Interruptions, Deadlines and Reminders: Investigations into the Flow of Cooperative Work

Alan Dix, Devina Ramduny, Julie Wilkinson

Techncial Report RR9509, School of Computing and Mathematics, Huddersfield University

see full paper (PDF)

Abstract

This is a broad theoretical investigation into how events trigger action. In the course of studying cooperative workflow activity in a structured fashion it has emerged that a significant proportion of such activity involves long-term interactions. Human cognitive abilities are such that we usually cannot retain mental lists of all the tasks we are (meant to be) engaged in. As a result of this, the flow of work activities can be adversely affected. The potential problems that can ensue are:

• recalling out-of-context events
• reacting to long-term deadlines
• resuming activity (post-interruption)
• remembering the non-occurrence of anticipated events

In the application of a systematic analysis of workflow activities we have gained some insight into predicting which of the above problems are likely to occur and how we might offset any disruptions to the flow of cooperative work. Unlike most workflow studies - in the strict sense of the term - the work reported here is concerned far more with interorganisational interactions and processes. This in turn produces another problem: that of maintaining a flow of interaction when there may be no central control over the whole activity.