Sandra L. Kogan

Beyond predictable workflows: enhancing productivity in artful business processes

Until now, the greatest productivity gains in business processes have been achieved by formalizing the processes into computer-managed workflows. However, many processes have not yielded to this approach, and in its stead, users have depended on ad hoc collaboration tools, such as e-mail and instant messaging, to coordinate their work. While undeniably useful, these tools are disconnected from process methods and can become overloaded and unproductive. Through use cases, we show that many business people are, of necessity, integrators of information technology (IT), but receive inadequate support from centralized IT. We maintain that productivity will be increased by better enabling users to select and integrate IT services as their needs evolve, promoting a shift that we call the democratization of process. With the organizing principles of activity-centric computing and the arrival of valuable online services and decentralized methods for integrating them into existing applications, such a shift is now becoming technically feasible-a goal that enterprises should pursue.

Ethnographic study of collaborative knowledge work

We present an ethnographic study in which we examine the ways collaborative knowledge work gets done in a process-oriented environment. The purpose of the study is to identify the kinds of support that knowledge workers could benefit from and to make recommendations for tools that might provide such support. The participants in this study, knowledge workers in various business domains, work in a collaborative environment; their skills are in their areas of expertise rather than computer science and programming. The data we collected are based on field interviews, on observation sessions, and on validation sessions using prototypes. We analyzed the field data using selected principles from grounded theory, and the results of each cycle were used to guide the research in subsequent cycles. In our findings we describe how knowledge workers develop their own strategies and techniques for getting their work done in complex, dynamic environments in which prescribed work processes serve only as reference models. By presenting instances of such environments from our study data, we illustrate how such individualized work processes are created and demonstrate the need for new supporting technologies and tools.

Deploying CogTool: integrating quantitative usability assessment into real-world software development

Usability concerns are often difficult to integrate into real-world software development processes. To remedy this situation, IBM research and development, partnering with Carnegie Mellon University, has begun to employ a repeatable and quantifiable usability analysis method, embodied in CogTool, in its development practice. CogTool analyzes tasks performed on an interactive system from a storyboard and a demonstration of tasks on that storyboard, and predicts the time a skilled user will take to perform those tasks. We discuss how IBM designers and UX professionals used CogTool in their existing practice for contract compliance, communication within a product team and between a product team and its customer, assigning appropriate personnel to fix customer complaints, and quantitatively assessing design ideas before a line of code is written. We then reflect on the lessons learned by both the development organizations and the researchers attempting this technology transfer from academic research to integration into real-world practice, and we point to future research to even better serve the needs of practice.

Design and adoption of social collaboration software within businesses

Social networking and collaboration sites are having a large impact on peoples personal lives. These same applications, similar functions and related experiences are being adopted within businesses. This special interest group will address the issues around social collaboration software in the business setting. What is the value for the business and its users? How do you measure success? What strategic design and user experience issues are key for successful adoption? What roles do user experience professionals play in this type of social system?