Assisting the design of a groupware system - model checking usability aspects of thinkteam

Product Data Management (PDM) systems support the product/document management of design processes such as those typically used in the manufacturing industry. They allow enterprises to capture, organise, automate and share engineering information in an efficient way. The efficient handling of queries on product information and the uploading and downloading of families of related files for modification by designers are essential aspects of such systems. The efficiency of the system as perceived by its clients depends on its correct functioning, but also for a significant part on its performance aspects. In this article, we apply both qualitative and stochastic model-checking techniques to evaluate various usability and performance aspects of the thinkteam PDM system, and of several proposed extensions, thereby assisting the design phase of an industrial groupware system.