Hackman's three criteria for team success

CHAPTER PREVIEW

Business is a social activity. While we often say that organizations accomplish their strategy, they don’t. People in organizations accomplish strategy by working with other people, almost always working in groups. People do business with people.

Over the years, technology has increasingly supported group work. In your grandfather’s day, communication was done using letter, phone, and office visits. Those technologies were augmented in the 1980s and 1990s with fax and email and more recently by texting, conference calls, and videoconferencing. Today, products such as Office 365 provide a wide array of tools to support collaborative work.

This chapter investigates ways that information systems can support collaboration. We begin by defining collaboration, discussing collaborative activities, and setting criteria for successful collaboration. Next, we’ll address the kinds of work that collaborative teams do. Then we’ll discuss requirements for collaborative information systems and illustrate important collaborative tools for improving communication and sharing content. After that, we’ll bring this closer to your needs today and investigate the use of three different collaboration IS that can improve your student collaborations. Finally, we’ll wrap up with a discussion of collaboration in 2024!

Q1 What Are the Two Key Characteristics of Collaboration?

To answer this question, we must first distinguish between the terms cooperation and collaboration. Cooperation is a group of people working together, all doing essentially the same type of work, to accomplish a job. A group of four painters, each painting a different wall in the same room, are working cooperatively. Similarly, a group of checkers at the grocery store or clerks at the post office are working cooperatively to serve customers. A cooperative group can accomplish a given task faster than an individual working alone, but the cooperative result is usually not better in quality than the result of someone working alone.

In this text, we define collaboration as a group of people working together to achieve a common goal via a process of feedback and iteration. Using feedback and iteration, one person will produce something, say the draft of a document, and a second person will review that draft and provide critical feedback. Given the feedback, the original author or someone else will then revise the first draft to produce a second. The work proceeds in a series of stages, or iterations, in which something is produced, members criticize it, and then another version is produced. Using iteration and feedback, the group’s result can be better than what any single individual can produce alone. This is possible because different group members provide different perspectives. “Oh, I never thought of it that way” is a typical signal of collaboration success.

Many, perhaps most, student groups incorrectly use cooperation rather than collaboration. Given an assignment, a group of five students will break it up into five pieces, work to accomplish their piece independently, and then merge their independent work for grading by the professor. Such a process will enable the project to be completed more quickly, with less work by any single individual, but it will not be better than the result obtained if the students were to work alone.

In contrast, when students work collaboratively, they set forth an initial idea or work product, provide feedback to one another on those ideas or products, and then revise in accordance with feedback. Such a process can produce a result far superior to that produced by any student working alone.

Importance of Effective Critical Feedback

Given this definition, for collaboration to be successful members must provide and receive critical feedback. A group in which everyone is too polite to say anything critical cannot collaborate. As Darwin John, the world’s first chief information officer (CIO) (see Chapter 11 ) once said, “If two of you have the exact same idea, then we have no need for one of you.” On the other hand, a group that is so critical and negative that members come to distrust, even hate, one another cannot effectively collaborate either. For most groups, success is achieved between these extremes.

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Figure 2-1 Important and Not Important Characteristics of a Collaborator

To underline this point, consider the research of Ditkoff, Allen, Moore, and Pollard. They surveyed 108 business professionals to determine the qualities, attitudes, and skills that make a good collaborator. 1 Figure 2-1 lists the most and least important characteristics reported in the survey. Most students are surprised to learn that 5 of the top 12 characteristics involve disagreement (highlighted in red in Figure 2-1 ). Most students believe that “we should all get along” and more or less have the same idea and opinions about team matters. Although it is important for the team to be sociable enough to work together, this research indicates that it is also important for team members to have different ideas and opinions and to express them to each other.

1Mitch Ditkoff, Tim Moore, Carolyn Allen, and Dave Pollard, “The Ideal Collaborative Team,” Idea Champions, accessed July 5, 2013, http://www.ideachampions.com/downloads/collaborationresults.pdf .

When we think about collaboration as an iterative process in which team members give and receive feedback, these results are not surprising. During collaboration, team members learn from each other, and it will be difficult to learn if no one is willing to express different, or even unpopular, ideas. The respondents also seem to be saying, “You can be negative, as long as you care about what we’re doing.” These collaboration skills do not come naturally to people who have been taught to “play well with others,” but that may be why they were so highly ranked in the survey.

The characteristics rated not relevant are also revealing. Experience as a collaborator or in business does not seem to matter. Being popular also is not important. A big surprise, however, is that being well organized was rated 31st out of 39 characteristics. Perhaps collaboration itself is not a very well-organized process.

Guidelines for Giving and Receiving Critical Feedback

Giving and receiving critical feedback is the single most important collaboration skill. So, before we discuss the role that information systems can play for improving collaboration, study the guidelines for giving and receiving critical feedback shown in Figure 2-2 .

Many students have found that when they first form a collaborative group, it’s useful to begin with a discussion of critical feedback guidelines like those in Figure 2-2 . Begin with this list, and then, using feedback and iteration, develop your own list. Of course, if a group member does not follow the agreed-upon guidelines, someone will have to provide critical feedback to that effect as well.

Warning

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Figure 2-2 Guidelines for Providing and Receiving Critical Feedback

If you are like most undergraduate business students, especially freshmen or sophomores, your life experience is keeping you from understanding the need for collaboration. So far, almost everyone you know has the same experiences as you and, more or less, thinks like you. Your friends and associates have the same educational background, scored more or less the same on standardized tests, and have the same orientation toward success. So, why collaborate? Most of you think the same way, anyway: “What does the professor want and what’s the easiest, fastest way to get it to her?”

So, consider this thought experiment. Your company is planning to build a new facility that is critical for the success of a new product line and will create 300 new jobs. The county government won’t issue a building permit because the site is prone to landslides. Your engineers believe your design overcomes that hazard, but your chief financial officer (CFO) is concerned about possible litigation in the event there is a problem. Your corporate counsel is investigating the best way to overcome the county’s objections while limiting liability. Meanwhile, a local environmental group is protesting your site because it believes the site is too close to an eagle’s nest. Your public relations director is meeting with these local groups every week.

Do you proceed with the project?

To decide, you create a working team of the chief engineer, the CFO, your legal counsel, and the PR director. Each of those people has different education and expertise, different life experience, and different values. In fact, the only thing they have in common is that they are paid by your company. That team will participate collaboratively in ways that are far different from your experience so far. Keep this example in mind as you read this chapter.

Bottom line: The two key characteristics of collaboration are iteration and feedback.

Q2 What Are Three Criteria for Successful Collaboration?

J. Richard Hackman studied teamwork for many years, and his book Leading Teams contains many useful concepts and tips for future managers. 2 According to Hackman, there are three primary criteria for judging team success:

· • Successful outcome

· • Growth in team capability

· • Meaningful and satisfying experience

Successful Outcome

Most students are primarily concerned with the first criterion. They want to achieve a good outcome, measured by their grade, or they want to get the project done with an acceptable grade while minimizing the effort required. For business professionals, teams need to accomplish their goals: make a decision, solve a problem, or create a work product. Whatever the objective is, the first success criterion is, “Did we do it?”

Although not as apparent in student teams, most business teams also need to ask, “Did we do it within the time and budget allowed?” Teams that produce a work product too late or far over budget are not successful, even if they did achieve their goal.

2J. Richard Hackman, Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances (Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2002).

Growth in Team Capability

The other two criteria are surprising to most students, probably because most student teams are short-lived. But, in business, where teams often last months or years, it makes sense to ask, “Did the team get better?” If you’re a football fan, you’ve undoubtedly heard your college’s coach say, “We really improved as the season progressed.” (Of course, for the team with 2 wins and 12 losses, you didn’t hear that.) Football teams last only a season. If the team is permanent, say a team of customer support personnel, the benefits of team growth are even greater. Over time, as the team gets better, it becomes more efficient; thus, over time the team provides more service for a given cost or the same service for less cost.

How does a team get better? For one, it develops better work processes. Activities are combined or eliminated. Linkages are established so that “the left hand knows what the right hand is doing,” or needs, or can provide. Teams also get better as individuals improve at their tasks. Part of that improvement is the learning curve; as someone does something over and over, he or she gets better at it. But team members also teach task skills and give knowledge to one another. Team members also provide perspectives that other team members need.

Meaningful and Satisfying Experience

The third element of Hackman’s definition of team success is that team members have a meaningful and satisfying experience. Of course, the nature of team goals is a major factor in making work meaningful. But few of us have the opportunity to develop a life-saving cancer vaccine or safely land a stricken airliner in the middle of the Hudson River in winter. For most of us, it’s a matter of making the product, or creating the shipment, or accounting for the payment, or finding the prospects, and so on.

So, in the more mundane world of most business professionals, what makes work meaningful? Hackman cites numerous studies in his book, and one common thread is that the work is perceived as meaningful by the team. Keeping prices up to date in the product database may not be the most exciting work, but if that task is perceived by the team as important, it will become meaningful.

Furthermore, if an individual’s work is not only perceived as important, but the person doing that work is also given credit for it, then the experience will be perceived as meaningful. So, recognition for work well done is vitally important for a meaningful work experience.

Another aspect of team satisfaction is camaraderie. Business professionals, just like students, are energized when they have the feeling that they are part of a group, each person doing his or her own job, and combining efforts to achieve something worthwhile that is better than any could have done alone.

Q3 What Are the Four Primary Purposes of Collaboration?

Collaborative teams accomplish four primary purposes:

· • Become informed

· • Make decisions

· • Solve problems

· • Manage projects

These four purposes build on each other. For example, making a decision requires that team members be informed. In turn, to solve a problem, the team must have the ability to make decisions (and become informed). Finally, to conduct a project, the team must be able to solve problems (and make decisions and become informed).

Before we continue, understand you can use the hierarchy of these four purposes to build your professional skills. You cannot make good decisions if you do not have the skills to inform yourself. You cannot solve problems if you are unable to make good decisions. And you cannot manage projects if you don’t know how to solve problems!

In this question, we will consider the collaborative nature of these four purposes and describe requirements for information systems that support them, starting with the most basic: becoming informed.

Becoming Informed

Informing is the first and most fundamental collaboration purpose. Recall from Chapter 1 that two individuals can receive the same data but construct different interpretations or, as stated in the terms of Chapter 1 , conceive different information. The goal of the informing is to ensure, as much as possible, that team members are conceiving information in the same way.

For example, as you read in the opening scenario, the team at AllRoad has been assigned the task of investigating the 3D printing opportunity. One of the team’s first tasks is to ensure that everyone understands that goal and, further, understands the basics of 3D printing technology and what is required to implement it.

Informing, and hence all of the purposes of collaboration, presents several requirements for collaborative information systems. As you would expect, team members need to be able to share data and to communicate with one another to share interpretations. Furthermore, because memories are faulty and team membership can change, it is also necessary to document the team’s understanding of the information conceived. To avoid having to go “over and over and over” a topic, a repository of information, such as a wiki, is needed. We will say more about this in Q5.

Making Decisions

Collaboration is used for some types of decision making, but not all. Consequently, to understand the role for collaboration we must begin with an analysis of decision making. Decisions are made at three levels: operational, managerial, and strategic.

Operational Decisions

Operational decisions are those that support operational, day-to-day activities. Typical operational decisions are: How many widgets should we order from vendor A? Should we extend credit to vendor B? Which invoices should we pay today?

Managerial Decisions

Managerial decisions are decisions about the allocation and utilization of resources. Typical decisions are: How much should we budget for computer hardware and programs for department A next year? How many engineers should we assign to project B? How many square feet of warehouse space do we need for the coming year?

In general, if a managerial decision requires consideration of different perspectives, then it will benefit from collaboration. For example, consider the decision of whether to increase employee pay in the coming year. No single individual has the answer. The decision depends on an analysis of inflation, industry trends, the organization’s profitability, the influence of unions, and other factors. Senior managers, accountants, human resources personnel, labor relationships managers, and others will each bring a different perspective to the decision. They will produce a work product for the decision, evaluate that product, and make revisions in an iterative fashion—the essence of collaboration.

Strategic Decisions

Strategic decisions are those that support broad-scope, organizational issues. Typical decisions at the strategic level are: Should we start a new product line? Should we open a centralized warehouse in Tennessee? Should we acquire company A?

Strategic decisions are almost always collaborative. Consider a decision about whether to move manufacturing operations to China. This decision affects every employee in the organization, the organization’s suppliers, its customers, and its shareholders. Many factors and many perspectives on each of those factors must be considered.

The Decision Process

Information systems can be classified based on whether their decision processes are structured or unstructured. These terms refer to the method or process by which the decision is to be made, not to the nature of the underlying problem. A structured decision process is one for which there is an understood and accepted method for making the decision. A formula for computing the reorder quantity of an item in inventory is an example of a structured decision process. A standard method for allocating furniture and equipment to employees is another structured decision process. Structured decisions seldom require collaboration.

An unstructured decision process is one for which there is no agreed-on decision-making method. Predicting the future direction of the economy or the stock market is a classic example. The prediction method varies from person to person; it is neither standardized nor broadly accepted. Another example of an unstructured decision process is assessing how well suited an employee is for performing a particular job. Managers vary in the manner in which they make such assessments. Unstructured decisions are often collaborative.

The Relationship Between Decision Type and Decision Process

The decision type and decision process are loosely related. Decisions at the operational level tend to be structured, and decisions at the strategic level tend to be unstructured. Managerial decisions tend to be both structured and unstructured.

We use the words tend to be because there are exceptions to the relationship. Some operational decisions are unstructured (e.g., “How many taxicab drivers do we need on the night before the homecoming game?”), and some strategic decisions can be structured (e.g., “How should we assign sales quotas for a new product?”). In general, however, the relationship holds.

Decision Making and Collaboration Systems

As stated, few structured decisions involve collaboration. Deciding, for example, how much of product A to order from vendor B does not require the feedback and iteration among members that typify collaboration. Although the process of generating the order might require the coordinated work of people in purchasing, accounting, and manufacturing, there is seldom a need for one person to comment on someone else’s work. In fact, involving collaboration in routine, structured decisions is expensive, wasteful, and frustrating. “Do we have to have a meeting about everything?” is a common lament.

The situation is different for unstructured decisions because feedback and iteration are crucial. Members bring different ideas and perspectives about what is to be decided, how the decision will be reached, what criteria are important, and how decision alternatives score against those criteria. The group may make tentative conclusions and discuss potential outcomes of those conclusions, and members will often revise their positions. Figure 2-3 illustrates the change in the need for collaboration as decision processes become less structured.

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Solving Problems

Solving problems is the third primary reason for collaborating. A problem is a perceived difference between what is and what ought to be. Because it is a perception, different people can have different problem definitions.

Therefore, the first and arguably the most important task for a problem-solving collaborative group is defining the problem. For example, the AllRoad Parts team has been assigned the problem of determining whether manufacturing certain parts via 3D printing is a viable option. As stated as part of the informing purpose, the group needs first to ensure that the team members understand this goal and have a common understanding of what 3D printing entails.

See the Guide on pages 70 – 71 to learn one technique that business professionals use to obtain a common definition of a problem. That technique requires effective communication.

However, because a problem is a difference between what is and what ought to be, the statement “reduce operational expenses” does not go far enough. Is saving one dollar enough of a reduction? Is saving $100,000 enough? Does it take $1,000,000 for the reduction to be enough? A better problem definition would be to reduce operational expenses by 10 percent or by $100,000 or some other more specific statement of what is desired.

Figure 2-4 lists the principal problem-solving tasks. Because this text is about information systems and not about problem solving per se, we will not delve into those tasks here. Just note the work that needs to be done, and consider the role of feedback and iteration for each of these tasks.

Managing Projects

Managing projects is a rich and complicated subject, with many theories and methods and techniques. Here we will just touch on the collaborative aspects of four primary project phases.

Projects are formed to create or produce something. The end goal might be a marketing plan, the design of a new factory, or a new product, or it could be performing the annual audit. Because projects vary so much in nature and size, we will summarize generic project phases here. Figure 2-5 shows project management with four phases, the major tasks of each, and the kinds of data that collaborative teams need to share.

Starting Phase

The fundamental purpose of the starting phase is to set the ground rules for the project and the team. In industry, teams need to determine or understand what authority they have. Is the project given to the team? Or is part of the team’s task to identify what the project is? Is the team free to determine team membership, or is membership given? Can the team devise its own methods for accomplishing the project, or is a particular method required? Student teams differ from those in industry because the team’s authority and membership are set by the instructor. However, although student teams do not have the authority to define the project, they do have the authority to determine how that project will be accomplished.

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Figure 2-4 Problem-Solving Tasks

Other tasks during the starting phase are to set the scope of the project and to establish an initial budget. Often this budget is preliminary and is revised after the project has been planned. An initial team is formed during this phase with the understanding that team membership may change as the project progresses. It is important to set team member expectations at the outset. What role will each team member play, and what responsibilities and authority will he or she have? Team rules are also established as discussed under decision making.

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Figure 2-5 Project Management Tasks and Data

Planning Phase

The purpose of the planning phase is to determine “who will do what and by when.” Work activities are defined, and resources such as personnel, budget, and equipment are assigned to them. As you’ll learn when we discuss project management in Chapter 10 , tasks can depend on one another. For example, you cannot evaluate alternatives until you have created a list of alternatives to evaluate. In this case, we say that there is a task dependency between the task Evaluate alternatives and the task Create a list of alternatives. The Evaluate alternatives task cannot begin until the completion of the Create a list of alternatives task.

Once tasks and resources have been assigned, it is possible to determine the project schedule. If the schedule is unacceptable, more resources can be added to the project or the project scope can be reduced. Risks and complications arise here, however, as will be discussed in Chapter 10 . The project budget is usually revised at this point as well.

Doing Phase

Project tasks are accomplished during the doing phase. The key management challenge here is to ensure that tasks are accomplished on time and, if not, to identify schedule problems as early as possible. As work progresses, it is often necessary to add or delete tasks, change task assignments, add or remove task labor or other resources, and so forth. Another important task is to document and report project progress.

Finalizing Phase

Are we done? This question is an important and sometimes difficult one to answer. If work is not finished, the team needs to define more tasks and continue the doing phase. If the answer is yes, then the team needs to document its results, document information for future teams, close down the project, and disband the team.

Review the third column of Figure 2-5 . All of this project data needs to be stored in a location accessible to the team. Furthermore, all of this data is subject to feedback and iteration. That means that there will be hundreds, perhaps thousands, of versions of data items to be managed. We will consider ways that collaborative information systems can facilitate the management of such data in Q6.

Q4 What Are the Requirements for a Collaboration Information System?

As you would expect, a collaboration information system , or, more simply, a collaboration system , is an information system that supports collaboration. In this section, we’ll discuss the components of such a system and use the discussions in Q1 and Q2 to summarize the requirements for a collaboration IS.

A collaboration information system is a practical example of IS, one that you and your teammates can, and should, build. Because you are new to thinking about IS, we begin first with a summary of the five components of such a system, and then we will survey the requirements that teams, including yours, should consider when constructing a collaboration IS.

The Five Components of an IS for Collaboration

As information systems, collaboration systems have the five components of every information system: hardware, software, data, procedures, and people. Concerning hardware, every team member needs a device for participating in the group’s work, either a personal computer or a mobile device like an iPad. In addition, because teams need to share data, most collaboration systems store documents and other files on a server somewhere. Google Grid and Microsoft Sky Drive provide servers that are accessed via the Internet, in what is called the cloud, which you will learn about in Chapter 6 . For now, think of it as one or more computers that store and retrieve your files, somewhere out on the Internet.

Collaboration tools provide useful capabilities, but they also present some serious security risks. The Security Guide on pages 68 – 69 discusses those risks and how to avoid them.

Collaboration programs are applications like email or text messaging, Google Drive, Microsoft Web Apps, and other tools that support collaborative work. We will survey those tools in Q5 through Q7.

Regarding the data component, collaboration involves two types. Project data is data that is part of the collaboration’s work product. For example, for a team that is designing a new product, design documents are examples of project data. A document that describes a recommended solution is project data for a problem-solving project. Project metadata is data that is used to manage the project. Schedules, tasks, budgets, and other managerial data are examples of project metadata. Both types of data, by the way, are subject to iteration and feedback.

Collaboration information systems procedures specify standards, policies, and techniques for conducting the team’s work. An example is procedures for reviewing documents or other work products. To reduce confusion and increase control, the team might establish a procedure that specifies who will review documents and in what sequence. Rules about who can do what to which data are also codified in procedures. Procedures are usually designed by the team; sometimes they need to be adjusted because of limitations in the collaboration tools being used.

The final component of a collaboration system is, of course, people. We discussed the importance of the ability to give and receive critical feedback in Q1. In addition, team members know how and when to use collaboration applications.

Primary Functions: Communication and Content Sharing

Figure 2-6 shows requirements categorized according to Hackman’s three criteria for team success (discussed in Q2). For doing the work on time and on budget, teams need support from their collaboration system to communicate, to manage many versions of content, and to manage tasks. We will discuss tools that support each of those requirements in Q5 through Q7. Notice that these requirements support iteration and feedback, as you would expect for an IS that supports collaboration. Figure 2-6 also shows requirements for growth in team capability and for creating a meaningful and satisfying experience.

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Figure 2-6 Requirements for a Collaboration IS

As you will learn, there are numerous alternatives for constructing an IS to meet those requirements. We will investigate three in Q8. You will then have the opportunity of creating an IS for your team in Collaboration Exercise 2 on pages 73 – 74 . Doing so will be greatly beneficial because it will teach you firsthand the role of each of the five components and it will also give you a result that you can use with other teams, in other courses, and, of course, during your career.

Figure 2-7 lists the four purposes of collaboration activities discussed in Q3 and summarizes IS requirements for collaboration systems for each purpose. When you construct your own collaboration IS, first determine the type of effort you are engaged in and then use Figure 2-7 to help you determine your requirements.

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Figure 2-7 Requirements for Different Collaboration Purposes

Q5 How Can You Use Collaboration Tools to Improve Team Communication?

Because of the need to provide feedback, team communication is essential to every collaborative project. In addition to feedback, however, communication is important to manage content, project tasks, and the other requirements shown in Figures 2-6 and 2-7 . Developing an effective communication facility is the first thing your team should do, and it is arguably the most important feature of a collaboration IS.

The particular tools used depend on the ways that the team communicates, as summarized in Figure 2-8 . Synchronous communication occurs when all team members meet at the same time, such as with conference calls or face-to-face meetings. Asynchronous communication occurs when team members do not meet at the same time. Employees who work different shifts at the same location or team members who work in different time zones around the world must meet asynchronously.

The Ethics Guide on pages 56 – 57 addresses some of the ethical challenges that arise when team members have opposing viewpoints.

Most student teams attempt to meet face to face, at least at first. Arranging such meetings is always difficult, however, because student schedules and responsibilities differ. If you are going to arrange such meetings, consider creating an online group calendar in which team members post their availability, week by week. Also, use the meeting facilities in Microsoft Outlook to issue invitations and gather RSVPs. If you don’t have Outlook, use an Internet site such as Evite ( www.evite.com ) for this purpose.

For most face-to-face meetings, you need little; the standard Office applications or their freeware lookalikes, such as Open Office, will suffice. However, recent research indicates that face-to-face meetings can benefit from shared, online workspaces, such as that shown in Figure 2-9 . 3 With such a whiteboard, team members can type, write, and draw simultaneously, which enables more ideas to be proposed in a given period of time than when team members must wait in sequence to express ideas verbally. If you have access to such a whiteboard, try it in your face-to-face meetings to see if it works for your team.

However, given today’s communication technology, most students should forgo face-to-face meetings. They are too difficult to arrange and seldom worth the trouble. Instead, learn to use virtual meetings in which participants do not meet in the same place, and possibly not at the same time.

If your virtual meeting is synchronous (all meet at the same time), you can use conference calls, multiparty text chat, screen sharing, webinars, or videoconferencing. Some students find it weird to use text chat for school projects, but why not? You can attend meetings wherever you are, without using your voice. Google Text supports multiparty text chat, as does Microsoft Lync. Google or Bing “multiparty text chat” to find other, similar products.

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Figure 2-8 Collaboration Tools for Communication

3Wouter van Diggelen, Changing Face-to-Face Communication: Collaborative Tools to Support Small-Group Discussions in the Classroom (Groningen: University of Groningen, 2011).

Screen-sharing applications enable users to view the same whiteboard, application, or other display. Figure 2-9 shows an example whiteboard for an AllRoad Parts meeting. This whiteboard, which is part of Office 365 Lync, allows multiple people to contribute simultaneously. To organize the simultaneous conversation, the whiteboard real estate is divided among the members of the group, as shown. Some groups save their whiteboards as minutes of the meeting.

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Figure 2-9 Office 365 Lync Whiteboard Showing Simultaneous Contributions

A webinar is a virtual meeting in which attendees view one of the attendees’ computer screens for a more formal and organized presentation. WebEx ( www.webex.com ) is a popular commercial webinar application used in virtual sales presentations.

Figure 2-10 Videoconferencing Example

Source: Tom Merton/Getty Images

If everyone on your team has a camera on his or her computer, you can also do videoconferencing , like that shown in Figure 2-10 . You can use Skype, Google+, or Microsoft Lync, which we will discuss in Q8. Videoconferencing is more intrusive than text chat (you have to comb your hair), but it does have a more personal touch.

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Figure 2-11 Example Discussion Forum

In some classes and situations, synchronous meetings, even virtual ones, are impossible to arrange. You just cannot get everyone together at the same time. In this circumstance, when the team must meet asynchronously, most students try to communicate via email . The problem with email is that there is too much freedom. Not everyone will participate because it is easy to hide from email. (Was Felix, in the opening scenario, really unable to open the attachment?) Email threads become disorganized and disconnected. After the fact, it is difficult to find particular emails, comments, or attachments.

Discussion forums are an alternative. Here, one group member posts an entry, perhaps an idea, a comment, or a question, and other group members respond. Figure 2-11 shows an example. Such forums are better than email because it is harder for the discussion to get off track. Still, however, it remains easy for some team members not to participate.

Team surveys are another form of communication technology. With these, one team member creates a list of questions and other team members respond. Surveys are an effective way to obtain team opinions; they are generally easy to complete, so most team members will participate. Also, it is easy to determine who has not yet responded. Figure 2-12 shows the results of one team survey. SurveyMonkey ( www.surveymonkey.com ) is one common survey application program. You can find others on the Internet. Microsoft SharePoint has a built-in survey capability, as we discuss in Q8.

Video and audio recordings are also useful for asynchronous communication. Key presentations or discussions can be recorded and played back for team members at their convenience. Such recordings are also useful for training new employees.

Q6 How Can You Use Collaboration Tools to Manage Shared Content?

Content sharing is the second major function of collaboration systems. To enable iteration and feedback, team members need to share both project data (such as documents, spreadsheets, and presentations) and work-product data, as well as project metadata (such as tasks, schedules, calendars, and budgets). The applications teams use and the means by which they share data depend on the type of content. Figure 2-13 provides an overview. 4

For teams that are sharing Office documents such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, the gold standard of desktop applications is Microsoft Office. However, it is also the most expensive. To minimize costs, some teams use either LibreOffice ( www.libreoffice.org ) or Apache OpenOffice ( www.openoffice.org ). Both are license-free, open-source products. (You’ll learn more about these terms in Chapter 4 ; for now, think free.) These products have a small subset of the features and functions of Microsoft Office, but they are robust for what they do and are adequate for many businesses and students. (See Using MIS InClass 2 , pages 60 – 61 , for more.)

Teams that share documents of other types need to install applications for processing those particular types. For examples, Adobe Acrobat processes PDF files, Photoshop and Google Picasa process photos, and Camtasia produces computer screen videos that are useful for teaching team members how to use computer applications.

4Warning: The data in this figure is changing rapidly. The features and functions of both web applications and cloud drives may have been extended from what is described here. Check the vendor’s documentation for new capabilities.

In addition to desktop applications, teams can also process some types of content using Web applications inside their browsers (Firefox, Chrome, and so on). Both Google Docs and Microsoft Web Applications can process Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. However, Google has its own version of these files. Consequently, if the user uploads a Word document that was created using a desktop application and then wishes to edit that document, he or she must convert it into Google Docs format by opening it with Google Docs. After editing the document, if the user wants to place the document back into Word format, he or she will need to specifically save it in Word format. This is not difficult once the user is aware of the need to do so. Of course, if the team never uses a desktop application and instead uses Google Docs to create and process documents via the Web, then no conversion between the desktop and Google Docs formats is needed. Microsoft Web Apps can be used in a similar way, but Web Apps will only edit documents that were created using Microsoft Office. Documents created using LibreOffice and OpenOffice cannot be edited using Microsoft Web Apps.

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Figure 2-13 Content Applications and Storage Alternatives

Browser applications require that documents be stored on a cloud server. Google Docs documents must be stored on Google Drive; Microsoft Web Apps must be stored on either Microsoft SkyDrive or Microsoft SharePoint. We will illustrate the use of Google Docs and Google Grid when we discuss version management later in this chapter.

Documents other than Office documents can be stored (but not processed via the browser) on any cloud server. Team members store the documents on the server for other team members to access. DropBox is one common alternative, but you can use Google Grid, SkyDrive, and SharePoint as well. You can also store photos and videos on Apple’s iCloud.

Figure 2-14 lists collaboration tools for three categories of content: no control, version management, and version control.

Shared Content with No Control

The most primitive way to share content is via email attachments. However, email attachments have numerous problems. For one, there is always the danger that someone does not receive an email, does not notice it in his or her inbox, or does not bother to save the attachments. Then, too, if three users obtain the same document as an email attachment, each changes it, and each sends back the changed document via email, then different, incompatible versions of that document will be floating around. So, although email is simple, easy, and readily available, it will not suffice for collaborations in which there are many document versions or for which there is a desire for content control.

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Figure 2-14 Collaboration Tools for Sharing Content

Another way to share content is to place it on a shared file server , which is simply a computer that stores files … just like the disk in your local computer. If your team has access to a file server at your university, you can put documents on the server and others can download them, make changes, and upload them back onto the server. You can also store files on the cloud servers listed in Figure 2-13 .

Storing documents on servers is better than using email attachments because documents have a single storage location. They are not scattered in different team members’ email boxes, and team members have a known location for finding documents.

However, without any additional control, it is possible for team members to interfere with one another’s work. For example, suppose team members A and B download a document and edit it, but without knowing about the other’s edits. Person A stores his version back on the server and then person B stores her version back on the server. In this scenario, person A’s changes will be lost.

Furthermore, without any version management, it will be impossible to know who changed the document and when. Neither person A nor person B will know whose version of the document is on the server. To avoid such problems, some form of version management is recommended.

Shared Content with Version Management on Google Drive

Systems that provide version management track changes to documents and provide features and functions to accommodate concurrent work. For office documents, you can obtain version management services from Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive, and Microsoft SharePoint. Here we will discuss the use of Google Drive.

Google Drive is a free service that provides a virtual drive in the cloud into which you can create folders and store files. You can upload files of any type, but only files that are processed by Google Docs receive version management. We’ll restrict the rest of this discussion to files of those types.

Anyone with a gmail address automatically has a Google Drive site. Users who do not have a gmail address can either obtain such an address or can create a Google account that is affiliated with some other email address, say your university email address. To do so, and to view the form shown in Figure 2-15 , go to http://accounts.google.com/SignUp . If you click “I prefer to use my current email address” (red arrow in Figure 2-15 ), you can use your current email address. Fill out the rest of the form to receive a Google Account.

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Figure 2-15 Form for Creating a Google Drive Account

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Figure 2-16 Available Types of Documents on Google Drive

To create a Google document, go to http://drive.google.com (note that there is no www in this address). Sign in with your Google account. From that point on, you can create, upload, process, save, and download documents. Figure 2-16 shows a user in the process of creating a new document in a folder named UMIS 7e. After clicking the CREATE button, Grid displays the document types that can be created on the left-hand side. You can also save most of those documents to PDF and Microsoft Office formats, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

C:\Users\jadeantowle\Pictures\CSU\U66567_02_f0018.jpgWith Google Drive, you can make documents available to others by entering their email addresses or Google accounts. Those users are notified that the document exists and are given a link by which they can access it. If they have a Google account, they can edit the document; otherwise they can just view the document. Figure 2-16 shows that the four documents in the folder have all been shared. Clicking on the folder with the + sign displays the names of the people with whom the document is shared, as shown in Figure 2-17 .

Figure 2-17 Document Sharing on Google Drive

Because folders and documents are stored on a Google Grid, server users can simultaneously see and edit documents. In the background, Google Docs merges the users’ activities into a single document. You are notified that another user is editing a document at the same time as you are, and you can refresh the document to see their latest changes. Google tracks document revisions, with brief summaries of changes made. Figure 2-18 shows a sample revision document that has been edited by three users.

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Figure 2-18 Example of Editing a Shared Document on Google Drive

You can improve your collaboration activity even more by combining Google Drive with Google+.

Google Drive is free and very easy to use. Both it and Microsoft SkyDrive are far superior to exchanging documents via email or via a file server. If you are not using one of these two products, you should. Go to http://drive.google.com and www.skydrive.com and check them out. You’ll find easy-to-understand demos if you need additional instruction.

Shared Content with Version Control

Version management systems improve the tracking of shared content and potentially eliminate problems caused by concurrent document access. They do not, however, provide version control , the process that occurs when the collaboration tool limits, and sometimes even directs, user activity. Version control involves one or more of the following capabilities:

· • User activity limited by permissions

· • Document checkout

· • Version histories

· • Workflow control

Microsoft SharePoint is a large, complex, and very robust application for all types of collaboration. It has many features and functions, including all of those just listed. It also contains features for managing tasks, sharing non-Office documents, keeping calendars, publishing blogs, and many more capabilities. Some organizations install SharePoint on their own Windows servers; others access it over the Internet using SharePoint Online. Office 365 Professional and other versions of Office 365 include SharePoint.

SharePoint is an industrial-strength product, and if you have an opportunity to use it, by all means learn to do so. SharePoint is used by thousands of businesses, and SharePoint skills are in high demand. The latest version is SharePoint 2013, but it is not yet generally available; we will illustrate its use here with the more common SharePoint 2010 product. With that introduction to SharePoint, consider the SharePoint implementation of the four functions listed.

Permission-Limited Activity

With SharePoint (and other version control products), each team member is given an account with a set of permissions. Then shared documents are placed into shared directories, sometimes called libraries . For example, on a shared site with four libraries, a particular user might be given read-only permission for library 1; read and edit permission for library 2; read, edit, and delete permission for library 3; and no permission even to see library 4.

Ethics Guide: I KNOW WHAT’S BETTER, REALLY

Suppose you work for a small startup company involved in the innovative application of 3D printing technology, like AllRoad Parts. Your company is 2 years old, employs 50 people, and, like many startup companies, is short of money. Even though you’re relatively junior, you’ve impressed the company’s founders, and they have asked you to take a leadership role on a number of special projects. Recently, the company has been investigating developing an information system to store 3D engineering designs and make them available to customers for purchase. You’ve been assigned to a committee that is developing alternative IS designs for consideration by senior management.

You and a co-worker, Leslie Johnson, have developed two different alternatives for consideration by the committee. You believe that Alternative Two is vastly preferable to Alternative One, but Leslie believes just the opposite. You think if Leslie’s alternative is chosen, the result will be a major financial loss, one that your young startup company is unlikely to survive. Even if that does not occur, so much time will be lost pursuing Leslie’s alternative that your company will fall behind the competition in your dynamic, developing market and will lose substantial market share to the competition as a result.

Unfortunately, Leslie is called away due to a family emergency on the day the two of you are to present your alternatives. You so strongly believe that Leslie’s plan is likely to cause irreparable harm to the company that you decide to present only your plan. While you never lie outright, you lead the committee to believe that both of you strongly support your plan. The committee adopts your plan, and Leslie never learns that the committee saw only one alternative. Is your behavior ethical?

The Ethics Guide in Chapter 1 introduced Kant’s categorical imperative as one way of assessing ethical conduct. This guide introduces a second way, one known as utilitarianism. The basis of this theory goes back to early Greek philosophers, but the founders of the modern theory are considered to be Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, as you will learn in your business ethics class.

According to utilitarianism, the morality of an act is determined by its outcome. Acts are judged to be moral if they result in the greatest good to the greatest number, or if they maximize happiness and reduce suffering. The prior sentence contains a great deal of subtlety that has led to numerous flavors of utilitarianism, flavors that are beyond the scope of this text. Here we will work with the gist of those statements.

Using utilitarianism as a guide, killing can be moral if it results in the greatest good to the greatest number. Killing Adolf Hitler would have been moral if it stopped the Holocaust. Similarly, utilitarianism can assess lying or other forms of deception as moral if the act results in the greatest good to the greatest number. Lying to someone with a fatal illness that you’re certain they’ll recover is moral if it increases that person’s happiness and decreases his or her suffering.

Document Checkout

With version control applications, document directories can be set up so that users are required to check out documents before they can modify them. When a document is checked out, no other user can obtain it for the purpose of editing it. Once the document has been checked in, other users can obtain it for editing.

Figure 2-19 shows a screen for a user of Microsoft SharePoint 2010. The user, Allison Brown (shown in the upper right-hand corner of the screen), is checking out a document named Project One Assignment. Once she has it checked out, she can edit it and return it to this library. While she has the document checked out, no other user will be able to edit it, and her changes will not be visible to others.

Version History

Because collaboration involves feedback and iteration, it is inevitable that dozens, or even hundreds, of documents will be created. Imagine, for example, the number of versions of a design document for the Boeing 787. In some cases, collaboration team members attempt to keep track of versions by appending suffixes to file names. The result for a student project is a file name like Project1_lt_kl_092911_most_ recent_draft.docx or something similar. Not only are such names ugly and awkward, no team member can tell whether this is the most current version.

Collaboration tools that provide version control have the data to readily provide histories on behalf of the users. When a document is changed (or checked in), the collaboration tool records the name of the author and the date and time the document is stored. Users also have the option of recording notes about their version. You can see an example of a version history report produced by SharePoint 2010 later in the chapter in Figure 2-33 ( page 78 ).

Workflow Control

Collaboration tools that provide workflow control manage activities in a predefined process. If, for example, a group wants documents to be reviewed and approved by team members in a particular sequence, the group would define that workflow to the tool. Then the workflow is started, and the emails to manage the process are sent as defined. For example, Figure 2-20 shows a SharePoint workflow in which the group defined a document review process that involves a sequence of reviews by three people. Given this definition, when a document is submitted to a library, SharePoint assigns a task to the first person, Joseph Schumpeter, to approve the document and sends an email to him to that effect. Once he has completed his review (the green checkmark means that he has already done so), SharePoint assigns a task for and sends an email to Adam Smith to approve the document. When all three reviewers have completed their review, SharePoint marks the document as approved. If any of the reviewers disapprove, the document is marked accordingly and the workflow is terminated.

Figure 2-19 Checking Out a Document

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Figure 2-20 Example Workflow

Workflows can be defined for complicated, multistage business processes. See SharePoint for Students 5 for more on how to create them.

Numerous version control applications exist. For general business use, SharePoint is the most popular. Other document control systems include MasterControl ( www.mastercontrol.com ) and Document Locator ( www.documentlocator.com ). Software development teams use applications such as CVS ( www.nongnu.org/cvs ) or Subversion ( http://subversion.apache.org ) to control versions of software code, test plans, and product documentation.

Q7 How Can You Use Collaboration Tools to Manage Tasks?

As you will learn in project management classes, one of the keys for making team progress is keeping a current task list. One senior project manager once advised me that every team meeting should end with an updated list of tasks, including who is responsible for getting each task done and the date by which he or she will get it done. We’ve all been to meetings in which many good ideas were discussed, even agreed upon, but nothing happened after the meeting. When teams create and manage task lists, the risks of such nonaction diminish. Managing with a task list is critical for making progress.

Task descriptions need to be specific and worded so it is possible to decide whether the task was accomplished. “Create a good requirements document” is not an effective, testable task description, unless all team members already know what is supposed to be in a good requirements document. A better task would be “Define the contents of the requirements document for the XYZ project.”

In general, one person should be made responsible for accomplishing a task. That does not mean that the assigned person does the task; it means that he or she is responsible for ensuring that it gets done. Finally, no benefit will come from this list unless every task has a date by which it is to be completed. Further, team leaders need to follow up on tasks to ensure that they are done by that date. Without accountability and follow-up, there is no task management.

5Carey Cole, Steve Fox, and David Kroenke, SharePoint for Students (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2012), pp. 116–129.

A GROUP EXERCISE Using MIS InClass 2: Does AllRoad Parts Need Microsoft Office? Do You?

For the past 25 years, the answer to that question was so obviously yes that no one bothered to ask it. Whether as an individual or as a business, when you purchased a new computer, you automatically purchased a license for Microsoft Office as well. The only decision might have been which version to get.

But today? The answer is not nearly as clear. You can license Office from Microsoft for as little as $10 per month. That’s $120 per employee per year, which may not sound like much, but what if you have 1,000 employees? Or what if you’re a startup with five employees and every dollar of that $600 license fee is needed to build your new business? Or what if you’re a starving student? What if you’re AllRoad Parts?

If you’re a law firm, constantly receiving Microsoft Word and other Microsoft Office documents from other law firms, the courts, and so on, you have no choice. You need to see the documents exactly as they were created. LibreOffice, Apache Open Office, and Google Docs all have differences in the way they render and edit Office documents. As a law firm, you can’t afford the possibility that you’ll miss something. Plus, when you send documents to other law firms, they’ll want them in the standard Microsoft format as well. So, if you regularly exchange Microsoft Office documents with customers, business partners and associates, or suppliers, you probably need Microsoft Office, or at least some employees in your organization do. Similarly, if you do complex financial analyses, you’ll need the capabilities of Microsoft Excel.

But what about the rest of us? According to Rajen Sheth, senior product manager at Google Apps, Google didn’t try to duplicate Office. Regarding Microsoft Office, he told Computerworld, “We think that 90% of users really only use 10% of the functionality. We put a lot of time and effort into figuring out what that 10% is that people use and how to build that into Google Docs.” 6

That begs the question: Does your organization or you need any of that missing 90 percent? If so, you’ll need to pay the $10 a month for Microsoft Office, or maybe you can use LibreOffice. Or you may be just fine with Google Docs alone. How do you decide?

Suppose that Kelly at AllRoad Parts asks you whether AllRoad can get by without Microsoft Office. Form a team as directed by your professor, and complete the following activities.

· 1. Create a list of criteria for deciding whether AllRoad needs Microsoft Office. Cost is one criterion, but what else should AllRoad consider? Revise your answer as you work your way through these questions.

· 2. Suppose that Addison tells you, “Look, it’s $10 a month. Our average labor cost is $35 an hour. If anyone wastes an hour of time messing around with a problem with LibreOffice or Google Docs, that equals three-and-a-half months of that person’s license fee. Just pay for Microsoft Office and forget about it.” Do you think her statement has merit? Explain why or why not.

· On the other hand, suppose Lucas tells you, “The problem with any desktop product, whether it’s Microsoft Office or LibreOffice, is that it has to be installed on the users’ computers. You wouldn’t believe how much time we waste installing and reinstalling programs for our employees. If we can get by with Google Docs, there are no installations; Docs run from the browser and all my installation problems go away.” Do you think his statement has merit? Explain why or why not.

· 4. Divide your team into two subteams, A and B. Obtain a Google account for each of the two subteams. If team members have their own Google accounts, use those accounts if you want.

· a. Create a document as follows:

· 1. For subteam A, download LibreOffice from www.libreoffice.org/download . Install it on the computer of one of the members of subteam A.

· 2. For subteam B, use Microsoft Office. If one of the team members has Office already installed, use it. Otherwise, go to www.office.microsoft.com/en-us/try/ and download and install the trial version of Microsoft Office.

· b. Using either Microsoft Word or LibreOffice Text Document (whichever product your subteam has), create a document containing the instructions in question 4 as sample text. Use the indentation style that you see here. Save your document using your subteam’s name.

6Robert L. Mitchell, “Google Docs Strategy: Be Good Enough and Better,” Computerworld, May 12, 2010, http://blogs.computerworld.com/16094/google_docs_strategy_be_good_enough_and_better .

· c. Upload your document to Google Grid and convert it to Google Docs format.

· d. Open and edit the other subteam’s document as a Google Docs document. Remove the instruction for question 4c. Correct the paragraph numbering for items d and e. When the other team has finished its edits, reopen the documents and look for formatting oddities that have been introduced by the other team’s work.

· e. Using your notes, comment on inconsistencies in the way these products handle document formatting.

· 5. As you have just seen, there are significant differences in formatting features among these three products. If you were at AllRoad, how would you go about finding out what other differences exist? For example, as of this writing, Google Spreadsheet does not have a pivot table, but Microsoft Excel does. How would you find out about other such differences and missing features?

· 6. Summarize ways that you could use a sample of AllRoad employees to answer question 5.

· 7. Based on your experiences in this exercise, answer Kelly’s question. If you do not have an answer based on your experience in this exercise, explain how you think AllRoad should proceed to answer her question.

As you’ll learn in your project management classes, you can add other data to the task list. You might want to add critical resources that are required, and you might want to specify tasks that need to be finished before a given task can be started. We will discuss such task dependencies further in Chapter 10 , when we discuss the management of systems development projects.

For team members to utilize the task list effectively, they need to share it. In this question, we will consider two options: sharing a task spreadsheet on Google Grid and using the task list feature in Microsoft SharePoint. Google gmail and Calendar also have a task list feature, but as of this writing, it is impossible to share it with others, so it is not useful for collaboration.

Sharing a Task List on Google Grid
Sharing a task list on Google Grid is simple. To do so, every team member needs to obtain a Google account. Then one team member can create a team folder and share it with the rest of the team, giving everyone edit permission on documents that it contains. One of the team members then creates a task spreadsheet on that folder.

Figure 2-21 shows a sample task list containing the name of each task, the name of the person to whom it is assigned, the date it is due, the task’s status, and remarks. Because every member of the team has edit permission, everyone can contribute to this task list. Google Grid will allow simultaneous edits. Because Grid tracks version history, it will be possible, if necessary, to learn who made which changes to the task list.

Setting up such a list is easy, and having such a list greatly facilitates project management. The key for success is to keep it current and to use it to hold team members accountable.

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Figure 2-21 Sample Task List Using Google Grid

Sharing a Task List Using Microsoft SharePoint

SharePoint includes a built-in content type for managing task lists that provides robust and powerful features. The standard task list can be readily modified to include user-customized columns, and many different views can be constructed to show the list in different ways for different users. Like the rest of SharePoint, its task lists are industrial-strength.

Figure 2-22 shows a task list that we used for the production of this text. The first six columns are built-in columns that SharePoint provides. The last column, labeled Book, is the book for which the task was assigned. For example, UMIS stands for the book titled Using MIS. When one of our team members opens this site, the view of the task list shown in Figure 2-23 is displayed. The tasks in this view are sorted by Assigned To value and are filtered on the value of Status so any task that has been completed is not shown. Hence, this is a to-do list. Another view of this list, shown in Figure 2-24 , includes only those tasks in which Status equals Completed. That view is a “what we’ve done so far” list.

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Figure 2-22 UMIS Production Task List in SharePoint

Alerts are one of the most useful features in SharePoint task lists. Using alerts, team members can request SharePoint to send emails when certain events occur. Our team sets alerts so SharePoint sends a team member an email whenever a task is created that is assigned to him or her. Figure 2-31 (on page 77 ) shows the email that SharePoint sent to me when team member Laura Town assigned a new task to me. Having SharePoint send such alerts means that no team member need continually check the task list for new tasks. Team members will receive an email when a new task is created.

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C:\Users\jadeantowle\Pictures\CSU\U66567_02_f0026.jpgFigure 2-23 UMIS To-Do List in SharePoint

Figure 2-24 UMIS Completed Tasks in SharePoint

SharePoint task lists provide features and functions that are far superior to the Google spreadsheet shown in Figure 2-21 . Again, if you can obtain access to SharePoint, you should strongly consider using it, a possibility we address in the next question.

Q8 Which Collaboration IS Is Right for Your Team?

Your MIS class will help you gain knowledge and skills that you’ll use throughout your business career. But why wait? You can benefit from this knowledge right now and put it to use tonight. Most business courses involve a team project; why not use what you’ve learned to construct a collaboration IS that will make teamwork easier and can help your team achieve a better product? In this question, we will define and set up your evaluation of three sets of collaboration tools.