ACM1093-34

Communications of the ACM
October 93

Work organization: paradigms for project management and organization
by Larry Constantine Note:
 Constantine

The purpose of this article is to establish a conceptual framework for
understanding [...] how software development projects, as examples of
collective human activity, can be organized and managed.

[Project teams] can be understood at three levels of analysis:
- process
- operating procedures
- paradigms

A model that embodies a set of underlying and generally implicit
assumptions through which the world is interpreted.

Projects can be coordinated by:
- traditional hierarchy of authority
- reliance on independent individual initiative
- collaborative discussion and negociation
- by virtue of alignment with a common vision or direction

Map showing relationships among reference organizational paradigms:

Random                              Open
innovative independence             adaptive collaboration
                        X

Synchronous                         Closed
harmonious alignment                traditional hierarchy

Many established notions of leadership fail to take into account
differences in organization paradigms.

Majority rule means mediocre results, because the product seldom
incorporates valuable minority contributions and because the out-voted
minority looses sense of ownership in the final solution.

Product record
Deferred decisions record
Parts bin
Reject bin