Implementing an engineering data management system for the LHC accelerator and experiments: the CEDAR project

The huge quantities of data required for the design, building and operation of the LHC and its experiments require consistent management and storage. The CEDAR project aims at implementing an Engineering Data Management System (EDMS) at CERN. After having defined what is an EDMS and what are the expected benefits for the LHC we present the activities held in CEDAR, during the selection and pilot project phases. Lessons learned and conclusions reached through the pilot projects are then summarised.