CAREER: Distributed Cooperation in Boundary-Spanning IS Design

职业：跨边界 IS 设计中的分布式合作

• 批准号: 0347595
• 负责人: Susan Gasson
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: Drexel University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-03-15 至 2010-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0347595&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Distributed; Cooperation; Boundary; Spanning

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.

近年来，信息系统开发的IT组件已从根本上得到简化。许多公司现在正试图联合设计业务流程和IT系统，以集成跨业务流程的工作流和信息流。这些努力大多失败了，因为我们设计这种“跨越边界”的信息系统(IS)的方式存在根本性的矛盾。涉众需要建立设计目标和信息流的共同愿景，但只有在做这些事情的环境已经定义良好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？只有在特定工作组的文化和当地知识范围内，才能理解为什么要以特定的方式做某事。我们缺乏在工作组之间共享这种理解的方法，甚至无法确定哪些知识对于有效的IS设计是重要的。大多数跨越边界的设计项目使用用于IT系统开发的设计过程类型。定义了变更目标，指定了解决方案的需求，然后实现了解决方案。但这种方法不适合设计定义不明确、跨功能的信息系统，在这些系统中，更改的边界和目标会随着设计的进行而演变。PI之前的研究表明，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，并且往往没有意识到他们对同一概念的理解不同。利益相关者对组织流程的部分和不同理解是形成设计问题和解决方案的共同愿景的主要障碍。为不同背景和专长的人建立一种共同语言是有问题的。因此，信息系统用户和组织利益相关者的投入太少，无法定义适当的系统。涉及来自多个学科和背景的利益相关者的设计中存在三个主要挑战，目前的研究尚未解决这些挑战：需要一种共同语言，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过程和概念；需要有效的“边界对象”，以协调和集成分布在多个利益相关者之间的知识；需要了解过程驱动因素，使设计团队能够快速达成并不断验证其设计的共同愿景。该项目将为设计信息和通信技术(信通技术)的短期、有活力的跨学科团队开发一种新的知识整合理论。PI将把这一知识传播给典型的IS实践者和作为关键IS设计活动的关键利益相关者但通常不是一流参与者的新群体。广泛影响：这项研究将影响新环境下分布式问题解决的设计相关领域，无论是组织上的还是教育上的。将开发支持协作的、以问题为中心的学习的新方法，以缓解妇女、残疾学生和少数民族个人目前面临的不利条件，因为他们不分享主流文化传统或流派，这些传统或流派推动在目标驱动的过程中谈判结果。通过发展集体解决问题的技术和绩效措施，将重点从目标实现转移到包容性问题定义，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。当前以问题为基础的学习强调复杂的、真实世界的问题调查；这一重点反馈到当前项目的实际、战略性应用中。结果将通过德雷克塞尔大学教育倡议、国际和平协会目前与费城知识管理行业组织的关系、两个合作组织的行业研讨会和研讨会以及AIS认知研究特别兴趣小组广泛传播。