Reading for week-4:

Levitt02

DESIGN YOUR PROJECT ORGANIZATION AS ENGINEERS DESIGN BRIDGES

Important ideas: The paper is short, so in some sense everything is important. “Hidden” overhead is really the big idea. The Critical Path Method (CPM), used by Microsoft Project, assumes it does not exist. Thus, for example, the time we spend talking to each other and flying around the world does not exist in the traditional CPM model, so it is hidden in the CPM predictions. Also, understand the “Galbraith” information processing model of organizations. In Galbraith’s framework, People work; Organizations coordinate. Finally; relate the methods (Step 1 – 5) to what you know of how to design a bridge using traditional mathematical modeling methods.

Kunz 98

The Virtual Design Team: A Computational Simulation Model of Project Organizations

Important ideas: Again, it’s short, so in some sense everything is important. Consider

• How to relate the purposes or uses of VDT in the POP framework;
• How VDT relates to P-O-P, F-F-B;
• What are the inputs to and outputs of VDT;
• Where do you represent that input/output information in the POP framework?