Controlling cooperation through design-object specification-a database-oriented approach

The authors propose an operational framework for supporting cooperative design processes carried out by a group of designers. Besides the cooperative refinement of the design-object specification, the introduced cooperation protocol allows cooperative design by system-controlled interchange of design object versions. The versions reflect the process of step-wise improving the design object so as to meet finally its specification. The authors introduce a data integrated design environment based on a nonstandard database system in order to manage the whole cooperation process, i.e. the design objects, the versions, and the design activities