| dc.description.abstract | Software industry has been expanding and spreading its influence
over a huge number of products and services. Parallel
to that, the industry as a whole has been more exposed
to challenges complicated enough to be faced with simple
solutions. Due to its very dynamic nature, based on technological
advances, software companies are perhaps one of the
most exposed group, creating issues, internal and external,
that were not present some time ago. Meanwhile, design has
been more recognized as strategic, and for possessing sets of
tools and methods to deal differently with problems in comparison
to, for example, traditional managers. One of these
practices is ‘reframing’. Hence, this study aimed to investigate
how strategic design may contribute with organizational
challenges faced by software companies through the use of
reframing. Based on an initial challenge received, a qualitative
study inspired by ethnographic methods was conducted,
and then Kees Dorst’ Frame Creation Model was applied over
the findings. The initial challenge was then reframed into a
process that should be embraced by the company, instead of
generating a single solution. It was concluded that reframing
and the Frame Creation Model can be valuable for solving
organizational challenge, as much as it is for social challenges,
the main area of application of the model. Also, some insights
about how designers can act strategically within software
companies are revealed (for instance, being a ‘bridge’
between businesspeople and developers), together with findings
about the behavior of the organization. This can serve as
inspiration for other companies with similar issues, spreading
the possibilities for designers to perform in this field,
both as practitioners and as researchers. | sv |
