Dear list members,
I am currently studying how and why design engineers use available
communication media (ex. meetings, e-mail, telephone, videoconferencing)
during their workday. My work has involved observing the daily activity of
six design engineers over a 25 day period using "structured observation"
techniques (made famous by Henry Mintzberg [1]).
To compare my results to those of others I am trying to locate previous
work, and in particular :
(a) use of time studies - any studies that *quantify* the time designers
spend on different activities during the workday (any phase of the design
process);
(b) communication media use - any studies looking at why designers choose
*between* different media.
The only use of time studies I have found so far are over 10 years old (ex.
Crispin Hales' thesis [2]) while communication media studies are mainly
from the information systems field.
Can anyone help?
Thanks
Cameron Guthrie
PhD student, Université de Paris 1 Sorbonne
PS. You can reply to me directly ([log in to unmask]). I will post a
summary to the list.
[1]Mintzberg, H. (1973) The Nature of Managerial Work, Harper & Row, New
York.
[2]Hales, C. (1987), "Analysis of the Engineering Design Process in an
Industrial Context", Phd Thesis, Department of Engineering, University of
Cambridge.
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