Analytical Design Planning for Technique (ADePT) : programming the building design process

The construction process is traditionally planned either directly with bar charts, or with network analysis techniques forming the basis of the bar charts. The success of these approaches in construction planning over the years has led to their extensive use in the planning of design. Network analysis techniques and bar charts were developed specifically to plan production processes, such as construction, that have an easily definable logic and are sequential in nature. Design, however, is an iterative processes requiring assumptions and estimates of information to be made and work to be redone until a satisfactory solution is developed. Network analysis is not therefore an appropriate basis for planning design. They cannot account for this iterative nature, they monitor progress based upon the completion of drawing work and other design deliverables and are inappropriate for monitoring the availability of key pieces of information.The Analytical Design Planning Technique (ADePT), shown schematically in figure 1, offers an approach to planning design that accounts for the necessity to undertake work in an iterative manner, enables work to be monitored on the basis of the production of information, and allows design to be fully integrated with the overall construction process1. The first stage of the ADePT methodology is a model of the detailed stage of the building design process, representing design activities and their information requirements. The data in this model is linked via a dependency table to a Dependency Structure Matrix (DSM) analysis tool2 which is used in the second stage to identify iteration within the design process and arrange the activities with the objective of optimising the task order. The third stage of the methodology produces design programmes based on the optimised process sequence. The technique requires some iteration between the DSM and programming stages. The authors have developed computer tools to enable each stage to be undertaken in an efficient manner and thus, facilitate more effective planning and management of building design3. This paper reviews current problems in design planning within the construction industry and the use of a Dependency Structure Matrix tool to order the detailed design process. It then describes in detail the representation of the optimal design sequence within a programme and the integration of the optimised design programme with procurement and construction programmes.