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Modelling Information Technology Support |
| Corresponding Author: Karstila , Kari |
| Author(s): Karstila, K. |
| Organisation(s): EuroSTEP, Helsinki (Finland) |
| The multi-disciplinary, one-of-the-kind nature of construction projects,
the increasing complexity of project organisation, as well as the
technology push from concurrent engineering and information and communication
technology developments, call for new approaches for construction
process design, planning and management. The challenge for the development
of new information technology (IT) support is to provide models and
IT tools to support model-based construction process design and planning,
and management where the process components, their relationships
and constraints can be modelled and validated as a virtual construction
project before project realisation.
The paper deals with the requirements for IT support for construction process/project design and planning, especially from the viewpoint of construction process modelling, modelling methods, and IT support tools. Firstly, the needs for IT support for construction process design and planning, and the role of construction process models in the IT support is outlined. Secondly, various approaches for construction process and information modelling, like activity, information and object modelling methods, are studied. Furthermore, the general requirements for a construction process model are developed from the construction process/project support needs. The requirements are reflected to the required capabilities of process modelling methods and support tools to be used in the process model development. A framework for construction process model architecture and its elements is then outlined. Finally, the implementation of IT support tools on the basis of construction process models and the utilization of the models and tools in the construction process design and planning are discussed. |
