software ecosystem consists of a set of software solutions that enable, support and .... business forms, business intelligence and collaboration (English 2007:3).
Researching Mediation in Mutual Development of Software Products Renate Andersen, Anders Mørch InterMedia, University of Oslo P.O. 1161 Blindern, N-0318 Oslo, Norway {renate.andersen, anders.morch}@intermedia.uio.no
Abstract. We present the mutual development (MD) approach for analyzing user participation in evolutionary software development. Our aim is to extend and elaborate previous efforts (Andersen & Mørch, 2009) by taking into account new modes of software production, such as those available in product specific ecosystems, and by focusing on mediation and learning: mediation by technology to empower end-user developers at different levels in the eco system (from super users to local developers), and learning experiences within and between stakeholder organizations (e.g. user and developer organizations). We present the background for the approach and the plans for a research design as part of a PhD project. Keywords: co-configuration, design environments, end-user development, inter-organizational learning, mediation, mediation mechanism, meta-design, user-driven innovation.
1 Introduction Users are encouraged to be active and engaged in today’s knowledge society. Technology and different learning environments are increasingly becoming important and crucial parts of everyday life. It is a common notion that many users indeed want to participate in product development processes, thereby the area of user-driven innovation (Hippel & Olivieira 2010:7; Hyysalo et al 2010). There is a need for researching the consequences of these new constellations, i.e. between professional developers and users in product development. In what ways do technological tools enhance and constrain such communication? In line with this, Hyysalo and colleagues state that much of the research has overlooked the interaction and knowledge sharing in user-producer relations (Hyysalo et al 2010:495). There is a need for further looking at the relationship between user and developer. Mutual development, first proposed as a process model, describes how professional developers and users interact in customer initiated product development processes (Andersen & Mørch, 2009). Mutual development consists of different constellations of actors spanning professional developers to customers and multiple stages of development between development and use. The first version of the model of mutual development consists of 5 stages that connects EUD and professional development;
adaptation, generalization, improvement requests, specialization and tailoring (Mørch & Andersen, 2010). During processes of mutual development where customers and professional developers interact in mutually beneficial ways opportunities for innovation emerge, and this may foster new forms of inter-organizational learning. In this workshop paper we propose a research design for investigating collaborative interaction between professional developers and end users for the purpose of adaptive product development, and how this may foster processes of interorganizational learning. We take as starting point existing technology for supporting mediation (Wertsch, 1991) among the stakeholders, which we refer to as mediation mechanisms. Mediation mechanisms are technological tools that can mediate the sub processes of mutual development. With mediation mechanisms we address the issue: “How to build interactive systems that support learning seen from the perspective of transforming mediated interaction into a learning experience” (Engeström et al., 2010).
2 Rationale and Relevance to Workshop Theme Software ecosystems are emerging as an alternative approach for the development of complex software systems (Messerschmitt & Szyperski, 2003). The claimed transformational benefits of software ecosystems stem primarily from two basic principles that software ecosystems have embraced: transparency, a pillar in open source development, and modular system design (Cataldo & Herbsled, 2010). A software ecosystem consists of a set of software solutions that enable, support and automate the activities and transactions by the actors in the associated social or business ecosystem and the organizations that provide these solutions (Bosch, 2009). Further on Bosch differentiates between different levels of ecosystems, such as operation centric software systems, application centered software systems and end user programming software systems (Bosch, 2009). In this short paper we interpret the notion of software ecosystem in a broad sense and define Microsoft Sharepoint as an application in use, representing a (level in a) software ecosystem. Sharepoint is a web-based technology consisting of different modules ready to be enabled and configured for specific sites, as well as being a collaboration platform facilitating activities within and between different organizations/companies. Our research focus is to take a closer look and analyze in more depth the relationship between professional developers and active customers, defined as mutual development above. Mutual development includes cooperation between different actors, in for example product specific eco-systems. In addition, an important aspect of mutual development is that it takes into account user-driven innovation (Hippel & Olivieira 2010:7; Hyysalo et al 2010), which can be supported by many kinds of activities, ranging from improvement requests to end-user development (Andersen & Mørch, 2009). Related to this is research on user communities and peer support. However, in the current work, we wish to take the previous work a step further and go beyond user driven innovation by looking at how mutual development mediated by a technological tool may foster aspects of inter-organizational learning. This will be our main contribution to the area of end user development in product specific ecosystems.
3 Theoretical Perspectives Gerhard Fischer calls user user-driven innovation toolkits for design environments (Fischer, 2004). Meta-design provides a conceptual framework for design environments. It encourages end users to be actively engaged in generating creative extensions to the artifacts given to them (Fischer & Scharff, 2000). Meta-design offers a framework of taking the customer into consideration in organizational innovation processes and product development processes. One limitation with metadesign as we see it, is that it limits the customer to be engaged at use time and professional developers at design time (Andersen, 2008:20). In user-driven innovation processes it may be the case that customers adapt products at use time and are also the initiators of further development and thereby require participation in design time as well. Therefore it is interesting to look at how meta-design may be extended in order to capture the entire phenomena of user-driven innovation and inter-organizational learning, which may imply introducing a new concept to precede design time such as “creation time”). Inter-organizational learning emphasizes learning between companies. However, current theory tends to address the issue of learning within, as well as between organizations, named inter-organizational learning. Daniels and colleagues also points at how learning in co-configuration work implies how inter-organizational learning occurs between and in agencies/organizations (Daniels 2004:194). Toiviainen also elaborates on inter-organizational learning by focusing on learning in networks and the partnering activity this implies (Toiviainen, 2003). One of the main activities in inter-organizational learning is how a partnership activity between customers and companies, through e.g. a user-driven innovation process, are performed in networks and thereby may foster learning. Focus in this research project will be directed towards investigating how customers, performing user-driven innovation within the larger (outer loop) value chain of a company, may lead to new forms of learning (in addition or as a side effect of contributing to development). This is a form of interorganizational learning. This will be conceptualized withing a Vygotskian (sociocultural) framework of collaborative learning and mediated interaction where learning and development are related (Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch, 1991). Co-configuration is defined as an emerging, historically new type of work, which generates new forms for learning. Characteristic for co-configuration is that it consists of “customer-intelligent” products and service combinations, continuous mutual exchange between customers and developers, ongoing customization of productservice relationships over time, multiple collaborating producers and mutual learning from interactions between the parties involved (Victor & Boynton 1998). Building on co-configuration, Engeström proposes knotworking, which is characterized as a pulsating movement of tying, untying and retying otherwise separate threads of activity (Engeström 1999:346). Knotworking consists of several activities or activity systems. In knotworking, collaboration between the partners is of vital importance, yet takes shape without strong predetermined rules or central authority (Engeström, 1999). Co-configuration and knotworking sheds light on the collaborative aspects between customers and companies in user-driven innovation and inter-organizational learning processes.
4 Technology Support for Mediation Microsoft Sharepoint is a component-based technology, which provides a collaboration framework. The technology may take on many different solutions configured to different user organizations. Sharepoint is a platform where you can build web-based applications and collaborate with colleagues (English 2007:3). Sharepoint consists of several areas, such as portals, search, content management, business forms, business intelligence and collaboration (English 2007:3). The collaboration aspects of Sharepoint include the following features: documents, tasks and calendars, blogs and wikis, e-mail integration, project management lite, outlook integration, offline documents and lists (English 2007:4). Sharepoint can be defined as consisting of two levels: a generic framework for collaboration and configured as a concrete application. We will look at Sharepoint can function as a mediation mechanism for mutual development. It has been chosen for one of our cases due to its popularity and large customer base in Norway. We will identify mediation mechanisms for facilitating communication between professional developers and customers to stimulate user driven innovation. An interesting aspect in this manner is what kind of options/features for creating and handling improvement request exists in Sharepoint and how can it be further developed to support aspects of end-user development? We will also experiment with other mediation mechanisms, both web 2.0 applications and research prototypes created by others.
5
Research Design
The present activity is to develop a research design for how to gather empirical data in connection to the directions outlined above. Doing this we plan to use a mixed methods approach consisting of both qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques. Overall, the emphasize will be on a qualitative research study, but will use a quantitative approach as a selection tool. More precisely, we will first send out questionnaires to a large number of software vendors in Norway that use Microsoft Sharepoint for communication and information sharing with customers to identify to what extent mutual development is a priority and if so how it is supported by technology. After receiving these questionnaires we will analyze them and use them as a background for choosing specific companies to contact in order to perform a qualitative case study with in depth interviews and (if available) developer-customer interaction data.
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