A methodology for collaborative design process and conflict analysis

The process of collaborative engineering design is relatively complex, and often results in various conflicts due to technical and social factors. Therefore, to understand the relationships between design process and design conflict is critical to improve the collaborative design productivity. This paper provides a methodology for analyzing collaborative design process and conflict based on a new Socio-Technical design framework. The methodology can identify the interdependencies among design tasks, and manipulate the evolution of various design perspectives to facilitate the management of design conflicts. An initial computer implementation of this methodology is presented and its features are discussed.