Distributed Cooperation In Boundary-Spanning IS Design

My current research project, "Distributed Cooperation In Boundary-Spanning IS Design" is funded by the NSF for five years, from 2004-2009. This research explores the co-design of business and IT systems that span organizational boundaries. It based on a series of studies that investigate the processes and factors that lead to effective collaboration in workgroups that span multiple domains of knowledge. This project consists of two sets of interrelated studies: the summaries of findings are linked from the right sidebar. The focus of these studies is on knowledge-sharing across functional domains and support for learning as part of boundary-spanning collaboration. There are three major challenges in collaboration processes that involve stakeholders from multiple disciplines and backgrounds, that are not resolved by current research:
1.  The need for a common language, that allows participants from a variety of organizational areas and backgrounds to understand and interpret the processes and concepts of design in the same way;
2.  The need for effective “boundary objects”, to mediate and integrate knowledge that is distributed among multiple stakeholders;
3.  The need to understand the process drivers that permit a design group to rapidly agree and constantly validate a common vision of their design.
This research project explores these challenges. The intention is to develop of new methods and management approaches for boundary-spanning design initiatives and collaborative group innovation.

INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE (for companies interested in this research).

Other Projects

As I develop the ideas from this project, I increasingly appreciate the centrality of learning and the need to include marginalized individuals in collaborative processes of design, decision-making, and problem-solving. Other research projects include:

The impact of ubiquitous and social technologies on educational outcomes for "MIllennial" students (with Denise Agosto)

The representation of women and minority students in computing education (with Denise Agosto). This project will address declining enrollments from women students in IT related degree subjects, by investigating alternative course strategies and support mechanisms for female students.

The co-design of business and information systems. I am working on a proposal to research appropriate "alignment design" processes.