Why do(n't) actors in collaborative design understand each other? An empirical study towards a better understanding of collaborative design

Abstract

This paper presents an empirical study of collaborative design projects in industry. Two case studies were conducted to investigate which factors influence the creation of shared understanding. Furthermore, collaborative mechanisms, i.e. the patterns underlying the relationship between these factors, were investigated.

The results showed that shared understanding was influenced by factors on three organizational levels: the actor-, project- and company level. These influencing factors also affected the collaborative mechanisms within four different types of interfaces between the actors involved that could be distinguished based on the results.

Keywords:

• Collaborative design
• Shared understanding
• Mental models

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Kristina Lauche, Petra Badke-Schaub and Andre Neumann for their valuable comments on earlier versions of the manuscript of this paper. Furthermore, we would like to thank all participants of the workshop on Team Mental Models (Delft, June 2006) for the constructive and insightful discussions that we have had.