Evaluating and improving the effectiveness and efficiency of design process communication

Project information management research enables the efficient exchange of information, but does not effectively communicate process. Design process management research effectively communicates processes, but with methods too inefficient to be adopted in practice. The lack of methods for effective and efficient design process communication manifests as a struggle for Architecture, Engineering, and Construction industry professionals to: (1) collaborate within projects, (2) share processes between projects, and (3) understand processes across projects to strategically invest in improvement. These struggles motivate the paper's first contribution: a research method for evaluating a design management methodology's ability to effectively and efficiently communicate design processes. As a second contribution, this paper validates the Design Process Communication Methodology (DPCM). DPCM specifies elements and methods for exchanging and organizing digital information to support knowledge-intensive design processes. Cloud computing enables the operationalization of DPCM as a tool that enables interaction with a project's information. Results from this operationalization demonstrate that designers employing DPCM accurately capture processes with little effort. When collaborating, improved process clarity and information consistency result in less rework, and positive iteration enables increased consideration of multi-disciplinary design trends. Designers share processes between project teams with fewer process mistakes. DPCM enables the understanding of processes providing more insights into the relationships between design integration and project performance; and more opportunities for strategic investment in improved processes. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.