A case-based approach to construction process activity specification

This paper investigates and proposes an original approach in specifying construction project process activities by making use of case-based reasoning (CBR) techniques. The work presented falls into the scope of the EPSRC funded COMMIT and CBRefurb projects. The COMMIT project aims at providing information management support in the context of distributed collaborative construction engineering. A brief summary of the problems encountered in project process specification is given. A new approach, based on CBR, is proposed. The CBR techniques and cycle are described. A subset of the COMMIT information management model, along with its implementation, dealing with project lifecycle description is presented. The paper then addresses the process activity case representation, indexing, retrieval and adaptation. Finally, the CIMM process CBR interface is presented.