Abstract:

Concurrent Design (CCD) is a method that should contribute to solve multidisciplinary design problems in an efficient way. This is accomplished by establishing a multidisciplinary team that follows a process including a set of CCD-sessions. Each session is a step in the design process where specific challenges are handled. The sessions are conducted in a facility, in which the team uses appropriate ICT-tools and benefits from an infrastructure supporting collaboration for the development of holistic and integrated solutions. A growing number of organizations implement this methodological approach, but experience suggests that it might be difficult to achieve desired gains. In this study, we focus on the importance of theoretical and practical training to become successful when implementing CCD. We have been studying a group of 15 master's degree students that received a comprehensive training program. This program included a detailed grounding in CCD-theory as well as two case studies in which the students collaborated to solve practical problems. We use the experiences from this training program to discuss what it takes to provide training in CCD. Our overall conclusion is that it is important with both basic theoretical knowledge, and practical training, to learn the method properly. Furthermore, we emphasize the importance of reflection during the process. We claim that reflection is important for the understanding of what actually works and we argue that reflection in relation to what is experienced in the practical training, is central to achieve a good learning outcome. This study showed that participants take greater responsibility in their CCD-projects, once they have established a base of knowledge and experience, and this is necessary to achieve efficiency in terms of reduced development time, reduced costs and improved quality of the deliverables. The paper starts with an introduction where we underpin why training is an important success factor for CCD, followed by a background and motivation section where we provide a brief description about the background for the prevalence of CCD, as well as an explanation regarding how we understand this concept. Next, we explain how the research was organized and how research data was collected through the project, followed by a presentation of the main findings from questionnaires and students' evaluation reports. Then, the main contributions from this study is presented in the discussion section, where we highlight the importance of theoretical knowledge, the importance of practical training, and the importance of reflection during the process. Finally, we provide some suggestions for further work, which deals with specific training within some selected areas of CCD.

Keywords:

Concurrent Design, theoretical and practical training.