Identifying the root causes of data and systems planning problems: an application of the PLEXSYS electronic meeting support system

The authors report on a field study that involved experienced data and system planners from one company in a collaborative task of brainstorming, idea generation categorizing, and ranking data and systems planning issues and root causes. The PLEXSYS electronic meeting support environment was used to facilitate this session and to collect and analyze research data. The authors discuss the conduct and results of this group work session, and provide insight into this application of group work technology in research. In particular, they indicate new or modified pitfalls that were discovered, and the results of various problem reduction, rating, grouping, and prioritization steps, leading to the identification and ranking of root causes