Boosting fitness for use of configuration management databases by user specific views

Abstract

The goal of this research is to improve the fitness for use of the CMDB in the development phase of large infrastructure projects by identifying the information needs of the individuals. The construction industry is transiting from paper-based systems engineering to Model-Based Systems Engineering, especially in the development phase of large infrastructure projects. The configuration management database, which manages the systems engineering information, is considered to be a the central systems in the Model Based Systems Engineering development. In current practice not all individuals perceive the benefits of the implementation of systems engineering tools. The context study shows the fundamental differences in systems engineering processes consisting of requirements analysis, functional analysis, design synthesis, verification and validation, system analysis and control. Based on the Integral Project Model, the technical management department has the biggest stake in the development phase. The roles considered in the technical management department are the specialty engineer and the lead engineer. The literature study presents the information needs characteristics (individual demographics, context, frequency, predictability, importance and complexity) as well as the fitness for use assessment method. The practical study shows that the information needs of the particular users differ per process as the roles have different tasks and responsibilities. As a result, the fitness for use of the configuration management database is also considered differently. The specialty engineer mainly requires information for decision making whereas the lead engineer focusses on management activities. The specialty engineer, which is mainly involved in the design synthesis and the system analysis processes, experiences problems obtainability, completeness, timeliness and coherence of the information. As a result, the specialty engineer implements workarounds, which might cause a snowball effect. The lead engineer mainly experiences problems with the functionalities of the system in the requirements and functional analysis. As a result, the lead engineer implements workarounds such as Word or Excel. As the specialty engineer experiences the majority of the problems, the design of solutions focusses on the specialty engineer. The solutions proposed consists of establishing physical relations between objects, implementation of abstraction levels, information presentation in the shape of a one stop page and information presentation in the shape of custom queries. The physical relations between objects and the abstract levels enable the one stop page and custom queries. The one stop query meets the predictable and recurrent information needs of the specialty engineer, whereas the custom query meets the unpredictable, new, urgent and complex information needs. The practical relevance of the solutions has been explained by a use case example in the shape of a simplified tunnel project. The relevance of the one stop page and custom query solutions are illustrated by stating the information needs in the particular processes and how the solutions meet these needs.