[post updated to reflect new name, StreamWork]. SAP’s decision-focused collaboration project, 12sprints, is now in “open beta”, so that anybody can sign up. Here’s the blurb from the web site explaining what it is:

Bring order to chaos and transform teamwork into results quickly. Collaborative decision-making brings together:

• People – Get everyone on the same page
• Information – Share documents and data all in plain view
• Methods – Provide structure with business tools for brainstorming, strategizing, and decision-making

And it’s built for speed – use for free and be up and running in minutes!  Learn more

This post gives an introduction to what you can do with the technology, and points you to some useful links. First, here’s a video that explains some of the basics, and you can find a full set of Tutorial Videos on the SteamWork YouTube Channel.

When you log in, you’ll see a screen like this one:

Once you’ve signed up you can start to create activities. In order to show you a glimpse of some of the things you can do, lets look at a couple of examples.

A “First Introduction to StreamWork” Activity

Here’s an example Activity I put together to illustrate the concepts and tools available in StreamWork. Each “activity” is broken down into sections, or “activity tools” chosen from a large catalog of possibilities. In this example, I’ve pulled in a selection of these tools to explain the overall layout of a typical decision (in this case, I chose to discuss a high-level comparison of StreamWork and other collaborative environments).

Here’s an overview of the activity, and then we’ll look at each section in turn:

The first block in the example is an introduction to the activity, to explain to new participants what the Activity is about, where to get more information, etc. Participants can make comments on any section, and add links to other resources to back up their arguments. Note also the feedback tab on the right-hand side – this opens a full forum designed to streamline user feedback about the prototype, powered by UserVoice.

StreamWorkis focused on decision-making, so let’s start by explaining the decision we’d like to make:

Let’s add an example of one of the most basic decision-making tools – a comparison table. Note that we can change from a “list view” to a “single item” view in order to see all the information without scrolling.

Here’s another simple decision tool – a pro/con table. Participants can add their own pro/con comments. I can see the information as a simple table, and mouse-over to see the details:

Or I can expand the table to see the full set of information:

You can group several related activities into a single high-level section:

Finally, here’s another simple tool, asking people to give their reactions to the decision and the process (positive/neutral/negative):

Throughout this process, you can make comments, upload documents, add invite/manage participants using the menu at the top of the screen. There’s also the ability to add and track action items for basic “decision workflow”

Here are some of the other tools you can currently add – the goal is to extend these over time.

A “Real” StreamWork Example

I wanted to get a feel for what it would be like to use StreamWork in a real situation, so I applied it to a life decision of my own: whether or not I should vaccinate my daughter against the H1N1 flu virus (the “swine flu”). I was pretty sure it was the right thing to do, but I knew others disagreed, so I wanted to understand their point of view, and see if that would sway my decision. Here’s the full activity, as an image:

Conclusion

I didn’t change my mind about vaccinating my daughter – but the process certainly opened my eyes to aspects of the decision-making process that I had not taken into account, and I ended up with a much better understanding of why others might disagree. I believe that this aspect – making sure that all relevant angles are being taken account of when making a decision – will prove extremely useful in real-life implementations.

Other links

• Chris Kanaracus, SAP’s Enterprise Collaboration Tool Entering Public Beta
• Clint Boulton, eWeek, SAP Offers 12Sprints As Enterprise Alternative to Google Wave

You can now sign up to be a beta participant of SAP’s 12sprints project, “a collaborative environment for people to make better decisions based on data” or a “people-connecting, data-sharing, decision-making tool that actually sets work in motion.”

Early versions of the prototype were glimpsed during demonstrations by Léo Apotheker and Ian Kimbell at SAP SAPPHIRE in Berlin last year, and by Marge Breya at SAP TechEd in Vienna, and the project is now letting people sign up for pre-beta access to the prototype.

Beta users will get access to a “virtual war room” with various types of decision-making tools available. According to the www.12sprints.com site:

“It’s not just a place where things get discussed. It’s where things get done. Invite the right people. Bring in the pertinent data. And choose the most informed course of action with the help of pre-defined, interactive decision-making tools. It’s all built in. Everything you need to get everyone on the same page — finally under one roof.”

Marge Breya recently repeated her SAP Tech Ed demo for Information Week’s Fritz Nelson, with a scenario based on people collaborating on go-to-market strategy after a new company has been acquired:

“…[it’s] about a purpose-driven experience, and the user gets to design it. So I can set up my own purpose whenever I want, invite the people I want, and get the exact data I want and expertise at my fingertips.”

Marge is invited to review the current decision goal, timeline, data etc.

Marge decides that she disagrees with the current plan, so enters a new negative opinion:

And uses another labs project called “Kona”, the next generation of on-demand business intelligence, to get the data she needs:

Here’s the full video:

And here’s Fritz’s commentary:

“We began with 12 Sprints, which I can best describe as a collaborative workspace, with a combination of project management and data sharing. You can pull in rich data feeds and share knowledge and make decisions, all in real time. In some ways, it resembles the modern Wiki. Where we explored other tools that help find and analyze data, 12 Sprints is where you would bring the most pertinent information back for team decision making.”

“Both 12 Sprints and Kona are cloud-based applications, run by SAP. Neither are available today, but both are expected to enter beta testing in November, with full release set for the first quarter (Kona) and first half (12 Sprints) of 2010.”

Business intelligence used to be called “decision support systems”, but the tools available have typically focused on gathering information, not the real-world collaboration required to turn that data into actual decisions and actions.

But that’s changing rapidly. According to Gartner:

“2009, Collaborative Decision Making will emerge as a new product category that combines social software with BI platform capabilities”

If you’re interested in finding out more, you can get news by following the 12sprints team on Twitter or by signing up to be one of the first to get exclusive access to the beta.

This report predicts a new style of decision support system — collaborative decision making (CDM) — will emerge in 2009 that combines social software with business intelligence (BI). This combination can dramatically improve the quality of decision making by directly linking the information contained in BI systems with collaborative input gleaned through the use of social software.

Read the full report here (and thanks to Nic Smith of Microsoft for the link).