Task structuring a brainstorming group activity with an AHP-based group support system

The use of group support systems has been researched repeatedly, using many task types. For brainstorming tasks, the system process support has been restricted to ensuring member anonymity and allowing the simultaneous entry of ideas. Little work has been done on investigating other process improvements for idea-generating groups. In this paper, we investigate the effect of decomposing a brainstorming task on idea quality and quantity in a South African setting. Using Team Expert Choice, which is an analytic hierarchy process (AHP)-based group support system, we conducted an experiment with two groups. We hypothesized that task decomposition would generate more and better-quality ideas. Our findings showed that task decomposition resulted in 40% more ideas than with no decomposition; the effect on decision quality is statistically significant only when the decision quality is measured as the number of good ideas.