The Role of Boundary Crossing for Knowledge Advancement in Product Development

Authors:
Kathrine A. Nygård;Anders I. Mørch
Affiliations:
InterMedia, University of Oslo, Norway, k.a.nygard@uv.uio.no, a.i.morch@intermedia.uio.no;InterMedia, University of Oslo, Norway, k.a.nygard@uv.uio.no, a.i.morch@intermedia.uio.no
Venue:
Proceedings of the 2007 conference on Supporting Learning Flow through Integrative Technologies
Year:
2007

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Abstract

We present an empirical analysis of workplace learning using concepts from Activity Theory. The overall aim is to understand the evolution of a shared artifact in the boundary zone between a commercial organization (company) and its customers, on one hand, and between the company and a group of researchers on the other. The shared artifact is a project planning tool suite developed for customers by the company. We have identified three boundary-crossing activities: product development, user participation, and researchers' intervention and discuss their contributions to knowledge advancement on the basis of two identified contradictions. The interaction between developers and customers identifies a contradiction in adaptive product development, and the interaction between developers and researchers identifies a contradiction in use of a CRM system. We use data excerpts from a video-recorded interview and a design workshop to analyze our findings.