According to the design approach of a collaboration process [Kolfschoten and de Vreede, 2009] (shown in Figure 2.1), the Collaboration Engineer analyses the collaborative task and the group characteristics to define requirements for the design of a collaboration process. In a second step the collaborative task will be decomposed into patterns of collaboration, which are used to select collaboration techniques (e.g. thinkLets or idea generation techniques) for a logical process model; a template of a collaboration pro-cess that contains a general description of collaborative activities for a collaborative task. The logical process model will be validated against the defined requirements in an iterative process and will be documented as a paper-based handbook.
A Practitioner configures the logical process model given by the paper-based handbook to a physical process design; a specific collaborative process that contains detailed de-scriptions of collaborative activities for a specific group and content constellation. A transition approach is used to transfer tacit knowledge and skills that are needed for this adaptation to practitioners with less expertise [Kolfschoten et al., 2011]. This approach combines lectures about the key concepts of Collaboration Engineering and challenges of a collaboration process with trainings to offer practice and feedback on the adapta-tion and use of a logical process design.
In conclusion, the given design approach represents and interesting an suitable ap-proach for designing collaboration processes that can make use of technological sup-port in a face-to-face environment. However, the thesis sees an unused benefit of this design approach for collaborative ideation processes that uses technological support in a virtual environment.
Research is needed to understand existing approaches for ideation support and their application to improve the design approach of collaboration engineering for a collaborative ideation process.
The thesis assumes that resulting knowledge of this research can be used to support the design and execution of collaborative ideation in the pre-development phase of an inno-vation process. In this context, the thesis focuses on collaboration that uses technologi-cal support in a virtual environment. Nowadays, collaboration between geographitechnologi-cally distributed groups comprise an important structural component of many multinational organisations. As a result, the research focus on collaboration support has changed from tools, processes and services that support collaboration in a face-to-face environ-ment to technological support for collaboration in a distributed environenviron-ment. Today, organisations can make use of technological support like groupware technologies that offer a variety of web-based applications to assist global virtual groups in structuring activities, generating and sharing data, and improving group communication across the globe.
Collaboration Engineering supports the appropriately use of groupware technologies by providing tacit knowledge and skills in a paper-based handbook, which can be used to train a global virtual group on how to use the functionalities of a technology in an optimal way. This approach works well for recurring collaborative tasks, where a pre-defined global virtual group uses a specific groupware technology over a certain period of time. However, the pre-development phase of the innovation process is characterised by changing collaboration tasks and dynamic groups, who constantly needs to be ad-justed with regard to the knowledge and expertise required. As a result, a training of each participant is not guaranteed. To compensate the resulting missing knowledge about the groupware technology, a new design approach is needed to support the ap-propriately use of a technology.
Like other researchers, the thesis sees an interesting approach in using a design pat-tern approach for the development of new technological support for collaboration. For example, Kolfschoten et al. [Kolfschoten et al., 2007, 2010] adopt the concept of a Computer Aided Software Engineering tool from Software Engineering to Collabora-tion Engineering. The resulting conceptual design of a Computer Aided CollaboraCollabora-tion Engineering (CACE) tool supports the design process of a collaboration process model by a library of different design patterns and guidelines for their selection and combi-nation. The resulting model of a collaboration process can be used in different ways to support collaboration. With regard to a face-to-face workshop, the model provides information to generate printouts like process agendas, process manuals and cue cards for the facilitation of a collaboration process. Collaboration in a virtual environment can be supported by the design of a process model closely to a specific groupware tech-nology. Here, the process manual provides similar to the initial conceptualisation of a thinkLet detailed information on how to configure and use a groupware technology.
However, this generation of a specific process model reduces the reusability of the
col-laboration process model for other groupware technologies. As a result, the adaptation of the model for another groupware technology could lead to a high cognitive load for a practitioner with less expertise in using a groupware technologies.
Another approach for the use of design patterns is given by Briggs et al. [Briggs et al., 2010] who develop a process support system for rapid development of collaboration applications. Their approach uses a collaboration process model to develop a group-ware technology that provides only tools and functionalities that fit to the process needs and does not have to be configured by the practitioner. The resulting groupware tech-nology reduces by its pre-configuration the cognitive load for a user, but supports only the underlying collaboration process. As a result, a new groupware technology needs to be developed if the process model needs to be adapted in case of a changing situation.
Besides the given approaches, the thesis sees an unused benefit of a design pattern ap-proach for the development of an adaptable groupware technology. Here, a machine-readable process description can be used to support the appropriately use of a tech-nology by using the workflow of a collaboration process to configure the tools and functionalities of the technology automatically. A workflow can be defined as ’a col-lection of cooperating, coordinated activities designed to carry out a well-defined com-plex process’ [Davulcu et al., 1998] or as ’a network of tasks with rules that determine the (partial) order in which the tasks should be performed’ [van der Aalst and Hee, 2002]. The thesis adopts these definitions and defines a collaboration workflow as ’a network of collaborative tasks with rules that coordinate the involved collaboration activities of a group and provide information for the configuration of a groupware technology’. However, the design of a machine-readable process description for a col-laboration workflow is still a research gap. As a result:
Research is needed to analyse the feasibility of a new modelling approach that formalises the workflow of a collaboration process into a machine-readable process description.
The thesis assumes that resulting knowledge of this research can be used to develop an adaptable groupware technology that provides similar functionalities as a Workflow Management System, which represents a system that defines, creates and manages the execution of workflows through the use of software applications [Leymann and Altenhuber, 1994, Hollingshead, 1995, Georgakopoulos et al., 1995]. Similar to the intended CACE tool [Kolfschoten et al., 2007, 2010] a Workflow Management Sys-tem provides build-time functions for the definition and the modelling of the workflow process and its constituent activities. Further the system provides run-time control functions for the management of the workflow process and the resulting interaction ac-tivities between the user and an application in an operational environment.
The thesis assumes that an adaptable groupware technology can make use of the under-lying process logic of the collaboration workflow to monitor and guide a global virtual
group automatically through a collaborative ideation process. Here, the groupware technology can provide and adapt different user interfaces, which provide all needed information to execute a collaboration process. Furthermore, the groupware technol-ogy can provide functionalities to handle negative group behaviours and support group performance in an ideation process. However, the design of a groupware technology that can make use of a machine-readable process description to support collaboration is still a research gap. As a result:
Research is needed to analyse the feasibility to design an adaptable group-ware technology that uses a machine-readable process description to improve collaborative ideation processes in global virtual groups.
The thesis assumes that resulting knowledge of this research can be used to develop a conceptual design for a groupware technology, which can be used to analyse and de-sign new artifacts to support the dede-sign, configuration and execution of collaboration in distributed environments.