The Mathematical Components of Engineering



much time observing project meetings as we had proposed, since the kind of discussion
that we could readily observe would be nearly all ‘project management’, rather than the
technical discussion that we wanted to study.

As a result, we decided to adapt our methodology as follows. Instead of restricting
ourselves to just one small part of the company, the company proposed to offer us much
wider access. Its large size and work-range meant that by interviewing engineers and
observing a subset of them on different projects at different points in project lifecycles,
we could develop an overall picture of the evolution of projects, and the roles of
mathematical work within them. We were convinced by
D and the academic interviewees
that design projects have a consistent structure and life cycle, and that this would allow us
to piece together data from different projects into a coherent picture.

Phase 2: Initial interviews (Months 2-3)

We had already begun senior staff interviews in phase 1, and these were continued.
Sampling of staff was undertaken to ensure as wide a range as possible of (a) type of
projects in which they were involved, (b) age, experience and educational background
and (c) work role within the practice — particularly to include specialist analysts and
experts in computer software. These interviews were audio-taped and transcribed.

As the body of interview data grew, we began the task of identifying issues and themes,
and progressively focused on a number of questions for further investigation. A
cumulative diary was maintained throughout the project, consisting of interview
summaries, short analytical memos, notes on background readings and web searches, etc.
By the middle of month 3, we had developed a provisional epistemological analysis of the
practice; versions of this were discussed with contacts in the firm, and a final map of the
different components of the practice was drawn up, which illustrated how the different
domains of work inter-related. This map was used as an organising instrument in phase 3.
A “top level” version is shown at Figure 1: this illustrates the activities connected to
analysis on which we began to focus.

Figure 1: Schematic diagram of the distribution of work in building design

Phase 3: Observation phase (Months 3-9)

At the beginning of this phase, we made contact with a second engineering firm, and
undertook several interviews with contacts there, in order to assess in a preliminary way
the generalisability of what we had found in our primary firm.



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