Fitting an Activity-Centric system into an ecology of workplace tools

Fitting an Activity‐Centric system into an ecology of workplace toolsinto an ecology of workplace tools

Aruna BalakrishnanCarnegie Mellon University

Tara Matthews Thomas P MoranThomas P. MoranIBM Research –Almaden

April 13, 2010

An activity is a set of interrelated actions and events around a common goal. Christensen et al. 2002; Gonzalez et al. 2004

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Work is fragmented across tools.

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Activity Centric Computing: Solution?Activity Centric Computing: Solution?

ACC systems structure work around the ACC systems structure work around the construct of an activity by:Supporting a diverse set of actionsSupporting a diverse set of actionsConsolidating related people, artifacts,

d iresources, and actions.Bardram et al. 2006; Kaptelinin et al. 2003; Muller et al. 2004; Yarosh et al. 20099

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Lotus ActivitiesLotus Activities

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Research questionsResearch questions

1 For what purposes do users choose an ACC 1. For what purposes do users choose an ACC system among an ecology of many other workplace tools? workplace tools?

2 Does Lotus Activities an ACC application 2. Does Lotus Activities, an ACC application, provide a solution to work fragmentation across tools?across tools?

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Methods

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Study participantsStudy participants

22 Users22 Users8 female, 14 maleaverage age 37 yearsg g yrepresented different business units within a global company

Stratified sampling methodology30,000 users of Lotus Activitiesdivided by Activities usage

occasional (8), moderate (7), heavy (5), committed (2)

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InterviewsInterviews

Focused on:Focused on:whether and how organization by activity affected their ability to collect related artifacts togethery g

Coded for common themes using grounded theory

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Ecology of tools surveyEcology of tools surveyWhat tools do you use for different tasks?

ToolsLotus ActivitiesLot s Notes email calendar todo’s

Task TypesGroup Management Tasks

Share materialsLotus Notes email, calendar, todo’sShared repositories databasesWikis

Share materialsSupport awarenessCoordinate tasksReuse materials

IMMeetings either phone or in‐person Collaboration Tasks

Generate ideasSolve problemsSolve problemsDraft documentsMake decisions

(McGrath and Hollingshead, 1993)

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Results

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Survey resultsSurvey results

Lotus Email Shared Wiki IM MeetingsActivities Repository

Group Management t k

51% 64% 46% 26% 32% 43%tasks

Collaboration tasks 36% 67% 29% 8% 49% 80%

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Activities supported bounded in progress projectsin‐progress projects.

Bounded definite goal and Bounded definite goal and shorter‐term end‐point

In‐progress actively being carried outIn progress actively being carried out

[Lotus] Activities… is the most effective way [ ] ywhen I’ve got a specific short‐term kind of project that involves multiple people where I will use it as a place to store our documents and will use it as a place to store our documents and our communications as well as assign to‐dos and track those...

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Repositories and Wikis for long‐term use. Repositories and Wikis for long term use.



51% 64% 46% 26% 32% 43%tasks


A wiki is for a more elaborate effort of consolidation of information created over the course of months. The A ti it i j t f th t t f t t k l t’ Activity is just for that set of concrete tasks – let’s say one week…– where you have to do something very specific... Once it is done, you may want to share that on the wiki.

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Complimentary toolsComplimentary tools

Lotus Activities worked in conjunction with Lotus Activities worked in conjunction with shared repositories and wikis.

Using all these types of tools did not add to f i f k l b fragmentation of work across tools because they were used during different phases of a

jproject.

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Collaboration tasksCollaboration tasks



51% 64% 46% 26% 32% 43%tasks


1. Participants use Activities for group management tasks more than for collaboration tasks.

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Collaboration tasksCollaboration tasks



51% 64% 46% 26% 32% 43%tasks


1. Participants use Activities for group management tasks more than for collaboration tasks.

l d f d d2. Participants use email, IM and meetings for directed communication.

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Email contributes to work fragmentation.Email contributes to work fragmentation.

Participants were motivated to try Activities in Participants were motivated to try Activities in order to replace email. (17 participants)

Everyone is realizing that email is not an effective way to Everyone is realizing that email is not an effective way to keep that cohesive stream of thought. They are starting to move to Activities.

Email is not the ideal way because you have the mail‐tagthing. You send mail around and hope that everyone reads it And you also have the problem of somebody beingit. And you also have the problem of somebody being missed or somebody joins the team later and trying to get them up to speed. This is the biggest advantage of Activities

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‐ when you introduce new people, email fails completely.

group management tasksshort‐term long‐term

toolsemailLotus Activities

wikisrepositoriesLotus Activities repositories

project mgmt systems

resourcespapers, presentations, notes, links, spreadsheetspapers, presentations, notes, links, spreadsheets

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Why did Lotus Activities support certain tasks Why did Lotus Activities support certain tasks over others?

Design characteristics drive tool use. Design characteristics drive tool use.

Design characteristics Perceptions

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Design characteristics

Limited structureLiberal access controls

PerceptionsLiberal access controls

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LightweightnessShared OwnershipLiberal access controls Shared Ownership

It is not complicated from an organizational perspective. It is really a stream of consciousness More traditionalIt is really a stream of consciousness. More traditional shared repositories have more structure and take more time to organize.It is a great place to quickly share information and get people connected, especially when you have a team that might expand as the event unfolds from 3 to 20 people involved in the Activity.

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p p yIt allows us to bring people in quickly.




LightweightnessShared OwnershipLiberal access controls Shared Ownership

The flexibility at which an owner can just go in, create a new Activity and just start adding people. And then those people can just add other people they don’t those people can just add other people, they don t have to go back to the owner. That’s just amazing.

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SummarySummary

1. For what purposes do users choose an ACC system p p yamong an ecology of many other workplace tools? Activities supported bounded, in‐progress projects.

2. Does Lotus Activities, an ACC application, provide a solution to work fragmentation across tools?solution to work fragmentation across tools?Activities helped, but does not eliminate fragmentation

or the need for other tools for different tasks…Why?

Wikis and repositories preferred for long‐term archival use.Email contributes to fragmented tasksEmail contributes to fragmented tasks.

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Thank you!Barton Smith Jimmy Lin Lana YaroshBarton Smith, Jimmy Lin, Lana Yarosh

Image Attributionshttp://www flickr com/photos/lorda/449428013/http://www.flickr.com/photos/lorda/449428013/

Questions? SummaryQuestions?

l k h

Summary

A ti iti t d Aruna [email protected]

Activities supported bounded, in‐progress

j tTara [email protected]

projects.

h l dThomas P. [email protected]

ACC system helped reduce fragmentation for

f f ka specific type of task.

Fitting an Activity-Centric system into an ecology of workplace tools

Technology

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