Modelling project coordination in a multi-agent framework

In current engineering practice often traditional management structures and virtual organisations are combined. In addition to formal structures, informal, dynamic organisational structures emerge in which engineers are personally responsible for effective interaction. They decide when to exchange information, and with whom, when to question requirements, when to acknowledge conflicts, et cetera. In such virtual organisations, project coordination may become quite complicated. Communication and coordination in a real-life case of concurrent design in the aircraft industry has been modelled and specified within the modelling framework DESIRE, on the basis of Jennings´ (1995) informal, multi-agent model of cooperative problem solving