PROK 698 286

Abstract

This Master's thesis presents the result of a genre analysis of project communication in a large Swedish company. The purpose was to use genre theory as an analytical tool to find genres common to the company's projects and try out how this analytical framework could be used when designing a technical artefact to facilitate project communication. The study was conducted using an ethnographical approach. Based on literature studies we developed an analytical model named ‘5W1H' further. The model was used during the empirical study, composed by observations of the company's intranet and project procedure model together with interviews of people involved in project communication. We discovered and analysed several genres of project communication, in order to gain knowledge regarding genres common to projects, and to design a technical support for project communication such as an intranet. The result shows that genre theory and ‘5W1H' are useful when analysing project communication, that some of the genres found could be appropriate to enact through an intranet, and that genre knowledge is important for projects to be successful.