How engineering data management and system support the main process[-oriented] functions of a large-scale project

By dividing the development process into successive functional operations, this paper studies the benefits of establishing configuration management procedures and of using an engineering data management systems (EDMS) in order to execute the tasks. The underlying environment is that of CERN and the ongoing, a decade long, Large Hadron Collider (LHC)-project. By identifying the main functional groups who will use the EDMS the paper outlines the basic motivations and services provided by such a system to each process function. The implications of strict configuration management on the daily operation of each functional user group are also discussed. The main argument of the paper is that each and every user of the EDMS must act in compliance with the configuration management procedures to guarantee the overall benefits from the system. The pilot EDMS being developed at CERN, which serves as a test-bed to discover the real functional needs of the organisation of an EDMS supports the conclusions. The preliminary experience from the pilot system reveals an urgent need to establish commonly agreed naming and identification system for the LHC-machine. It is also essential to constitute the rules to process engineering and design changes in order to maintain the coherence of the product and to establish feasible grounds on which to proceed with the pilot system to support this process. Keywords: configuration management, engineering data management, large-scale project