Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) frameworks, capable of performing overall aircraft design studies become too complex to be comprehended by a single team of experts. Therefore, there is an increasing need to develop distributed analysis frameworks in which both tools and experts are integrated in a single network. This poses great challenges on the ability to control and collaborate on these so-called 3^rd generation MDO frameworks.

During this research a collaborative environment is developed and implemented to provide a steering function during the setup of 3^rd generation MDO frameworks. This research is performed in the context of European research project AGILE. The resulting collaborative environment contains user-interfaces and automated services which support in the formulation of MDO processes, inspection of design study results, management of design case requirements and integration of disciplinary analysis modules.

Based on the work performed in this research, it can be concluded that the developed collaborative environment shortens the design process lead-time. This gain in lead-time is acquired by increased transparency, control and automation during the setup of 3^rd generation MDO frameworks.