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The Influence of Collaborative Information Technology Tool Usage on NPD

Part of: Collaborative Design

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2019

Tucker Marion  and
Sebastian Fixson
Tucker Marion*
Affiliation:
Northeastern University;
Sebastian Fixson
Affiliation:
Babson College
*
Contact: Marion, Tucker, Northeastern University, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, United States of America, t.marion@neu.edu

Abstract

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Information Technology (IT) and the process of new product development (NPD) have become completely intertwined. From computer-aided-design (CAD) to video conferencing to traditional tools like email, the act of design, iterating and communicating with team members is touched at every point in the process by IT. Over the last ten years, new, collaborative information technology (CIT) has entered into the NPD process to make the activity of communication and team information sharing easier, more frequent, and distributed. What is not known is how these tools are influencing the design process itself. This research uses a longitudinal multi-method, ethnographic approach to deep dive into actual use cases. Our results indicate that CIT can have a substantial impact on NPD, but does not automatically alleviate traditional problems during NPD. We also find that the propagation of tools via new firms startups has developed a single tool per task paradigm, which is counter to the development of complex platforms offered by established firms. These single use tools are easily adopted but also easily discarded by development teams.

Keywords

New product developmentCollaborative designInformation management
Type
Article
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society: International Conference on Engineering Design , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , July 2019 , pp. 219 - 228
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2019

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