Synchronizations in Team Automata for Groupware Systems

Team automata have been proposed in Ellis (1997) as a formal framework for modeling both the conceptual and the architectural level of groupware systems. Here we define team automata in a mathematically precise way in terms of component automata which synchronize on certain executions of actions. At the conceptual level, our model serves as a formal framework in which basic groupware notions can be rigorously defined and studied. At the architectural level, team automata can be used as building blocks in the design of groupware systems.