Customizing Groupware for Different Collaborative Needs

Abstract

Collaboration in organization now takes place in a large variety of cultural environments that have different purposes. Purposes can include relationship management, task management, team coordination or process management. Cultures can vary from highly structured process oriented organizations to mission oriented teams in result oriented organizations. This paper provides a framework for defining such environments and choosing strategies to satisfy needs. Such strategies can range from lightweight approaches to monitored processes. It then suggests that groupware systems should be able to adapt to different environments by providing collaborative services for that environment and describes the features needed to do so.