COMPLEXITY PERCEPTION - MODEL DEVELOPMENT AND ANALYSIS OF TWO TECHNICAL PLATFORM PROJECTS IN THE MOBILE PHONES INDUSTRY

摘要

This paper shows that underlying parameters of perceived complexity in the development of a technical platform in the mobile telecommunications industry can be presented in a model consisting of four parameters, divided into three levels. The parameters refer to the number of interrelated parts, type of dependency among these parts, uncertainty in goals, and uncertainty in methods. These complexity parameters can further be found on different levels - external organization, internal organization, and product. The study also shows that these underlying parameters come into play differently in different settings, e.g. how these parameters are perceived is highly dependent on the specific situation. The settings analyzed in this paper concern two technical platform projects of mobile phones at Ericsson Communication Systems (ECS), Sweden.