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Chapter 2 Collaboration Information Systems
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Doing Phase
Project tasks are accomplished during the doing phase. The key management challenge here is to
ensure that tasks are accomplished on time and, if not, to identify schedule problems as early as
possible. As work progresses, it is often necessary to add or delete tasks, change task assignments,
add or remove task labor or other resources, and so forth. Another important task is to document
and report project progress.

Finalizing Phase
Are we done? This question is an important and sometimes difficult one to answer. If work is not
finished, the team needs to define more tasks and continue the doing phase. If the answer is yes,
then the team needs to document its results, document information for future teams, close down
the project, and disband the team.
Review the third column of Figure 2-5. All of this project data needs to be stored in a location
accessible to the team. Furthermore, all of this data is subject to feedback and iteration. That
means there will be hundreds, perhaps thousands, of versions of data items to be managed. We
will consider ways that collaborative information systems can facilitate the management of such
data in Q2-6.

Q2-4 What Are the Requirements for a Collaboration

Information System?

As you would expect, a collaboration information system, or, more simply, a collaboration
system, is an information system that supports collaboration. In this section, we’ll discuss the
components of such a system and use the discussions in Q2-1 and Q2-2 to summarize the require-
ments for a collaboration IS.
A collaboration information system is a practical example of IS, one that you and your
teammates can, and should, build. Because you are new to thinking about IS, we begin first with a
summary of the five components of such a system, and then we will survey the requirements that
teams, including yours, should consider when constructing a collaboration IS.

The Five Components of an IS for Collaboration

As information systems, collaboration systems have the five components of every information
system: hardware, software, data, procedures, and people. Concerning hardware, every team
member needs a device for participating in the group’s work, either a personal computer or a mobile
device like an iPad. In addition, because teams need to share data, most collaboration systems store
documents and other files on a server somewhere. Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive provide
servers that are accessed via the Internet, in what is called the cloud, which you will learn about
in Chapter 6. For now, think of it as one or more computers that store and retrieve your files,
somewhere out on the Internet.
Collaboration programs are applications like email or text messaging, Google Docs, Microsoft
Office Online, and other tools that support collaborative work. We will survey those tools in Q2-5
through Q2-7.
Regarding the data component, collaboration involves two types. Project data is data that is
part of the collaboration’s work product. For example, for a team designing a new product, design
documents are examples of project data. A document that describes a recommended solution is
project data for a problem-solving project. Project metadata is data used to manage the project.
Schedules, tasks, budgets, and other managerial data are examples of project metadata. Both types
of data, by the way, are subject to iteration and feedback.