Evolution of virtual objects in Petri net modeled collaborative behavior

When design teams meet, their goal is to have an end product that satisfies a given list of requirements. During the process of designing this end product, the team evolves a virtual object whose attributes consist of a description (initially rather ill-defined), list of requirements and issues, and an indication for each item in this list indicating whether or not it has been met or has been resolved. The team's collaboration evolves this shared virtual object's description, the list of requirements and issues, and their satisfaction. If successful, the team's work ends with a virtual object meeting all requirements and with all significant issues about it resolved. This collaborative evolution involves team members taking turns at modifying the virtual object. This paper uses a Petri net model of the behavior of teams working in a digital network enriched face-to-face setting to illustrate the appearance and evolution of shared virtual objects. The illustration is based on a study of team collaboration conducted in Rensselaer's Design Conference Room. This extends earlier work (reported at SMC'97) which demonstrated how Petri net modeling applies to team behavior involving physical and electronic workspaces.