The development and coaching of VISOK: a web-based project in Statoil

This paper reports on experiences in connection with designing and implementing a Web-browser-based user environment in Statoil. In doing so we will go through the technological details of the environment. Further, we will discuss the development strategy in detail, and the role of groupware in user involvement in particular. We approach two specific issues, on the one hand; what are the technical limitations in the feedback mechanisms, and on the other hand; limitations related to the social and organizational surroundings. Our conclusion is that in projects of this character you have to rely on a number of methods to promote user participation in collaborative development of both software and non-software products. Groupware, in our case made available in a Web based environment, has played a very modest role in the user involvement process. Coaching, i.e. teaching people how to use the environment, help desks and 'hybrid'-ethnographic fieldworks among the users have been significantly more successful in involving the users.