Model-Based Construction of Collaborative Systems

Abstract

The principal asset of an enterprise is its workforce, and a key factor distinguishing the successful enterprise of the forthcoming millennium is the empowerment of its staff in pursuit of corporate goals. While the more routine tasks will become totally automated, there will also be an increased use of IT to amplify the abilities of knowledge workers as individuals and members of collaborative teams. These teams are likely to be much more volatile than at present, being convened for specific purposes and disbanding once the purpose is achieved. Individuals may simultaneously belong to several teams, and may play different roles in each of these. This view of the future poses challenging requirements of the supporting software infrastructure. Many support applications for virtual teams share similar fundamental requirements for core services, such as information management, co-ordination and collaborative working. This paper proposes an approach to construction of collaborative systems in which a model is used to describe user interaction with core services within an application context. This model then drives a run-time enactment service which provides integrated access to required services through appropriate user interfaces. This development approach enables flexible integration and customisation of core services for team members, and enhances the ability of the software to evolve over time as requirements change. An experimental model-based collaborative system was built according to this approach, and applied to a virtual team scenario based on a BT business process for provision of quotations for network services. Evaluation trials were encouraging and demonstrated both the feasibility and usability of the approach, particularly for participatory design of collaborative systems with end users.