Concept of a Work Management System in Nokia: Focusing on Goals Instead of Process Phases

Complex systems development requires different ways of working than largely used static process oriented work. In practice, workers invent new ways of working to deal with appearing challenges. Thus, a company’s processes and tools should support these new process paths. Instead of defining a specific flow to conduct the work, several options for work processes should be allowed. This paper introduced the main findings of a case study conducted in a complex product development environment. The goal of the case study was to improve the company’s process support, based on the results of semi-structured interviews and the viewpoints of cognitive approach. The paper points out that it is important to focus on the goals for the work than the actual process phases and task descriptions. As a result of the study, the concept of a Work Management System (WMS) is proposed. The paper introduces this concept and discusses in details the main benefits of using a WMS.