Introduction

Over the course of a number of investigations we have examined aspects of the organisation of engineering work under the rubric of ethnomethodology's programme of ‘studies of work’ (Garfinkel, 1986). Our investigations were initially undertaken with the purpose of contributing to an understanding of the design process through the close observation of design and development work under ‘industrial’ conditions, rather than, as was more usually the case with studies of design, located in contrived experimental settings (cf. Button and Sharrock, 1994, 1996, 1998; Sharrock and Button, 1997). The close observation of the day-to-day work of design in large organisational conditions could enhance the awareness of conditions and contingencies that would be part of the design process in complex arrangements of work. They could thus provide informational input to the circumstances under which tools to support design would be used and the practical requirements with which such tools would need to be articulated. These studies also have cogency for the area of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). One of its concerns is the development of systems that will support large and complex ventures in coordinated work and the ‘industrial’ (hardware and software) design and development project is an example of a sizeable and complicated exercise in coordinated work.

Ethnomethodology's programme of work was itself developed as a corrective to the tendency of sociological studies titled as ‘studies of work’ to attend to almost everything that goes on in the workplace, except the work being done there.