CAREER: Distributed Cooperation in Boundary-Spanning IS Design

近年来，信息系统开发的IT组件已经从根本上简化了。许多公司正在尝试联合设计业务流程和IT系统，以跨业务流程集成工作流和信息流。这些努力大多数都失败了，因为我们设计这种“跨界”信息系统（is）的方式存在根本的矛盾。涉众需要建立设计目标和信息流的共同愿景，但是只能在做这些事情的环境已经很好地定义和稳定的情况下才能做到这一点——那么他们如何在快速变化或发展的开发环境中做到这一点呢？理解为什么某件事要以特定的方式完成，通常只有在特定工作组的文化和本地知识范围内才有可能。我们缺乏在工作组之间分享这种理解的方法，甚至无法确定哪些知识对于有效的is设计是重要的。大多数跨界设计项目采用用于IT系统开发的设计过程类型。变更的目标被定义，解决方案的需求被指定，然后解决方案被实现。但是这种方法不适用于定义不清的、跨功能的信息系统的设计，在这些系统中，更改的边界和目标随着设计的进行而变化。PI先前的研究表明，来自组织不同领域的利益相关者以非常不同的方式感知组织过程和目标，并且通常没有意识到他们对同一概念的理解不同。涉众对组织过程的片面和不同理解是开发设计问题和解决方案的共同愿景的主要障碍。为具有不同背景和专业知识的人建立一种通用语言是有问题的。因此，来自信息系统用户和组织涉众的投入太少，无法定义一个适当的系统。在设计中有三个主要的挑战，涉及到来自多个学科和背景的利益相关者，目前的研究还没有解决：需要一种共同的语言，允许来自不同组织领域和背景的参与者以相同的方式理解和解释设计的过程和概念；需要有效的“边界对象”，以调解和整合分布在多个利益相关者之间的知识；需要了解流程驱动因素，这些驱动因素允许设计团队快速地同意并不断地验证他们的设计的共同愿景。该项目将为设计信息通信技术（ict）的短期、动态的跨学科团队开发一种新的知识整合理论。PI将把这些知识传播给典型的信息系统从业者和新的群体，这些群体是关键的利益相关者，但通常不是关键信息系统设计活动的一流参与者。更广泛的影响：本研究将在组织和教育的新背景下影响分布式问题解决的设计相关领域。将开发支持协作、以问题为中心的学习的新方法，这将减轻妇女、残疾学生和少数民族个人目前面临的劣势，因为他们不分享在目标驱动的过程中推动结果谈判的主流文化传统或类型。通过发展集体解决问题的技术和绩效衡量标准，将重点从目标实现转向包容性的问题定义，这些社区将有机会更充分地参与小组工作，并在商业组织和课堂上发挥更大的影响力。当前基于问题的学习强调复杂的、现实世界的问题调查；这种强调反馈到当前项目的实际、战略应用中。结果将通过德雷塞尔大学教育计划、PI目前与费城知识管理行业集团的联系、两个合作组织的行业研讨会和讲习班以及AIS认知研究特别兴趣小组广泛传播。

The IT component of information system development has been radically simplified in recent years. Many corporations are now attempting to jointly design business processes and IT systems, to integrate workflows and information flows across business processes. The majority of these efforts fail, because there is a fundamental contradiction in the way that we design this type of "boundary-spanning" information system (IS). Stakeholders need to establish common visions of design goals and information flows, but can only do this in situations where the context for doing these things is already well defined and stable - so how can they do it in rapidly-changing or evolving development contexts? Understanding why something is done in a specific way is often possible only within the culture and local knowledge of a specific work-group. We lack ways to share this understanding across workgroups, or even to determine what knowledge is significant for an effective IS design.Most boundary-spanning design projects employ the type of design process used for IT system development. Goals for change are defined, requirements for a solution are specified, then the solution is implemented. But this approach is not appropriate for the design of ill-defined, cross-functional information systems, where the boundaries and goals for change evolve as the design proceeds. The PI's prior studies indicate that stakeholders from different areas of the organization perceive organizational processes and goals in very different ways and are often unaware that they understand the same concept differently. Stakeholders' partial and different understandings of organizational processes are a major obstacle to developing a shared vision of design problems and solutions. Establishing a common language for people with different backgrounds and expertise is problematic. Consequently, there is too little input from IS users and organizational stakeholders to define an appropriate system.There are three major challenges in designing that involves stakeholders from multiple disciplines and backgrounds, which are not resolved by current research: The need for a common language, that allows participants from a variety of organizational areas and backgrounds to understand and interpret the processes and concepts of design in the same way; The need for effective "boundary objects", to mediate and integrate knowledge that is distributed among multiple stakeholders; The need to understand the process drivers that permit a design group to rapidly agree and constantly validate a common vision of their design. This project will develop a new theory of knowledge integration for short-term, dynamic cross-disciplinary teams designing information and communication technologies (ICTs). The PI will propagate this knowledge both to typical IS practitioners and to new groups of people who are key stakeholders but not typically first-class participants in critical IS design activities.Broader Impacts: This research will affect the design-related area of distributed problem-solving in new contexts, both organizational and educational. New ways of supporting collaborative, problem-centered learning will be developed, that will alleviate the disadvantages currently faced by women, students with disabilities, and ethnic minority individuals because they do not share the mainstream cultural traditions or genres that drive the negotiation of outcomes in goal-driven processes. By developing collective problem-solving techniques and performance-measures that shift the focus from goal-achievement to inclusive problem-definition, these communities will be provided with the opportunity to participate more fully in group work and to exert increased influence, both in business organizations and in the classroom. Current problem-based learning emphasizes complex, real-world problem investigation; this emphasis feeds back into the practical, strategic applications of the current project. Results will be disseminated broadly, through the Drexel University education initiative, and through the PI's current affiliations with Philadelphia Knowledge Management industry group, through industry seminars and workshops in the two collaborating organizations, and through the AIS Cognitive Research Special Interest Group.