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Group Task Analysis and Design of Computer Supported Cooperative Work

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Handbook of Cognitive Task Design, Erlbaum, Mahwah, (2003)

Abstract

Pushed by the connectivity of the internet, the emerging power of the world wide web, and the prevailing nature of "virtual" organizations, i.e. locally distributed teams collaborating by using networked computer systems (groupware), many new forms of computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) are becoming increasingly common. The communities of science and practice dealing with analysis and design of CSCW are truly multi-disciplinary and combine knowledge from computer science, software engineering, human factors, psychology, sociology, ethnography, business administration and training. Despite this quantitative and qualitative growth, many groupware systems still have serious usability problems. At worst, cooperating by using groupware can be awkward and frustrating compared to face-to-face collaboration. Still, research on CSCW has only sketchy knowledge of how people really collaborate, and translating what people actually do into effective designs is difficult. As well, the effort involved in assessing groupware prototypes and systems is onerous. There are neither any universal evaluation techniques nor any generally approved design criteria existing. The methods of cognitive task analysis can contribute to improve both groupware design, e.g. by giving insight in demand, structure and process of collaborative task execution, and task design for locally distributed teams, e.g. by analyzing the effects of groupware on work structure and process, allocation of responsibility and resources, and task bound communication. This paragraph joins the domains of task analysis and CSCW by explaining cognitive issues in collaboration and applying them in a collaborative project planning scenario.

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