Developing a tool to assist electronic facilitation of decision-making groups

One resource playing a critical role in electronically supported decision making groups is the facilitator. Facilitation is a complex task, encompassing social abilities, pre-meeting planning of decision making processes and supervising the technology usage during meetings. We found two problems with previous support to electronic facilitation: (1) limited support to planning activities; and (2) limited support to remote facilitation. The Facilitation Tool was developed to address these two issues. The tool was built around a comprehensive decision making model, contributing with design patterns to planning activities. The Facilitation Tool also provides a set of techniques to support remote meetings, allowing facilitators to steer and focus group participants, analyse and understand issues, and moderate conflicting or chaotic situations.