Communication permeates every aspect of an engineer's work-from clarifying product specifications to shaping social ties. This paper offers an overview of recommendations from literature to improve communication within and among engineering teams. We assume communication problems are often the outcome of underlying factors and that it is fruitful to study and improve these influences. Having been empirically elicited in prior research, 24 factors considered in this paper include, e.g., availability of information about product specifications, roles and responsibilities, and overview of sequence of tasks. To improve these factors in order to enable effective communication, this paper collates more than hundred recommendations from journal articles and textbooks published in the fields of engineering design, management science, sociology, and psychology. Recommendations include, for example, identify priorities through risk and bottleneck analysis, give clear descriptions and role expectations, and employ effective process modeling tools. Contributions of this paper are a list of recommendations for industry practitioners and an effort-benefit evaluation of individual recommendations.@en

The design of complex products, such as aero engines or cars, requires the co-ordination of many different individuals and groups of designers. Communication has been identified by many researchers and practitioners in industry as a major determinant of success or failure in design projects. Communication is influenced by manifold factors on different levels, be it through product attributes, information and media-specific factors or factors arising from organisational and team structures, and individual activities. Understanding of associations between these factors supports successful communication management. This paper presents associations between selected factors influencing communication. It shows a network of correlating factors covering a number of aspects of communication in engineering design and focuses particularly on 'collaboration', 'mutual trust', 'overview of sequence of tasks in the design process', and 'autonomy of task execution'.@en

Designing complex products, such as jet engines, cars or certain types of software, necessitates the coordination of activities of many participants during the design process. Communication is seen as the vehicle by which this coordination could be achieved. Communication itself is influenced by many different factors that are connected. This study presents an exploration of correlations between these factors based on statistical analyses of empirical data. The research uses data collected via the 'Communication Grid Method', (CGM) a structured maturity grid method to assess the perception of communication within and across team-interfaces. Five empirical studies in the aerospace, automotive, and IT industries where concurrent engineering is practiced are used. The results offer insights for researching and managing communication across inter-departmental interfaces. It has been shown in particular, how directly and indirectly linked factors influencing communication in product development form a network of correlations. Mutual trust and collaboration exhibit thematic centrality.@en