Thomas W. Malone
Kevin Crowston
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Abstract
This survey characterizes an emerging research area, sometimes called coordination theory, that focuses on the interdisciplinary study of coordination. Research in this area uses and extends ideas about coordination from disciplines such as computer science, organization theory, operations research, economics, linguistics, and psychology.
A key insight of the framework presented here is that coordination can be seen as the process of managing dependencies among activities. Further progress, therefore, should be possible by characterizing different kinds of dependencies and identifying the coordination processes that can be used to manage them. A variety of processes are analyzed from this perspective, and commonalities across disciplines are identified. Processes analyzed include those for managing shared resources, producer/consumer relationships, simultaneity constraints, and task/subtask dependencies.
Section 3 summarizes ways of applying a coordination perspective in three different domains:(1) understanding the effects of information technology on human organizations and markets, (2) designing cooperative work tools, and (3) designing distributed and parallel computer systems. In the final section, elements of a research agenda in this new area are briefly outlined.
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Index Terms
- The interdisciplinary study of coordination
Recommendations
Coordination challenges in a computer-supported meeting environment
Special issue: Organizational impact of group support systems, expert systems, and executive information systemsIn this study we observed the coordination activities of groups collaboratively writing in a low-structure computer-supported meeting room. We used video analyses of the sessions to identify well-coordinated and poorly coordinated groups. Through user ...
An exploratory study of facilitation in distributed requirements engineering
There is an increasing need to build an understanding of group facilitation in distributed requirements engineering. Group facilitation is an important element of group approaches to requirements engineering, which is being challenged by the emergence ...
Supporting Effortless Coordination: 25 Years of Awareness Research
Significant progress has been made in awareness research in Computer-Supported Cooperative Work over the last 25 years. This survey addresses awareness and effortless coordination--that is, how a mutual understanding in distributed teams can be gained ...
Reviews
Joseph L. Podolsky
When I finished this paper, I felt as if I had just had a long conversation with two bright and articulate but as yet untested entrepreneurs. Both the authors and their fledgling discipline are rife with potential. While their work is young and heavily dependent on efforts in older, traditional fields of study, just reading the paper helped me look at issues in new ways, from new viewpoints. I am excited about the insights we all may gain as significant research is accomplished, specifically in this new domain, to which the title refers. For example, two chronic problem areas that might yield to this new field are the estimation of resources needed for complex projects and the management of specifications for software systems—both tasks that require extremely complex coordination. The authors explore how aspects of computer science, organization theory, management science, economics, linguistics, and psychology can all be drawn together into a “theory of coordination.” They define coordination as the management of dependencies between activities. This paper is a survey of this emerging field and offers a general introduction to both its unique viewpoint and its complexities. One of the most valuable parts of the paper is the extensive bibliography. Often, as I became intrigued with a particular subject that was annotated with a reference, I wished I was using a hypertext medium that would allow me to probe more deeply. The paper first presents a framework for studying coordination. Some basic processes are introduced, such as managing shared resources, managing producer-consumer relationships, managing simultaneity constraints, and managing task-subtask dependencies. The paper then discusses the world as seen from the coordination perspective. The authors look at various systems from both parametric and baseline analytic filters. The body of the paper concludes with a full discussion of the vast potential for research. While the potential of a theory of coordination is tantalizing, I got more immediate benefit from the many practical possibilities raised by the paper. For example, by comparing economic and task coordination processes, the authors reinforce the idea raised by one of their references that employees in large organizations should be allowed to bid for internal projects, either individually or through ad hoc teams. Most of the material in this paper is not new. The contribution of this fledgling discipline so far seems to be in the coordination of facets of other fields. I think there is more to this concept than mere rearrangement of known ideas, however. I do not know whether we can ever synthesize a grand theory of coordination, but, given the influence and power of that great common denominator—the general-purpose computer and its offspring, the information system—just the search for such a theory is likely to create some useful by products. New ways of thinking and new viewpoints are precious and well worth studying.
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