The work-reflection-learning cycle - Department of Computer and ...

immediate feedback in the heated discussion while conveying a sense of informality and providing
limited opportunities for the communicating parties to monitor each other‟s reactions (e.g. through tone of
voice and body language). In Example 3, the mismatch between the communication needs and the
affordances of the communication medium was particularly severe. The Molotov cocktail of problematic
factors included the team and customer never having met, not knowing each other, having different native
language and cultural background (including organizational/university culture – one being hierarchical
and the other flat), having different conceptions of responsibilities connected to the customer role in the
project, and the team being in a situation of severe problems (being far behind schedule while important
resources were missing).
The team may be unable to identify a potential mismatch between the choice of communication medium,
the purpose of communication and the form of communicating. In some cases, as in Example 3, the
customer might have suggested an inadequate arrangement for communication. A similar and typical
example, related to another type of collaboration tool, is when the customer insists on the use of email for
all student enquiries but turns out to be very slow in answering his email.
The biggest and most general problem illustrated in Example 3, however, is that IM is being used for
formal collaboration. Many project issues require a formal meeting, properly prepared and documented,
or formal, thought-through, written communication, with copies and attachments. Instant messaging can
be seen to encourage an informal tone and comments which are not meant to be revisited for purposes of
documentation, even if logging is possible. If IM is used in team-customer collaboration, the logs should
be kept by the team for purposes of process documentation, and the customer should be informed about
this usage. For instance, the IM log from which Example 3 is drawn was an important part of the
documentation of the project process and used by course staff in the evaluation of the project. The IM log
illustrated some reasons for the disappointing project result.
In contrast to Example 3, our findings from the SE project course also included examples of successful
use of IM in team-customer collaboration, enabling teams to have quick feedback from a remote customer
(See Section 4.2) on mainly technical aspects of software development. In this case, the purpose and
issues of IM conversation were limited and clear.
Implications for the organizing of SE project courses of the challenges of using IM for customer
communication include:
Given the high project risk associated with unsuccessful customer communication, project
supervisors should make sure that they are aware of, and accordingly require the team to account for,
how collaboration with stakeholders is conducted in the team, including the use of collaboration
technology, e.g. instant messaging tools. If the customer has asked for an arrangement of
communication highly likely to cause problems for the team, the supervisor might provide the team
with advice on how to change the arrangement or point out what are the pitfalls.
With respect to formal communication, in general, instant messaging should be used with care. The
participants should ensure that the needs of formal communication are met, for instance that there is
enough information to provide the social awareness necessary for the parties to understand each
other‟s views and feelings (e.g. satisfaction, anger) when important issues are discussed. This might
not be possible over instant messaging alone if the parties are not familiar with each other from
previous face-to-face interaction. Also, the parties should make sure that the communication is
documented in a way suitable for archiving and later retrieval.
If any collaboration with the customer takes place over instant messaging, the conversations should
be logged, in agreement with the customer
If the customer is motivated to use instant messaging to be able to give rapid feedback on technical
issues, the team should use the opportunity.
Many of the implications outlined in this section address issues that apply to the use of collaboration
technology in general to support work in the SE student teams, not only to the use of instant messaging.
Even if most teams in our study seemed to be capable of choosing adequate media for various aspects of
cooperative work, we suggest that it be made a topic in the introductory presentation of the project course.
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