In general, an organization may adapt to a large computer system, but a small application program must adapt to the organization. Groupware is seen as a small application in comparison with MIS software. Due to the social and political factors at work in group settings, achieving groupware acceptance is much trickier than single-user product acceptance.
The eight challenges for groupware developers are:
- There exist a disparity in the work and benefit of different users - Electronic calendar example
- A critical mass for groupware is required and according to the prisoner's dilemma if everyone furthers his own goal the critical mass will not be reached.
- There is often a disruption of social processes that can lead to rejection of the groupware. It is extremely important for groupware developers to work with representative users whenever possible.
- Exception handling - Most systems requires ad hoc solutions and it is difficult to implement these features within the groupware.
- Unobtrusive accessibility - Infrequently used features must not obstruct more frequently used features. However, they must be known and accessible to users.
- Difficulty of evaluation - It is difficult to relaibly capture complex but important social, motivational, economic and politicial dynamics.
- Failure of intuition - Good intuition for multi-user applications is unlikely to be found anywhere in a product development environment. Experience is based on single-user applications.
- The adoption process - Consultation is not packaged with shrinkwrapped software and groupware adoption is a much more complex process than that of of-the-shelf wordprocessors.
The following methods may help in overcoming behavioural and social challenges.
- Extend the use of single-user applications by adding groupware features
- Find niches where existing groupware succeeds
- Build on projects that have fared better in the past
- Find ways to provide direct benefits for all group members
- Educate managers and developers about groupware
