Using Process Technology to Support Cooperative work: Prospects and Design Issues

This chapter describes a form of technology known as Process Support System (PSS). PSS provides a set of techniques for modelling cooperative work and a flexible generic technology for building office information systems. This chapter introduces a number of related office technologies to set the scene for a description of PSS. The approach to process modelling in PSS is introduced using a medical case study, which is also used to give a flavour of the experience of process supported office work. Epistemological and methodological issues in process modelling are explored. Several lines of work are highlighted, including the development of a design methodology for PSS and language-action approaches to process modelling. A major implementation of PSS is described in outline. Issues arising from field studies are discussed, e.g. the question of the routineness of so-called routine work.

[1]  D G Wastell,et al.  Computing in clinical departments: implications for the design of hospital information systems. , 1987, Health policy.

[2]  Kalle Lyytinen,et al.  A speech-act-based office modeling approach , 1988, TOIS.

[3]  Brian Warboys,et al.  The IPSE 2.5 project: a process model based architecture , 1989 .

[4]  K. Lyytinen,et al.  Stakeholders, information system failures and soft systems methodology: an assessment , 1988 .

[5]  J. Alexander,et al.  Images of Organization , 1988 .

[6]  Bill Bateson.  X/OPEN portability guide: X/Open Group (Eds)North-Holland, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (1985) DF1 275.00 pp xxviii + 702 , 1986, Microprocess. Microsystems.

[7]  Rudy Hirschheim,et al.  A Social Action Perspective of Information Systems Development , 1987, ICIS.

[8]  Adele Goldberg,et al.  Smalltalk-80 - the interactive programming environment , 1984 .

[9]  David Graham Wastell.  Process Support Technology, Cooperative Work And Information Systems Development , 1991, ICIS.

[10]  Rudy Hirschheim,et al.  Information Systems and User Resistance: Theory and Practice , 1988, Comput. J..

[11]  Eleanor Herasimchuk Wynn,et al.  Office conversation as an information medium , 1979 .

[12]  C LucasHenry,et al.  The impact of office automation on the organization , 1982 .

[13]  C. Harbottle.  Office Automation: A Social and Organizational Perspective , 1986 .

[14]  LyytinenKalle,et al.  A speech-act-based office modeling approach , 1988 .

[15]  Terry Winograd.  A Language/Action Perspective on the Design of Cooperative Work , 1987, Hum. Comput. Interact..

[16]  Michael W. Nicholson,et al.  Rational Analysis for a Problematic World , 1990 .

[17]  Peter Checkland,et al.  Systems Thinking, Systems Practice , 1981 .

[18]  David Graham Wastell,et al.  Process modelling and CSCW: An application of IPSE technology to medical office work , 1990, INTERACT.

[19]  J NuttGary,et al.  Office Information Systems and Computer Science , 1980 .

[20]  Harry Smith,et al.  An Object-Oriented Framework For Describing Organisational Communication , 1987 .

[21]  C. Pava.  Managing new office technology : an organizational strategy , 1984 .

[22]  Kalle Lyytinen,et al.  Two views of information modeling , 1987, Inf. Manag..

[23]  Jonathan Grudin.  Computer-Supported Cooperative , 1994 .

[24]  Lucy A. Suchman,et al.  Office procedure as practical action: models of work and system design , 1983, TOIS.

[25]  Clarence A. Ellis,et al.  Office Information Systems and Computer Science , 1980, CSUR.