difficulty of Evaluating Groupware
Evaluation of groupware is difficult: it is distributed, can span substantial time periods, and determining the factors of success/failure can be quite difficult.
Solution: “Development managers must enlist the appropriate skills, provide the resources, and disseminate the results”. In other words, Grudin doesn’t really know J.

The Breakdown of Intuitive Decision-Making
Groupware is often targeted for the benefit of managers (at least, this is what development decision-makers are drawn to), leaving out important end users of the system. Conversely, decision-makers do not recognize the value of apps that primarily benefit non-managers. This leads to more instances of Problem 1.
Solution: Recognition of this problem by development management. Again, contextual inquiry or domain understanding.

Managing Acceptance: A New Challenge for Product Developers
For groupware to be accepted it must be introduced carefully and deliberately. You have to attract a critical mass. Clear understanding by the users is crucial – a site visit and step-by-step learning can help.
Solution: Adding groupware to existing apps dodges the bullet. Other systems require good design (by understanding the environment of use, yet again contextual inquiry) and a developed adoption strategy.

Take home messages from the paper: groupware should strive to directly benefit all group members, build off of existing successful apps if possible, develop thoughtful adoption strategies, and be rooted in an understanding of the [physical|social|political] environment of use.

Posted by jheer at September 2, 2003 09:49 PM