Exploring the impact of team mental models on information utilization and project performance in system development

Teams in system development must share information about tasks in order to be successful. A traditional view considers the processes in place to take the knowledge resident in a team and effectively share it with other members. Newer perspectives require conditions of shared models and understanding among the team members to effectively employ the dispersed information to develop successful systems. A model of teamwork mental models is presented to explore both perspectives so that the importance of both process and shared models is represented. A sample of system developers provides the data to test the model. Results show that team building activities can promote both aspects, yielding a greater chance for a quality team effort.