Meetings in a distributed group of experts: comparing face-to-face, chat and collaborative virtual environments

This paper focuses on Collaborative Virtual Environments, and their potential to support work meetings for geographically distributed experts. The research question concerns the difference between face-to-face-, chat-, and CVE- meetings with regard to efficiency, communication process, problems with the technology, enjoyment and competence development. A small group of experts were observed during their natural work meetings. Six of the groups scheduled meetings were held three times in a chat environment and three times in a CVE. Results suggests that chat and CVE meetings are experienced as more task oriented than face-to-face meetings, and that avatars support turn taking and are enjoyable.     

Ask a UT System Librarian

SUMMARY

University of Texas System libraries initiated a chat reference program to support distance learners enrolled at University of Texas component institutions, including the UT Telecampus Digital Library. Librarians at several geographically distant campuses staffed the collaborative chat reference service.

Librarians assisted students at other UT System campuses, in effect becoming “distance librarians” who must have thorough knowledge of both their own library resources and the resources available at other campus libraries.

Librarians at The University of Texas at San Antonio share their experiences with this collaborative chat reference service.     

Collaboration processes,outcomes, challenges and enablers of distributed clinical communities of practice

Modern healthcare's need for knowledge sharing and bridging the research–practice gap requires new forms of collaboration, in which clinicians of varying clinical and research expertise work together over geographical and organisational borders. To support such distributed communities of practice (CoPs), an understanding of their collaboration processes, outcomes, challenges and enablers is needed. The article examines these issues through a case study of a long-running CoP, the Swedish Oral Medicine Network (SOMNet). SOMNet's main form of collaboration is monthly telephone conference meetings centred on case consultations. Cases are submitted by the clinicians via a Web-based system. The methods used were interviews, observations, and a questionnaire. The work adds to previous research by studying a distributed CoP explicitly focused on supporting the transfer of scientific results from researchers to practitioners. We found that the regular meetings give a rhythm to the community. The centrality of cases means an immediate benefit for the submitter while the community is provided an authentic context for learning. SOMNet yields opportunities for help and learning for diverse expertise levels; the type of benefits is affected by the participant's degree of oral medicine knowledge and collaboration involvement. There are challenges in accommodating varying levels of expertise and encouraging those less experienced to participate. Enablers of the collaboration include the participation of experts, meeting facilitators and well-adapted ITs.     

“Solving” ambiguity in the virtual space: communication strategies in a collaborative virtual environment

Collaborative virtual environments (CVE) face the challenge of succeeding in incorporating critical dimensions of cooperation and communication in everyday working situations. One of these dimensions, situation ambiguity, is scarcely considered in studies on CVE although it can prove a key factor in future use of CVE in real work situations. Many computer-supported cooperative environments and telecommunication systems, like those currently used in telemedicine, would benefit from the incorporation of some degree of situation ambiguity allowing users to deploy their diagnostic and interpretive abilities. In the perspective adopted in this study, ambiguity is the contingent outcome of the ongoing interaction taking place between the environment and the interests of social actors. The research focuses on the cooperation within couples of participants facing situation ambiguity in a virtual environment: a simulated city named Babylon. Participants moved in the city through an avatar and could communicate in one of the following conditions: face-to-face, phone or chat. Their goal was that of meeting somewhere in the city, in a place that they did not know previously. Babylon contained elements designed to allow both production and detection of ambiguity. Ambiguity emerged when participants realized the presence of inconsistencies in the way they perceived the situations they had to face. The moments in which ambiguity was perceived—called “critical events” (CE)—were measured and described through qualitative (ethnographically oriented) methods. The different strategies that participants used to “solve” ambiguity were characterized as: looking for environmental cues, narrowing the focus of attention and investing on cooperation. Both CEs and strategies were analyzed with respect to the three communication conditions: face-to-face, phone and chat. All the communication conditions allowed the emergence of ambiguity and the negotiation of strategies to solve ambiguity between partners: according to literature, chat is very costly in terms of time spent on writing but this disadvantage did not block completely the emergence of ambiguity and the development of adequate strategies of solution. All navigations but three (on a total of 18 couples) succeeded: the partners did meet in a short time (less than 15 min) relying on their pragmatic resources in a new virtual place. Further research is required to clarify the possible factors influencing the choice of one strategy over the others, the order in which strategies follow each other and the role of leadership in ambiguity detection and solution.     

REMOTE: desk-top Virtual Reality for future command and control?

This paper discusses a study in supporting collaborative military planning in which groupware, video-conferencing and a desktop Collaborative Virtual Environment (CVE) were used. It discusses the design and implementation of the CVE and the setup and execution of the study using questionnaires and observation. The results of the study questionnaires showed that the CVE was not seen by users as the best of the ways offered to support collaborative planning; these results are discussed and their implication for the design of such a CVE are assessed.

A tool supporting root cause analysis for synchronous retrospectives in distributed software teams

ContextRoot cause analysis (RCA) is a useful practice for software project retrospectives, and is typically carried out in synchronous collocated face-to-face meetings. Conducting RCA with distributed teams is challenging, as face-to-face meetings are infeasible. Lack of adequate real-time tool support exacerbates this problem. Furthermore, there are no empirical studies on using RCA in synchronous retrospectives of geographically distributed teams.ObjectiveThis paper presents a real-time cloud-based software tool (ARCA-tool) we developed to support RCA in distributed teams and its initial empirical evaluation. The feasibility of using RCA with distributed teams is also evaluated.MethodWe compared our tool with 35 existing RCA software tools. We conducted field studies of four distributed agile software teams at two international software product companies. The teams conducted RCA collaboratively in synchronous retrospective meetings by using the tool we developed. We collected the data using observations, interviews and questionnaires.ResultsComparison revealed that none of the existing 35 tools matched all the features of our ARCA-tool. The team members found ARCA-tool to be an essential part of their distributed retrospectives. They considered the software as efficient and very easy to learn and use. Additionally, the team members perceived RCA to be a vital part of the retrospectives. In contrast to the prior retrospective practices of the teams, the introduced RCA method was evaluated as efficient and easy to use.ConclusionRCA is a useful practice in synchronous distributed retrospectives. However, it requires software tool support for enabling real-time view and co-creation of a cause-effect diagram. ARCA-tool supports synchronous RCA, and includes support for logging problems and causes, problem prioritization, cause-effect diagramming, and logging of process improvement proposals. It enables conducting RCA in distributed retrospectives.     

Carpeno: interfacing remote collaborative virtual environments with table-top interaction

Creativity is enhanced by communication and collaboration. Thus, the increasing number of distributed creative tasks requires better support from computer-mediated communication and collaborative tools. In this paper we introduce “Carpeno”, a new system for facilitating intuitive face-to-face and remote collaboration on creative tasks. Normally the most popular and efficient way for people to collaborate is face-to-face, sitting around a table. Computer augmented surface environments, in particular interactive table-top environments, are increasingly used to support face-to-face meetings. They help co-located teams to develop new ideas by facilitating the presentation, manipulation, and exchange of shared digital documents displayed on the table-top surface. Users can see each other at the same time as the information they are talking about. In this way the task space and communication space can be brought together in a more natural and intuitive way. The discussion of digital content is redirected from a computer screen, back to a table where people can gather around. In contrast, collaborative virtual environments (CVE) are used to support remote collaboration. They frequently create familiar discussion scenarios for remote interlocutors by utilizing room metaphors. Here, virtual avatars and table metaphors are used, where the participants can get together and communicate with each other in a way that allows behaviour that is as close to face-to-face collaboration as possible. The Carpeno system described here combines table-top interaction with a CVE to support intuitive face-to-face and remote collaboration. This allows for simultaneous co-located and remote collaboration around a common, interactive table.

Impact of SCBA size and fatigue from different firefighting work cycles on firefighter gait

Risk of slips, trips and falls in firefighters maybe influenced by the firefighter’s equipment and duration of firefighting. This study examined the impact of a four self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) three SCBA of increasing size and a prototype design and three work cycles one bout (1B), two bouts with a five-minute break (2B) and two bouts back-to-back (BB) on gait in 30 firefighters. Five gait parameters (double support time, single support time, stride length, step width and stride velocity) were examined pre- and post-firefighting activity. The two largest SCBA resulted in longer double support times relative to the smallest SCBA. Multiple bouts of firefighting activity resulted in increased single and double support time and decreased stride length, step width and stride velocity. These results suggest that with larger SCBA or longer durations of activity, firefighters may adopt more conservative gait patterns to minimise fall risk.

Practitioner Summary: The effects of four self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) and three work cycles on five gait parameters were examined pre- and post-firefighting activity. Both SCBA size and work cycle affected gait. The two largest SCBA resulted in longer double support times. Multiple bouts of activity resulted in more conservative gait patterns.     

Communities of practice in a large distributed agile software development organization – Case Ericsson

ContextCommunities of practice—groups of experts who share a common interest or topic and collectively want to deepen their knowledge—can be an important part of a successful lean and agile adoption in particular in large organizations.ObjectiveIn this paper, we present a study on how a large organization within Ericsson with 400 persons in 40 Scrum teams at three sites adopted the use of Communities of Practice (CoP) as part of their transformation from a traditional plan-driven organization to lean and agile.MethodsWe collected data by 52 semi-structured interviews on two sites, and longitudinal non-participant observation of the transformation during over 20 site visits over a period of two years.ResultsThe organization had over 20 CoPs, gathering weekly, bi-weekly or on a need basis. CoPs had several purposes including knowledge sharing and learning, coordination, technical work, and organizational development. Examples of CoPs include Feature Coordination CoPs to coordinate between teams working on the same feature, a Coaching CoP to discuss agile implementation challenges and successes and to help lead the organizational continuous improvement, an end-to-end CoP to remove bottlenecks from the flow, and Developers CoPs to share good development practices. Success factors of well-functioning CoPs include having a good topic, passionate leader, proper agenda, decision making authority, open community, supporting tools, suitable rhythm, and cross-site participation when needed. Organizational support include creating a supportive atmosphere and providing a suitable infrastructure for CoPs.ConclusionsIn the case organization, CoPs were initially used to support the agile transformation, and as part of the distributed Scrum implementation. As the transformation progressed, the CoPs also took on the role of supporting continuous organizational improvements. CoPs became a central mechanism behind the success of the large-scale agile implementation in the case organization that helped mitigate some of the most pressing problems of the agile transformation.     

Computer support for meetings: formalisms for local control?

This paper considers experience of computer supported meeting environments and decision support systems. The benefits are related to the ease with which computer images can be manipulated. The paper argues that the benefits follow from three underlying factors. Cognitive and social processes, and specific, grounded decision situations are not well understood. Acceptable computer support embeds an appropriate manipulable formalism, and avoids the temptation to try to represent social process and situations. This enables participants to construct their own local processes and representations, and then to reconstruct them as needed. The potential of such support is to encourage participants in discussions and meetings to gain greater control over the local synthetic a priori (framework, protocols and procedures) within which their work takes place.     

Analysing trade-offs in frameworks for the design of smart environments

ABSTRACT

Smart Interactive Experiences (SIEs) are usage situations enabled by the Internet of Things that empower users to interact with the surrounding environment. The goal of our research is to define methodologies and software environments to support the design of SIEs; more specifically, we focus on design paradigms suitable for experts of given domains, who however might not be experts in technology. In this context, this paper discusses some trade-offs that we identified between six different dimensions that characterise the quality of software environments for SIE design. The trade-offs emerged from the analysis of data collected in an experimental study that compared three different design paradigms to understand in which measure each paradigm supports the creative process for SIE design. After reporting on the study procedure and the data analyses, the paper illustrates how the resulting trade-offs led us to identify alternatives for SIE design paradigms, and to structure on their basis a modular architecture of a software platform where the strengths of the three paradigms can be exploited flexibly, i.e. depending on the constraints and the requirements characterising specific design situations.     

An integrated approach based on execution measures for the continuous improvement of business processes realized by services

ContextOrganizations are rapidly adopting Business Process Management (BPM) as they focus on their business processes (BPs), seeing them to be key elements in controlling and improving the way they perform their business. Business Process Intelligence (BPI) takes as its focus the collection and analysis of information from the execution of BPs for the support of decision making, based on the discovery of improvement opportunities. Realizing BPs by services introduces an intermediate service layer that enables us to separate the specification of BPs in terms of models from the technologies implementing them, thus improving their modifiability by decoupling the model from its implementation.ObjectiveTo provide an approach for the continuous improvement of BPs, based on their realization with services and execution measurement. It comprises an improvement process to integrate the improvements into the BPs and services, an execution measurement model defining and categorizing several measures for BPs and service execution, and tool support for both.MethodWe carried out a systematic literature review, to collect existing proposals related to our research work. Then, in close collaboration with business experts from the Hospital General de Ciudad Real (HGCR), Spain, and following design science principles, we developed the methods and artifacts described in this paper, which were validated by means of a case study.ResultsWe defined an improvement process extending the BP lifecycle with measurement and improvement activities, integrating an execution measurement model comprising a set of execution measures. Moreover, we developed a plug-in for the ProM framework to visualize the measurement results as a proof-of-concept prototype. The case study with the HGCR has shown its feasibility.ConclusionsOur improvement vision, based on BPs realized by services and on measurement of their execution, in conjunction with a systematic approach to integrate the detected improvements, provides useful guidance to organizations.     

Introducing knowledge redundancy practice in software development: Experiences with job rotation in support work

ContextJob rotation is a widely known approach to increase knowledge redundancy but empirical evidence regarding introduction and adoption in software development is scant. A lack of knowledge redundancy is a limiting factor for collaboration, flexibility, and coordination within teams and within the organization.ObjectiveThe scientific objective of this investigation was to explore benefits and challenges with improving knowledge redundancy among developers participating in job rotation. There were two practical objectives; (a) to establish customer support as a legitimate organizational function that would shield developers from support enquiries, and (b) to contribute to improved flexibility in project staffing by enabling overlapping product experience among developers.MethodWe used action research to integrate organizational change with scientific inquiry. During a period of eighteen weeks, nine developers rotated to customer support. We collected data throughout the period of collaboration; in meetings, from comprehensive interviews, and from customer support work logs.ResultsPerceptions of reduced efficiency and unnecessary redundancy outweighed benefits of shielding and learning about different products. Although there were strong indications of increased knowledge redundancy, the benefits were not sufficient to justify job rotation. Job rotation was abandoned after the trial period.ConclusionsJob rotation can contribute to improved knowledge redundancy. Benefits of knowledge redundancy include innovation stemming from integration of different knowledge domains and improved appreciation of organizational concerns. However, knowledge redundancy incurs a collective cost that must be amortized and legitimized by the organization. An adoption process that accommodates open and trustful discussion among all involved stakeholders is therefore encouraged.     

Developing a Chat Reference Training Program

ABSTRACT

In the last few years, chat reference services have been implemented by public, college and university libraries. One important aspect of the chat reference service is library staff training. Literature shows that this is a vital step in offering a chat reference service. Library staff need to be well-trained in areas of chatting, reference interviewing in a digital environment and using electronic resources, such as the Internet and databases. This article discusses the chat reference training program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The following text provides an outline for establishing a chat training program including planning, organization, implementation and assessment. Areas of discussion include the chat reference interview, chatting and patron management techniques.     

Plenary Discussion: Relevance of Physiological and Psychological Criteria to Man-Machine Systems: The Present State of the Art

Abstract

Ergonomics seems to be more physiologically-oriented than does human factors engineering, its American counterpart. Quantitative support for this view is provided by content analyses of papers presented at certain meetings of two European and one American professional society, and of papers published in the journals Ergonomics and Human Factors. Several possibilities are adduced to account for this divergent emphasis placed on the use of physiological and psychological criteria. More serious than such differences is that it is not immediately apparent how most criteria used in ergonomic and human factors research relate to the criteria that are used for the design and evaluation of systems. If we are to have a viable technology we need to be able to show the relationship between the criteria used in experimental work and those used in the practical world.     

A decision ladder analysis of eco-driving: the first step towards fuel-efficient driving behaviour

This paper provides a decision ladder analysis of eco-driving, and a discussion of the resultant models in terms of the skills, rules and knowledge taxonomy of human behaviour and how this can inform the design of an in-vehicle, eco-driving support system. In order to understand the types of behaviours that characterise fuel-efficient driving, a review was conducted of the academic literature and of more publicly available resources, such as governmental, car manufacturers' and specific eco-driving organisations' websites. The review identified four largely distinct driving activities that play a central role in the use of fuel in the private road vehicle. A focus group involving four researchers in the transport ergonomics field, followed by a series of five interviews with eco-driving experts, served to validate, supplement and further specify the models.

Practitioner Summary: This paper presents a decision ladder analysis of eco-driving. A four-member focus group and five interviews with eco-driving experts were conducted; the resultant models are discussed in terms of supporting fuel-efficient driving behaviours in the novice eco-driver through their potential to inform the design of an in-vehicle eco-driving support system.     

Knowledge transfer,translation and transformation in the work of information technology architects

ContextInformation Technology (IT) architects are the professionals responsible for designing the information systems for an organization. In order to do that, they take into account many aspects and stakeholders, including customers, software developers, the organization’s business, and its current IT infrastructure. Therefore, different aspects influence their work.ObjectiveThis paper presents results of research into how IT architects perform their work in practice and how different aspects are taken into account when an information system is developed. An understanding of IT architects’ activities allows us to better support their work. This paper extends our own previous work (Figueiredo et al., 2012) [30] by discussing aspects of knowledge management and tool support.MethodA qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews for data collection and grounded theory methods (Strauss and Corbin, 1998) [5] for data analysis. Twenty-seven interviews were conducted with twenty-two interviewees from nine different companies through four cycles of data collection and analysis.ResultsCompanies divide IT architecture activities among different roles. Although these roles receive different names in different organizations, all organizations follow a similar pattern based on 3 roles: enterprise, solutions and software architects. These architects perform both the technical activities related to the IT architecture and the social activities regarding the communication and coordination with other stakeholders and among themselves. Furthermore, current tools used by IT architects lack adequate support for all these aspects.ConclusionThe activities of the different IT architects are highly interconnected and have a huge influence in the way the requirements are handled in every phase of the development of an information system. The activities of IT architects are also important for knowledge transfer, translation and transformation, since they receive from and spread information to different groups of stakeholders. We also conclude that they lack appropriate tool support, especially regarding support for their collaborative work.     

The role of social interaction in software effort estimation: Unpacking the “magic step” between reasoning and decision-making

ContextSoftware effort estimation is a core task regarding planning, budgeting and controlling software development projects. However, providing accurate effort estimates is challenging. Estimation work is increasingly group based, and to support it, there is a need to reveal how work practices are carried out as collaborative efforts.ObjectiveThis paper examines the use of concepts in software effort estimation by analysing group work as communicative practice. The objective is to improve our understanding of how software professionals invoke different types of knowledge when talking, reasoning and reaching a decision on a software effort estimate.MethodEstimation meetings in the industry where planning poker was used as the estimation method have been video recorded and analysed by means of the interaction analysis technique, focusing on the communicative and collaborative aspects of the group work.ResultsThe user story mediates the types of resources and knowledge needed to solve the task. Concepts from the knowledge domain are used to frame the task and allow the participants to reach consensus, sufficient to take the next step in the problem-solving activity. Individual knowledge seems to be the dominating orientation when it comes to specifying the work needed for solving the tasks.ConclusionThe step from reasoning to decision-making has been called the “magic step” in software effort estimation. We argue that the magic step is found in the analysis of the social interaction in which the concepts used are anchored in the knowledge domain of software engineering and in the historical experiences of the participants and subsequently become activated. We propose that by taking a socio-cultural perspective on concepts in activities, the ways in which software professionals reach a decision can be unpacked. The paper contributes to an understanding of the role of concepts in group work and of software effort estimation as a specific work practice.     

Some surprising differences between novice and expert errors in computerized office work

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of different levels of expertise on errors in human-computer interaction. In a field study 174 clerical workers from 12 different companies were observed during their normal office work and were questioned on their expertise with computers. The level of expertise was determined by (a) the length of time an employee had worked with a computer (computer expertise); (b) the number of programs she knew (program expertise); and (c) the daily time s/he spent working with the computer (daily work-time expertise). These different operationalizations of novices and experts led to different results. In contrast to widespread assumptions, experts did not make fewer errors than novices (except in knowledge errors). On the other hand, experts spent less time handling the errors than novices. A cluster analysis produced four groups in the workforce: occasional users, frequent users, beginners, and general users.