Supporting Collaborative Tailoring

Abstract

In this chapter we depict collaborative aspects of tailoring software. We provide a categorization distinguishing between (at first) three levels of intensity of user ties regarding tools usage (“shared use,” “shared context,” and “shared tool”) and discuss approaches to support collaborative tailoring in these scenarios. For the two levels with the most intense ties (“Shared Context” and “Shared Tool”) we provide the relevant theoretical background as well as empirical evidence from our own fieldwork. Our taxonomy helps us to describe and address two important shortcomings of current tailoring environments. First, current considerations regarding tailorability usually address tailoring within one tool, while current work infrastructures (which we introduce as a forth scenario—“Shared Infrastructure”—in our taxonomy) require a thinking beyond one tool. Second, although studies on tailoring-in-practice and evolving use of organizational software show the importance of user-userinteraction in processes of technology configuration, this interaction was only treated as a side issue in the design of tailoring environments. Respecting the importance of that interaction, we suggest to stronger focus on opportunities to support those appropriation activities of users.