This research integrates ideas from artificial intelligence (AI) and coordination theory to develop a Virtual Design Team VDT)-an object-oriented, discrete event, computer simulation model of the flow of decisions and information among participants in complex, multi-disciplinary design projects. Conducting controlled experiments in real organizations to assess the performance of alternative coordination structures is both expensive and fraught with practical difficulties. Compounding this, powerful computer simulation tools to analyze the performance of organization structures by simulation-analogous to finite element models for simulating structural behavior-have not yet been developed. The VDT addresses this need by using AI techniques to model how the organizational structure of, and the information processing technologies used by, managers in a multi-disciplinary project design team effect the richness, volume and timing of information passing among team members. The long range goal of this work is to provide a computerized analysis tool that can help researchers and practitioners analyze the performance of organizations. The first phase of the project will model the impact of organizational structure and information processing technologies on task duration. The second phase will extend the model to capture the impacts of organization structure and information technologies on design quality and reliability.
