2.10. Socio-technical formative evaluation and redesign of collaboration services, tools, and practice

Based on our 20 years of experience in applied systems design Fraunhofer FIT pursues this approach. The notion “socio-technical” refers to a trans-disciplinary perspective in systems design and organizational science: In enterprises or virtual, digital communities the social and the technical systems are intertwined. They are open, malleable systems and not closed entities. A socio-technical system is like a Janus face. Solutions have to take both systems into respect (see Trist, 1978).

“Formative Evaluation” stands for the immediate response and feedback of authentic user participation and other knowledge gained during the evaluation of the implementation and use. The impact of this feedback into the design team decisions and output has to be organised explicitly (see Mambrey et al., 1998).

“Redesign” stands for the perspective that systems design for the work practice should be organised as an evolutionary process consisting of different evolving life-cycles open to change. Evolving design assures the integration of new requirements and perspectives according to the current needs. Especially for groupware where different partners collaborate based on fragile structures and weak social connections group-centered solutions must be in accordance to the newest requirements.

References:

Trist, E.L. (1978). On Socio-Technical Systems. In W. A. Pasmore & J.J. Sherwood (eds.), Sociotechnical Systems. A Sourcebook (pp.43-47). La Jolla, CA: University Associates.

Mambrey, P., Mark, G., & Pankoke-Babatz, U. (1998). User Advocacy in Participatory Design: Designer's Experiences with a New Communication Channel. Computer Supported Cooperative Work: The Journal of Collaborative Computing (Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, NL), 7(3-4), 291-313.

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