Mobile process support systems - Experiences from a case study

Work process support systems, both in the form of workflow systems and of more loosely structured systems have been widely developed and also to a large extent been taken into use in a large number of work situations. As computing is becoming both pervasive and nomadic, workers use of computing and communication services is less limited to solitary moments at an office desk. Thus it gets more and more important to provide mobile work process support systems. This paper presents experiences related to the development, introduction and evolution of such systems through results from a case study following phone engineers. The main conclusions from the study are that that smaller terminals not necessarily does the job better, computerised systems are not always better than paper-based systems, and that supporting nomadic work must be done in agreement with the overall work context.