Creativity and the design of sociotechnical processes
Thomas Herrmann
Information and Technology Management (IMTM)
Institute of Applied Work Science (IAW)
University of Bochum
www.imtm-iaw.rub.de
Information- and Technology
Management
Overview
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Introduction: Background
Semi-structured Modelling
case studies
The socio-technical Walkthrough
Socio-technical Walkthrough and
Creativity Support
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Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
Problem, we try to solve …
• How can IT-systems be introduced which
include features of collaboration support
and require the change of collaborative
work processes
Integrating the design of work processes and the
development and introduction of IT-Support
Helping to develop organizational rules /
conventions
to coordinate the activities of a collaborative
work process
and the usage of the IT-system
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Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
Aspects of the Design ofsocio-technical Processes
Features of the
technical component
Work procedures and
processes
Interplay between
technical components
Conditions, events,
exceptions
Resources, objects
Roles and actors
Interests, conflicts,
histories
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Communication,
information flow,
cooperation, awareness
Concept
of
solution
Human-computer
interaction
Competences,
learning memories
Commitments,
conventions, rhythm
Spatial arrangements; dependencies
between actions, objects and roles
Needed: a type of documentation which takes all these aspects
Information- and Technology
systematically into account and
Thomas Herrmann
Management
Basic Elements of the Notation
(SeeMe – semi-structured, socio-technical modelling Method)
Role
Mainly duties and rights of persons, teams,
organizations  social aspects
carries out
Activity
Is used by
modifies
Entity
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Behaviour which leads to change
Ressources which support activities
(technology, …)
Further information: SeeMe in a Nutshell
Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
Specific structures
Embedding, incompleteness
Documenting knowledge
eliciting
structuring
updating
database
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Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
Freedom of decision
Writing a
purchase
order
x
ordering
x
Value > 5K
Checking the order
assistant
Checking the order
x
x
Writing a
purchase
order
ordering
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Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
Empirical investigation of the
STWT – explorative case studies
Where we were taking part
• Documenting a print workflow
• Development of several knowledge management solutions
• Developing of an organizational solution for using a new library software
• The introduction of mobile communication devices for logistics
services of steel delivery (Spiw-Com)
• The development of a system to manage the selection of literature from
scientific periodicals – and mutual awareness about the topics of interest.
• Preparing CSCL-courses
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Where our method was applied by others
• A medical practice conducting radiography for diagnosis and treatment:
introduction of a new patient information system to support the
communication between the administrative personnel and the doctors and
in between these groups.
• Introducing knowledge management in small or midsized
enterprises
Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
STWT in practice : Case Study
Supporting the delivery of steel-products
with mobile devices to improve
communication, awareness and
the coordination between
drivers and dispatchers
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Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
Mobile Application…


Communication between drivers and dispatchers happens
 Early in the morning /in the evening.
 In irregular cases using cell phones.
Paperwork as coordinating artifacts
A mobile application should deliver useful information about
the state of work to both groups.
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Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
Typical phases of our projects
Phase 2: Requirements Elicitation: Workshops
using prepared and completing
diagrams as models of the current
work-processes
Development of Prototypes
Phase 3: Evaluation of the prototypes in
relation to organizational structure of the
future work processes
Phase 4: Training (the process and the system)
Continuous
Documentation
Phase 1: Ethnography
Participants:
2 drivers, 2 dispatchers, manager,
software-engineer, facilitator
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Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
Integration of material
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Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
How to get the models of the solutions? –
intervention through communication in
participatory settings
Intervention through:
 structured
 focused
facilitated
continuous
 sustainable
… communication
and documentation
to integrate social
and technical
aspects
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Socio-technical Walkthrough
(STWT)
Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
Socio-technical Walkthrough –
Core elements
Preparing
workshops
Workshop 1
Workshop 2
Developing
or
discussing
models by
considering
its elements
step-bystep
Asking
selected
questions
Collecting
comments,
proposals
Refocus
on the
diagram
modifying
diagrams,
adding
material
Aesthetical improvement
of diagrams
Task of the facilitator and
supporters
Workshop n
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Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
Critical success factors (Spiw):
• Finding appropriate questions for the walkthrough
– relating new work design and current work practice
– stimulates imagination:
Thinking about concrete work situations in the process.
• Strategies to refocus the contributions
(“Can you relate this story to the diagram”)
• Starting with an appropriate overview
• Choosing the appropriate level of granularity
• Aesthetic improvement of modified diagrams without
changing their content,
the content should still be recallable
 Sociotechnical Walkthrough: Designing Technology along Work
Processes, PDC 2004
 Workshops with SeeMe perform superiorly CSCL 2005
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Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
Controlled experiment: Two types of groups
Condition
Condition
With graphical process models
Without graphical process models
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Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
Controlled experiment: Two types of groups
cont’d
Condition
Condition
With graphical process models
Without graphical process models
• More commitments with
respect to the usage of the
knowledge management
system
• Higher degree of shared
knowledge
• More intensive use of the
systems functions
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• More contributions at all
 Improving the Coordination of Collaborative Learning with Process
Models. CSCL 2005
Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
Critical success factors cont‘d
- Knowledge Management Cases
• The history of the development of a diagram should be
comprehensible and therefore be documented or
recorded
• Development and documentation should be intertwined
 challenge: people have differing rhythms: some want to
rapidly continue with design, others use the time of
documenting to catch up
• An extra person (draftsman) is needed to support the
facilitator with drawing the diagrams +
smooth non-verbal coordination between facilitators and
modeler
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Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
Core elements of the STWT
1. Usage of a semi-structured representation scheme
a.
b.
c.
d.
Only few types of elements
Multiple relations
Nesting
Incompleteness indicators: what has to be specified later
2. Step-by-step consideration and intertwining of
documentation and discourse
3. Integrating several perspectives into one type of
representation  providing a large picture
4. Facilitator helps to transform contributions into
documentation
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Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
STWT and creativity?
1.
2.
3.
4.
semi-structured representation scheme
Step-by-step discourse + documentation
Integrating ideas in a large picture
Facilitator helps to transform contributions into documentation
Do the core elements of STWT support social
creativity?
… help to evolve new ideas
of how to introduce and use new technologies
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 Barriers have to be overcome on the
 Individual level
 Group level
Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
Creativity
• Emergence of new, appropriate ideas
• No anticipatable sequence of activities which
guarantees them
• “new” in relation to a particular context (group,
organization, domain)
• “appropriate” in relation to a particular context: needs,
challenges, …
Phases:
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Data collection
Divergence
Data combination, variation of
combinations
convergence
Synthesizing of ideas
Prioritizing of ideas with respect
to their appropriateness
Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
Individual and group barriers
Individual level:
• Well established paths of
associations
• Cognitive overload
Group level:
• „hidden profile problem“ – you
prefer what you already know
• Motivational aspects
(getting to an end, following a role
model, …)
• Divergence as a trigger for
fragmentation: others are blamed
for the wickedness of the problem
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Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
1. semi-structured scheme
Disadvantage
Advantage
• Too indirect compared
with
• Sketching
• natural language
• touchable object
• translation work is needed
• too abstract
 Increases cognitive load
• Level of abstraction allows
more flexibility to include
different perspectives
• New “vocabulary” forces
participants to leave
habitualized paths of
thinking (force-fit)
• A magnitude of varying
combinations are possible
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Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
1. semi-structured scheme
Disadvantage
Advantage
• Too indirect compared
with
• Sketching
• natural language
• touchable object
• translation work is needed
• too abstract
 Increases cognitive load
• Level of abstraction allows
more flexibility to include
different perspectives
• New “vocabulary” forces
participants to leave
habitualized paths of
thinking (force-fit)
• A magnitude of varying
combinations are possible
Nesting on different levels
+ Hide and show of sub-elements as well as super-elements
IMTM + Flexible combination of sequenced and non-sequenced activities
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Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
Infusion of uncertainty and incompleteness
SeeMe allows the participants
• Pars-pro-toto expressions
• Leaving gaps which are filled in later
• Rough indication of relationships
• Meandering between different parts of a concept
• jumping from one idea to the next without being
hindered by requirements of complete specification
Problem: Incompleteness
 is feasible for communication
 but not as basis for control and commitments
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Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
2. Intertwining documentation and discourse
Disadvantage
Advantage
• Documentation requires
additional cognitive load
• Slows the process of idea
finding down
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 Slower people can catch up
 Different rhythms of idea
flows can be re-synchronized during the phases of
documentation
 Ideas do not get lost and
are continuously present
 Visible contributions can be
a basis for further
contributions
Support of explicit incompleteness as a compromise
Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
3. Integrating ideas into a large picture
Disadvantage
Advantage
• Reduced scope of varying
representations and
represented apects
(e.g. dependency diagrams,
• Different perspectives and
ideas are related to each
other, more comparable
 Support of convergence
use cases, requirements
listings, …)
 Less support of
divergence
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Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
4. Intermediation by facilitation
Disadvantage
Advantage
• Facilitator’s perspective is
a filter
• Reduced directness
 Ideas can be prompted
 “Step-by step” is supported
 Translation work is
supported
 Documentation is enforced
 Refocussing, integration of
perspectives
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Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
Design in use
• Incompleteness indicators leave a lot of space for
design in use and appropriation

• Needed: sufficient reliability and stability so that
commitments can become conventions
“… the discontinuity of cooperation and feedback, plus the flexibility of
actions allowed by the system, made it difficult for the users to learn
relationships between behaviors, and consequently to form
conventions.[Gloria Mark]”
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 An appropriate rhythm has to be found
for the alternation between adoption and adaptation
of new systems and conventions
Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
Creativity barriers
Individual level:
• Well established paths of
associations
• Cognitive overload
Group level:
• „hidden profile problem“ – you
prefer what you already know
• Motivational aspects
(getting to an end, following a role
model, …)
• Divergence as a trigger for
fragmentation: others are blamed
for the wickedness of the problem
New vocabulary
or methods of
representation
visualization
Facilitation:
“Dialogue
mapping”
(Conklin, 2006)
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Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management
Conclusion
• STWT and semi-structured modelling have the
potential to support creative design of socio-technical
processes
What has to be improved:
• Strategies / rhythms to intertwine flow of thoughts,
communication and documentation
• Strategies to foster a higher degree of variations and
to produce more choices
• Modifying the modelling method and the editor to
allow more directness of expression
• Still unsolved: How to adjust representation methods
to an appropriate balance between directness and
adoption of new frames/vocabulary
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Thomas Herrmann
Information- and Technology
Management