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The PSI Network Model for Studying Diverse Complex Design Scenarios

Part of: Design Management

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2019

Yoram Reich  and
Eswaran Subrahmanian
Yoram Reich*
Affiliation:
Tel Aviv University;
Eswaran Subrahmanian
Affiliation:
Carnegie Mellon University
*
Contact: Reich, Yoram, Tel Aviv University, School of Mechanical Engineering, Israel, [email protected]

Abstract

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Design pervades our world in variety and complexity that is difficult to grasp. Different disciplines and researchers take one or few perspectives to study, model, and try to understand design, why it fails and when it succeeds. However, without a comprehensive model, the value of such approaches is limited. We created a framework – the PSI (Problem, Social and Institutional Spaces) framework – that includes several models, ranging from simple to complex, networked, and hierarchical or recursive that can be used to model all design scenarios. In what follows, we demonstrate the network version of this framework, how it is used, and what insight it can present. The diversity of situations we present, mergers and acquisitions of companies, collaborations between industry and university, large multi- organizational projects, and a very complex project, as well as other cases we do not present here, confers the validity of utility and potential of the PSI framework.

Keywords

Design managementDesign theoryDesign methodology
Type
Article
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society: International Conference on Engineering Design , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , July 2019 , pp. 1283 - 1292
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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