A Study of Collaborative Work Practices in a Joint Military Setting

The United States military's air operations planning process draws upon a diverse and often geographically dispersed group of experts. Effective collaboration is essential to ensure high quality and timely decision making for developing an executable plan that supports the commander's strategic intent. The Air Force has been experimenting with the use of computer-aided collaboration tools, providing a virtual environment in which the planning process can take place regardless of the group members' physical locations. By observing a small number of operators over two one-week periods, we were able to evaluate how well the tools supported the collaborative work. Based on analysis of the collected data, we generated a descriptive representation of the work, information flow, meeting formats, and interactions among group members. This descriptive representation focused on the collaborative work practices as well unique awareness needs of participants in a virtual meeting environment (as opposed to an environment where all group members are physically present). This resulted in specific recommendations for improvements to procedures and techniques as well as suggestions for modifications of the tools themselves to improve the quality of the collaborations.