Coordination breakdowns: why groupware is so difficult to design

Interactive software is often poorly designed, forcing users to adapt their work to suit the software. There are two reasons for this: the user´s requirements are poorly understood, and introducing the new system changes the user´s requirements anyway. For CSCW systems, these problems are particularly acute. Although there are analysis techniques that offer detailed information about the structure and process of collaborative work, they fail to predict how collaboration will change as a result of the introduction of a new system, largely because they fail to model the mechanisms by which groups coordinate their work. I argue that better models of how collaboration evolves over time are required, and in particular, what causes coordination to break down. I sketch out a model of collaboration based on concepts of shared understanding, conflict and breakdown, and analyse the mechanisms of group interaction in the light of this model