Supported Concurrent Work ( CSCW ) in Structural Engineering - Fundamentals , Realization and Application
نویسندگان
چکیده
In the last few years, considerable attempts have been undertaken to map processes for solving engineering problems to computer software. This requires i) the representation and formalization of a variety of human aspects of team work, ii) the representation of various project management activities and, of course, iii) the appropriate modeling of the structural system to be erected. Taking a framed steel structure as a reference system, it will be demonstrated how a realization of these three points transform a real world problem to a running program system using the object-oriented paradigm. Finally, a characteristic scenario of structural design carried out concurrently by a team of co-workers in an engineering enterprise will be discussed. Introduction Large engineering projects show a high degree of complexity and, therefore, require a team of engineering experts. In particular, short deadlines and high quality demands force a close collaboration of team members. Confining to structural steel design, without loss of generality, it is assumed here that the team members are employees in the same enterprise. According to the nature of the structural system considered, the total design work is partitioned and then distributed to the individual members collaborating in the same team. To avoid disharmony, customarily one of the team members acts as a coordinator and supervises the collaborative work. In the majority of cases, independent tasks of work can be defined. By that, substantial savings in time and costs are achieved. Engineering practise, however, indicates that there are also natural limits of concurrency due to dependencies between individual design tasks. In addition, interactions among the team members are necessary because of potentially occuring conflicts and discussions needed to resolve such conflicts. 1 Department of Civil Engineering, Ruhr-University of Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany 2 TLC GmbH Frankfurt, Germany
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