Enabling Collaborative Design-and-Decision Discussions, Online

What if it were possible to manage the tendency of discussions to branch ad infinitum? What if it were possible to use those discussions to surface the important issues, identify the alternatives, make reasonable choices and, above all, provide a readable history of discussion that made it easy for someone coming along later to understand the basic architecture and find out why things are the way the are? There is an interesting coalition of technologies that could provide those very benefits.

Armstrong, Eric. Sun Microsystems (2008). Articles>Collaboration>Online

Guidelines for Conducting Effective and Efficient Meetings

This article puts forth a simple process that you can utilize for conducting effective and efficient meetings (where you work in a framework that aims at accomplishing the goal of the meeting and time is well utilized) at your organization.

Cone Trees (2009). Articles>Project Management>Collaboration

Interpreting Editorese

Even if an editor loves, loves, loves your work, she is still likely to have to shepherd it through some kind of review process — either internally, in the case of a trade house, or to external academic readers. Many manuscripts die that way, despite the "interest" of the press. Those that are not outright killed can be wounded and sent back to you for some critical care.

Toor, Rachel. Chronicle of Higher Education (2009). Articles>Publishing>Editing>Collaboration

Integrating Social Media Into Existing Work Environments: The Case of Delicious    

This article offers an example case of technical communicators integrating the social bookmarking site Delicious into existing work environments. Using activity theory to present conceptual foundations and concrete steps for integrating the functionalities of social media, the article builds on research within technical communication that argues for professional communicators to participate more fully in the design of communication systems and software. By examining the use of add-ons and tools created for Delicious, and the customized use of Rich Site Syndication (RSS) feeds that the site publishes, the author argues for addressing the context-sensitive needs of project teams by integrating the functionality of social media applications generally and repurposing their user-generated data.

Stolley, Karl. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2009). Articles>Workplace>Collaboration>Social Networking

Networked Exchanges, Identity, Writing    

This article argues for a rhetoric of networked exchanges that focuses on the response. Working from Spinuzzi's call for a rhetoric of horizontal learning, it examines two kinds of online writing spaces in order to propose such a rhetoric. After surveying conflicting, academic attitudes regarding networked exchanges, the article proposes the response as a type of professional communication. A specific message board thread and a series of blog carnivals serve as examples of the rhetoric of response, a way that horizontal learning produces a specific type of networked writing identity. The article concludes with a call for response-based communication practices.

Rice, Jeff. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2009). Articles>Writing>Collaboration>Social Networking

Genre, Activity, and Collaborative Work and Play in World of Warcraft: Places and Problems of Open Systems in Online Gaming    

This article examines the characteristics of collaborative work and overlapping activity systems in the popular online game World of Warcraft. Using genre theory and activity theory as frames to work out the genre ecology of gameplay, the article focuses on how players coordinate ad hoc grouping activity across and through genres. It articulates the related development of open systems in online gaming in a discussion of interface modifications (AddOns) and online information databases that players generate, drawing on De Certeau's formulation of strategies and tactics and Warner's discussion of publics and counterpublics. The article concludes by discussing implications of online gaming for an open-systems approach to information design in professional communication and for professional communication in general.

Sherlock, Lee. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2009). Articles>Collaboration>Social Networking>Games

Is Gen Y Teamwork Killing Creativity?

Generation Y is all about the team, preferring conformity inside the lines over pushing boundaries or ourselves. It's incredibly easy for crowdsourcing and group-think to take over. The wisdom of the crowd is everywhere.

Thorman, Rebecca. Modite (2009). Articles>Collaboration

Components, Patterns, and Frameworks! Oh My!

In our research, we've found that teams that build out a re-use strategy see tangible benefits: They are more likely to get a completed design sooner, with all the little nuances and details that make for a great experience. Their designs are more likely to meet users expectations by behaving consistently across the entire functionality. Plus, the teams iterate faster (always a good thing), giving them a chance to play with the design while it's still malleable.

Spool, Jared M. User Interface Engineering (2009). Articles>Project Management>Collaboration>Methods

Why Businesses (Don't) Collaborate: Meeting Management, Group Input and Wiki Use

Today, content professionals are tugged in multiple directions, expected to multi-task their way through an increasing amount of work with the help of software tools designed to make them more productive. This survey aims to explore how you and your co-workers utilize software tools and determine, in various scenarios, whether they are actually a help or a hindrance.

Mader, Stewart and Scott Abel. Scribd (2009). Articles>Project Management>Collaboration>Wikis

Integrating Communities of Practice into the Fabric of Organizations

Even when some recognize the need to scratch that collaborative itch, it can be difficult to resist the urge to impede such efforts, so you need to consciously think about what you are doing to foster trust in your organization’s CoP efforts.

APQC (2006). Articles>Collaboration>Organizational Communication

Innovation Workshops: Facilitating Product Innovation

Innovation workshops can both help you come up with great ideas and align your multidisciplinary product team around them. Innovation workshops facilitate collaboration, foster trust, and promote free expression. They provide a venue for engaging a cross-functional team in brainstorming and creative ideation, filtering a large set of ideas, collaborating on design, rapidly gathering user feedback and iterating designs, and getting the consensus you need to drive an innovative product to market.

Nieters, Jim. UXmatters (2009). Articles>Project Management>Collaboration

Managing Werewolves

While you’re always optimistic when leading a team, you know that not everyone’s got your back. Liars and poor communicators can wipe out good work faster than a 404 error. Learn how to think critically about verbal and non-verbal behavior and to separate office politics from truth, so you don’t let the Werewolves win.

Lopp, Michael. List Apart, A (2009). Articles>Management>Collaboration

What Questions You Should Ask at a SOW Meeting

At times, though, a writer is a bit overwhelmed at the start-of-work meeting. He becomes passive and takes in everything the client lays out without asking for more. That can result in some information that’s very important to the writer being missed.

Adar, Bryan S. Technical Communication Center (2009). Articles>Collaboration>Interviewing>SMEs

Google Wave Changes Everything You Know About Agile Collaboration and Technical Documentation

Beyond the obvious impact on the Social Web, Google Wave is also going to change aspects of every business that currently relies on communication and collaboration tools of any sort, including the ubiquitous but lowly email.

Greywalker, Shannon. Greyfiti (2009). Articles>Documentation>Social Networking>Collaboration

Best Practices for Online Review

Marking up paper is still the most common way to review documents, but online review is critical if you work as part of a distributed team. There are advantages to online review even if you sit only a cubicle away from your reviewer. Here are few tips for making your online reviews go smoothly.

Smith, Terry. Carolina Communiqué (2009). Articles>Editing>Online>Collaboration

Is This Meeting Really Necessary?

In a world of virtual tools—blogs, wikis, feeds, forums, listservs, e-mail, IM, chat, Twitter, social networks—one would think that the traditional sit-down, face-to-face meetings had been relegated to a place in a historical museum among other old, discarded traditions (like wearing cravats). But even in the 21st century, many people still believe that if you want to accomplish serious planning and discussion, you need an in-person meeting.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2009). Articles>Project Management>Collaboration

HelpScribe: Technical Communicators Cannot be Provoked

Have you ever received a review comment that totally ticked you off? Perhaps a sarcastic comment with no practical suggestion for improving the content? Maybe even one that questioned your abilities as a writer and the value of your contribution to the product? The dangerous thing about being a writer is that you're well equipped for unleashing scathing replies. If your buttons have been pushed, chances are your retaliation will bite deep and leave no room for misinterpretation. After all, you sling words for a living, right? Like the hands of Kwai Chang Caine, your words are deadly weapons. Hold that thought.

HelpScribe (2009). Articles>Collaboration>Advice

Teaching Teams About Teamwork: Preparation, Practice, and Performance Review    

Regardless of the justifications we use for team member selection or the techniques preferred for managing team conflict, an often-overlooked yet critically important first step of collaborative assignments involves teaching teams about teamwork. Prior to working on a team project, students need to practice the collaborative skills required to complete the assignment. Although teaching teams about teamwork is not a new concept, students are often left to “sink or swim,” and they mistakenly apply individual work processes to group experiences. Falling under the categories of instructional methodology as well as classroom strategies, concepts related to teaching teams about teamwork provide students with the tools they need to perform well in collaborative assignments.

Gueldenzoph Snyder, Lisa. Business Communication Quarterly (2009). Articles>Education>Collaboration

Facilitating Teamwork With Lean Six Sigma and Web-Based Technology    

One of the largest team-based projects that I worked on in industry involved a team of more than a dozen members, a multiyear timeline, and a budget well into six figures. Our task was to deliver a new corporate Web site. As the business owner of that project, I remember sitting down with our IT manager, who explained that she would be assisting the team in managing the cost, scope, and time involved in delivering the end product. I was thrilled to have someone who would help ensure we were successful across those variables, until she told me that I had to pick one of the three as the most important. When the team ran into issues, she said her team would sacrifice aspects of the other two. Although I insisted all three were equally important, the manager ultimately decided that cost would be the controlling variable because it was the one by which she and her team would be judged by her supervisor. My experience with projects like this one has led me to think about what successful teams look like and then to determine how best to foster such teams.

Krause, Tim. Business Communication Quarterly (2009). Articles>Business Communication>Collaboration

Team-Building Success: It's in the Cards    

Our classes have experienced higher quality outcomes when the Diversity Card Game was used to form teams than when the game was not used. Student feedback has also reinforced the value of the whole brain model through the card game.

Scarfino, Deborah and Carol Roever. Business Communication Quarterly (2009). Articles>Education>Collaboration>Cognitive Psychology

What's the Right Answer? Team Problem-Solving in Environments of Uncertainty    

Whether in the workplace or the classroom, many teams approach problem-solving as a search for certainty—even though certainty rarely exists in business. This search for the one right answer to a problem creates unrealistic expectations and often undermines teams' effectiveness. To help teams manage their problem-solving process and communication better, I teach a systematic comparison approach that transforms the search for certainty into a search for the best alternative based on clearly defined and weighted criteria. With this method, team members realize that all problem- solving involves subjective judgments, but that making that subjectivity transparent increases the chances that an adopted solution will in fact solve the business problem at hand.

Jameson, Daphne A. Business Communication Quarterly (2009). Articles>Education>Project Management>Collaboration

The Social Influences on Electronic Multitasking in Organizational Meetings    

Meetings serve an important function in organizational communication. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have infiltrated meetings and allowed a new range of communicative behaviors to emerge. This cross-organizational study relies on key elements in the social influence model to predict variables that influence engagement in electronic meeting multitasking behaviors. The observation of organizational norms and the perceptions of others' thoughts concerning the use of ICTs for multitasking during a meeting explain a considerable amount of variance in how individuals use ICTs to multitask electronically in meetings. Implications for workplace ICT use in meetings and contributions to the social influence model are also discussed.

Stephens, Keri K. and Jennifer Davis. Management Communication Quarterly (2009). Articles>Collaboration>Organizational Communication>Technology

Exploring Negative Group Dynamics: Adversarial Network, Personality, and Performance in Project Groups    

Most previous social network studies have focused on the positive aspects of social relationships. In contrast, this research examined how the negative aspects of social networks in work groups can influence individual performance within the group. Accordingly, two studies were conducted to make this assessment. The first study examined the effect of negative relations and frequency of communication on performance among student groups. The second study investigated how the Five Factor Model of personality and position in adversarial networks interacted to influence individuals' performance. Although results of the first study indicated that frequent communication with others could make a person more likeable, consequently helping him or her perform better, the second study showed that those individuals disliked by others were less likely to achieve a good performance rating, despite their conscientiousness, emotional stability, or openness to experiences.

Xia, Ling, Y. Connie Yuan and Geri Gay. Management Communication Quarterly (2009). Articles>Collaboration>Workplace

How Did This Happen?

Even a newspaper like The Times, with layers of editing to ensure accuracy, can go off the rails when communication is poor, individuals do not bear down hard enough, and they make assumptions about what others have done.

Hoyt, Clark. New York Times, The (2009). Articles>Editing>Collaboration>Case Studies

Why Good Projects Go Bad

The number of IT projects that end in failure is staggering. According to a 2007 study by researcher Market Dynamics, 62% of all IT projects miss their deadlines, 49% go over budget and 41% fail to deliver the benefits that were expected. That is worrying enough for IT departments. But for consultants and software vendors, keenly aware that project failure could well result in litigation, it is a constant concern.

Swabey, Pete. Information Age (2009). Articles>Project Management>Collaboration>Technology