Facilitator-in-a-Box: Process Support Applications to Help Practitioners Realize the Potential of Collaboration Technology

Briggs, Robert O.; Kolfschoten, Gwendolyn L.; Vreede, Gert-Jan de; Lukosch, Stephan; Albrecht, Conan

doi:10.2753/mis0742-1222290406

Cited by 71 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Proof-of-concept prototypes showed that the CSS approach could cut development times for real-time collaboration systems by two orders of magnitude. Proof-of-value prototypes demonstrated that non-expert practitioners could able to successfully execute an engineered work practice with no training on either the collaboration technologies or collaboration techniques [13]. Proof-of-value research continues on CSS.…”

Section: The Last Research Mile In Collaboration Engineeringmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In a CSS, a collaboration engineer snaps together Process Support Applications (PSA), using small, loosely coupled, highly configurable collaborative components to create tools that exactly match the structure of a group's task without having to write new software code [13]. A PSA moves a group through a sequence of activities designed by an expert.…”

Section: The Last Research Mile In Collaboration Engineeringmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Last Research Mile: Achieving Both Rigor and Relevance in Information Systems Research

Nunamaker

Briggs

Derrick

et al. 2015

Journal of Management Information Systems

Self Cite

121

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From our desk chairs it may be tempting to work up an idea, build a quick prototype, test it in a lab, and say, "Our work here is done; the rest is merely details." More scholarly knowledge awaits discovery, however, by researchers who shepherd an information systems (IS) solution through the last research mile, that is, through successful transition to the workplace. Going the last research mile means using scientific knowledge and methods to address important unsolved classes of problems for real people with real stakes in the outcomes. The last research mile proceeds in three stages: proof-of-concept research to demonstrate the functional feasibility of a solution; proof-of-value research to investigate whether a solution can create value across a variety of conditions; and proof-of-use research to address complex issues of operational feasibility. The last research mile ends only when practitioners routinely use a solution in the field. We argue that going the last research mile negates the assumption that one must trade off rigor and relevance, showing it to be it a false dilemma. Systems researchers who take their solutions through the last research mile may ultimately have the greatest impact on science and society. We demonstrate the last research mile with cases from our own work and the work of others spanning more than forty years. As a professor of information systems at San Diego State University, Robert O. Briggs researches the cognitive foundations of collaboration and uses his findings to design new collaborative work practices and technologies. He is cofounder of the collaboration engineering field and co-inventor of the ThinkLets design pattern language for collaborative work processes. He has made exploratory, theoretical, experimental, and technological contributions to the areas of team productivity, technology-supported learning, ideation, creativity, consensus, satisfaction, willingness to change, and technology transition. He has designed collaboration systems and collaborative workspaces for industry, academia, government, and the military. He co-chairs the Collaboration Systems and Technology track for the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. He lectures worldwide on collaboration theory and practice, and on the logic of scientific inquiry. He has published more than two hundred scholarly works collaboration systems and technology, addressing issues team productivity, technology-supported learning, creativity, satisfaction, and technology transition. He earned his doctorate Management Information Systems at the University of Arizona in 1994. Air Force officer. He has extensive experience working with the Department of Defense. As a contractor and academic, he has been awarded contracts and grants totaling $39.85 Million over the last 12 years (principle investigator awards total $16.89 Million). Doug has published 41 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings. Douglas C Derrick Gerhard SchwabeGerhard Schwabe is a full professor of at the Universit...

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Section: The Last Research Mile In Collaboration Engineeringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Last Research Mile In Collaboration Engineeringmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Last Research Mile: Achieving Both Rigor and Relevance in Information Systems Research

Nunamaker

Briggs

Derrick

et al. 2015

Journal of Management Information Systems

Self Cite

121

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“…For AG+/DE-teams we based our instructions on a thinkLet called "FastFocus" [17], which offers attention guidance. With FastFocus, the facilitator distributes all brainstorming ideas among the team so that each team member only sees a subset of the ideas.…”

Section: Conclusion and Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond Brainstorming: Exploring Convergence in Teams

Seeber¹,

Vreede²,

Maier³

et al. 2017

Journal of Management Information Systems

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Collaborative brainstorming is often followed by a convergence activity where teams extract the most promising ideas on a useful level of detail from the brainstorming results. Contrary to the wealth of research on electronic brainstorming, there is a dearth of research on convergence. We used experimental methods for an in-depth exploration of two facilitation-based interventions in a convergence activity: attention guidance (focusing participants on procedures to execute a convergence task) and discussion encouragement (engaging participants in conversations to combine knowledge on ideas). Our findings show that both attention guidance and discussion encouragement are correlated with higher convergence quality. We argue that attention guidance's contribution is in its support of coordination, information processing, and goal specification. Similar, we argue that discussion encouragement's contribution is in its stimulation of idea clarification and idea combination. Contrary to past research, our findings further show that satisfaction was higher after convergence than after brainstorming.KEY WORDS AND PHRASES: attention guidance, brainstorming, collaboration, collaborative brainstorming, discussion encouragement, idea convergence, idea quality, idea selection, ideation, satisfaction, team, teamwork.Increased market competition, fast technological developments, and the dynamic environment in which organizations function set increasingly challenging requirements on an organization's ability to solve problems and make decisions. To address such challenges, organizations rely on the collaborative development of ideas, in both small teams and large crowds [39,45]. Since the 1950s, a vast body of literature has developed on brainstorming or ideation, spanning different disciplines such as psychology, information systems, and management [30,67,76]. This research shows that under a variety of conditions, teams using collaboration technologies and techniques may produce more ideas of higher quality than individuals who do not use such support [30,31,37,76].However, brainstorming by itself is insufficient for organizational value creation. It is an early step in a collaborative idea development process but does not produce a single final solution or decision [42,45]. In fact, most brainstorming techniques and technologies aim to generate high volumes of ideas to increase the likelihood that some promising ideas will be part of the results [15]. There are many examples of high brainstorming productivity: a team of end-user representatives working with information systems (IS) professionals can generate hundreds of user stories in a matter of hours [26]. A team of military decision makers can identify dozens of possible courses of action in response to an external event or threat [12]. Emergency 940 SEEBER, MAIER, DE VREEDE, AND WEBER response workers can easily collect hundreds of ideas to bring relief to areas that have been struck by natural disaster [84]. Brainstorming productivity gets even more pronounced...

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“…Over the past 15 years, however, CE researchers have developed collaboration constructs and theories, [e.g. 2,5]; developed modeling conventions to represent critical aspects of collaboration processes, [10,25]; and invented new technologies, both to support the professional practices of CEs and to guide non-expert practitioners through well-designed work practices with little or no training [1,14]. Approaches were developed to measure the quality of collaboration capabilities, processes and outcomes [13,23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collaboration Engineering Methodology: Horizontal Extension to Accommodate Project and Program Concerns

Randrup

Briggs²

2017

Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (2017)

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Facilitator-in-a-Box: Process Support Applications to Help Practitioners Realize the Potential of Collaboration Technology

Cited by 71 publications

References 42 publications

The Last Research Mile: Achieving Both Rigor and Relevance in Information Systems Research

The Last Research Mile: Achieving Both Rigor and Relevance in Information Systems Research

Beyond Brainstorming: Exploring Convergence in Teams

Collaboration Engineering Methodology: Horizontal Extension to Accommodate Project and Program Concerns

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