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performance of the practitioners and to collect
feedback from participants in the process. For
example, each practitioner can enter his experi-
ences for each time he executed the process, and
participants of the process can offer feedback
through a questionnaire. These sources can be
combined to gain insight in the success of the
deployment of the collaboration process, and
they can offer a basis for meetings in which
practitioners share experiences, tips and tricks.
Together these tools support the deployment of
the work practice in the organization, and the
transfer of responsibilities and ownership of the
change project from the collaboration engineer
to the community of practitioners.
quirements through experiences with prototypes
such as described in (Kolfschoten & Veen, 2005),
and designing an overall architecture for the tool.
However, the conceptual integration of pattern
based cyclic process design to enhance mutual
learning in user and development communities
is a model that also requires further evaluation
and refinement. Finally the ThinkLet concept,
in which design patterns for designers and best
practices for users are combined in one concept,
can be generalized to support the use of design
patterns in a process design in general. While the
conceptualization of design patterns is now very
generic to support both communities, the actual
patterns are often written for one of both audi-
ences. To serve both communities, it is important
to create a more detailed pattern documentation
template in which joint and separate information
requirements are integrated.
6. Further reseArCh
direCtions
The concepts advanced in this paper have been
applied in an international initiative to create the
ActionCenters platform, which will be the first
full-featured CACE environment. This platform
will support the complete Collaboration Engi-
neering development cycle, from establishing the
goals and deliverables of a group to pattern-based
designs for their collaborative work practices, to
configuring purpose-build collaborative software
applications specifically tailored to move groups
through particular high-value recurring tasks.
Various developers of Group Support Systems
have been approached to see if they are interested
in participating in the project in an open source
community.
Initial funding for the ActionCenters project
has been obtained from a government agency.
The Institute of Collaboration Science at the Uni-
versity of Omaha at Nebraska, Delft University
of Technology, and other government agencies,
and partners from private industry committed
resources to bring the project to fruition.
Future research efforts will focus on further
elaborating on the CACE tool's functional re-
7. ConClusion
This chapter presents an overview of a CACE
tool, a tool to support pattern-based design of
collaboration processes following the Collabo-
ration Engineering approach. The design of the
tool is grounded in the requirements of a general
computer-assisted process design tool. Initial
prototypes of selected elements of the tool have
been developed and tested (see e.g. Kolfschoten
and Veen 2005), while others are currently in prog-
ress. The chapter shows a design based on a view
in which the use of design patterns is combined
with process design according to the new, more
cyclic paradigms for continuous improvement of
processes and therewith performance. To support
pattern based design in this fashion, a CAPE tool
should not only support design steps and choices
but should support an overall project support in
which experiences and performance are captured
to support pattern development and improvement.
In this way a CAPE tool supports both users and
designers in a continuous learning cycle.
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