Should End-users Participate as Much as They Want in the Development of Collaborative Applications?

User participation seems especially important in the development of collaborative work systems where the technology is used by a work group to coordinate their joint activities. Using a sample of 163 collaborative and 239 noncollaborative applications, this research focuses on (1) Is user participation more effective in collaborative applications? (2) What specific decision issues enhance user satisfaction and productivity? and (3) Can permitting endusers to participate as much as they want on some issues be ineffective or even dysfunctional. The results indicate that user participation is more effective in collaborative applications. Of the four decision issues tested, only participation in information needs analysis predicts end-user satisfaction and task productivity. Encouraging end-users to participate as much as they want on a broad range of systems analysis issues such as project initiation, information flow analysis, and format design appears to be, at best, a waste of time and, perhaps, even harmful. These findings should help managers and analysts make better decisions about how to focus participatory efforts and whether end-users should participate as much as they want in the design of collaborative systems.