Working group

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Working group" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (May 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article is written like a personal reflection, personal essay, or argumentative essay that states a Wikipedia editor's personal feelings or presents an original argument about a topic. Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style. (February 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

A working group is a group of experts working together to achieve specified goals. Such groups are domain-specific and focus on discussion or activity around a specific subject area. The term can sometimes refer to an interdisciplinary collaboration of researchers, often from more than one organization, working on new activities that would be difficult to sustain under traditional funding mechanisms (e.g., federal agencies). Working groups are variously also called task groups, workgroups, technical advisory groups, working parties, or task forces.

The lifespan of a working group can last anywhere between a few months and several years. Such groups have the tendency to develop a quasi-permanent existence when the assigned task is accomplished;^{[citation needed]} hence the need to disband (or phase out) the working group when it has achieved its goal(s).

A working group's performance is made up of the individual results of all its individual members. A team's performance is made up of both individual results and collective results. In large organisations, working groups are prevalent, and the focus is always on individual goals, performance and accountabilities. Working group members do not take responsibility for results other than their own. On the other hand, teams require both individual and mutual accountability. There is more information sharing, more group discussions and debates to arrive at a group decision.^[1]

Examples of common goals for working groups include:

• creation of an informational document
• creation of a standard
• resolution of problems related to a system or network
• continuous improvement
• research