Experiences with the Digitization of the Interaction Room Method for IT Strategy Development and Software Project Scoping

Abstract

Complex software projects typically involve stakeholders from a variety of backgrounds that bring a variety of goals and expectations, but also valuable knowledge to the project. To facilitate communication and cooperation in such heterogeneous, interdisciplinary teams, we previously introduced the Interaction Room, a consulting method that uses large whiteboards to help stakeholders identify the key risk, value and effort drivers of their projects early. In this paper, we describe drawbacks of the original Interaction Room approach and show how a digitally augmented version of the method, relying on large interactive displays, was designed to improve the quality of the discussion, the long-term impact of the insights, and the inclusion of remote stakeholders. The Augmented Interaction Room is an example of how digitization can not only improve existing consulting methods, but also produce new insights and ways of collaborating with clients.