Advanced electronic document management solutions for the construction industry: the CONDOR project

The paper is based on research carried out within the CONDOR project funded under the European ESPRIT programme. CONDOR is specifically concerned with defining the working practices, processes, techniques, tools and technical infrastructure to allow the construction industry to progress from its current position towards a large scale, computer integrated industry. Furthermore, the project aims at bridging the gap between current information systems and future ones, and provides a migration path from document-based to model-based approaches to information representation and structuring. After a brief overview of the state of the art of Electronic Document Management systems in the construction industry, the paper presents the overall CONDOR system architecture, along with a detailed description of its components. The latter include: * the CONDOR Integration Services (implemented as a class library in the CONDOR demonstrator); * the CONDOR API: it defines the services to allow on the one hand, inter-working between the project’s legacy EDM systems, and on the other, semantic linking between different documents and between documents and other information objects (the precise services that are provided have been largely determined from the results of the analysis conducted by the project’s end-users), * the Adaptors: they provide the mapping between the CONDOR API and each of the document and object management systems to be integrated. It is worth pointing out that the CONDOR system is designed to be open enough to coexist and inter-operate with construction legacy applications, as with other existing and emerging distributed components, in a seamless way. These legacy applications can then, in turn, take advantage of the generic, and construction specific, advanced document management functionality developed within the CONDOR project. The paper then presents the conceptual models that support the CONDOR system, this includes the CONDOR Information Management Model (CIMM). The CIMM is concerned with the management of information produced within a project’s lifecycle, from inception to demolition. Whilst the CIMM is developed within the frame of the construction industry, it is aimed to be generic enough to be used in any other industrial context. CONDOR addresses four primary issues that are central to information management: ownership, rights and responsibilities; versioning of information; schema evolution ; and recording of intent behind decisions leading to information. Finally, the paper presents one of the project end-user’s implementation strategy of the Condor approach. The CONDOR project is ongoing and supported by a user interest group, which involves representatives from a variety of non-construction industry companies all over Europe.