Challenges of groupware

Mikko wrote power of groupware yesterday so I have a good start here with to subject challenges of groupware. Today I wrote some ideas challenges of group work and challenges what groupware developers face their work.

Group work is a pedagogical strategy that promotes participation and interaction. It also fosters a deeper and more active learning process. When we work in the group, it is never unambiguous and easy because we are all different individuals. Groups are never individuals. We have to accept the fact that all group members have own way to do things and members have their own schedules. Some group members are more active than other and they have more time to work in the group. We must able to modify our own behavior to fit group. In the lecture slides also mentioned that second challenge is that groups are not organizations. I guess this is to say that you can leave the group more easily than from the organization. When you join some organization it is voluntary and you are interested in the organization main goal / tasks.

Teacher lectured about eight challenges for groupware developers. Groupware developers need to be conscious of the potential effects of technology on people, their work and interactions (Ellis, Gibbs and Rein, 1991). These eight challenges are disparity of work and benefit, the adoption process, failure of intuition, difficulty of evaluation, exception handling, critical mass and prisoner’s dilemma problems, disruption of social processes and unobtrusive accessibility.

A work vs. benefit disparity: Groupware systems often require work people who don´t benefit directly from them. Critical mass and prisoner dilemma problems: Groupware cannot succeed unless a larger number of people use it at the same time and this creates a collective action problem. Social, political and motivational issues: Groupware violate social and organization taboos or threaten political structures that existing in an organization. Failure of intuition: Intuitions in current software development environments are often poorly suited (or run against) the best actions in a groupware setting Unobtrusive accessibility: Often the features that support group processes are not used frequently but must still be accessible enough to be used. Difficult of evaluation: Group context introduces social, motivational, economic and political dynamics that hard to understand and measure. Exception handled issues: Groupware has to enable improvisation and error handling. The adaption process: Introduction can require more care, planning, and effort that most software developers consider. (Grudin, 1994)

Sorry numerous spelling mistakes! =)