posted on 2010-11-10, 15:09authored byAndrew John Newton
Historically, building design has been manageable without the help of special planning and
management techniques, whereas in construction there have been clearer, more easily
realisable benefits. As buildings become technically more complex and design teams more
specialised and fragmented, the need to plan and co-ordinate the design process with
greater accuracy is becoming increasingly important. Traditionally building design work
has been planned in a perfunctory manner, often in the belief that this creative and iterative
process cannot be analysed and planned in detail. This situation has been perpetuated by a
lack of understanding of design information flow and dependency and the availability of
suitable planning techniques.
ADePT (Analytical Design Planning Technique) has been developed in this research and
permits a more sophisticated approach to the planning of building design work to be taken.
This prototype methodology uses Design Structure Matrix Analysis (DSMA) to examine a
Design Process Model (DPM) of the building design process. The synthesis of these two
techniques produces a powerful but easily understood tool to assist in the planning and
management of complex, multi-disciplinary building design problems.
Traditional design programming is time consuming and reliant on a planner's experien'e,
with each task and link often being defined afresh at the beginning of each new project.
The Design Process Model, constructed from data flow diagrams, eliminates much of this
subjectivity by generically representing the tasks involved, and the information flowing in
the design of any building in a consistent, re-usable manner.
The unsuitability of traditional planning tools also contributes to the development of
unrealistic design programmes; design is an inherently iterative activity and techniques
such as network analysis, are unable to represent this type of relationship. ADePT
overcomes these failings by using DSMA to analyse the DPM to reveal how to most
efficiently order inter-dependent tasks based purely on the optimal flow of design
information. ADePT can also incorporate the impact of external influences such as
construction programme, materials procurement or resourcing demands to be superimposed
on this idealised design programme, allowing their influence on the optimal
design task order to be assessed.