Title: Process integration and media-assisted traceability in cross-organisational engineering

Authors: Matthias Jarke, Michalis Miatidis, Sebastian C. Brandt, Marcus Schluter

Addresses: Informatik V (Information Systems), RWTH Aachen, Aachen 52056, Germany. ' Informatik V (Information Systems), RWTH Aachen, Aachen 52056, Germany. ' Informatik V (Information Systems), RWTH Aachen, Aachen 52056, Germany. ' Fraunhofer FIT, Schloss Birlinghoven, Sankt Augustin 53754, Germany

Abstract: Many engineering domains involve an intricate interplay of conceptual synthesis of alternative requirements and design configurations, preliminary impact analysis of these alternatives using complex simulations and multimedia visualisations and human decision-making. Design traceability in such settings must be both product-oriented and process-oriented: it must enable an efficient media-based comparison of product alternatives from the current project or related experiences, and it must facilitate the reuse of modelling experiences to avoid unnecessary repetition of costly experiences. We have studied these problems in a large interdisciplinary project. Its aim is to optimise cross-organisational engineering tasks linking chemical engineering, plastics engineering and related application demands, for example, in the automotive industry. The solution presented in this paper integrates ideas from scenario-based modelling, process integration and ontology-based management of multimedia artefacts.

Keywords: requirements traceability; process modelling; inter-organisational process integration; plastics engineering; chemical engineering; design traceability; scenario-based modelling; ontology based management; multimedia artefacts; automotive engineering; automobile industry; cooperative modelling; engineering design.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBPIM.2006.010022

International Journal of Business Process Integration and Management, 2006 Vol.1 No.2, pp.65 - 75

Published online: 08 Jun 2006 *

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