Section 6.10. How does the ES-Community balance efficiency with open participation?

6.10. How does the ES-Community balance efficiency with open participation?

One of the biggest challenges in designing a process for collaboratively defining services in groups such as the ES-Community is finding a reasonable balance between the competing interests of efficiency and open participation. It is not possible to create a high-quality service definition with very little input, even though it would be very efficient. Conversely, it is not possible to create a high-quality service definition in a timely manner if the process requires input from every member of the community.

In order to balance these competing interests, the ES-Community uses a flexible approach to the Definition Group process. The leaders of each Definition Group are empowered to decide how much participation will yield the highest-quality definition within the time constraints of the collaboration. This means that some groups will be small and very focused and others will be open to all who wish to participate.