Creativity Enhancement Techniques Research Articles

Group versus individual use of power-only EPMcreate as a creativity enhancement technique for requirements elicitation

Creativity is often needed in requirements elicitation, i.e., generating ideas for requirements, and therefore, techniques to enhance creativity are believed to be useful. How does the size of a group using the Power-Only EPMcreate (POEPMcreate) creativity enhancement technique affect the group's and each member of the group's effectiveness in generating requirement ideas? This paper describes an experiment in which individuals and two-person and four-person groups used POEPMcreate to generate ideas for requirements for enhancing a high school's public Web site. The data of this experiment combined with the data of two previous experiments involving two-person and four-person groups using POEPMcreate show that, similar to what has been observed for brainstorming, the size of a group using POEPMcreate does affect the number of raw and new requirement ideas generated by the group and by the average member of the group. The data allow concluding that a two-person group using POEPMcreate generates more raw and new requirement ideas, both per group and per group member or individual, than does a four-person group and than does an individual. This conclusion is partially corroborated by qualitative data gathered from a survey of professional business or requirements analysts about group sizes and creativity enhancement techniques.

Creativity techniques to enhance knowledge transfer within global virtual teams in the context of knowledge-intensive enterprises

This conceptual paper investigates the common concern among managers that the physical separation of workers within a global virtual team may hinder the transfer of knowledge amongst the team members that is required to carry out their work efficiently, especially in the context of knowledge-intensive enterprises. Workers and work teams in knowledge-intensive enterprises are often involved in creative tasks that are carried out jointly and involve team members with diversified competencies exchanging knowledge related to their projects and assignments to create innovative outcomes. We investigate some popular creativity-enhancing techniques in the perspective of their use as catalysts for knowledge transfer in this context. We assess whether the use of these techniques may alleviate the limitations imposed on global virtual team members by their use of telecommunications and collaborative work tools that might otherwise adversely affect the effectiveness of the knowledge transfer. These techniques are designed to be used individually, by groups or within a virtual community. The physical and temporal separation of the global virtual team members does not hinder the knowledge-intensive dimension of these enterprises when aided by creativity-stimulating techniques. Therefore, we suggest that global virtual teams making use of creativity-enhancing techniques may be more efficient in transferring complex knowledge.

Virtual Reality and the Enhancement of Creativity and Innovation: Under Recognized Potential Among Converging Technologies?

This article highlights virtual reality (VR) as perhaps the safest, most fully developed of the emerging technologies of cognitive enhancement and as an underused tool for the enhancement of creativity in particular. We argue that researchers, educators, trainers, designers, managers, and others concerned with innovation should be more informed about virtual reality technologies (VRTs) both because of their widespread and growing accessibility and because of the significant, synergistic contributions they can make to human performance and understanding. We present a brief consultative survey exploring the potential use of virtual worlds (VWs) such as Second Life among a group of professionals (N= 20) working in the area of creativity and innovation training. In addition to providing some useful perspectives and creativity strategies for implementation, results suggest that the possibilities represented by VRTs may not be fully appreciated by those who could make the most use of them. We argue that VRTs offer a cost-effective means of implementing and optimizing nearlyallconventional individual and collaborative creativity enhancement techniques while also offering potent new possibilities and combinations not available by other means. Thus, we outline five ways VR can be used to enhance creativity and problem solving: (a) by changing aspects of the self and self-perception; (b) by optimizing interactions and collaboration with others; (c) by optimizing environmental conditions and influences; (d) by facilitating guidance orgamificationof the problem-solving process; and (e) by offering an arena for the integration of other technologies of creativity enhancement such as pharmacological enhancement, brain stimulation, and neurofeedback. The article ends with a discussion of this technological convergence within the growing sciences of innovation and cognitive enhancement.

Creating Creative Clinicians: Incorporating Creativity Into Counselor Education

Creativity plays a critical role in today’s society by aiding an individual’s response to the mounting complications of modern life and assisting in the maintenance of mental health. Though counselors seek to promote similar developments in their clients, they often do so without the benefit of any particular training in theories of creativity or creativity-enhancing techniques. This article examines literature in the fields of creativity, counseling, and education to highlight the essential nature of creative processes in counseling and psychotherapy, ultimately presenting a rationale for the incorporation of creativity in counselor education.

The effectiveness of an optimized EPMcreate as a creativity enhancement technique for Web site requirements elicitation

Creativity is often needed in requirements elicitation, i.e., requirement idea generation; and techniques to enhance creativity are believed to be useful. This paper describes two controlled experiments to compare the requirements-elicitation effectiveness of three creativity enhancement techniques (CET): (1) full EPMcreate; (2) Power-Only EPMcreate, an optimization of full EPMcreate; and (3) traditional brainstorming. In each experiment, one team of university students applied one of the two or three CETs under study in the experiment to generate ideas for requirements for enhancing a high school's public Web site. The results of the first experiment indicate that Power-Only EPMcreate is more effective, by the quantity and quality of the ideas generated, than the full EPMcreate, which is, in turn, more effective than brainstorming. The results of the second experiment confirm that Power-Only EPMcreate is more effective, by the same measures, than full EPMcreate. In each experiment, for the sake of uniform, reproducible evaluation, a requirement idea is considered high quality if it is both new and useful.

How can computers be partners in the creative process: Classification and commentary on the Special Issue

The different ways that computers can be involved in creative work are examined. A classification based on four categories of human–computer interaction to promote creativity is proposed: computers may facilitate (a) the management of creative work, (b) communication between individuals collaborating on creative projects, (c) the use of creativity enhancement techniques, (d) the creative act through integrated human–computer cooperation during idea production. The papers in the Special Issue are discussed according to this classification. Issues to be considered in future work on human–computer interactions for promoting creativity are discussed.

Creativity for Engineering Plant Design: An Exploratory Study

A pilot study of creativity enhancement techniques took place within a large engineering firm in the UK. Exploratory interviews were carried out with professionals in the areas of creativity, mechanical design engineering and management in order to identify informally acquired skills of successful design practice.1 Engineers participated in an introductory one day training programme applying creative techniques to real design problems from the heavy industrial engineering field. Initial feedback on the programme was recorded in addition to impact studies which took place after a ten‐week interval. The impact of the programme was reported during the course of interviews which were complemented with the completion of detailed questionnaires. Results suggest that traditional training programmes for such professionals may need to be modified to become more user‐friendly.

Enhancing creativity, innovation and cooperation

The paper explores the creative thinking process and throws light on creativity enhancement. From the perspective of possible creativity enhancement both the characteristics of creativity and the creative thinking process are discussed, together with an analysis of the process and its common factors. Constraints on innovation (as a special type of creativity), innovation management and the acceptance of change are discussed; creativity between cooperating individuals is also examined. Some possible computer-based tools to enhance creativity, including innovation, are discussed. A framework of facilities to help promote and support the use of creativity enhancement techniques and tools (SOLI) is proposed. The paper is the result of a study undertaken by the author into creativity, innovation and cooperation.