Evaluating the usefulness of an online participative modelling tool when post-graduate engineers co-model enterprise operations

Digital participatory enterprise modelling (PEM) is an emerging knowledge area that may increase collaboration and understanding amongst team members in modelling enterprise operations, especially when team members are geographically dispersed. The COVID-19 pandemic emphasised the need to use participatory design practices when in-person face-to-face participation is not possible. Within a tertiary post-graduate engineering education context, this study uses an online approach to demonstrate the use of PEM to students. The main objective is to investigate whether an interactive modelling tool is useful to post-graduate engineering students when they also apply digital PEM within the context of their own enterprise. Using design science research to further evolve an existing story card method (SCM), we address a key concern that was identified during a previous design iteration of the SCM, namely that the previous modelling tool did not encourage active participation during modelling due to the latency of the tool. Although multiple participative modelling tools are available, we used a list of entry requirements to short-list two tools. We provide a comparative analysis of the two tools, motivating selection of a single tool that was used in combination with the SCM. We involved 36 participants in applying the SCM, of which 25 completed a survey to evaluate whether the tooling encouraged participative design. Using a demonstration case to illustrate the notion of participative design to the post-graduate participants, using the selected tool in combination with the SCM, we obtained positive feedback about the participative enterprise modelling tool that was used by post-graduate engineering students. The feedback also provides guidance towards our future teaching practices, encouraging participative online co-modelling, especially when post-graduate students conduct their studies remotely.