WHAT IS THE DIVERSITY FRAMEWORK?
- The diversity framework should support project teams in managing diversity in their projects more effectively.
- The framework primarily deals with implicit, non-visible diversity aspects such as different work styles that are not explicit and easily manageable.
- An essential innovation of this diversity framework is the focus on the individuals within a project team and the focus on identifying differences and commonalities between individuals’ behavior in a human-centered manner. This differentiates the framework from existing models that use certain factors, for instance nationality, to derive anticipated values and behaviors.
WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT THE FRAMEWORK?
- Generic: The framework is designed in a generic manner to enable its integration in various existing approaches (e.g. as add-on to software development models like the Rational Unified Process or to any international project management standards). This characteristic also allows an agile as well as a traditional application. Still, it is recommended to use the framework as a supporting development process rather than fully integrating the framework into an iterative, agile approach. For practice it is suggested to have the phases Initiation and Elaboration as part of a supporting management cycle, whereas the Implementation and especially the Re-Assessment and Learning phases could be included in the agile procedure and its feedback loops (e.g. in Scrum this part could be integrated into the retrospective meeting).
- Tailoring: The framework can be tailored and applied flexibly. This means that not all workflow steps are necessarily essential for all projects, but project managers can use those activities that fit the project situation. Furthermore, the framework is open to be extended or adapted for organization-specific purposes.
- Open: The framework is open to any culture. Due to a variety of procedure options it is ensured that the workflows suit any culture.
TALKS & FURTHER RESEARCH
- Ongoing (since 2016): Guest lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences bfi Vienna (FH des bei Wien) in the course „Diversity, Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility“ (until 2020) and „Intercultural Management and Diversity“ (since 2021), Vienna, Austria
- 2016-2017: The diversity framework was used to develop a practice-oriented toolkit in cooperation with The Thinking Company. This development was supported by the FFG (Austrian Research Promotion Agency)
- June 8th 2016: Projekte sozial lenken - Steuerung von impliziten Faktoren at 7th PM Symposium at the University of Applied Sciences bfi Vienna (FH des bfi Wien), Vienna, Austria
- September 27th 2016: Ein Diversity Framework für Informatik-nahe Projekte at the Informatik 2016, Klagenfurt, Austria
- October 14th 2016: Developing Diversity Awareness of Software Engineers - A Diversity Framework and its Application in an Academic and Life-Long Learning Context at the Frontiers in Education Conference 2016 (Crossroads of Engineering and Business), Erie (PA), USA
DOWNLOADS
- Download the results of an online survey published in 2016 as part of the doctoral dissertation „A Framework for Managing Diversity in ICT Projects - Processes and Techniques for Explicating Soft Facts and Dealing with Behavioral Differences“ here.
The diversity framework was developed at the University of Vienna by Christina Böhm under the supervision of Renate Motschnig.
The framework is grounded in qualitative research and literature studies and was validated in three different studies using both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
Please contact us for further information.
The framework is grounded in qualitative research and literature studies and was validated in three different studies using both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
Please contact us for further information.
