PI: Prof. Dr. Christoph Meinel

Abstract

Traditionally IT development processes are technology-orientated and take place within the competency spheres of software and hardware engineers. The integration of the user perspective typically only takes place just before the actual development work (specification phase) and at the final development stages (elimination of software bugs). Thus neither user feedbacks nor multidisciplinary collaboration play a central role in the actual development process. As a result, functionalities and user interfaces can be planned in a way disregarding the user’s needs, and creativity processes that may enhance the innovative character of a product remain unrealized.
Within the framework of this research project, on the basis of a comparative analysis of the (traditional) IT industry and the gaming software industry it is being investigated how individual and organizational factors can facilitate or encourage collaborative creativity in IT development processes, in order to identify action parameters for the implementation of Design Thinking in IT development.