IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-03390654.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Modelling engineering interfaces in big science collaborations at CERN: an interaction-based model

Author

Listed:
  • Bertrand Nicquevert

    (CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research - CERN [Genève])

  • Jean-François Boujut

    (G-SCOP_CC - Conception collaborative - G-SCOP - Laboratoire des sciences pour la conception, l'optimisation et la production - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes - Grenoble INP - Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology - UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes)

Abstract

In large engineering projects, the complexity of organizational and decision-making structures is a challenge for efficient management. Middle management plays a crucial and often underestimated role in the daily life of these complex projects. Our goal is to provide theoretical tools to seize the complexity of large engineering projects from the point of view of the human actors. An analysis of the organization of the ATLAS detector within the LHC at CERN was conducted over a period of several years. This contribution presents work on engineering interfaces in collaborative activities by showing how middle managers (mostly engineers) act as interfaces with other stakeholders and deal with complex socioeconomic and technical issues. The interface model described is human-centric and aims at reflecting the complexity of engineering management situations. Different types of interactions stem from this model, as well as the exchange spaces established through the interface actor. The potential of application of the model is illustrated through two project case studies, one in the field of big science and the second one in high-tech medical equipment.

Suggested Citation

  • Bertrand Nicquevert & Jean-François Boujut, 2021. "Modelling engineering interfaces in big science collaborations at CERN: an interaction-based model," Post-Print hal-03390654, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03390654
    DOI: 10.1007/s00163-021-00375-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03390654. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.