The Information School of the University of Washington A comparison of the Collaborative Information Retrieval (CIR) behaviors of two design teams Harry Bruce Raya Fidel Annelise Mark Pejtersen Susan Dumais Jonathan Grudin Steven Poltrock

The Information School of the University of Washington Team work Growing emphasis on team work as an essential part the modern workplace Assumption  a carefully constructed team can focus attention on a problem with a collective expertise that is (somehow) greater than the sum of it parts Teamwork is a management challenge but it is also an intriguing information problem

The Information School of the University of Washington Information and team work Identifying the team’s problem Negotiating the shared gap by applying collective expertise to the shared information problem A point at which the gap cannot be narrowed by the applied expertise of individual team members Shared understanding

The Information School of the University of Washington Shared information need

The Information School of the University of Washington What happens then? Collaborative Information retrieval? Broadly defined CIR could involve… Two or more team members working together to find information for a specific problem Team members looking for information for a specific problem in parallel or sequentially. Team members looking for information on the advice of other team members who had found the same or similar information earlier and so on…..

The Information School of the University of Washington A group of people trying to find at the same time some information needed by the group

The Information School of the University of Washington Project Goals Empirical: To discover manifestations of CIR in the workplace Conceptual: To extend an existing framework to address CIR Technological: To suggest developments that might enhance CIR

The Information School of the University of Washington Cognitive Work Analysis Framework A framework designed to help information system designers understand the interaction between: a) the activities, relationships, and constraints of work domains b) the user’s cognitive and social activities during task performance

The Information School of the University of Washington Data Collection Interviews  Team leaders  Team members Observed interactions at meetings Reviewed communication diagrams Monitored Observed team members at work

The Information School of the University of Washington Design Team 1: Microsoft Project goal was to design a web- based Help and Support Center Project was 1 month into a 1-year schedule when observations began Team composition  a team leader, program coordinator, product designers (senior and junior), visual designer, two usability engineers

The Information School of the University of Washington Microsoft: Information Needs Content  Designing access to existing content Design Specifications Management  Views and perceptions determined the focus, pace and scale of the project  Knowing who to contact to resolve an issue Users  How customers behave

The Information School of the University of Washington Microsoft: Information Seeking Gathering information from other people  Formal Meetings Directed at a specific information gathering purpose  Personal networks and corridor meetings  Requesting feedback giving information to an individual authorized to release design specifications Reactions become information Researching books, websites, research reports, or the library

The Information School of the University of Washington Design Team 2: Boeing Project goal  design the structural and spatial properties for all components of an airplane system Team Composition  Team leader, seven engineers, two technicians  Each engineer acts as a “focal” for one or more components Observations conducted 1 month into 3-year design project

The Information School of the University of Washington Boeing: Information Needs Scheduling of design process  Deadlines Procedures  Appropriate format for delivering information Design specifications  Standards, design drawings, costs of hardware Context  Reasons for design requirements, company’s vision for the product Activities of other members  Coordinate actions

The Information School of the University of Washington Boeing: Information Seeking Characterized as information generation, sharing and transmission not information seeking and searching Gathering information from other people  Important to ensure good relationships with key people Information validation or verification  Often begins with the team leader Delegation of information gathering tasks Information flow coordinated by the lead Keeping the lead up to date  Informal “brain dump” or spontaneous exchange

The Information School of the University of Washington Boeing: Information Seeking Formal Meetings  Weekly meetings directed at specific information gathering from people outside the team  Team collectively decided agenda for next meeting  Formulate need through discussion; delegate the task of finding the information to one team member  Proactive information providers – anticipating needs and providing information

The Information School of the University of Washington Boeing: Information Seeking When needs are not well formulated  “surfing around” to bring useful information to the surface Informal conversations with suppliers or with team members who had recently communicated with a source person Searching Boeing information systems

The Information School of the University of Washington Work Domain Comparison MicrosoftBoeing Short development time Lengthy development time Tolerance for failure No tolerance for failure Iterative design process Designing a new service Modification of existing design Requirements unclear; based on anticipated user need Specific, known requirements Workstations in individual offices, not adjacent Roles flexible and Self defined Workstations in a shared open area Defined division of labor in terms of functionality

The Information School of the University of Washington Information behaviors Other people as information sources Design elements as information bearing objects  The design as information query A focus for information generating discourse – reformulation, amendment, validation or answer Use of weekly meetings  Identification of information needs, seeking strategies and delegation of responsibilities Collaboration facilitated by well-defined roles and responsibilities relative to an area of expertise  Individuals able to identify their role in the team’s information problem

The Information School of the University of Washington Information Behaviors More use of documents (text, drawings, standards, databases) at Boeing A clearer structure for information exchanging between the team and outside sources at Boeing

The Information School of the University of Washington CIR Challenges A stable and inclusive definition of CIR Defn: A CIR event occurs when members of a team call upon an external source of information to resolve an information problem BUT…  How do we define team member  Teams in large organizations have extended and flexible membership Others with a stake in the design process Vendors; stress analysts; production managers; marketing etc.

The Information School of the University of Washington CIR and task A team is defined by the task  Each task defines team People collaborating on a task  The people engaged in CIR are those who will apply the information to their task  CIR is the act of getting information from external sources by a group of people who will use this information to do a task Actions by the people connected to a task External sources – information sources apart from the group who are seeking and will use the information for the task

The Information School of the University of Washington CIR findings CIR may be facilitated by structured support for information exchanges between a team and external sources of information Designs are used as information queries Not all information behavior takes place collaboratively even in teams that do CIR  Collaboration occurs when defining information problems and developing strategies for information retrieval  Retrieval is generally carried out by designated individuals