THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A DISTRIBUTED PROCESS MANAGEMENT ENVIRONMENT FOR COLLABORATIVE DESIGN (original) (raw)

Self-Sustainability of Effective Team Performance in a Collaborative Design Environment

2001

A number of studies have contributed to the design and development of effective collaborative design environments. They have focused on the communication of interrelated team members, the creation of shared understanding and vision, and shared discovery of design solutions. However, only few studies have focused on the design or the development of collaborative design environments that would allow all the members of the design team to plan their processes, enact according to their plan, monitor and influence their performance in following the planned processes, and prevent them from deviating unconsciously from their desired performance. This paper introduces the constructs of a distributed process management environment (DPME) which was designed to stimulate self-sustainability of effective team performance in an collaborative design environment by supporting: (a) the shared creation of a process plan, (b) the enactment of a process according to its plan, (c) the monitoring of the outcome and process of the team, and (d) the control of the team performance. It presents the findings of a study conducted for evaluating the effectiveness of the DPME in meeting the conditions required for collaborative building design.

Design Collaboration in a Distributed Environment

Proceedings. Frontiers in Education. 36th Annual Conference, 2006

In engineering design classes, much of the learning takes place during student team meetings; so much of the learning is hidden from the instructor. Our long-term goal is to capture team interactions in order to develop a better understanding of collaborative learning in engineering design. This paper reports on a pilot study designed to understand the effects of electronic collaboration tools on the design process of student design teams. In the study, all teams were given the same design problem to solve, but some used pencil and paper, some used a regular whiteboard, and some used a shared digital whiteboard. While our study was a pilot study, it hints that the results of the design process are essentially the same whether students are co-located or distributed. However, we observed that students verbalized their arguments more when separated. The students in the distributed setting spent longer in each design step because they spent more time explaining ideas to students in the other room.

Using design performance measurement as a strategy to improve collaborative design performance

2009

This research investigates how to improve collaborative design performance by the implementation of performance measurement. A Design Performance Measurement (DPM) framework is developed to measure collaborative design performance and identify strengths and weaknesses of a design team during a design process. Additionally, it has been found that decision making efficiency is the most important DPM criteria for measuring design team member's collaborative design efficiency; delivering to the design brief for effectiveness; ability to clear team goal/objectives for collaborative; decision making skill for management; and ability to deliver design competitive advantage for innovation. These results can be used to conduct a precise and accurate DPM in a design project team during a design process.

Challenges for implementation of a new model of collaborative design management: Analyzing the impact of human factor

2011

The ineffectiveness of current design processes has been well studied and has resulted in widespread calls for the evolution and development of new management processes. Even following the advent of BIM, we continue to move from one stage to another without necessarily having resolved all the issues. CAD design technology, if well handled, could have significantly raised the level of quality and efficiency of current processes, but in practice this was not fully realized. Therefore, technology alone canĀ“t solve all the problems and the advent of BIM could result in a similar bottleneck. For a precise definition of the problem to be solved we should start by understanding what are the main current bottlenecks that have yet to be overcome by either new technologies or management processes, and the impact of human behaviour-related issues which impact the adoption and utilization of new technologies. The fragmented and dispersed nature of the AEC sector, and the huge number of small organizations that comprise it, are a major limiting factor. Several authors have addressed this issue and more recently IDDS has been defined as the highest level of achievement. However, what is written on IDDS shows an extremely ideal situation on a state to be achieved; it shows a holistic utopian proposition with the intent to create the research agenda to move towards that state. Key to IDDS is the framing of a new management model which should address the problems associated with key aspects: technology, processes, policies and people. One of the primary areas to be further studied is the process of collaborative work and understanding, together with the development of proposals to overcome the many cultural barriers that currently exist and impede the advance of new management methods. The purpose of this paper is to define and delimit problems to be solved so that it is possible to implement a new management model for a collaborative design process.

Tools and techniques for distributed collaborative design and knowledge management

Synopsis This paper reports on the progress of an investigation into, and development of, new methodologies and techniques for the management of knowledge in a distributed and collaborative design environment at the conceptual stage. The paper briefly covers existing tools and techniques for collaborative design and knowledge management and proposes methods for overcoming the shortcomings of present techniques. A brief description of an application in the process of implementation is presented, along with a proposition for future development.

A collaborative tool for designing and enacting design processes

2009

Today several approaches using Situational Method Engineering paradigm exist, each of them proposes methods and techniques for developing ad-hoc design processes. In this context heavy efforts were spent in the construction of appropriate tools that could help method engineers in producing a specific design process and in using it. We developed a tool called Metameth for supporting the design process definition and its enactment. Metameth is implemented as a multi-agent system, where each agent is capable of reasoning and adapting itself in order to support the designer in performing different kinds of design activities.

Development of methodology for distributed collaborative design environment

2016

This paper describes the CODEVE (COllaborative DEsign in Virtual Environment) methodology developed in a joint educational project of four European universities called NARIP (Networked Activities for Realization of Innovative Products). The ultimate goal of the NARIP NPD course is to develop a concept and produce a physical product prototype within one academic semester. In order to expose students to real life situations the prototype is being produced in close collaboration with an industrial partner. Elements of the NARIP course comprise: (1) project definition-according to agreement with the industrial partner, (2) lectures composed and adapted to address the specific needs of the current project and which are equally distributed to partner universities, (3) project work monitored by academics, with three distinct phases and review points, and (4) the final workshop that includes prototype manufacturing, assembly and testing, final presentation and exhibition. The paper presents...

In Search for the Right Tools to Fix the Right Problem: A Look into the Challenges of Collaborative Design

2010

Problem solving and design tasks are quite common across industries; as problems grow more complex and systems grow larger, design becomes increasingly a collaborative task. Design in itself already is challenging but collaboration adds its own challenges to the mix. In this paper, we explore the challenges of collaborative design. We approach the research question through design research framework as we synthesize the knowledge base and expert experiences to propositions about the challenges of collaborative design. We contribute to the discussion on collaborative design and we enable further research on how to support collaborative design activities.

Development of engineering design methodologies and software tools to support the creative process of design in a distributed environment

Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Engineering Design ICED03, 2003

It is a challenge for designers in traditional organisations to work together in teams to achieve a consensus based solution space optimality [1] and this challenge is further compounded by the dispersion of the design information, design personnel and knowledge across the extended enterprise environment. Extensive work has been carried out on passive information management systems for design, however, very little work has been carried out in the muchneeded area of proactive, holistic knowledge management and presentation systems required by the extended enterprise. In this paper we propose an agent-based system to access, retrieve and present information (both visually and auditorially) to distributed design teams, in such a way that their collective conceptual space is expanded [2], learning strategies are supported [3] and design solutions are optimised [4]. This agent based information system will support the distributed design process whilst considering human and ICT protocols, for the purposes of enhancing design, learning, creativity, communication and productivity.