- Email: [email protected]
Chapter 17 Section introduction: Combining approaches
The Design of Computer Supported CooperativeWork and Groupware Systems D. Shapiro, M. Tauber and R. Traunmtiller(Editors) 9 1996Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
281
Chapter 17
Section Introduction" Combining Approaches Betty Hewitt School of Computing and Mathematics University of Teesside, U.K. As both Kuutti and Shapiro point out, CSCW can be seen as a paradigm shift in the way in which system design, as a multi disciplinary arena, is carried out. Due to this shift we need to be able to combine different approaches in the design of information systems, such as ethnomethodology, psychology and anthropology. This section contains four chapters discussing this idea and the different approaches taken. Each of the chapters suggests combining methods and techniques from different disciplines to improve the requirements elicitation and design of CSCW systems in many different work domains. Kari Kuutti in his chapter on coping with active subjects compares the traditions of information systems with those of human computer interaction and discusses why the notion of human agencies is so important for the design of CSCW systems. Shapiro compares two studies of air traffic controllers: one based on behavioural task analysis and the other using ethnography, and looks at how these two approaches could usefully be combined to overcome the limitations of either approach. Thomas Sch~il is concerned with looking at public
282
Betty Hewitt
administration as socio-technical systems, and sees CSCW systems as the glue between large scale transaction processing, i.e. data bases and main frames for organisation-wide use and the field of personal computing. The chapter by Bell and Johnson is concerned with using contingencies as a means of providing a link between characterizations of groups identified by the (often covert) social mechanisms that characterize them, and guidelines on the available technologies (together with their affordances) applicable to group work. Kuutti looks at the paradigm shift of CSCW and tries to justify it from the perspective of computer science by taking two different approaches: Grudin's idea that CSCW is a bridge between Information systems and Human Computer Interaction and Friedman's view of computer system development being divided into three historical phases depending on the features that were most restrictive at the time. Having studied these two approaches he hypothesises that the paradigm shift of CSCW automatically encompasses the human agency viewpoint i.e. human actors have to be considered in system design. This viewpoint has been emerging in both Information Systems and HCI. In traditional system development, users, with their knowledge of the working environment, are seen only as sources of information for requirements for the designer. In socio-technical system development it is recognised that each individual has their own personal view of the working environment (worldview) which includes concepts such as job satisfaction. However this information entirely relates to a single individual. Another approach mentioned by Kuutti is the hermeneutic and phenomenological approache to information systems research which considers the humans as active developers of their worldviews. Scandinavian participatory design emphasises the humans as constructors of their working environment, but with one exception. The tacit knowledge that people have is once again assumed to be something that can be quantified and elicited and is not necessarily constructed by the users themselves. The last approach analysed by Kuutti is concerned with social action and social construction and is a step on from participatory design in that to conceptually master ongoing organisational change the relationships between the human as a social constructor of their working environment and the external world have significance for social change and by implication systems development. From his analysis of these different approaches, Kuutti has highlighted the degrees of importance placed on the human as integral to information systems development. The other field to which he turns his attention is that of HCI. Traditionally in HCI, humans were seen as a collection of cognitive processes.
Section Introduction: CombiningApproaches
283
This approach has ignored the situated nature of human actors and sees them as passive elements in a human-machine system, however there has been a movement towards groups and the fact that individuals need to cooperate in the successful performance of tasks. CSCW departs from both HCI and IS in that the notion of the active human agency is not questioned, but is fundamental to the concept of CSCW as espoused by Hughes et al. and discussed by Shapiro. As Hughes et al. point out the notion of human agency can be traced to Post-Fordist work organisations with the emphasis on the worker having a greater ability to affect their working environment including the ways in which they use the technology at their disposal and subsequently the necessary cooperation for working in teams and groups. The emergence of new organisational forms is connected to information technology and according to Kuutti these trends lead to CSCW where we have multiple skilled workers in new work organisations using advanced information technology. Thus CSCW can be seen as active subjects belonging to a working environment and to the wider socio-economic and political worlds and the incorporation of information technology artifacts used in all aspects of cooperative work. Kuutti concludes his chapter by suggesting that the paradigm shift as noted by Hughes et al. perhaps does not go far enough in describing the fundamental difference between CSCW and information systems research and HCI. He suggest that the disciplines needed in CSCW research cannot be taken just as they are but aspects of them need to be modified and perhaps expanded to encompass the wide variety of considerations that make up the field of CSCW. The title of Shapiro's chapter "Ferrets in a Sack" gives an indication of the difficulties in reconciling different disciplines within a multi disciplinary field such as CSCW. Shapiro discusses the paradigm shift of CSCW as does Kuutti, but discusses it from the point of view of the relationship between sociologyand psychology as partners for computer science specifically as a way forward for research in CSCW. He recounts two studies in the domain of Air Traffic Control (ATC) which are primarily to do with the possible electronic replacement of chapter based flight strips: one from an ethnographic perspective and the other from a behavioural task analysis perspective. Being a sociologist he is interested in what task analysis can do to inform ethnographic studies. The interest in the replacement of the electronic flight strips comes about due to the mixed manual and computer mediated nature of ATC work. The ethnographic field study graphically highlights certain procedures and activities which at first glance seem redundant, but with careful analysis are fundamental
284
Betty Hewitt
to the efficacy of ATC. These procedures such as: each person who annotates the flight strips uses a different coloured pen, cocking out of the flight strips, the annotations and amendments to it in general and the cooperative way in which these procedures are carried out give all the personnel involved an understanding of the totality of the system and their involvement in it. The behavioural task analysis study used ATC instructors on a simulated air space, with each subject completing three scenarios. In comparison to the ethnographic study where direct observations were made and there were no initial categorisations of the behaviour of the personnel involved, this study initially categorised the behaviour of the air traffic controllers from talks with expert controllers, into Communication Events and Flight strip Activities. These were further categorised during the analysis and the observations were presented as time-series analysis, transition analysis and regression analysis. Shapiro has set himself the worthwhile but difficult task of trying to reconcile two very different approaches to studying ATC. The behavioural study looks only at individual controllers and not at their cooperation with other members of the team, whereas the ethnographic study only gives us patchy insights into the social organisation of work. Both of these criticisms are valid when considering the design of computer support for ATC, but both could be corrected in future studies. While trying to do justice to the task analysis study, the conclusion that Shapiro comes to is that it is difficult to get an understanding of what new information we have learnt and how the information presented could aid in system design. The problem of how events are categorised as important or not is not addressed, why and how the decision was made that certain coupling of events is more important than others is again not addressed and the difficulty of separating out the given findings from the myriad of contingent possibilities that surround the study is not discussed. In other words the findings are related to an already existing hypothesis of how controllers actually carry out their work, and does not fundamentally address the issue of what they really do. From that point of view the ethnographic study compares favorably as there is a degree of independence between the data and the interpretation not found in the task analysis. The conclusions that Shapiro comes to is that one should not ignore either approach, but the problems of trying to incorporate behavioural task analysis into an ethnographic approach needs much more consideration as shown by the obvious problem that task analysis does not consider the sociality of work whereas this is the basis of ethnographic studies. In his chapter Sch~il proposes a client-supplier model as a basis for improving public administration. In traditional large scale public administrative
Section Introduction: Combining Approaches
285
organisations, nearly all the cost of information systems has to do with managing information i.e. data bases, main frames run by data processing departments, and no account is taken of the fact that administrations run on relationships with society and that it is these relationships that determine the mission of the public body. He looks at two case studies which question the way that public bodies deliver their services and the attempts they make to introduce market criteria into these traditional environments. In hierarchical bureaucratic organisations, tasks are divided into separate functions performed by individuals, so that a procedure progresses step by step throughout the hierarchy of the organisation. As a consequence the procedure is often waiting in a queue which means that the public have to adapt themselves to fixed and rigid rules rather than having their queries dealt with on an individual basis. Sch/il proposes that these problems can be overcome by considering the procedure as a process involving a single operation and attaching a client to that operation. However process management raises some major issues concerning the cooperative nature of work which today's information systems are unable to cope with. Together with the information systems and the transaction processing support provided by these there has been a vast increase in personal computing whose concern is with the interpretation of data e.g. spreadsheets and the creation of documents. Sch~il proposes that CSCW could become the 'glue' between single user personal computing and organisation-wide information systems. He identifies three types of cooperation: coordination, collaboration and codecision within work groups, each needing different types of support from an information system. The different forms of cooperation all involve activity synchronisation and information sharing, but in different proportions. It is getting the mix between these two aspects of the tasks that is relevant to the design of information systems for cooperative working within process oriented public administrative organisations. Sch~il goes on to describe the necessary prerequisites for cooperative workflows, so that the different aspects of cooperative work not currently considered as part of workflow design can be incorporated into the system. The notion that large scale information processing systems and personal computing forms the glue for CSCW is an interesting perspective and one that has not been considered before, and there is obviously much to be gained by studying the ways in which it can be done. Sch~il's chapter suggests some ways in which this can be done in the domain of public administration such as:
286
Betty Hewitt
changing to a process rather than procedural oriented structure and considering the nature of cooperation within workgroups. The chapter by Bell and Johnson is concerned with providing a link between characterisations of groups identified by the (often covert) social mechanisms that characterise them, and guidelines on the available technologies (together with their affordances) applicable to group work. Using theories of group work, case studies and knowledge of the available technologies, a contingency model is proposed for linking the technological and social aspects of group work. Contingencies only provide an aid for the analysts and designers. The contingency model and dimensions for describing group work are derived from a case study in the domain of spacial planning including architectural design, town planning and landscaping. The case study was conducted on an architectural design project group involving designers, engineers, legal professionals and clients. The contingency model is an initial attempt to use findings from ethnographic studies in a systematic way for use in requirements analysis and design and to use this model for suggesting possible technological solutions in order to improve participation, cohesion and comprehension in group working. Although as Bell states this contingency model is currently fairly simplistic and only applicable in the domain of spatial planning, the attempt to systematise the findings from ethnographic studies and combine these with the technology and its affordances into a contingency model for helping designers in developing systems, can be seen as a useful means of proceeding for multidisciplinary research in CS~CW. All of the chapters in this section are concerned with combining different approaches and disciplines to help solve the problems of designing CSCW systems i.e. modem information technology. Kuutti's chapter looks at combining some of the traditions of IS with those of HCI; specifically the human agency viewpoint, Shapiro takes on the formidable task of trying to reconcile behavioural task analysis with ethnographic studies, Thomas Sch~il considers combining process oriented organisati0nal information systems with personal computing in the realm of public administration, and Bell and Johnson propose a contingency model for providing the link between technology and social aspects of group work as embodied in CSCW. These different approaches add their own perspective which should eventually provide a satisficing solution to the practical problems of multi-disciplinary CSCW design and should lead to a sound theoretical basis for establishing CSCW as a multi-disciplinary field of research.
281
Chapter 17
Section Introduction" Combining Approaches Betty Hewitt School of Computing and Mathematics University of Teesside, U.K. As both Kuutti and Shapiro point out, CSCW can be seen as a paradigm shift in the way in which system design, as a multi disciplinary arena, is carried out. Due to this shift we need to be able to combine different approaches in the design of information systems, such as ethnomethodology, psychology and anthropology. This section contains four chapters discussing this idea and the different approaches taken. Each of the chapters suggests combining methods and techniques from different disciplines to improve the requirements elicitation and design of CSCW systems in many different work domains. Kari Kuutti in his chapter on coping with active subjects compares the traditions of information systems with those of human computer interaction and discusses why the notion of human agencies is so important for the design of CSCW systems. Shapiro compares two studies of air traffic controllers: one based on behavioural task analysis and the other using ethnography, and looks at how these two approaches could usefully be combined to overcome the limitations of either approach. Thomas Sch~il is concerned with looking at public
282
Betty Hewitt
administration as socio-technical systems, and sees CSCW systems as the glue between large scale transaction processing, i.e. data bases and main frames for organisation-wide use and the field of personal computing. The chapter by Bell and Johnson is concerned with using contingencies as a means of providing a link between characterizations of groups identified by the (often covert) social mechanisms that characterize them, and guidelines on the available technologies (together with their affordances) applicable to group work. Kuutti looks at the paradigm shift of CSCW and tries to justify it from the perspective of computer science by taking two different approaches: Grudin's idea that CSCW is a bridge between Information systems and Human Computer Interaction and Friedman's view of computer system development being divided into three historical phases depending on the features that were most restrictive at the time. Having studied these two approaches he hypothesises that the paradigm shift of CSCW automatically encompasses the human agency viewpoint i.e. human actors have to be considered in system design. This viewpoint has been emerging in both Information Systems and HCI. In traditional system development, users, with their knowledge of the working environment, are seen only as sources of information for requirements for the designer. In socio-technical system development it is recognised that each individual has their own personal view of the working environment (worldview) which includes concepts such as job satisfaction. However this information entirely relates to a single individual. Another approach mentioned by Kuutti is the hermeneutic and phenomenological approache to information systems research which considers the humans as active developers of their worldviews. Scandinavian participatory design emphasises the humans as constructors of their working environment, but with one exception. The tacit knowledge that people have is once again assumed to be something that can be quantified and elicited and is not necessarily constructed by the users themselves. The last approach analysed by Kuutti is concerned with social action and social construction and is a step on from participatory design in that to conceptually master ongoing organisational change the relationships between the human as a social constructor of their working environment and the external world have significance for social change and by implication systems development. From his analysis of these different approaches, Kuutti has highlighted the degrees of importance placed on the human as integral to information systems development. The other field to which he turns his attention is that of HCI. Traditionally in HCI, humans were seen as a collection of cognitive processes.
Section Introduction: CombiningApproaches
283
This approach has ignored the situated nature of human actors and sees them as passive elements in a human-machine system, however there has been a movement towards groups and the fact that individuals need to cooperate in the successful performance of tasks. CSCW departs from both HCI and IS in that the notion of the active human agency is not questioned, but is fundamental to the concept of CSCW as espoused by Hughes et al. and discussed by Shapiro. As Hughes et al. point out the notion of human agency can be traced to Post-Fordist work organisations with the emphasis on the worker having a greater ability to affect their working environment including the ways in which they use the technology at their disposal and subsequently the necessary cooperation for working in teams and groups. The emergence of new organisational forms is connected to information technology and according to Kuutti these trends lead to CSCW where we have multiple skilled workers in new work organisations using advanced information technology. Thus CSCW can be seen as active subjects belonging to a working environment and to the wider socio-economic and political worlds and the incorporation of information technology artifacts used in all aspects of cooperative work. Kuutti concludes his chapter by suggesting that the paradigm shift as noted by Hughes et al. perhaps does not go far enough in describing the fundamental difference between CSCW and information systems research and HCI. He suggest that the disciplines needed in CSCW research cannot be taken just as they are but aspects of them need to be modified and perhaps expanded to encompass the wide variety of considerations that make up the field of CSCW. The title of Shapiro's chapter "Ferrets in a Sack" gives an indication of the difficulties in reconciling different disciplines within a multi disciplinary field such as CSCW. Shapiro discusses the paradigm shift of CSCW as does Kuutti, but discusses it from the point of view of the relationship between sociologyand psychology as partners for computer science specifically as a way forward for research in CSCW. He recounts two studies in the domain of Air Traffic Control (ATC) which are primarily to do with the possible electronic replacement of chapter based flight strips: one from an ethnographic perspective and the other from a behavioural task analysis perspective. Being a sociologist he is interested in what task analysis can do to inform ethnographic studies. The interest in the replacement of the electronic flight strips comes about due to the mixed manual and computer mediated nature of ATC work. The ethnographic field study graphically highlights certain procedures and activities which at first glance seem redundant, but with careful analysis are fundamental
284
Betty Hewitt
to the efficacy of ATC. These procedures such as: each person who annotates the flight strips uses a different coloured pen, cocking out of the flight strips, the annotations and amendments to it in general and the cooperative way in which these procedures are carried out give all the personnel involved an understanding of the totality of the system and their involvement in it. The behavioural task analysis study used ATC instructors on a simulated air space, with each subject completing three scenarios. In comparison to the ethnographic study where direct observations were made and there were no initial categorisations of the behaviour of the personnel involved, this study initially categorised the behaviour of the air traffic controllers from talks with expert controllers, into Communication Events and Flight strip Activities. These were further categorised during the analysis and the observations were presented as time-series analysis, transition analysis and regression analysis. Shapiro has set himself the worthwhile but difficult task of trying to reconcile two very different approaches to studying ATC. The behavioural study looks only at individual controllers and not at their cooperation with other members of the team, whereas the ethnographic study only gives us patchy insights into the social organisation of work. Both of these criticisms are valid when considering the design of computer support for ATC, but both could be corrected in future studies. While trying to do justice to the task analysis study, the conclusion that Shapiro comes to is that it is difficult to get an understanding of what new information we have learnt and how the information presented could aid in system design. The problem of how events are categorised as important or not is not addressed, why and how the decision was made that certain coupling of events is more important than others is again not addressed and the difficulty of separating out the given findings from the myriad of contingent possibilities that surround the study is not discussed. In other words the findings are related to an already existing hypothesis of how controllers actually carry out their work, and does not fundamentally address the issue of what they really do. From that point of view the ethnographic study compares favorably as there is a degree of independence between the data and the interpretation not found in the task analysis. The conclusions that Shapiro comes to is that one should not ignore either approach, but the problems of trying to incorporate behavioural task analysis into an ethnographic approach needs much more consideration as shown by the obvious problem that task analysis does not consider the sociality of work whereas this is the basis of ethnographic studies. In his chapter Sch~il proposes a client-supplier model as a basis for improving public administration. In traditional large scale public administrative
Section Introduction: Combining Approaches
285
organisations, nearly all the cost of information systems has to do with managing information i.e. data bases, main frames run by data processing departments, and no account is taken of the fact that administrations run on relationships with society and that it is these relationships that determine the mission of the public body. He looks at two case studies which question the way that public bodies deliver their services and the attempts they make to introduce market criteria into these traditional environments. In hierarchical bureaucratic organisations, tasks are divided into separate functions performed by individuals, so that a procedure progresses step by step throughout the hierarchy of the organisation. As a consequence the procedure is often waiting in a queue which means that the public have to adapt themselves to fixed and rigid rules rather than having their queries dealt with on an individual basis. Sch/il proposes that these problems can be overcome by considering the procedure as a process involving a single operation and attaching a client to that operation. However process management raises some major issues concerning the cooperative nature of work which today's information systems are unable to cope with. Together with the information systems and the transaction processing support provided by these there has been a vast increase in personal computing whose concern is with the interpretation of data e.g. spreadsheets and the creation of documents. Sch~il proposes that CSCW could become the 'glue' between single user personal computing and organisation-wide information systems. He identifies three types of cooperation: coordination, collaboration and codecision within work groups, each needing different types of support from an information system. The different forms of cooperation all involve activity synchronisation and information sharing, but in different proportions. It is getting the mix between these two aspects of the tasks that is relevant to the design of information systems for cooperative working within process oriented public administrative organisations. Sch~il goes on to describe the necessary prerequisites for cooperative workflows, so that the different aspects of cooperative work not currently considered as part of workflow design can be incorporated into the system. The notion that large scale information processing systems and personal computing forms the glue for CSCW is an interesting perspective and one that has not been considered before, and there is obviously much to be gained by studying the ways in which it can be done. Sch~il's chapter suggests some ways in which this can be done in the domain of public administration such as:
286
Betty Hewitt
changing to a process rather than procedural oriented structure and considering the nature of cooperation within workgroups. The chapter by Bell and Johnson is concerned with providing a link between characterisations of groups identified by the (often covert) social mechanisms that characterise them, and guidelines on the available technologies (together with their affordances) applicable to group work. Using theories of group work, case studies and knowledge of the available technologies, a contingency model is proposed for linking the technological and social aspects of group work. Contingencies only provide an aid for the analysts and designers. The contingency model and dimensions for describing group work are derived from a case study in the domain of spacial planning including architectural design, town planning and landscaping. The case study was conducted on an architectural design project group involving designers, engineers, legal professionals and clients. The contingency model is an initial attempt to use findings from ethnographic studies in a systematic way for use in requirements analysis and design and to use this model for suggesting possible technological solutions in order to improve participation, cohesion and comprehension in group working. Although as Bell states this contingency model is currently fairly simplistic and only applicable in the domain of spatial planning, the attempt to systematise the findings from ethnographic studies and combine these with the technology and its affordances into a contingency model for helping designers in developing systems, can be seen as a useful means of proceeding for multidisciplinary research in CS~CW. All of the chapters in this section are concerned with combining different approaches and disciplines to help solve the problems of designing CSCW systems i.e. modem information technology. Kuutti's chapter looks at combining some of the traditions of IS with those of HCI; specifically the human agency viewpoint, Shapiro takes on the formidable task of trying to reconcile behavioural task analysis with ethnographic studies, Thomas Sch~il considers combining process oriented organisati0nal information systems with personal computing in the realm of public administration, and Bell and Johnson propose a contingency model for providing the link between technology and social aspects of group work as embodied in CSCW. These different approaches add their own perspective which should eventually provide a satisficing solution to the practical problems of multi-disciplinary CSCW design and should lead to a sound theoretical basis for establishing CSCW as a multi-disciplinary field of research.