Representing a project's physical view in support of project management functions

Abstract

In performing project management functions such as scheduling and project control, construction professionals base much of their reasoning on the physical characteristics and context of the work. And yet this project view is missing in virtually all management systems commonly used in construction, which focus almost exclusively on the process or activity view of a project. It is believed that the facility to provide the physical view of a project is both central and a priority to the development of computer-integrated project management systems in order to successfully imitate and support the thought processes of construction personnel. This paper describes several of the design considerations and features of a parametric modelling module capable of providing such a view. Two of a broad range of applications supported by this module, automatic draft plan and schedule generation and productivity analysis, are briefly described in order to demonstrate the value added by integrating the process and physical views of a projectKey words: computer-integration, physical component breakdown structure, parametric modelling