Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
tools can revolutionise the way people collaborate but if you only focus
on 'building it', the users might not follow you. Ultimately, success
requires enthusiasm and partnership between developers and users,
allowing iterative evolution of the software system.
13.2.8 Principle for collaboration
Finally, a few words need to be said about our general learning concerning
this type of software. During our experimentation with FLOSS
collaboration capabilities, we identifi ed a number of key principles that
defi ne the core architecture of collaboration. These form a framework,
which applies equally to the technology and the culture. It is our
experience that adoption of these principles is required if a culture of
collaboration and openness is to develop. The four core principles we
developed are:
■
freedom - the easiest way to prevent collaboration from occurring is
to impose overly burdensome control around how colleagues work. If
collaboration is to fl ourish we need to trust colleagues and not impose
rigid workfl ows, inappropriate approval processes (moderation),
restriction on who can collaborate with whom (association) and have
an open attitude towards sharing information;
■
emergence - no two collaborations are the same, each team/group will
have different requirements and will develop different working
practices. Given this we need to allow patterns and structures to
emerge as collaborations develop. This is not to say we should not
stimulate behaviours we want or share experiences but rather we
should accept this and recognise that we need to avoid a one-size-fi ts-
all approach;
■
clarity of purpose - in this case, colleagues are confused as they are
presented with multiple tools, all of which seem to do the same or a
similar task. In the case of Pfi zer we had a plethora of different tools
that enable various degrees of collaboration; Enterprise Document
repositories such as Insight, Documentum, SharePoint, eRooms,
Pfi zerpedia and so on. The lack of consistent advice around how and
when to use these tools inevitably leads to adoption of Outlook for
information management, fragmented silos of project data and a lack
of any real knowledge management strategy.
■
ease of use - collaboration is about enabling conversations between
people. It is not about technology. Therefore, it is critical that
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