This project examines how a small group of collaborators works together to design software requirements, and what impact--good or bad--the use of groupware (integrated hardware/software for group processes) might have on this process. Scientists from the University of Michigan will cooperate with colleagues from the Software Technology Program at Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) and Arthur Andersen & Co. The specific projects represent the blending of skills in the building of computer systems, the empirical analysis of human behavior, and the application of theory, both from technology and from cognitive science, to the design and analysis of technology augmentations of work. The approach stresses the need to use a vision of future technology environments to navigate the design space of collaborative technology, but uses the science base of behavioral science on the one hand and computer science and information systems on the other to assist in the development of technology experiments. The research will pursue the following specific activities: Studies of current practice-- 1. An analysis of collaboration from interview data already collected by MCC 2. Observational studies of collaboration as they occur now; Studies of groupware supported collaboration-- 3. Studies of collaboration using MCC groupware prototypes 4. Studies of collaboration using University of Michigan groupware prototypes. The project will use observational methods to study group behavior in situ, and will use successive generations of groupware prototypes as experimental tools for better understanding the collaborative process itself. The goal of the project is to contribute to the science base of collaboration theory, which is a blend of the behavioral sciences and the computer and information sciences interested in understanding how autonomous agents coordinate their behavior in the pursuit of a common task.
