Seminar - Michel Chaaya- Development and Integration of a Visual Design Management System for a Life Cycle Project Management Model

Wednesday, August 16, 2000, 3 - 4 pm
Civil Engineering Lecture Room 3

Abstract

The presentation focuses on the synthesis of design management processes
within a life cycle project management (LCPM) model. The LCPM model
will be described briefly with emphasis on the importance of the integration
of design information to support the decision-making in a concurrent
engineering/construction environment. A visual design management system
(VDM) was developed to assist and support the control of design
information. VDM is an integrated extension to the original computer
program dubbed SPMIS (Smart Project Management Information System)
which has been designed and developed to incorporate the philosophies
adopted by the LCPM model. VDM (like SPMIS) is a Windows-based
application that utilises a database management system and the
object-oriented modelling techniques. The VDM will establish a set of
protocols for design information input and retrieval and being integrated
with SPMIS, will assist the project management team in evaluating the
teams’ inputs in real time against the life cycle objectives functions
established at the outset.

The implementation of integrated design management processes in the
LCPM model is then presented. Since under the LCPM approach projects
are treated as business ventures, the client is no longer the sole proponent
who can benefit from the success of the project’s business. The definition
and broad design of the facility and its components will be a collective
responsibility, discharged by composite teams whose members are drawn
from the respective participants. The results of a survey to establish the
design management processes as applied to real projects and to give an
overview of the extent of the application of Information Technology in such
processes will also be shown.