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which indicates what might go wrong or what
might be difficult. This set can be used to assess
the acceptance and transferability of the process,
and may additionally give an indication of the
predictability of the process.
For each quality dimension of the collaboration
process design (as described above: efficacious,
predictable, transferable, reusable, acceptable)
the criteria are specified and can be used as a
framework for evaluation. A collaboration engi-
neer can go through this a list to validate his own
design, but the list can also be used to ask users or
other collaboration experts to validate the process
design. In this case the evaluation framework is
used in a similar way as the analysis checklist,
where questions are selected for respondents and
the design with the script are send out for review.
Jointly these tools can help a community of col-
laboration engineers to develop collaborative
work practices and to give each other feedback
on their designs.
Hulst, 2006; Kolfschoten, Vreede et al., 2006;
Vreede & Briggs, 2005). In such models, thinkLets
are connected with arrows to represent process
flow and data flow. It should be possible for the
collaboration engineer to rearrange the thinkLets
to smoothen the layout of the process model.
The CACE tool will enable the user to drag and
drop the thinkLets and other activities in a field
where these can be connected into a sequence.
The system should also offer an “edit” button for
each thinkLet that opens a menu for selection of
an alternative thinkLet or for specification of the
thinkLet. Furthermore, with a single click, the user
should be able to starting editing or fine-tuning
the script of the thinkLet for the manual.
Besides the model and the design description
there are several other output documents are used.
These include the script for the practitioner, the
slides for the introduction of the collaboration
process, an agenda or invitation for the partici-
pants, a project offer or account, and an export
document that can be imported into a Group Sup-
port System to instantiate the capabilities required
for the process. A key output template that should
be created is the manual for practitioners. This
manual has four elements: the facilitation process
model, the script, the cue cards, and a summary of
the analysis as background material (Kolfschoten
& Hulst, 2006). For each of these elements text
selected from the thinkLet master in the database
should be instantiated and displayed in a specific
format so it can be printed in a useful way. Since
the script might need to be altered for a specific
collaboration process or context, each aspect of
the script should be editable. Users should be able
to create new output document templates and to
store a collaboration process design in different
document types such as word, pdf, and html.
5.3 tools to support deployment
of the Collaborative Work Practice
Project Library
Each CE project will be stored in a separate file.
For this CE project record, the participants (prac-
titioner, project manager, collaboration engineer,
facilitator, and session participants) and their
rights can be specified. Different users will have
different rights. For example, while practitioners
must be able to review thinkLets and add their
experience with the project, participants should
only have access to an evaluation survey and the
participant agenda. The project author should
select a language to work in.
Output Documents
Project Management
The thinkLet sequence should be visible for the
collaboration engineer during the design effort
as a Facilitation Process Model (Kolfschoten &
Apart from 'standard project management' sup-
port (which can be offered by many standard
applications), it would be useful to monitor the
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