Abstract
A continuing problem in business today is the design of human–computer
systems that respect how work actually gets done. The overarching
context of work consists ofactivities, which people conceive as ways
of organizing their daily life and especially their interactions
with each other. Activities include reading mail, going to workshops,
meeting with colleagues over lunch, answering phone calls, and so
on. Brahms is a multiagent simulation tool for modeling the activities
of groups in different locations and the physical environment consisting
of objects and documents, including especially computer systems.
A Brahms model of work practice revealscircumstantial, interactional
influenceson how work actually gets done, especially how people involve
each other in their work. In particular, a model of practice reveals
how people accomplish a collaboration through multiple and alternative
means of communication, such as meetings, computer tools, and written
documents. Choices of what and how to communicate are dependent uponsocial
beliefs and behaviors—what people know about each other’s activities,
intentions, and capabilities and their understanding of the norms
of the group. As a result, Brahms models can help human–computer
system designers to understandhow tasks and information actually
flowbetween people and machines, what work is required to synchronize
individual contributions, and how tools hinder or help this process.
In particular, workflow diagrams generated by Brahms arethe emergent
product of local interactions between agents and representational
artifacts, not pre-ordained, end-to-end paths built in by a modeler.
We developed Brahms as a tool to support the design of work by illuminating
how formal flow descriptions relate to the social systems of work;
we accomplish this by incorporating multiple views—relating people,
information, systems, and geography—in one tool. Applications of
Brahms could also include system requirements analysis, instruction,
implementing software agents, and a workbench for relating cognitive
and social theories of human behavior.
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