Groupware Task Analisis and Distributed Cognition: Task Modeling in a Case of Multiple Users and Multiple Organizations

GroupWare Task Analysis (GTA) and Distributed Cognition (DC) are two different frameworks to analyze and model task knowledge. These frameworks examine the situation from different points of views emphasizing different aspects of the task situation. We needed to use a combination of both approaches to analyze and fully understand the context of use of a highly complex system used by different types of users, from different cultures, for different tasks, and that needed to communicate and collaborate. Our study shows that both frameworks emphasize different aspects of the context of use and the information obtained is complementary and necessary when analyzing extremely complex systems.