Tutorial 6

Groupware and Workflow: A Survey of Systems and Behavioral Issues

Steven Poltrock, Boeing Computer Services
Johnathan Grudin, University of California at Irvine

Sunday, May 7

Objective

Participants will learn to (1) distinguish among different categories of groupware and their purposes, (2) identify applications and workgroups that will benefit from groupware, (3) anticipate and plan to overcome common problems in designing, developing, evaluating, and deploying groupware, and (4) anticipate future directions in groupware technology.

Content

This tutorial covers recent developments in this rapidly- emerging field, focusing in particular on the different classes of groupware and workflow products now reaching the market. Illustrations of commercial systems and research prototypes introduce the range of technologies classified as groupware and workflow. Design, evaluation, and deployment issues are also addressed. This tutorial focuses on the interplay between technology and group work, not on software implementation and discusses approaches for addressing the new challenges in designing and using these technologies. Notes include extensive reference material for all topics, prototypes, and products discussed.

Audience

This introductory-level tutorial is for developers, researchers, and managers interested in designing, developing, evaluating, or deploying software intended to support work groups. No previous experience with groupware or workflow is expected.

Presentation

Lecture, video, demonstration

Instructors

Steven Poltrock and Jonathan Grudin began their collaboration in 1986 studying group work in human-computer interface design and development. Steven Poltrock introduces, evaluates, and deploys groupware systems that support information sharing, organizational memory, concurrent engineering, collaborative authoring, and workflow management. Jonathan Grudin has worked as developer, researcher, and consultant. He has published numerous technical and popular articles on groupware, including survey articles that appeared in IEEE Computer in May and Communications of the ACM in January.

Keith Instone / instone@acm.org / 95-01-05