Using MIS 2e Chapter 2 Information Systems for Collaboration

1. Using MIS 2e Chapter 2 Information Systems for Collaboration David Kroenke 01/26 – 7:00AM © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

2. Study Questions • Q1 – What is collaboration? • Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems to improve team communication? • Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? • Q4 – How can you use collaboration systems to control workflow? • Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for decision making? • Q6 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for problem solving? • Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for project management? © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

3. Q1 – What is collaboration? • Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems to improve team communication? • Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? • Q4 – How can you use collaboration systems to control workflow? • Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for decision making? • Q6 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for problem solving? • Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for project management? © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

4. Q1 – What is collaboration? • Collaboration occurs when two or more people work together to achieve a common: • Goal • Result • Work product • When collaboration is effective, the results of the groupare greater than could be produced by any of the individuals working alone • Collaboration involves more than coordination and communication alone. It requires feedback and iteration. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

5. Q1 – What is collaboration? • Feedback and iteration provide an opportunity for team members to: • Proceed in a series of steps (iterations) by continuously reviewing and revising each other’s work • Learn from each other rather than working in isolation • Change the way they work and change what they produce • Ultimately produce a product that’s greater (and better) than an individual could accomplish working alone • The demand for those who have strong collaboration skills will explode in the 21st century. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

6. Q1 – What is collaboration? • The three critical collaboration drivers are: • Communication • Content management • Workflow control © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

7. Q1 – What is collaboration? • Critical collaboration drivers – communication • How well can group members communicate with each other, providing and receiving critical feedback? Work product can only improve when group members can criticize each other’s work without creating rancor and resentment and can improve their contributions based on the criticism received. • The success of the collaboration group depends on the availability of effective communication systems that allow them to share their skills and abilities because group members cannot meet either at the same time or the same place. Therefore, collaboration requires effective electronic communication systems to enable faceless, placeless, and timeless collaboration. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

8. Q1 – What is collaboration? • Critical collaboration drivers – content management • Users need to manage the content of their work to avoid conflicting with other team members working on the same content at the same time. • Team members need a system that will help them track and report changes with regard to who made what changes, when, and why. • An effective system assigns permissions to team members to create, edit, and delete content depending on their functionality within the group. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

9. Q1 – What is collaboration? • Critical collaboration drivers – workflow control • Workflow is a process or procedure to create, edit, use, and dispose of content. • The workflow specifies the particular ordering of tasks. • The workflow includes processes for handling rejected changes and exceptions. • The workflow ensures tasks are completed in an orderly manner. • The three critical collaboration drivers are not equally important for all collaborations. For one-time and ad hoc workgroups, it usually is not worthwhile to create and formalize workflows. For such groups, communication is the most important driver. But a formally defined workflow for a team of product design engineers is crucial. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

10. Key Characteristics for Collaboration • Researchers found that the top three characteristics for promoting collaboration involve disagreement: • Speaking an unpopular viewpoint • Willingness to enter into difficult conversations • Skill at giving and receiving feedback • The next three characteristics are: • enthusiasm for the subject • being open-minded, and • being curious © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

11. Key Characteristics for Collaboration • The respondents seem to be saying “You need to care, you need to be open-minded, but, more importantly, you need to be able to deal with conflict, effectively disagree, and receive opinions that are different from your own.” • During collaboration, team members need to learn from each other, and it will be difficult to learn if no one is willing to express unpopular or contentious ideas. • The respondents also seem to be saying “You can be negative, as long as you care about what we are doing.” • The characteristics rated not relevant are: • experience, • popularity, and • being well-organized. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

12. Q1 – What is collaboration? • Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems to improve team communication? • Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? • Q4 – How can you use collaboration systems to control workflow? • Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for decision making? • Q6 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for problem solving? • Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for project management? © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

13. Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems to improve team communication? • Communication capabilities are key to collaboration success. • Synchronous communication • Team members meet at thesame time, but not necessarily at the same geographic location. • It may include conference calls, face-to-face-meetings, multi-party text chat, video conferencing, or online meetings. • Collaboration using synchronous communication is difficult because of schedule conflicts. • You can use the meeting facilities in Microsoft Outlook to create online group calendars to resolve schedule conflicts. You can use Microsoft Word and Power Point to support meeting content. • Asynchronous communication • Team members use virtual meetings to avoid having to meet at the same time or in the same geographic location. • It may include discussion forums, team surveys, or email exchanges. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

14. Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems to improve team communication? Fig 2-1 Information Technology for Communication © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

15. Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems to improve team communication? • Virtual meetings don’t require everyone to be in the same place at the same time. Be careful about spoofing attendance, someone pretending to be someone they are not. • Conference calls – can be difficult to arrange the right time • Multiparty text chat – easier to arrange if everyone has mobile texting • Videoconferencing – requires everyone to have the proper equipment • Email – most familiar but has serious drawbacks in content management • Discussion forums – content is more organized than email but it is easy for team members not to participate • Team surveys – easy to manage but don’t provide very much interactive discussion © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

16. Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems to improve team communication? Fig 2-3 Example of Discussion Forum © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

17. Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems to improve team communication? Fig 2-4 Portion of Sample Team Survey © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

18. Q1 – What is collaboration? • Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems to improve team communication? • Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? • Q4 – How can you use collaboration systems to control workflow? • Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for decision making? • Q6 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for problem solving? • Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for project management? © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

19. Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? • There are three categories for sharing content. Your choice depends on the degree of control your team needs to complete their tasks • No Control • Version Management • Version Control Fig 2-5 Information Technology for Sharing Content © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

20. Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? • The following methods for sharing content are effective but provide no control over content management. • Email attachments: this method of sharing content is the most primitive but has numerous problems. • Someone may not receive the email, does not notice the email, does not save the attachment, or ignores it. • It is difficult to manage attachments. • Shared file server: this method of sharing content provides a single storage location for all team members. • It uses FTP technology to access files. • Problems can occur if multiple team members try using the same file at the same time. • Without version management, it is impossible to know who changed what in the document and when they changed it. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

21. Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? • These methods of content sharing provide version management, whichtracks changes to documents and provides features and functions to accommodate concurrent work. • Wikis • Google Docs and Spreadsheets • Microsoft Office Groove © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

22. Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? • Wikis are shared knowledge bases, repositories of team knowledge, which have or use tracking mechanisms for changes. • Most commonly known wiki is wikipedia.com. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

23. Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? • Google Docs and Spreadsheets • Access it at http://docs.google.com with a Google account (different from a Gmail account). You do not use www. • Anyone who edits a document must have a Google account which is affiliated with your email account. • Documents are stored on Google servers making them accessible from anywhere. • You can make documents available to others by entering their email accounts, which do not need to be Google accounts. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

24. Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? • Google Docs and Spreadsheets (continued) • Google merges the user’s activities into a single document. You are notified that another user is editing a document at the same time as you are, and you can refresh the document to see their latest changes. • Team members can track revisions and review change summaries. • It’s a free service but you must use Google programs for processing. • A Microsoft Word or Excel document can be uploaded and the Google docs and spreadsheets can be saved in Word or Excel or other common file formats. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

25. Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? Fig 2-7 Sample Google Docs & Spreadsheets Document Versions © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

26. Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? • Microsoft Office Groove • You create a workspace and invite others to join. • Document changes are automatically provided to all team members. • You can use VoIP rather than separate phone lines for conversations. • You can use it asynchronously or synchronously. • You can use any computer or server to access workspaces. • Each user must purchase a license and install it on each computer (may be exceptions). © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

27. Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? Fig 2-8 Example Groove Workspace © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

28. Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? • Shared content with version control provides more limitations than version management and more control over changes to documents. • It uses shared libraries (directories) to store documents. • Users are given accounts withpermissions that limit what they can do with the documents. • It requires users to check out documents and check them back in. • Microsoft SharePoint is the most popular for business use. • It requires a publicly accessible server. • It’s difficult to install. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

29. Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? Fig 2-9 Example of Document Checkout © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

30. Q1 – What is collaboration? • Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems to improve team communication? • Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? • Q4 – How can you use collaboration systems to control workflow? • Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for decision making? • Q6 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for problem solving? • Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for project management? © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

31. Q4 – How can you use collaboration systems to control workflow? • Types of workflows • Sequential workflow - documents are reviewed by multiple members of a team one after another. You can manage this workflow manually but manual enforcement of workflows is an administrative nightmare. Fig 2-10 Sample Sequential Workflow • Parallel workflow - documents are reviewed by multiple members of a team simultaneously © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

32. Q4 – How can you use collaboration systems to control workflow? SharePoint site • Defines workflows • Ensures team members perform required tasks Fig 2-11 Defining a SharePoint Workflow, Part 1 © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

33. Q4 – How can you use collaboration systems to control workflow? Fig 2-12 Defining a SharePoint Workflow, Part 2 © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

34. Q1 – What is collaboration? • Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems to improve team communication? • Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? • Q4 – How can you use collaboration systems to control workflow? • Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for decision making? • Q6 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for problem solving? • Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for project management? © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

35. Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for decision making? • Collaboration systems are not necessary for all decisions. Decisions occur at three levels and the types of decisions vary, depending on the level. • Operational decisions concern well-defined, day-to-day activities at the lowest level • Obtain data from transaction processing systems • Require very little collaboration • Managerial decisions concern either ambiguous, ill-defined problems or intermediate term, inter-departmental decisions • Focus on the allocation and utilization of resources • Some require collaboration because they need feedback and iteration • Strategic decisions concern broader-scope, organizational issues • Are almost always collaborative © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

36. Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for decision making? • Two types of decision processes – these terms refer to the method or process by which the decision is to be made, not to the nature of the underlying problem. • Structured method or process • Understood and accepted method for making decisions • Require very little collaboration • Unstructured method or process • No agreed-on decision-making method • Are often a collaborative process © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

37. Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for decision making? • What is the relationship between decision types and decision processes? • Operational decisions typically use a structured process. • Managerial decisions use both structured and unstructured processes. • Strategic decisions typically use an unstructured process. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

38. Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for decision making? Characteristics of Typical Decisions Decision Process Fig 2-14 Decision Process & Decision Type Most are structured Most are unstructured Decision Type © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

39. Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for decision making? • Decision making and collaboration systems • Structured decisions • No feedback or iteration are necessary • Collaboration is expensive, wasteful, and frustrating • Unstructured decisions • Feedback and iteration are crucial • Communications systems are the most important collaboration systems • Content management systems may be important if elements of the decision are recorded in numerous versions of documents, designs, or data • Workflow systems are seldom of use, because work processes change frequently © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

40. Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for decision making? Characteristics of Typical Decisions Decision Process Fig 2-15 Collaboration Needs for Decision Types Decision Type © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

41. Q1 – What is collaboration? • Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems to improve team communication? • Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? • Q4 – How can you use collaboration systems to control workflow? • Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for decision making? • Q6 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for problem solving? • Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for project management? © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

42. Q6 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for problem solving? • Problem definition • A problem is a perceived difference between what is and what ought to be. It is the view of a situation held by an individual or a group. Because a problem is a perception, different people or groups may have different problem definitions. • The first step in solving a problem is to define it. • A good problem definition defines the difference between what is and what ought to be by describing both the current situation and the desired situation. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

43. Q6 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for problem solving? • Problem solutions and solution brokering • Collaboration systems provide team members with feedback and iteration tools that help them to: • Identify numerous solution alternatives rather than just one. • Make a choice by allowing them to discuss the pros and cons of each alternative. • Broker the selected solution • Make necessary adjustments that benefit all parties. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

44. Q6 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for problem solving? • Problem solving and collaboration systems are more effective when they successfully employ the three collaborative drivers: • Communication systems that allow a regular and reliable exchange of ideas and information • Content-management systems that control document changes and revisions so everyone has the most current version • Workflow control, which is less important because of the nature of the unstructured decision-making process © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

45. Q1 – What is collaboration? • Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems to improve team communication? • Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? • Q4 – How can you use collaboration systems to control workflow? • Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for decision making? • Q6 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for problem solving? • Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for project management? © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

46. Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for project management? • Project – a dynamic application of people and other resources for a one-time creation of a product or achievement of some aim • Projects are dynamicbecause the application of resources will be changed as events unfold and learning takes place. • Projects normally: • have a limited duration • they start and they are completed • are not usually ongoing • Project management – the application of tools and techniques to structure the project process and achieve the project’s goals within time and budget constraints © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

47. Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for project management? • Project Management Stages and Tasks Fig 2-16 Summary of Project Management Activities & Feedback Paths The arrows show feedback and iteration as changes are made in scope, time, cost, and features as the project proceeds. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

48. Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for project management? • Project Management Stages and Tasks • Scope refers to the requirements to be achieved by the project, the features of the project’s product. Because projects are dynamic, an organization must accordingly adjust scope, and then change project assignments and activities. Managing scope is arguably the most important project-management task because we always have scope creep as new features are added by users or over-looked features are added. • Trade-off refers to the choices which must be made between scope, time, cost because these resources are scarce. You can usually accomplish your objectives for two of the choices but you cannot have all three. • Project management requires extensive feedback and iteration. As scope changes, and, as problems develop with time and cost, project managers continually revise, re-plan, and re-allocate. Project management is always a collaborative effort. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

49. Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for project management? • The three collaborative drivers are important to ensure the success of a project. • Communication systems help decision makers communicate with one another and deal with unexpected problems as they occur. • Content-management systems control document changes and revisions that occur during the project. • Workflow control is important because of task dependencies inherent in projects. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

50. Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for project management? Fig 2-17 Collaboration Systems for Decision Making, Problem Solving & Project Mgt © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009