AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY OF DESIGN TEAM PROCESS:A COMPARISON OF STUDENT AND PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS

摘要

Fifteen groups composed of engineering students andrnprofessionals were videotaped while performing a simulatedrndesign task. Using interaction analysis, it was found thatrnprofessional teams were more likely to engage in managementrnactivities, outline an overall design philosophy, and notrnoverlook detailed specifications. Professional teams alsornadhered tentatively to the early design artifacts; early designrnattempts were viewed as experiments for acquiring morerninformation about the design space. Student teams were muchrnmore likely to engage in a generate and test pattern throughoutrntheir design process, making incremental improvements to theirrncurrent artifact. Although the number of groups was small,rnthese patterns were strong and the differences were statisticallyrnsignificant. It is suggested that these differences are useful forrnguiding how engineers are educated and for understandingrnwhether students should be used as experimental subjects inrnengineering design research.