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46 Chapter 2 Collaboration Information Systems

scope can be reduced. Risks and complications arise here, however, as will be discussed in
Chapter 12. The project budget is usually revised at this point as well.

Doing Phase

Project tasks are accomplished during the doing phase. The key management challenge here is
to ensure that tasks are accomplished on time and, if not, to identify schedule problems as early
as possible. As work progresses, it is often necessary to add or delete tasks, change task assign-
ments, add or remove task labor or other resources, and so forth. Another important task is to
document and report project progress.

Finalizing Phase
Are we done? This question is an important and sometimes difficult one to answer. If work is
not finished, the team needs to define more tasks and continue the doing phase. If the answer is
yes, then the team needs to document its results, document information for future teams, close
down the project, and disband the team.
Review the third column of Figure 2-5. All of this project data needs to be stored in a loca-
tion accessible to the team. Furthermore, all of this data is subject to feedback and iteration.
That means that there will be hundreds, perhaps thousands, of versions of data items to be
managed. We will consider ways that collaborative information systems can facilitate the man-
agement of such data in Q6.

Q4 What Are the Requirements for

a Collaboration Information System?

As you would expect, a collaboration information system, or, more simply, a collaboration
system, is an information system that supports collaboration. In this section, we’ll discuss the
components of such a system and use the discussions in Q1 and Q2 to summarize the require-
ments for a collaboration IS.
A collaboration information system is a practical example of IS, one that you and your
teammates can, and should, build. Because you are new to thinking about IS, we begin first with
a summary of the five components of such a system, and then we will survey the requirements
that teams, including yours, should consider when constructing a collaboration IS.

The Five Components of an IS for Collaboration

Collaboration tools provide As information systems, collaboration systems have the five components of every information
useful capabilities, but they also system: hardware, software, data, procedures, and people. Concerning hardware, every team
present some serious security member needs a device for participating in the group’s work, either a personal computer or a
risks. The Security Guide on mobile device like an iPad. In addition, because teams need to share data, most collaboration
pages 68–69 discusses those risks
and how to avoid them. systems store documents and other files on a server somewhere. Google Grid and Microsoft
One Drive provide servers that are accessed via the Internet, in what is called the cloud,which
you will learn about in Chapter 6. For now, think of it as one or more computers that store and
retrieve your files, somewhere out on the Internet.
Collaboration programs are applications like email or text messaging, Google Docs,
Microsoft Web Apps, and other tools that support collaborative work. We will survey those tools
in Q5 through Q7.
Regarding the data component, collaboration involves two types. Project data is data that
is part of the collaboration’s work product. For example, for a team that is designing a new
product, design documents are examples of project data. A document that describes a recom-
mended solution is project data for a problem-solving project. Project metadata is data that is