Instant distribution of consistency-relevant change information in a hierarchical multi-developer engineering environment

Engineering artifacts share interdependent properties, which must be kept consistent during the engineering process. Existing works propose the unification of heterogeneous artifacts in a single collaborative engineering environment where artifacts are analysed for consistency. The work presented in this paper expands such environments by adopting hierarchically organized work areas storing artifact changes. Engineers are provided with a unique perspective on their engineering artifacts, which is immediately checked for consistency whenever new changes are made within the hierarchy.