Engineering E-Collaboration Processes to Obtain Innovative End-User Feedback on Advanced Web-Based Information Systems

Abstract

In recent years, web-based information systems (WIS) and services have proliferated in all sectors of the economy. Unlike traditional IS, the development of WIS is evolutionary due to unceasing changes in the technological environment, regulation, and user needs. A new discipline, Web Engineering (WE), has emerged to promote systematic and disciplined approaches toward successful development of high-quality and ubiquitously usable WIS. User involvement is also a must for all organizations that aim to stay competitive and provide superior services for their customers. We have designed two structured e-collaboration processes for obtaining innovative end-user feedback on an advanced WIS under continuous evolution. Our feedback processes are purported for the perfective maintenance of WIS, where enhancements such as new functionality or increased efficiency are introduced continuously. We reflect on our experiences of two action research cycles through a Collaboration Engineering (CE) lens, and analyze the usefulness and suitability of the designed processes in these and other contexts. Our study contributes to the WE and CE streams of research by adding to the discussion of user-centered development and WIS evolution employing disciplined methods. For organizations, the developed e-collaboration processes offer novel means to involve end-users in their WIS development process. We believe that the designed processes may be applied in various WIS as well as in traditional IS contexts in different industries.