Evolution in use of groupware: facilitating tailoring to the extreme

Group work evolves, often leading to changing requirements on the technical support. To meet these new requirements groupware has to be modified. A system that allows end users to perform such modifications is called tailorable. This paper addresses the issue of facilitating end users in the most extreme form of tailoring: extending the set of functions of a groupware system. We have identified the services that form a groupware system and propose a building block method to construct tailorable groupware. Our component groupware architecture allows the composition of groupware out of functional building blocks, and defines the rules for their composition. Furthermore, we describe how to support an end user in the process of tailoring a groupware application to suit evolution in use