Sylvain Kubicki

Towards a Sustainable Services Innovation in the Construction Sector

In this paper, we report on a business case in the construction sector where we have designed and prototyped an innovative Web-based distributed document management application. It supports various exchange and sharing of information services between the different stakeholders involved in a construction project. The development of the application is based on a service-oriented architecture and follows a systematic model-driven engineering approach. Besides the application itself, the paper also reports on a Sustainable Services Innovation Process (S2IP) guiding our activities related to the valorization and the successful technology transfer of a demonstrator into an innovative product. We illustrate how this innovation process has been applied to this business case in the construction sector where a networked value constellation has been identified and realized with professionals of the construction sector (including a standardization body), software houses and our technology transfer centre.

Method to Design Coordinated Multiple Views Adapted to User's Business Requirements in 4D Collaborative Tools in AEC

The issue of multiple views coordination became more and more challenging in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) field since the apparition and the increasing success of 4D/nD CAD. In order to adapt visualization to users business requirements in 4D-supported collaborative tools, this paper propose a method to design coordinated multiple views based on Model-Driven Engineering (MDE). The method enables users visualization needs description, visualization modes comparison. The aim is to choose appropriate visualization modes business needs, to associate interaction principles and coordination mechanisms in order to compose coordinated multiple views adapted to actors business needs. The paper presents a case study based on literature review and interviews with construction sector practitioners.

A Model-Based Method for the Design of Services in Collaborative Business Environments

The uncertainty of collaborative environments in Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) projects makes the design of services dedicated to professionals of the construction sector particularly challenging. Our work - still in an early stage - introduces a method enabling the design of such services, from business analysis to implementation, answering the needs of specific projects’ situations. This method is supported by a toolset and based on Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) approach. We illustrate it by a case study scenario based on the particular requirements within sustainable building design projects.

Viewpoints Reconciliation in Services Design: A Model-Driven Approach for Highly Collaborative Environments

In highly collaborative business contexts, services design is even more important than in other contexts, as services are more complex and involve multiple and composed services. Such contexts are ideal for service composition and thus service reuse. This paper presents an ongoing research project whose goal is to support the design of such services by reconciling different viewpoints, following a model-driven approach. It focuses on the so-called “transactional aspects” of the service design, corresponding to the processes realizing the service and showing services compositions between the involved parties. It is applied to a case study in the construction sector.

Characterizing Collaborative 4D Use Contexts to Improve Interaction Mechanisms Design

This article proposes a metamodel to describe the use context of collaborative 4D modeling in Architecture, Engineering and Construction. While interaction with three-dimensional models has been extensively discussed in the literature, the interaction principles with the fourth dimension are much less treated. It is indeed a challenging issue according to the characteristics of the construction industry. The proposed metamodel is a preliminary step toward the proposal of adapted and/or innovative visualization and interaction mechanisms in collaborative 4D tools. It allows a good understanding of the collaborative 4D simulation activity and the identification of the main variables to consider from a high level point of view.

Collaborative 4D/nD Construction Simulation: What Is It?

Planning is crucial in the success of construction projects and 4D/nD simulation is an innovative approach to improve it. Because construction planning is mainly a collaborative activity, the collaborative use of 4D/nD simulation is growing in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction AEC, following the implementation of Building Information Modeling BIM workprocesses. Multiple scientific research works have been devoted to collaborative 4D/nD simulation. Major software editors in the industry are also proposing solutions to develop it. But many challenges remain such as adapting visualization or optimizing collaboration processes. To be able to address these challenges, it is important firstly to conceptualize the notion of collaborative 4D/nD construction simulation. This article is based on an understanding of collective activity in the AEC industry, and theoretical elements from Simulation and CSCW scientific fields. It provides a generic definition and identifies the key components to consider in the improvement of collaborative 4D/nD simulation tools.

A Metamodel to Describe nD CAD Visualization as Coordinated Multiple Views

4D/nD simulations are increasing the quality of project management in the construction industry and many attempts are made to enable their collaborative use. However, many limitations still exist, in particular the lack of adaptation of the proposed visualization to the requirements of business users. As collaboration in construction projects requires a special attention, it is important to fit visualization to real business needs of practitioners. The work in the present paper is part of a larger one that aims to propose a method to adapt visualizations to business requirements for the construction industry, using Model-Driven Engineering approach. It introduces a metamodel of coordinated multiple views (CMV) that enable to describe 4D/nD visualizations as CMV systems.

Capturing and Aligning Assurance Requirements for Business Services Systems

In this chapter we introduce and illustrate a systematic and rigorous approach for the elicitation and the modelling of assurance requirements inherent to business services offered by a service system. The approach is based on guidelines provided by the ISO 15504 norm, which is applicable for the assessment of any type of process in order to check its compliance against assurance requirements. We explain how 15504 can be applied in the context of business services with the support provided by goal-oriented requirements engineering techniques like i*. Its use is illustrated through the handling of an excerpt of a real case from the construction sector complemented with expertise developed in IT service level management. While this chapter is focusing on the capture of business requirements and their transformation into a business oriented solution, we also briefly explain how this business view is part of a more complete methodology also encompassing the service value and the service software views associated with a service system.

A Goal-Based Business Service Selection Approach

As business process optimization and innovation are the only means to survive in such a dynamic business world, organizations are now combining BPM technologies with service-orientation so as to achieve them. Business processes are now considered as business services (BSs) that span the organizational boundaries and have to satisfy cross-organizational objectives. The most promising research approaches on BS design are not only considering what the BS does and how but also the business requirements that it must satisfy. They are also able to perform BS composition. However, they mainly concentrate on the functional aspect. Even if few of them do consider the non-functional aspect, they cannot select the best BS combination alternative in a precise and objective way. To this end, this paper proposes a goal-oriented approach that is able to discover the best possible way a BS can be composed from other BSs according to both functional and non-functional requirements. This approach advances the state-of-the-art in service composition and selection as it is able to propose semantically robust BS combinations even if there is a missing functionality in terms of partially fulfilled or unfulfilled required goals and considers novel optimization criteria such as the number of BSs constituting the proposed solution and the percentage of BSs reused.

Usage-Centered Design of Adaptable Visualization Services: Application to Cooperation Support Services System in the AEC Sector

In the Architecture, Engineering and Construction sector (AEC) cooperation between actors is essential for project success. The analysis of the cooperation context enables the identification of the “usages” carried out by each actor of a construction project when cooperating with others. It constitutes an important issue in highly collaborative domains. This article suggests a usage-centered process to design Adaptable Visualization Services. A Model-Driven Engineering lets us to describe usages, visualization services, business services and business domain and to define the relationships between their concepts. This method, inspired from UI design methods from software engineering or HCI domains, is integrated in an innovative service design process which guides the visualization services discovery, specification, development and appropriation by the end-users.