what-when-how
In Depth Tutorials and Information
8.3.3 Synthesis with a Generic Argument Structure by Stephen E.
Toulmin........................................................................................198
8.3.4 Phases of Argument-Based Sociotechnical Negotiation Process ....202
8.3.4.1 Pre-Negotiation: Task Proposal Modeling and
Conflict Identification ....................................................202
8.3.4.2 Negotiation: Utilizing Structured Arguments.................203
8.3.4.3 Refine Design Proposals/Process.....................................213
8.3.4.4 Refine Objectives and Perspectives .................................213
8.3.4.5 Rearrange Design Team ................................................. 214
8.3.4.6 Post-Negotiation: Consensual Agreement and Move
to Next Phase ................................................................. 216
8.4 Prototype Implementation and System Applications ................................ 216
8.4.1 System Functionality and Architecture Design of IWANT .......... 217
8.4.2 IWANT Prototype Implementation ............................................. 218
8.4.3 IWANT Applications: Case Studies.............................................. 218
8.4.3.1 he Negotiation Process ................................................. 218
8.5 Conclusion and Future Work ...................................................................223
References .........................................................................................................225
8.1 IntroductionandOverview
Engineering design aims to create technical solutions to engineering problems
through the use of scientific methods. It is concerned with how to improve the
quality and efficiency of design decisions in order to develop, test, implement, and
maintain functional and purposeful engineering systems that can satisfy demand-
ing and evolving user requirements. Traditionally, these design decisions are made
by a small group of engineers in the same location and time zone. Recently, driven
by market globalization, technology outsourcing, and the Internet revolution, most
engineering designs are carried out by distributed teams that include engineers,
architects, managers, and customers who have different backgrounds and exper-
tise. When people from different disciplines work collaboratively across the geo-
graphical and temporal boundaries, the engineering design process becomes very
complicated since such collaborative design endeavor involves numerous technical
and social (namely sociotechnical) issues, such as acceptability of technical design
proposals, communication of design objectives, and keeping track of designers'
social interactions. In other words, the design activities are influenced not only by
the technical factors but also by the social interactions among distributed, asyn-
chronous, and yet collaborating stakeholders.
In this highly distributed and collaborative global industry, to stay competitive
when dealing with the challenging design problem, engineers have to count on
effective and efficient collaboration approaches that can clearly help them under-
stand the characteristics of collaborative design activity and provide operational
methods to improve design productivity. Compared with traditional individual
