Communication in collaborative projects

Abstract

Projects within the product development industry are often collaborative, meaning that the projects involve multiple companies, a fact that complicates communication. In this thesis, two projects at FlexLink’s site in Gothenburg were studied to identify what communicative challenges they faced. Based on the identified challenges in the projects and the needs of the project team members a concept for a collaborative meeting agenda was developed. The concept is a shared digital platform focusing on improving meeting quality. The initial concept was validated with end users in individual feedback sessions and then further developed and tested through interactive prototypes in three iterations. The tests were conducted in three real meetings in which the prototypes were used. The user experience was then evaluated with a Semantic Differential Scale and the SAM tool. The iterations unveiled further needs and requirements that were compiled into a list of requirements that served as a base for the further development and evaluation of a final concept, which is a visual representation of the functionality as well as a basic design proposal for the UI. Additional to the main study at FlexLink, an explorative study was conducted at six companies in the southwest part of Sweden. The aim of this study was to provide a frame of references for how meetings should be conducted and what issues as regards communication can occur within an organisation.