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Building Totems: Metaphor ˜ Making in Product Development
Author(s) -
Dumas Angela
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
design management journal (former series)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1948-7169
pISSN - 1045-7194
DOI - 10.1111/j.1948-7169.1994.tb00620.x
Subject(s) - metaphor , totem , diversity (politics) , process (computing) , product (mathematics) , expression (computer science) , process management , new product development , business , architectural engineering , engineering ethics , computer science , sociology , management science , risk analysis (engineering) , political science , marketing , engineering , law , linguistics , philosophy , geometry , mathematics , anthropology , programming language , operating system
IN THE CORPORATE WORLD, design involves many talents and many decisions. In this process, some concerns are addressed explicitly while others, no less important, are only dealt with by implication. To integrate and give full expression to the diversity of factors in a project, Angela Dumas advocates a strategy she refers to as “totem building,” the development by a design team of sophisticated metaphors that help to articulate mutually understood goals and serve as criteria to evaluate alternative solutions.