| Popis: |
In product development, representations of the intended product are needed to enable specialists to learn about what they develop together. A variety of representations is deployed, ranging from textual documents like requirements, up to integrated prototypes. The difference between these representations is the fidelity: the degree to which a representation corresponds to the eventual real world product. In a long term participatory study, we observed that some of these representations serve as boundary objects: objects that have a capability in teams and organizations to transfer, translate and transform knowledge across difficult epistemological barriers. However, the fidelity of these representations varied considerably. Expressing the intended product is not merely a translation of a preconceived idea in an appealing visual, but coshapes the social process. We categorized the representations into four groups, and found that the 'right' fidelity of a representation is situational dependent where the situation is formed by the involved boundaries and aim of the social interactions. We present the categories and a framework to explain our findings, including the relation with the team process. |
