PROCESS CONNECTORS: LINKING DISTRIBUTED PROCESSES IN THE CONSTRUCTION SUPPLY CHAIN
William James O'Brien, Ting-Kwei Wang, Mohsin Siddiqui, Joachim Hammer, Ron R. Wakefield · Proceedings of the Joint CIB W78, W102, ICCCBE, ICCC, and DMUCE International Conference on Computing and Decision Making in Civil and Building Engineering, Montreal, Canada, 14-16 June · 2006
This paper reviews the architecture, approaches, and research issues associated with the development of process connectors. Process connectors are software links that support coordination of distributed processes (schedules in particular) across the many firms on a construction project. The architecture of a process connector is presented as an efficient approach for both initial setup and run-time capabilities. Process connectors include a stub for connection to each firm and a bridge between stubs. A stub represents company information, including schedules and resource assignments, and makes this information available for connection and evaluation. A bridge component validates schedule mappings between firms and includes limited capabilities for schedule evaluation and recommendation when participating firms’ schedules do not correspond. Beyond the architecture, specific research issues reviewed include discovery and representation of firm specific information as well as constraint representation and propagation.