The Role of Objects in the Coordination of Knowledge-Intensive Projects: A Study of Computer Games Development

This paper addresses the role of objects in enabling the coordination of highly knowledge-intensive projects. An empirical study of project work in the computer games sector explored the role played by milestone schedules. We found that such objects played a central role in coordination in several related ways which could not be explained in terms of previous theorizing. First, such objects exhibited a capacity to act as a meta-object; i.e. representing and inter-relating other objects. Second, through their narrative quality, these objects were critical to collaborating groups' ability to respond to the emergent features of project work. Third, by representing the practices of different groups temporally, these objects made them more accountable to management control.