A Complex Systems Perspective on Collaborative Design

Almost all complex artifacts nowadays, including physical artifacts such as airplanes, as well as informational artifacts such as software, organizational designs, plans and schedules, are created via the interaction of many, sometimes thousands of participants, working on different elements of the design. This collaborative design process is typically expensive and time-consuming because strong interdependencies between design decisions make it difficult to converge on a single design that satisfies these dependencies and is acceptable to all participants. Complex systems research concerning the generic dynamics of distributed networks has much to offer to the understanding of this process. This paper describes some insights derived from this novel perspective