Analysis of solution finding processes in design teams
Technical development and globalisation impose problems on engineering design which require highly efficient processes due to time, quality and cost. Products, processes and knowledge change so quickly that there are hardly any standard procedures or rout
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Analysis of solution finding processes in design teams Petra Badke-Schaub, Joachim Stempfie Institute of Theoretical Psychology, University Bamberg 1. Introduction
Technical development and globalisation impose problems on engineering design which require highly efficient processes due to time, quality and cost. Products, processes and knowledge change so quickly that there are hardly any standard procedures or routine solutions adequate for various situations. Overnight the best solutions may become inappropriate if parts of the problem context are changing. This situation is even more difficult because the designer is integrated in a social context, and thus, processes of division of labour, organisation of tasks, planning of interfaces, as well as continual linking individual work with group work are concurrent requirements in product development. As a consequence, we can state that engineering design is a complex problem solving process with the necessity of coping with different types of Critical Situations related to the design context and to the social context (Badke-Schaub and Frankenberger 1999). 2. Theoretical Background Commonly, a problem can be characterised by three components, a given
situation, a goal and a barrier between both situations (Domer 1996). Applying these global problem characteristics to design teams, we have to distinguish further between two focuses of action which we call content and process. With this differentiation we take into account that design teams are not only required to deal with the task itself, but also have to direct parts of their activity at structuring and organising the group process. We propose that content and process-related activity of design teams can be described in similar terms, with the same steps of thinking operations underlying both processes (see also Fisch 1994). In table 1 the six steps related to the content and to the process are described.
U. Lindemann (ed.), Human Behaviour in Design © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003
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Petra Badke-Schaub, Joachim Stempfle
Table 1. Steps in the problem-solving process, related to the content and the group proce s Steps ontent Process goal clarification dealing with the goal space: goals related to the group analysing goals and setting goals process (e.g. distribution of ta k ) solution generation
propo al and solution id a concerning the de ign ta k
proposals and so lut ion idea concerning the group process
analysis
questions and answers related que tions and answers related to solution ideas to the group proce
evaluation
negative positive and negative positive and evaluations related to the evaluations related to the group proce s solution space
deci ion
decisions for or against solution or a proposal
control
control of the implementation of ummary or control of group members' work. solutions
a decision concerning the group process
3. Empirical investigation of design processes in groups
3.1 Data collection: field and laboratory studies
In a five-year-long field study engineers of the
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