The CollaborWriting Toolset

The web-based GDSS groupware we employ in CollaborWriting sessions has several major tools. All tools have a common look and feel, are very easy to use, and keep the focus where you want it to be: on the topic of the session. All tools described are available for secure use anywhere at anytime via the WWW. The descriptions below are intended as a high-level overview that cannot begin to illustrate the sophistication and capability of this application. For a complete understanding of the toolset and functionality interested parties should contact us to arrange for a web-based orientation.

The Agenda - For Organization Of Activities:

• Looks and feels like a traditional agenda
• Useful for describing the process "flow"
• The place from which to come and go throughout the session
• Launches all activities for the individual, team or entire group
• Updates automatically to reflect process changes
• Can be saved as a “process template” for re-use again and again

BrainWriting / Ideas - For Creation Of Brainstormed Lists:

• Allows for simultaneous, anonymous or attributed idea generation
• Simultaneously updates everyone's ideas in a simple list format
• Maintains the focus on a single topic for better power of concentration
• Ideas can be of any length
• Place the focus on quality of ideas, not who presented them

Commenting - For Multi-Topic Brainstorms & Discussions:

• Does everything BrainWriting does
• Used for Multi-Topic brainstorms (Fishbones)
• Can be used to comment on a list of ideas or to accommodate threaded discussions
• Displays all data in an outline format with or without numbering
• Useful for aggressive anonymous discussions or de-briefs
• Useful for building Action Plans
• Useful for scribed activities
• Much more practical than Email for collecting ideas and commentary from a group

Rating - The Primary Tool For Evaluation Of Ideas:

• Allows for rating of single or multiple idea lists on single or multiple criteria
• Can rate imported lists from other sources
• Rating can be on any scale from 1 to 10 with preset or customized anchors
• Each participant rates ideas on the list independently
• Automatically re-rank orders the idea-list showing group rating results
• Identifies high and low rating for each idea to zero-in on levels of agreement
• Identifies Standard Mean Deviation & voting distribution
• Offers multiple graphic views for data analysis including X/Y plotting
• Results used to drive "goal-directed" discussions and decisions

Organizer - A Tool For Grouping and Managing Multiple Ideas:

• Can quickly “bucket” lists into multiple categories and structured trees
• Drag & drop makes quick work of collapsing and merging ideas
• Is highly interactive with real-time participation and updates

Scoring - A Quantitative Decision Tool:

• Used for rating listed alternatives against multiple weighted criteria
• Builds "group investment" in decisions and data-modeling
• Maps the decision process for "sell-in"

Categorizing - Sorts Lists & Organizes Ideas:

• Can be done by each individual "voting" ideas into appropriate categories
• Used for "sizing" tasks to identify how much time they will require to complete
• Used for Action Planning... putting tasks in a time sequence
• Great for assigning tasks-to-people or people-to-tasks

Ranking - Forces Rank Ordering Of Ideas Or Tasks:

• Useful to quickly ascertain group agreement/disagreement
• Can be used for implementation planning
• Usually works best with short lists of 10 to 20 items

Voting - Yes/No Voting On Any Size List:

• Very useful to identify polarity of opinion
• Used for short-listing "laundry lists" of ideas
• Group results are reflected in the form of frequency-counts

Select - Assigned Number Of Votes On A List(s):

• Can be set to any number of votes depending on the size of the list
• Accommodates multiple selections from multiple listings
• A short-listing tool much like virtual sticky dots
• Helps to focus discussion on "what's really important"
• Group results are reflected in the form of frequency counts

Allocate - Assignment Of Points To Options:

• Most often used for budgeting or time allocation decisions
• Points can be dollars / options can be budget line-items
• Quickly illustrates agreement/disagreement around percentage & quantity

Action Plan- Group Created Next Steps & Gantt Charting:

• Useful at the end of a meeting to assign people to tasks
• Simple Gantt charting offers a graphic view of the critical path
• Documents expectations around completion dates and dependencies

Questionnaire – A Powerful Mass Survey Tool:

• Supports creation of open-ended response, rating, ranking, select and allocate
• Useful for gathering feedback from hundreds or thousands of respondents
• Has sophisticated skip-logic and data-mining features to create reports
• Merges data from results into other activities

Presentation – Provides Access To Presentations & Documents:

• Uploaded presentations like MS PowerPoint TM are available for all to open
• Any document or web-link can be launched directly from the agenda

Reporting - Instant Access To Group-Work

• Prints the results of part or all of a session with real-time updating
• Automatically formats report for quick distribution via built in Email
• Never any waiting for the plan to be typed up
• Can print to file or transfer tab-delimited results into other applications

Group Management Tools – Integrates The User Experience

• Roster manages those active in sessions
• Session scheduling manages multiple users to pertinent sessions
• Automatic creation of emails, links, reminders, etc for virtual users
• Creation of preset or ‘on-the-fly' data transfer between tools listed above