Georgia
Tech
What is an Activity?
Appropriating an Activity-Centric System
Svetlana Yarosh
Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia, USA
Tara Matthews, Thomas Moran, Barton Smith
IBM Almaden Research Center, California, USA
© 2009 IBM Corporation
Activity-Centric Computing (ACC)
Seeks to address fragmentation of work across tools & documents by allowing users to
organize work around the computation construct of an Activity.
Activity-Centric Computing (ACC)
Seeks to address fragmentation of work across tools & documents by allowing users to
organize work around the computation construct of an Activity.
IBM, ActivityExplorer
Georgia Tech, Giornata
Microsoft, Scalable Fabric
Umeå University, UMEA
Georgia
Tech
IBM Almaden Research Center
How do I represent work activities in a system?
 People have a hard time articulating what an activity is in the early stages of work

Leads to adoption issues for ACC systems
 We study how successful users define & represent their work activities in an ACC
system to understand how to make this less of a burden for new users
4
Tara Matthews, USER Group
2009.8.26
© 2009 IBM Corporation
Georgia
Tech
IBM Almaden Research Center
Study of ACC System Appropriation
Study usage of active users who had successfully appropriated an ACC system
(i.e., adopted & adapted it to fit & evolve existing work practices)
ACC System = Lotus Activities




2+ year deployment
32,000 users from which to sample (we selected 15 very active users)
39,000 Activities created
Users used system of their own accord
Research questions
 What use patterns do active users develop in appropriating Lotus Activities?
 How do they divide and structure their work into effective Activities?
 How do these findings inform the design of ACC systems?
5
Tara Matthews, USER Group
2009.8.26
© 2009 IBM Corporation
Lotus Activities
Tags
Objective
Tools
People
Artifacts
Georgia
Tech
IBM Almaden Research Center
Participants & Method
Participants: Selected 15 highly active users
Users
7,286
7,873
20,073
2,234
296
# Activities
1
2-5
6 - 10
11 - 50
51+
Studied active users to
understand successful
appropriation
Method

Analyzed content of selected public activities & templates (120 activities)
1. Open coding
2. Axial coding following interviews – use patterns evidenced in both content analysis &
interviews converged into nine patterns

7
Semi-structured interviews & system tours (15 active users)
Tara Matthews, USER Group
2009.8.26
© 2009 IBM Corporation
Activities Patterns of Use
Complete Activity
Create a
Document
13 users
Organize
an Event
10 users
Manage
Work Units
Partial Activity
Unifying
Reuse
Collect
Resources
13 users
12 users
Solve a
Problem
Manage
Personal
Tasks
Maintain a
Team
Space
11 users
11 users
Create a
Tutorial
10 users
9 users
Exchange
Formalized
Information
4 users
Activities Patterns of Use
Complete Activity
Create a
Document
13 users
Organize
an Event
10 users
Manage
Work Units
Partial Activity
Unifying
Reuse
Collect
Resources
13 users
12 users
Solve a
Problem
Manage
Personal
Tasks
Maintain a
Team
Space
11 users
11 users
Create a
Tutorial
10 users
9 users
Exchange
Formalized
Information
4 users
Activities Patterns of Use
Complete Activity
Create a
Document
13 users
Organize
an Event
10 users
Manage
Work Units
Partial Activity
Unifying
Reuse
Collect
Resources
13 users
12 users
Solve a
Problem
Manage
Personal
Tasks
Maintain a
Team
Space
11 users
11 users
Create a
Tutorial
10 users
9 users
Exchange
Formalized
Information
4 users
Activities Patterns of Use
Complete Activity
Create a
Document
13 users
Organize
an Event
10 users
Manage
Work Units
Partial Activity
Unifying
Reuse
Collect
Resources
13 users
12 users
Solve a
Problem
Manage
Personal
Tasks
Maintain a
Team
Space
11 users
11 users
Create a
Tutorial
10 users
9 users
Exchange
Formalized
Information
4 users
Activities Patterns of Use
Complete Activity
Create a
Document
13 users
Organize
an Event
10 users
Manage
Work Units
Partial Activity
Unifying
Reuse
Collect
Resources
13 users
12 users
Solve a
Problem
Manage
Personal
Tasks
Maintain a
Team
Space
11 users
11 users
Create a
Tutorial
10 users
9 users
Exchange
Formalized
Information
4 users
Activities Patterns of Use
Complete Activity
Create a
Document
13 users
Organize
an Event
10 users
Manage
Work Units
Partial Activity
Unifying
Reuse
Collect
Resources
13 users
12 users
Solve a
Problem
Manage
Personal
Tasks
Maintain a
Team
Space
11 users
11 users
Create a
Tutorial
10 users
9 users
Exchange
Formalized
Information
4 users
manage a set of job-specific work units
“Each Activity corresponds to an
account, so I call the Activity by the
account name and then within there,
I have different sections by brand
and I put the opportunities within
those sections and I notify the
appropriate team members.”
Goal: manage your primary work
Method
 Create multiple identicallystructured “work unit” Activities
(e.g., a customer account)
 Created from a template, which
facilitated work reuse
Some units observed:
 Often managed as a set (e.g., view
status across all units; filter set to
specific sub-sets of units)
 Customer & Product (Sr. IT Specialist)
 Tracked status with a code prefix
in the Activity title
 Heavy use of tagging to provide
alternate views
 Customer (Client Relationship Rep.)
 Version (Technical Sales Specialist)
 Work Request (Bus. Support IT Analyst)
 Proof-of-Concept (Sftwr. Sales Leader)
 Customer Report (L3 Service Specialist)
manage a job-specific work unit: customer report (also: personal, solve problem)
unit definition
info to fill in
user’s notes
required APAR form
additional to-dos user does for
APARs
filled-in version of the customer report
APAR number
many tags
for finding
user’s notes
completed
& re-uploaded
APAR form
checkedoff to-dos
APAR info
Georgia
Tech
IBM Almaden Research Center
Manage a set of job-specific work units
Supplementing existing tools for work outside a workflow
“I still definitely use Siebel, because we have to. But, like most CRM systems,
they are for reporting only… It’s great for management, but it’s not so great for
the sales reps, who have to track their own opportunities and their own
communications with the client.”
Reuse & sharing
“I had to show [a new team member] how to properly do the [customer
report]… I just pointed her to the Activity… I didn’t have to do a lot of explaining
of the [customer report] process. It was all kind of self-explaining.”
User needs




17
Ability to templatize (for reuse & sharing)
Awareness of status of multiple units
Quick updating of status
Custom views of units
Tara Matthews, USER Group
2009.8.26
© 2009 IBM Corporation
Georgia
Tech
IBM Almaden Research Center
Activities Patterns of Use
Complete Activity
Create a
Document
13 users
Organize
an Event
10 users
Manage
Work Units
Partial Activity
Unifying
Reuse
Collect
Resources
13 users
12 users
Solve a
Problem
Manage
Personal
Tasks
Maintain a
Team
Space
11 users
11 users
Create a
Tutorial
10 users
9 users
Exchange
Formalized
Information
4 users
18
Tara Matthews, USER Group
2009.8.26
© 2009 IBM Corporation
exchange formalized information
“What you're looking at
here are Lotusphere
proposals. I created a
template that I asked
people to instantiate
and fill in what was
being requested.”
Goal: Manage a workflow
where specific info is
requested from (often
multiple) contributors
Methods
• Coordinators requested &
managed specific info
from multiple people
• Usually planned out &
made into a template
• Included detailed
instructions requesting
specific info & indicating
how to “submit” the info
Activity Centric Computing Research
to coordinators
2008.7.23
exchange formalized info: gather feedback about software (primary pattern: solve problem)
request for
feedback
feedback &
discussion
exchange formalized info: demo request
identification code
goal of this is to
remove email load
these requests
cause
instructions,
including how to
enable form
managers to see
this request
enter info from
step #2 here
post-form
completion
correspondence
Georgia
Tech
IBM Almaden Research Center
Exchange formalized information
User needs
 Provide instructions & specify information needed
 Define to whom info will be routed
 Manage many completed responses or “submissions”
22
Tara Matthews, USER Group
2009.8.26
© 2009 IBM Corporation
Georgia
Tech
IBM Almaden Research Center
Activities Patterns of Use
Complete Activity
Create a
Document
13 users
Organize
an Event
10 users
Manage
Work Units
Partial Activity
Unifying
Reuse
Collect
Resources
13 users
12 users
Solve a
Problem
Manage
Personal
Tasks
Maintain a
Team
Space
11 users
11 users
Create a
Tutorial
10 users
9 users
Exchange
Formalized
Information
4 users
23
Tara Matthews, USER Group
2009.8.26
© 2009 IBM Corporation
create a tutorial
“I take entries from a several different
problems that share some common factor
and start a new Activity around that. I invite
others to it or make it public and others
can now see how to solve this problem.
Instead of coming back to me with
questions, they can just refer to that.”
Goal: teach others how to do an activity
Methods
 Often created by copying a successful Activity
(process steps & useful info are already there)
Process tutorials
 intended to be instantiated to guide users
through a process
 created as a template with directions for
instantiator on how to use it
 advantage over static guides or paper
checklists: can be used to create an
independent Activity & tailored to the needs of
the user carrying it out
Teaching tutorials
 intended to be read for educational purposes
tutorial: how-to material about a technical topic
technical
topic
collection
of
documents,
links, &
how-to info
related to
this
technical
topic
tutorial: process w/lessons learned for setting up a technology demo (also: process)
lessons
learned from
other users
checklist for
setting up a
technology demo
Georgia
Tech
IBM Almaden Research Center
Create a tutorial
Needs
 Enable finding of tutorials
 Motivate people to create or contribute to tutorials
 Enable users to distinguish instruction from process
27
Tara Matthews, USER Group
2009.8.26
© 2009 IBM Corporation
Evolution of Activities
Complete Activity
Create a
Document
Organize
an Event
3
Manage
Work Units
Partial Activity
Unifying
Reuse
1
Collect
Resources
2
Manage
Personal
Tasks
Solve a
Problem
Exchange
Formalized
Information
Maintain a
Team
Space
Create a
Tutorial
Georgia
Tech
IBM Almaden Research Center
What is an Activity?

The concept of an activity in the real world does not map in a
simple way to organizing work in an ACC system

The Activity construct is used to support objectives at various
levels of granularity

“The thinking is the startup cost”
Complete
Activity
29
Tara Matthews, USER Group
Partial
Activity
Unifying
2009.8.26
Reuse
© 2009 IBM Corporation
Georgia
Tech
IBM Almaden Research Center
Common Process for Determining Activity Structure
1. Seeding: Seed structure from previous tools
2. Evolving: Evolve existing system Activities
3. Reusing: Reuse successful system Activities
30
Tara Matthews, USER Group
2009.8.26
© 2009 IBM Corporation
Georgia
Tech
IBM Almaden Research Center
Common Process for Determining Activity Structure
1. Seeding: Seed structure from previous tools
 Provide ways to transition data between the previous tools
used and a system Activity
2. Evolving: Evolve existing system Activities
3. Reusing: Reuse successful system Activities
31
Tara Matthews, USER Group
2009.8.26
© 2009 IBM Corporation
Georgia
Tech
IBM Almaden Research Center
Common Process for Determining Activity Structure
1. Seeding: Seed structure from previous tools
 Provide ways to transition data between the previous tools
used and a system Activity
2. Evolving: Evolve existing system Activities
 Provide effective tools for reorganizing Activities,
 Selectively propagate Template changes to its Activity
instances
3. Reusing: Reuse successful system Activities
32
Tara Matthews, USER Group
2009.8.26
© 2009 IBM Corporation
Georgia
Tech
IBM Almaden Research Center
Common Process for Determining Activity Structure
1. Seeding: Seed structure from previous tools
 Provide ways to transition data between the previous tools
used and a system Activity
2. Evolving: Evolve existing system Activities
 Provide effective tools for reorganizing Activities
 Selectively propagate Template changes to its Activity
instances
3. Reusing: Reuse successful system Activities
 Improve discoverability of shared Activities
 Create incentives for authors to share
33
Tara Matthews, USER Group
2009.8.26
© 2009 IBM Corporation
Georgia
Tech
IBM Almaden Research Center
Opportunities to leverage rich accounts of work
An Activity is a rich account of how work was carried out (rather
than how it is prescribed). Future opportunities:






34
Training or knowledge sharing (e.g., tutorials)
Transitioning work among employees
Idea sharing across teams
Accounting for one’s time
Reporting status
Reflecting on past work to solve new problems
Tara Matthews, USER Group
2009.8.26
© 2009 IBM Corporation
Georgia
Tech
IBM Almaden Research Center
Conclusion
Mapping real work into system “Activity” construct is a challenge for users
Study of active users’ patterns of usage & successful strategies showed
potential of ACC systems & revealed ways to mitigate this challenge
1.
Explicitly support common patterns identified in this study





35
managing work units, teams, & personal tasks
producing deliverable outcomes
gathering information
coordinating processes
sharing knowledge
2.
Enable transition from existing tools by suggesting similar, ready-made structures
3.
Support incremental evolution over time & reuse
Tara Matthews, USER Group
2009.8.26
© 2009 IBM Corporation
Georgia
Tech
IBM Almaden Research Center
Did you find this interesting? Come to our talk
Thursday, 10:30am, “Human-Work Interaction” session
Ownership and Evolution of Local Process Representations
Thomas Moran, Tara Matthews, Laurian Vega, Barton Smith, James Lin, Stephen Dill
36
Tara Matthews, USER Group
2009.8.26
© 2009 IBM Corporation
Georgia
Tech
IBM Almaden Research Center
Thanks!
Lana Yarosh
Tara Matthews
Thomas Moran
Barton Smith
lana@cc.gatech.edu
tlmatthe@us.ibm.com
tpmoran@us.ibm.com
basmith@almaden.ibm.com
37
Tara Matthews, USER Group
2009.8.26
© 2009 IBM Corporation
Georgia
Tech
IBM Almaden Research Center
38
Tara Matthews, USER Group
2009.8.26
© 2009 IBM Corporation
Georgia
Tech
IBM Almaden Research Center
Participant demographics
Gender
39
Entries
Authored
Activities
Owned
Job Title
Female
3559
226
Client Relationship
Representative
Male
1579
80
Software Developer
Male
999
61
Technical Enablement Specialist
Male
826
45
Sales & Distr. Sr. Consultant
Female
649
73
Level 3 Service Specialist
Male
570
23
Certified IT Specialist
Male
408
25
CIO Architect
Male
281
17
Software Sales Leader
Male
230
43
Research Staff Member
Male
212
17
Technical Sales Specialist
Male
193
13
Technical Sales Manager
Male
173
83
Senior Technical Staff Member
Software Architect
Male
127
11
Senior IT Specialist
Male
91
14
Database Support Team Leader
Male
76
16
Business Support Ops IT Analyst
Tara Matthews, USER Group
2009.8.26
© 2009 IBM Corporation