Chapter 2

Q2-1 What are the Two Key Characteristics of Collaboration?

The difference between cooperation and collaboration is cooperation handles group of people working together on the same task and accomplishing the same objective. Collaboration are groups of people working to achieve a common goal with feedback and iteration. Cooperation lacks those traits so it’s crucial for critical feedback. It’s important to figure out what collaboration characteristics you lack and are great at. The two key characteristics of collaboration is iteration and feedback.

Q2-2 What Are Three Criteria for Successful Collaboration?

The three primary criteria for considering a team’s success is by the outcome, growth in team capability and a meaningful and satisfying experience. Successful outcome is achieving the objectives, make decisions, solve a problem or create a work product. Next is improving the team’s capability overtime by improving overtime on task and asking did we get better? Finally, having a meaningful and satisfying experience by being recognition or having a blast.

Q2-3 What Are the Four Primary Purposes of Collaboration?

The four primary purposes of collaboration are becoming informed, making decisions, solving problems and managing projects. In order to become informed, its required to share data and communicate through interactions. Also to document the data being communicated.

Now decision making has three levels: operational, managerial, and strategic decisions. Operational decisions are about day to day interactions or activities. Managerial decisions decide on the allocation and utilization of resources and strategic decisions support a broad scope, organizational issues. Managerial decisions are sometimes collaborative and strategic decisions mainly are.  The decision process of information systems is classified as structure or unstructured. A structure decision process understands and accepts the method for making the decision. For example, a formula computing the quantity of a reorder item in inventory. Unstructured decision process includes one for which is no agreed on decision making method. For example, predicting the future of the economy or stock market.

Next primary purpose of collaboration is to solve problems; a problem is known as a perceived difference between what is against what ought to be. So it’s crucial to define the problem, identify alternative solutions, specify evaluation criteria, evaluate alternatives, select an alternative and implement solution. Finally, is to manage projects by doing the four phases, the major task of each kind of data a team needs to share. First is the starting phase, by stating the purpose, the roles and ground rules of the project. Second is the planning phase, which is to define activities of who will do what and by when; also the resources that are available. The doing phase are project task that are being accomplished. The finalize phase is to determine completion and write down all feedback or close down project.