Abstract
Engineering processes have been studied to understand better knowledge work processes, the scheduling of work, and the effects of certain engineering practices. In this study the concept of using information transfers as a measure of the performance of knowledge work processes was developed.
Most engineering projects are oriented towards producing deliverables. Work is organized by dividing projects into arbitrary work packages for assembly into some type of product. However, the focus on a small number of widely spaced deliverables makes it very difficult to measure project progress and work process performance due to the lack of suitable performance indicators.
The tracking of the transfer of information used to complete work provides an excellent measure of both project and process performance. Since engineering (knowledge work) is information intensive, the movement of information from one worker to another provides an excellent measure of task completion. An engineering design project was studied; the tracking of key information transfers showed project progress and provided insight into performance. The metric also aided analysis of resource loading and project timeliness. While only studied for engineering processes, information transfers should be a useful metric to track progress and to predict task completion in any information intensive process.
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© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Klapsis, M.P., Thomson, V. (1997). Information Transfers as a metric for Engineering processes. In: Plonka, F., Olling, G. (eds) Computer Applications in Production and Engineering. CAPE 1997. IFIP — The International Federation for Information Processing. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35291-6_22
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35291-6_22
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-4833-8
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