Artifact-Based Coordination in Multimedia Production Hilda Tellio ğ lu Vienna University of Technology Institute of Design & Assessment of Technology Multimedia Design Group hilda.tellioglu@tuwien.ac.at http://as43.media.tuwien.ac.at CSAC 2007 4th International Workshop on Computer Supported Activity Coordination June 12, 2007 Funchal, Madeira, Portugal
Outline ‣ Introduction ‣ Multimedia Production ‣ Case Studies: Webcom, Telecom, Archcom ‣ Coordination with Partners ‣ Artifacts - specialized, material, coordinative, common, visual ‣ Artifacts in our Cases ‣ Artifact-based Coordination ‣ Conclusions
Introduction ‣ study coordination applying theories [Malone & Crowston, 1994; Tellio ğ lu, 2007] - investigate (the impact of technology on) work practices - ethnography, CSCW [Andersen, 1994; Carstensen et al., 1995; Pycock & Sharrock, 1994] - understand what actors do & why they do certain things in a certain way ‣ characteristics of multimedia production - iterative & cooperative design processes - multiple representations - lack of design methods & best practice examples - importance/relevance of intentional networks & strategic partnerships - differences & similarities in coordination work
Outline ‣ Introduction ‣ Multimedia Production ‣ Case Studies: Webcom, Telecom, Archcom ‣ Coordination with Partners ‣ Artifacts - specialized, material, coordinative, common, visual ‣ Artifacts in our Cases ‣ Artifact-based Coordination ‣ Conclusions
Multimedia Production ‣ dynamically arranged internal & external collaboration ‣ coordination of parallel activities - to keep deadlines - to consider customers’ requirements - to optimally use companies’ human & non-human resources ‣ coordination work in multimedia production - contolled individual work - cooperative development - multidisciplinary teamwork - coordination with partners
Outline ‣ Introduction ‣ Multimedia Production ‣ Case Studies: Webcom, Telecom, Archcom ‣ Coordination with Partners ‣ Artifacts - specialized, material, coordinative, common, visual ‣ Artifacts in our Cases ‣ Artifact-based Coordination ‣ Conclusions
Case Studies
Webcom 1/2 ‣ Controlled individual work - standardized procedures with strict deadlines & controls of intermediate results a first meeting with customers for communication of main requirements - research about the customer in the Internet, its current web site, web sites of - customers’ competitors creation of an offer including graphic design - management meeting with creative director, customer supporter, graphic - designer start of the creative phase -> final graphic design - implementation of the design -> prototype - customer evaluates the prototype -> feedback to design - - conventions from graphic design
Webcom 2/2 ‣ Controlled individual work - work simultaneously on 3-4 projects, a small team for each project - transparent progress status of ongoing projects - individual work, controlled intensively by the Managing Director (MD) - process & temporal structures established -> status, quality & quantity check - tight deadlines monitored closely - face-to-face communication & feedback in front of computer -> dense cooperation - avoid or keep contingencies under control -> avoid any increase of project costs -> controlled improvization - standardized format of offers cover page, description of project team, introduction, goals & requirements, - contents, branding, home page, detail view ... all offers have the same structure and length - + online presentation with links to the already developed web pages - (accessible for customers before the face-to-face presentation)
Telecom 1/2 ‣ Cooperative development - Work process of iterative cycles - idea of a new product or service - research about standards, technical challenges, implementation possibilities, competitors’ products, market demands ... using the Internet, magazines, studies ... - choose of a product or service -> substantiation of design idea - production of a simple user interface of the product-in- development - focus on products’ functionality - revision & refinement of the product-in-development - presentation of the product in trade fair events - enhancements & adaptations by considering customers’ feedback - final product available on demonstration server
Telecom 2/2 ‣ dense teamwork in a small interdiscipinary team ‣ chaotic communication ‣ well-organized team - always present in the same room, all involved in all decisions, no hierarchy, open to critique & discussions, active participation of all ‣ isolated from the rest -> garage company - their work is not accepted & appreciated by department’s software engineers - differences in methods & priorities -> clash of working cultures improvization & bricolage vs. traditional software design methods of research & implementation programming languages coding styles & programming conventions use of ready-to-use-products informal vs. written specifications
Archcom 1/3 ‣ Multidisciplinary teamwork - best practice - plan used actively for project management - weekly project meetings with detailed minutes - detailed to-do lists used to organize the cooperative work - thorough research to support decision-making of functionality & layout - detailed sketches of navigation & graphic layout of pages - detailed description of data for persistence layer - discussion before implementation
Archcom 2/3 ‣ Product quality - structure of the product history of the company - requirement analysis technical description description of deployment & use flash animation prototype storyboard glossary - UML to model the system & describe the use cases - coding conventions for simple, readable, understandable & easy-to-maintain code - design representations: sketches, drawings, lists, storyboards, HTML prototypes - video movie to present the use of the system
Archcom 3/3 ‣ highly developed communication culture ‣ weekly jour fix meetings for communication & cooperation - salient work meetings - to solve problems together - to make design decisions (moderated by project manager) - to plan next steps - in-depth discussions - voice of users ‣ highly detailed & thorough meeting minutes used intensively by all between meetings
Outline ‣ Introduction ‣ Multimedia Production ‣ Case Studies: Webcom, Telecom, Archcom ‣ Coordination with Partners ‣ Artifacts - specialized, material, coordinative, common, visual ‣ Artifacts in our Cases ‣ Artifact-based Coordination ‣ Conclusions
Coordination with Partners ‣ different forms - cooperation with specialists - contracting out - mergers, joint ventures, strategic partnerships - cooperation in the Internet ‣ personal networks <-> intensional networks to activate regularly / on demand [Nardi et al., 2002] ‣ work & particular skills of actors required
Outline ‣ Introduction ‣ Multimedia Production ‣ Case Studies: Webcom, Telecom, Archcom ‣ Coordination with Partners ‣ Artifacts - specialized, material, coordinative, common, visual ‣ Artifacts in our Cases ‣ Artifact-based Coordination ‣ Conclusions
Artifacts 1/9 ‣ permanent symbolic constructs, which play a very important role in the coordination work ‣ examples: “instruments, signs, procedures, machines, methods, laws, forms of work organization” [Kuutti, 1995] ‣ clarify ambiguities & settle disputes ‣ act as intermediaries with a format -> mediate articulation work -> mediate coordination - where is an artifact placed? - when is an artifact accessed? - by whom is an artifact modified? - what are the exact modifications?
Specialized Artifacts 2/9 ‣ needed to articulate distributed activities [Schmidt & Simone, 1996] ‣ to reduce the complexity of articulation work ‣ to alleviate the need for ad hoc delibaration & negotiation ‣ examples: time tables, schedules, catalogues, classification schemes for repositories ‣ in contexts of conventions & protocols
Material Artifacts 3/9 ‣ accessible to all involved in a shared work process [Schmidt & Wagner, 2002] ‣ their location includes relevant information -> some actors make sense of it, some cannot ‣ their history is often readable showing the past work & the contributions ‣ materiality of artifacts <-> affordances [Gibson, 1979] <-> immutability of inscriptions on paper & their mobility [Latour, 1986]
Coordinative Artifacts 4/9 ‣ material artifacts with a coordinative role ‣ communication objects & persuasive [Wagner, 2000] ‣ boundary objects [Star, 1989] ‣ help actors in their daily work - create a common understanding of an (design) idea or task - enable talking about a design in a rich way - remind design principles, approaches & methods, open questions - keep track of activities & materials [Schmidt & Wagner, 2002]
Coordinative Artifacts 5/9 ‣ annotations on artifacts -> create multilayers -> “facilitate coordination between activities (and the people who are responsible for them). They, for instance, provide a collective or individual space for experimentation and change” [Schmidt & Wagner, 2002] ‣ artifacts are interrelated to work activities ‣ dynamic & static states of artifacts [Schmidt & Wagner, 2002]
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