Infrastructure Management as Cooperative Work: Implications for Systems Design

Abstract

This study looks at the data communicationsnetwork management organization (NMO) within alarge financial institution and appliesconcepts from Computer-Supported CooperativeWork (CSCW) and other domains to developtechniques for describing work within this andother similar organizations. Networkmanagement is one form of infrastructuremanagement, which is comprised of two kinds ofwork: real-time supervisory control work anddesign work. While many studies of group workfocus on the activities of small groups ofpeople engaged in either real-time supervisorycontrol or design work, examinations oforganizations where both kinds of work occurare relatively rare. The focus is on the workpatterns and data forms that are found withinthe NMO. Some of the implications of theanalysis in regard to the design of CSCWsystems are presented and discussed.