A Generic Computer Support for Concurrent Design

Concurrent Design (CD) involves collaboration, coordination, and information-based co-decision making within a potentially distributed multifunctional team. This paper shows that a generic process-centered environment kernel, based on fine grain and decision-oriented task modeling, using customizable product models, providing capabilities for task model refinement at run time, and true collaboration support, is a good candidate for building dedicated computer aided CD environments. DOTS ('Decision-Oriented Task Support’), a Java prototype of such a generic environment kernel, is described in this paper and its usage in the CD application domain is discussed.