This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Klein, M. Articles by Bar-Yam, Y. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

The Dynamics of Collaborative Design: Insights from Complex Systems and Negotiation Research

Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA 02139, USA, m_klein{at}mit.edu

Hiroki Sayama

Department of Human Communication, University of Electro-Communications, 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585, Japan

Peyman Faratin

Laboratory for Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA 02139, USA

Yaneer Bar-Yam

New England Complex Systems Institute, 24 Mt. Auburn Street, Cambridge MA 02138, USA

Almost all complex artifacts nowadays, including physical artifacts such as airplanes, as well as informational artifacts such as software, organizations, business processes, plans, and schedules, are defined via the interaction of many, sometimes thousands of participants, working on different elements of the design. This collaborative design process is typically expensive and time-consuming because strong interdependencies between design decisions make it difficult to converge on a single design that satisfies these dependencies and is acceptable to all participants. Recent research from the complex systems and negotiation literatures has much to offer to the understanding of the dynamics of this process. This paper reviews some of these insights and offers suggestions for improving collaborative design.

Key Words: collaborative design • dynamics • complex systems • non-linear • negotiation

Concurrent Engineering, Vol. 11, No. 3, 201-209 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/106329303038029


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				A. M. Maier, M. Kreimeyer, C. Hepperle, C. M. Eckert, U. Lindemann, and P. J. Clarkson Exploration of Correlations between Factors Influencing Communication in Complex Product Development Concurrent Engineering, March 1, 2008; 16(1): 37 - 59. [Abstract] [PDF]