A communications-based technique for interdisciplinary design team management

A technique for interdisciplinary design team management that focuses on information processing and communication between team members is presented. A cognitive model of communication-related failure mechanisms of design groups is developed. Strategies for defining and assigning subtasks among individuals or subgroups that are based on the communications model are described. A technique for evaluating the expected effectiveness of a design team configuration is also presented. The cognitive model and task definition and assignment strategies are integrated into a tool which is traditionally used to evaluate only the physical design artifact itself, failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA). By determining communication failure mechanisms and how they can affect the design artifact, the authors are able to develop strategies that minimize their impact and an analytic tool to determine design team effectiveness. An illustrative application to the problem of designing a program for computer-assisted instruction is presented