Coordinating dependencies in global system development projects - the use of dependency diagrams

This work addresses the problems that arise in the coordination of complex system development projects. The empirical setting is based on studies at Ericsson and ABB, and the total project manager's instrument to manage and coordinate these projects. ABB used what they called dependency diagrams. Ericsson developed a method they call the anatomy concept. The approaches are used as a complement to the traditional work breakdown structure. The paper evaluates the ability of these notations to address the needs of the total project management. The studies have shown that it is crucial to create compact high-level pictures of the resulting product and its projects in order to make the dependencies obvious to everyone involved (organizations as well as persons). The paper stresses that when developing complex system solutions the traditional diagrams easily become complex and unreadable. Thus, there is a need for supplementing approaches.