Experiences with collaborative applications that support distributed modeling

Awareness of the need for business analysis has grown faster than the evolution of tools to support collaborative development of business analysis models. Involvement of key personnel is important for model accuracy and buy-in, which is not trivial, especially if they are distributed geographically. Traditionally, models have been developed by individuals or small groups because of the complexity of collaborative modeling. Researchers at the Center for the Management of Information (CMI) at the University of Arizona have created specialized electronic meeting systems tools and methods to support several types of collaborative business models. This paper discusses the creation of a collaborative server created to support the development of distributed, collaborative electronic meeting systems tools. The server and collaborative tools serve as "proof-of-concept" that web-based tools can support collaborative meeting processes in face-to-face and distributed settings. Flexibility integrated into the tools and the server enables them to support a wide range of tasks.