Full file at http://testbank360.eu/solution-manual-using-mis-2nd-edition-david-kroenke
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. / Information Systems
for Collaboration
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
· Know the meaning of collaboration.
· Understand how collaboration systems can be used to improve team communication.
· Understand how collaboration systems can be used to manage content.
· Understand how collaboration systems can be used to control workflow.
· Know how businesses use collaboration systems for decision making.
· Know how businesses use collaboration systems for problem solving.
· Know how businesses use collaboration systems for project management.
CHAPTER OUTLINE· What Is Collaboration?
o The Importance of Feedback and Iteration
o Critical Collaboration Drivers
o How Can You Use Collaboration Systems to Improve Team Communication?
· How Can You Use Collaboration Systems to Manage Content?
o Shared Content with No Control
o Shared Content with Version Management
o Shared Content with Version Control
· How Can You Use Collaboration Systems to Control Workflow?
· How Do Businesses Use Collaboration Systems for Decision Making?
o The Decision Process
o The Relationship Between Decision Type and Decision Process
o Decision Making and Collaboration Systems
· How do Businesses Use Collaboration Systems for Problem Solving?
o A Laptop Problem
o Problem Definition
o Problem Solutions and Solution Brokering
o Problem Solving and Collaboration Systems
· How do Businesses Use Collaboration Systems for Project Management?
o Project Management Stages and Tasks
o Collaboration Systems for Project Management
USING YOUR KNOWLEDGE1. This exercise requires you to experiment with Google Docs & Spreadsheets. You will need two Google accounts to complete this exercise. If you have two different email addresses, then set up two Google accounts using those addresses. Otherwise, use your school email address and set up a Google Gmail account. A Gmail account will automatically give you a Google account.
a. Using Microsoft Word, write a memo to yourself. In the memo, explain the nature of the communication collaboration driver. Go to http://docs.google.com and sign in with one of your Google accounts. Upload your memo using Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Save your uploaded document and share your document with the email in your second Google account. Sign out of your first Google account.
(If you have access to two computers situated close to each other, use both of them for this exercise. You will see more of the Google Docs & Spreadsheets functionality by using two computers. If you have two computers, do not sign out of your Google account. Perform step b and all actions for the second account on that second computer. If you are using two computers, ignore the instructions to sign out of the Google accounts in the following steps.)
No answer required; a task to be performed by the student.
b. Open a new window in your browser. Access http://docs.google.com from that second window and sign in using your second Google account. Open the document that you shared in step a.
No answer required; a task to be performed by the student.
c. Change the memo by adding a brief description of the content-management driver. Save the document from your second account. If you are using just one computer, sign out from your second account.
No answer required; a task to be performed by the student.
d. Sign in on your first account. Open the most recent version of the memo and add a description of the workflow control communication driver. Save the document. (If you are using two computers, notice how Google warns you that another user is editing the document at the same time. Click Refresh to see what happens.) If you are using just one computer, sign out from your first account.
No answer required; a task to be performed by the student.
e. Sign in on your second account. Re-open the shared document. From the File menu, save the document as a Word document.
No answer required; a task to be performed by the student.
f. Describe how Google processed the changes to your document.
Edits and changes were made to the document from both accounts. Each version was maintained by the system so that revisions can be monitored.
2. This exercise requires you to experiment with Microsoft Groove. To perform it, you need to work with a classmate. Both you and your classmate must install a copy of Microsoft Office Groove. Check with your instructor to learn how to download a license-free version using the MSDN Academic Alliance. In the following steps, one of you should take the role of user A and the other should take the role of user B.
a. User A should open the Groove launch bar and create a new workspace. Select Standard. In the lower right-hand section of the new workspace, invite user B to join the workspace by entering user B’s email address. While you are waiting for user B to respond, use Word to write a memo briefly summarizing the need for version management. Save the memo using the file name VersionManagement and add it to the workspace by clicking Add Files.
No answer required; a task to be performed by the student.
b. User B will receive an invitation to join the workspace. All user B needs to do is to click the link provided. The workspace will open. User B should write a memo summarizing the need for version control. Save that memo with the name VersionControl and add it to the workspace.
No answer required; a task to be performed by the student.
c. User A should then open the chat window in the lower right-hand corner and enter a chat message asking user B to read VersionManagement and make comments.
No answer required; a task to be performed by the student.
d. User B should respond to user A’s chat and send a chat message to user A asking for a review of VersionControl. Make a few changes and save the document.
No answer required; a task to be performed by the student.
e. User A should open and review VersionManagement. User B should open and review VersionControl. Make a few changes and save the document.
No answer required; a task to be performed by the student.
f. Using chat, coordinate your efforts so that both users attempt to open the same document at the same time. Note what happens.
Users are warned so that the document can’t be opened simultaneously.
g. Add a sketchpad tool to the workspace by clicking the icon (in the lower right-of-center section of the workspace) that shows a document and a green plus sign and selecting Sketchpad.
No answer required; a task to be performed by the student.
h. Using chat, coordinate your efforts to modify the sketch at the same time. Note what happens.
No answer required; a task to be performed by the student.
i. Using chat, describe your experiences. Both users should comment on what they have seen.
No answer required; a task to be performed by the student.
j. Save your chat transcript as a file. Right click in the chat window and select Chat/Print transcript. In the print window, select print to file. Submit your chat transcript as you answer to this exercise.
Student answers will vary.
3. If your instructor has enabled a Microsoft SharePoint site for your class, you can perform exercises using SharePoint. Go to www.prenhall.com/kroenke and find the file Chapter 2 SharePoint Exercises. Perform the exercises shown there.
Student answers will vary.
COLLABORATION EXERCISES AND CASES1. With a team of your fellow students, develop an answer to the following four questions. Use Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Groove, SharePoint, or some other collaboration system to conduct your meetings.
a. What is collaboration?
Reread Q1 in this chapter, but do not confine yourselves to that discussion. Consider your own experience working in collaborative teams, and search the Web to identify other ideas about collaboration. Dave Pollard, one of the authors of the survey on pages 32 and 33, is a fount of ideas on collaboration.
Students answers will vary. Their ideas on collaboration should focus on people working together to achieve a common goal, result, or work product. Feedback and iteration is involved so that the results of the collaborative effort are greater than could be produced by any of the individuals working alone.
b. What characteristics make for an effective team member?
The survey on pages 32 and 33 reports characteristics of an effective team member. Review those results as a group. Do you agree with them? What conclusions can you, as a team, take from this survey? Would you change the rankings? Are important characteristics missing?
Student answers will vary, depending on their team experiences.
c. What would you do with an ineffective team member?
Define an ineffective team member. Specify five or so characteristics of an ineffective team member. If your group has such a member, what action do you as a group, believe should be taken?
Student answers will vary. The characteristics of an ineffective team member will include lack of interest and commitment, unwilling to give or take criticism, unwilling to listen, indifference. Students are typically not too tolerant of ineffective team members, but are not always willing to boot them off the team, preferring instead to just work around them.
d. How do you know if you are collaborating well?
When working with a group, how do you know whether you are working well or poorly? Specify five or so characteristics that indicate collaborative success. How can you measure those characteristics?
Student answers will vary. Characteristics of collaborative success center on the output of the group being superior to the output that could have been created by an individual working alone, including such things as being more productive, more creative, and generating more and better ideas.
Deliver your answers to these four questions to your instructor in the format required—on paper, as a Groove workspace, as a SharePoint site, or some other innovative format.
2. With a team of your fellow students, develop an answer to the following five questions. Use Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Groove, SharePoint, or some other collaboration system to conduct your meetings.
a. Consider an innovative application of Google Docs & Spreadsheets.
(1) Describe the innovative features of Google Docs & Spreadsheets.
Student answers will vary.
(2) Describe ways that Google Docs & Spreadsheets could be applied innovatively at three different organizations. Consider both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. If you want, use the example of the accounting firm, the shopping-center developer, and the community water association. Or, use examples based on your college campus.
Student answers will vary.
(3) Explain the benefits of each application in part 2.
Student answers will vary.
(4) Which of the three applications in your answer is most compelling? Why?
Student answers will vary.
b. Repeat part a, but use Groove instead. Does the application that is most compelling change? If so, why?
Student answers will vary.
c. Repeat part a, but use SharePoint instead. Does the application that is most compelling change from your answers in a and b when you are considering SharePoint? If so, why?
Student answers will vary.
d. Which of the three applications is most compelling? Why?
Student answers will vary.
e. Write a two-paragraph description of the application you selected in part d. Prepare the description so that you can use it in a job interview; write it to demonstrate your ability to think innovatively.
Student answers will vary.
APPLICATION EXERCISE1. / / Suppose that you have been asked to assist in the managerial decision about how much to increase pay in the next year. Assume you are given a list of the departments in your company, along with the average salary for employees in that department for.
major companies in your industry. Additionally, you are given the names and salaries of 10 people in each of three departments in your company
Assume you have been asked to create a spreadsheet that shows the names of the 10 employees in each department, their current salary, the difference between their current salary and the industry average salary for their department, and the percent their salary would need to be increased to meet the industry average. Your spreadsheet should also compute the average increase needed to meet the industry average for each department and the average increase, company-wide, to meet industry averages.
a. Use the data in the file Ch2Ex1.doc and create the spreadsheet.
b. How can you use this analysis to contribute to the employee salary decision? Based on this data, what conclusions can you make?
It may be valuable to know how our employee salaries compare with the average salaries in similar settings in our industry. Presumably, if our employee salaries are considerably lower than those across the industry, then we will be at risk of losing those employees to our competitors and we might experience high employee turnover. On the other hand, if our salaries are higher than industry averages for similar positions, then we should not expect high turnover and perhaps could lure some top candidates away from our competitors to join our organization.
The above spreadsheet shows that in the Accounting Department, five employees are earning salaries below the industry average; in Marketing, four employees are earning salaries below the industry average; and in IS, seven employees are below the industry average.
Some care should be taken not to put too much weight on these averages, however. Averages can be distorted easily with just a few outlier values. A better comparison might be to median industry salaries. In addition, we should be sure that these comparisons are for similar firms of similar size in similar regions of the country. It is not meaningful to compare companies that are very different in terms of size or that are based in very different geographical settings, even though they are in the same industry. In addition, we have people within departments that are quite different in terms of skill, managerial level, experience, seniority, etc. Therefore, departmental industry averages cannot be meaningfully applied to every position within the department.