Automation in Construction 23 (2012) 71–86

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Automation in Construction
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/autcon

A framework for facilitating multi-dimensional information integration, management

and visualization in engineering projects
I-Chen Wu a, Shang-Hsien Hsieh b,⁎, 1
a
Department of Civil Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
b
Department of Civil Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This research proposes an application framework, named PIIM Framework (Project Information Integration
Accepted 12 December 2011 Management Framework), to effectively solve the problems of integrating project information and system inter-
Available online 20 February 2012 faces among different participating parties and engineering application systems, as well as to provide five kernel
modules to encapsulate complicated management and visualization functions. The PIIM Framework is con-
Keywords:
structed on the basis of object-oriented techniques, such that users can take advantage of object oriented pro-
Project management
nD
gramming to easily develop applications required. In addition, this research conducted an actual engineering
4D project example, and developed a prototype system based on the PIIM Framework to verify its feasibility.
Information integration Through the feasibility study, it has been demonstrated that the PIIM Framework can provide not only provide
Information visualization a more efficient method to integrate, manage and visualize project information, but can also save programming
time for the project management team when developing a project management system from scratch.
© 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Today's construction projects are becoming ever more complex
and time driven, especially as the amount of project data and active
project participants increases. Several known issues pertaining to
this phenomenon are described as follows. Firstly, the construction
industry continually seeks to apply new information technology (IT)
based methods to substitute the traditional paper-based manage-
ment methods, with the need for information to be created just
once and used over the entire project lifecycle, rather than the gener-
ation of the same information multiple times in current processes.
However, the diverse range of project participants still wish to main-
tain their own data, structured to suit their own specialized needs.
Hence, the differences of data definition, data format, and data stor-
age increase the difficulty of integrating the data from diverse sources
in engineering projects. Secondly, current information management
methods are based on file collection approaches, which have no
relationship with each other. Therefore, project managers cannot con-
sider engineering information synthetically in performing project con-
trol. If they desire increased accuracy and total control of engineering
projects, project managers must spend time collecting and handling
data which are generated from different systems. Thirdly, although
much of this engineering information is produced electronically and is
visual in nature, teams primarily use paper-based views of engineering
information to share information with one another in project meetings.
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: + 886 7 381 4526x5238; fax: + 886 7 383 1371.
E-mail addresses: kwu@kuas.edu.tw (I.-C. Wu), shhsieh@ntu.edu.tw (S.-H. Hsieh).
1
Tel.: + 886 2 3366 4313; fax: + 886 2 2368 8213.
The project participants would not be able to understand the project
status comprehensively due to the lack of an intuitive and user-
friendly visualization tool to display the related project information.
Fourthly, the participants in the project need to communicate and
transfer information with each other, either within a phase or between
two phases. However, information exchange between project parties is
limited to the digital files, a medium in which retrieval and exchange is
inconvenient and inefficient.
In addressing the abovementioned issues, the project manage-
ment system has become increasingly important in a project manage-
ment effort. The role of the project management system is to provide
assistance to the project management team in handling complicated
project information, and providing useful and significant information
for controlling the project and supporting decision-making. At pre-
sent, the project management systems which are employed in the
construction industry can be divided into two types. The first type is
commercial software, in which projects are managed using mostly
Gantt Charts, Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
[1–3] and Critical Path Method (CPM) [4]. These management tech-
niques have spread quickly into many private enterprises and repre-
sent significant commercial value. Thus, much of the related software
and modules have been developed by commercial software compa-
nies, for example, Microsoft Project, Oracle's Primavera P6 Profession-
al Project Management, Daptiv Project Portfolio Management (PPM)
and Project Management Module in SAP's ERP solution. The second
type of project management systems is in-house software, which
is usually utilized where the commercial software does not offer suf-
ficient or special functionalities for use in particular engineering
projects or firms. Therefore, some firms will develop the in-house

0926-5805/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.autcon.2011.12.010
72 I.-C. Wu, S.-H. Hsieh / Automation in Construction 23 (2012) 71–86
software to meet their needs. Examples of this include Bechtel [5],
Parsons Brinckerhoff [6,7], Kajima [8,9], CECI, CTCI [10,11], RUEN-
TEX, SINOTECH among many others.
While the abovementioned systems can assist project manager
in managing the engineering project, they still leave significant issues
unresolved. This may be considered as two issues: (1) Traditional
project management systems mainly provide text, graph and compli-
cated network schedules for controlling project and making deci-
sions. Today's complex and time-driven projects, coupled with
increasingly large project information volumes and active project
participants, require more effective integration, management and
communication tools than that which traditional project manage-
ment systems can provide. Because of the complexity of the con-
struction industry, the multiple phases of the construction project
life-cycle combined with project participants using various heteroge-
neous systems causes information integration to be an important and
imperative step in achieving efficient and effective collaboration for
the project's success. For example, the construction project team
can understand the conflicts in relation to time and space in advance
by using the conflict detection mechanism, where the computer in-
forms team members of parts of the building which are in conflict or
will clash, by the integrating schedule information and 3D model. In
addition, this allows quality control to occur at any time and at any
place during the engineering project. The aim of quality control is
to oversee for the completion of the engineering project in a timely
manner through the most profitable and cost-effective way. These
questions arise in relation to multi-dimensional information inte-
gration, management, and visualization of engineering projects. It
follows from what has been discussed above that an effective pro-
ject management system should provide not only provide sufficient
and comprehensive information to facilitate project management,
but also the various visualization tools to assist with information
distribution and communication; (2) In the construction industry,
the contents of project management will be changed to meet special
engineering requirements and contract stipulations in every pro-
ject. Even though commercial project management systems can
provide the most commonly required functions, they often do not
have enough flexibility to change management workflows or en-
hance certain functionalities when required. On the other hand,
some construction management firms develop in-house project
management system for fulfilling specific project requirements, at
an immense cost of time and money on development and mainte-
nance efforts.
In this research, we propose a Project Information Integration
Management Framework (PIIIM Framework) to address the afore-
mentioned issues. The PIIM Framework is a reusable and semi-
complete application that can be customized to deliver specific appli-
cations. We hope that future developers will be able to efficiently
develop a useful system for construction project management on
the basis of the PIIM Framework. We also develop the prototype
Visual Project Management Information System (VisPMIS), based
on the proposed PIIM Framework, to assist project management teams
in resolving the issues of integration, management and visualization
of construction project information. Through this example applica-
tion, the PIIM Framework proposed in this research is demonstrated
and the functionality is verified.
2. Related works
In this section, we briefly review the main literature related to our
work, with the purpose of highlighting our contributions in this
research area. Construction project management is responsible for
the application of modern management techniques and systems to
the execution of a project from start to finish and to achieve predeter-
mined objectives of scope, quality, time and cost to the equal satisfac-
tion of those involved. However, development is required on various
related topics under the following focus areas: (1) Because of the
complexity of the construction industry, the multiple phases of the
construction project life-cycle, and the project participants using var-
ious heterogeneous systems, information integration becomes an
important and imperative step to achieve efficient and effective col-
laboration for project success; (2) The use of visualization to present
engineering information is an effective and efficient method for the
distribution of information and communication with project partici-
pants during project meetings. A detailed discussion is presented in
the next section.
2.1. Multi-dimensional information integration
During the life cycle of an engineering project, a voluminous
amount of data and information is usually created along the delivery
processes of construction products. The construction project team
must consider a wide variety of information when controlling the
project and making project decisions. In general, teams primarily
use paper-based views of project information and share information
through files. Because the information defined in the information dis-
tribution systems of various parties are usually different, they are
always difficult to integrate with one another for the purpose of infor-
mation communication and distribution. Important relationships be-
tween different pieces of project information are not communicated
effectively as construction information is not effectively integrated
and used. At present, some data models have been established for in-
tegration purposes. The Building Information Model (BIM) [12] is a
computer model database of building design information, which
may also contain information about the building's construction, man-
agement, operations and maintenance. Some research examples in-
clude Azhar et al., who demonstrated the use of BIM for sustainable
design and the LEED® certification process [13], and Hu et al., who
applied BIM technology to address conflicts and structural safety
problems during construction [14,15]. However, as these solutions
are based on different and incompatible standards, an open and neu-
tral data format is required to ensure data compatibility across the
different applications (e.g. Autodesk Revit, Bentley TriForma, Graphi-
soft ArchiCAD and so on). Industry Foundation Classes [16], devel-
oped by the International Alliance for Interoperability, can provide
such integration and interoperability capabilities. The IFC data
model is an object-oriented data model based on class definitions
representing the items (elements, processes, shapes, and so on) that
are used by software applications during a construction or facility
management project. Implementations of IFC have been reported
in various construction IT system integration projects [17–20]. In
addition, Salford University proposed the concept of nD Modeling, en-
abling multidimensional information integration, which it foresees as
essential in the future of construction management [21,22]. Although
IFC can fulfill the goals of data sharing and information integration, it
still falls short of providing the related objects and processes for pro-
ject management. The current research attempts to integrate multi-
dimensional information into the database through programming,
or provide related project data on 3D models using CAD software
API. This approach, relying on proprietary software, is difficult to
reuse without the particular software, and is constrained by fixed
development methods. In this research, we provide a more flexible
and simple mechanism to handle the multi-dimensional information
integration. Firstly, we design and develop the integrated data model
to describe and store all the project information. Therefore, the inte-
grated data model can be used to demonstrate the entire construction
lifecycle including project management, the processes of construc-
tion, and facility operation. Following this, we provide not only a spe-
cial module that contains a number of importing functions to address
the existing project information into the integrated data model, but
also provide a management module to access the integrated data
model including functions such as data creation, data query, data
 I.-C. Wu, S.-H. Hsieh / Automation in Construction 23 (2012) 71–86
deletion, data insertion, data update, and so on. Users will be able to
employ our modules and the integrated data model to build their ap-
plication to address the multi-dimensional information integration
without any commercial software.
2.2. Visualization for communication and information distribution
Treicher [23], an experimental psychologist, conducted a famous
psychological experiment to determine how human beings obtain in-
formation. Through a large number of experiments, he proved that
83% of the information received by human beings is by the sense of
sight, and the remainder is by the senses of hearing, smell, touch
and taste, supporting the view that information visualization is the
most essential for communication and information distribution.
Liston et al. [24,25] studied the problem of communication in en-
gineering workspaces, which could be variably defined as physical or
virtual spaces where people work, share and use information. From
observations of numerous design and construction review meetings,
they discovered that teams spent most of their time on descriptive,
explanative, evaluative and predictive tasks. All these tasks are critical
to enabling better decision-making by project managers. In this re-
search, we employed the aforementioned four tasks to analyze the
current information distribution system in construction projects to
determine whether sufficient information was being provided. The
information distribution system may be classified into four types
according to their characteristic of information visualization. The
first type is the 1D system, which conveys information through text,
attributes and tables. Examples of these include project websites, da-
tabases and general management information systems. Such systems
record and describe the project information in detail. The second type
is the 2D system, which presents information mainly in the forms of
graphs, charts or maps, such as output from GIS, ERP, 2D CAD, and
so on. These systems assist the project manager in explaining project
decisions, the rationale of the project schedule, and also support them
in evaluating project goals and ensuring that project requirements
are met. The third type is the 3D system which uses 3D models to pre-
sent the actual project status and analyze space conflicts, with exam-
ples including 3D CAD and virtual reality systems. These applications
harness 3D visualization to assist descriptions of engineering project
status, and enhance communication and discussions during project
meetings. The fourth type is the 4D system which binds 3D models
with their corresponding construction schedules in their simplest
forms. This has recently emerged as a method of providing engineers
with an effective tool for managing the complexity of coordination as
well as conflicts before the actual commencement of construction.
Some examples include 4D CAD and construction simulation systems.
The realization of 4D CAD technology has also been greatly accelerat-
ed by the availability of powerful commercial 4D CAD tools, such as
Bentley's Navigator, Intergraph's SmartPlant Review, BALFOUR's
FourDscape, Common Point's Project 4D and ConstructSim [26].
There have been numerous, albeit similar, research studies into the
use of 4D systems. The important detailed study by Stanford Univer-
sity was instrumental in initiating interest in this area [27–29]. Chau
et al. built a 4D-GCPSU for construction management [30,31]. Hsieh
et al. developed a Construction Director, a 4D simulation system for
plant construction [10,11]. Huang et al. developed a virtual prototyp-
ing system for simulating construction processes [32]. Dawood and
Sikka [33] provided quantitative evidence that a 4D model can in-
crease the efficiency of communication along with the interpretive
ability of a construction project team. Even though 4D technology
can increase the ability of project managers in providing better man-
agement and visualization in construction project management, there
is room for further development in providing sufficient information
for uncovering problems and making better decisions. Table 1 sum-
marizes the different task emphases and possible outcomes of the
four information visualization systems that have been described.
73
Based on Table 1, we are of the view that an efficient information
distribution system ought to support all four kinds of characteristics
of information visualization at the same time. Therefore, this research
proposes a new concept of information visualization, named the 4D +
Multi-Data-View, to present the integrated data of engineering pro-
jects, with advances towards providing significant useful information
for use in project management and decision-making. The meaning of
“4D +” is to provide the additional characteristics of information visu-
alization on top of the base 4D information visualization. Hence, users
will be able to view the text which describes the project information,
the graph to view the project statistics and progress, the 3D models
to present the building status and the 4D models to display the
construction simulation in the same view. Furthermore, the “Multi-
Data-View” implies that users will be able to query and view the inte-
grated data with the different views according to their requirements
as shown in Fig. 1. In this approach, users will be able to find the nec-
essary and relevant data they need in a more direct and accessible
way. This research developed a visualization and management mod-
ule to realize this concept. The management module provides func-
tions to acquire the required data the user needs, and passes it on
to the visualization module to display the results in different ways
according to the user's requirements.
3. PIIM Framework
3.1. Overview
As shown in Fig. 2, the PIIM Framework is an application frame-
work which can be divided into three tiers. The first tier is the inte-
grated data model, which describes and stores information about
entire engineering projects; the second tier is the data access inter-
face, which mainly deals with data access between the integrated
data model and kernel module; and the third tier is the kernel mod-
ule, which provides core project management services and encapsu-
lates complicated project management functions into five easy-to-
use modules: DataAdapter, DataManager, DataAnalyst, DataViewer
and DataExporter.
3.2. Integrated data model
This research proposes an integration data model which can be
used not only for storing engineering information, but also providing
internal system data in the PIIM Framework. As shown in Fig. 3, the
integrated data model can be broken down into three parts. The
first part is the IFC Data Model, which is employed to describe most
of objects in engineering project management, for example, 3D ob-
jects, schedule objects, cost objects and document objects. The second
part is the User-Defined Data Model, which works with the IFC Data
Model to extend its insufficient management objects, such as quality
statistics objects and scope objects. The third part is made up of Rela-
tionship Objects which define the relationship between IFC objects
and User-Defined objects. Both User-Defined Data Model and Rela-
tionship objects are described by XML.
This integrated data model has the important characteristic of
the multi-directional data link, as shown in Fig. 4. The “Scope” item
is parent to a lot of “Activity” items and “Activity” item is related to
many other items, which can be “3D Object” items, “Cost” items,
Table 1
Characteristics of different information visualization.
1D system 2D system 3D system 4D system
Descriptive ●
Explanative ● ● ●
Evaluative ● ● ●
Predictive ●
74 I.-C. Wu, S.-H. Hsieh / Automation in Construction 23 (2012) 71–86
Scheduler ScheduleView
Accountant Cost View
Fig. 1. The concept of “Multi-Data-View”.
“Document” items, and so on. Each of the items records the “related”
and “relating” relationship. Thus, users will be able to easily find the
related items through these multi-directional links. For example, a
designer would be able to understand the related cost and schedule
information through linking from the relevant “3D object” items; a
planner would be able to view the related 3D model by linking from
the relevant “Scope”, “Cost” and “Schedule” items.
As Fig. 5 shows, we adopt the XML technique to organize and con-
struct the integrated data model. The XML structure can describe the
User-Defined Data Model and Relationship Objects, as well as saving
the key attribute of IFC Objects for use as a link for matching and
obtaining the data from the IFC Data Model.
Establishing the integrated data model provides four benefits:
(1) it can be used for storing the information of the entire project;
(2) it can be employed to decrease errors made. For example, the con-
struction project team will be able to understand in advance the con-
flicts in terms of time and space by using the conflict detection
mechanism where the computer informs team members about parts
Fig. 2. The three tiers of PIIM Framework.
3D object Cost Item
Schedule Item
Quality Item Document Item
Data Model
3D object Schedule Item
Cost Item
Quality Item Document Item
Data Model
of the building in conflict; (3) it can be utilized to provide significant
information for project management and decision-making. For exam-
ple, a construction project team could conduct the Earned-Value anal-
ysis method, which includes schedule and cost data for analyzing
and reviewing the relationship between schedules and cost overall;
(4) users will be able to find the data they need efficiently and effec-
tively through the relationships of multi-directional links.
3.3. Data access interface
The data access interface will increase the ease of posing basic
queries and update requests to the integrated data model to which
it is connected, regardless of the native language of the integrated
data model. It will also allow access to the integrated data model in
their native language for more complex requests. As mentioned
above, the integrated data model is established on both the IFC Data
Model and the XML Data Model. Thus, the PIIM Framework involves
two types of data access interface, one being the IFC data access inter-
face and the other being the XML data access interface.
In this research, the IFCsvr ActiveX Component [34], an open
source library for handling IFC data, is employed. It includes features
such as a dictionary of IFC schema information and functionality for
representing and manipulating instances of IFC objects. Furthermore,
we developed the XML data access interface using Microsoft products
and technologies. The System.Xml namespace provides standards-
based support for processing XML, which is available in the .NET
Framework.
3.4. Five kernel modules
The PIIM Framework allows for the segmenting of complex items
into manageable modules according to the particular purpose, and
encapsulates complex implementation details behind a stable inter-
face. The modules of PIIM Framework are similar to Lego pieces
which can be assembled in many ways to suit different purposes.
This approach enables applications to be built quickly, and saves
development effort. A more detailed discussion follows.
3.4.1. DataAdapter
DataAdapter provides functions for receiving and transforming
the common data formats encountered in construction into the PIIM
Framework. DataAdapter can support approximately 80% of the data
 I.-C. Wu, S.-H. Hsieh / Automation in Construction 23 (2012) 71–86
IFC Data Model
3D Objects Schedule Objects
Cost Objects Document Objects
Fig. 3. The integrated data model of the PIIM Framework.
formats generated from commercial software packages. This module
provides three functional classes. The first is C3dObjectAdapter,
which assists the program to import 3D models created using any
commercial CAD software (for example, ArchiCAD, Triforma, and
Revit). The second is CScheduleAdapter, which is capable of import-
ing Project XML data which is generated from MS Project or Prima-
vera P3, and then transforming it into the IFC 2 × 3 data format
which is employed in the integrated data model for integration. The
third is CCostAdapter, which can adapt and manipulate the Microsoft
Office Excel data format for cost data integration.
3.4.2. DataManager
DataManager is responsible for data management and manipulation.
The main functions are divided into four parts, as follows: (a) Objects
Management: the DataManager includes many different classes which
enables the provision of functions for manipulating objects, such as
create, modify, delete and query; (b) Data Structure: the DataManager
defines some data structure for use in the PIIM Framework, such
as class CPiimTreeNode for viewing multi-dimensional information;
(c) Simulation Table: the class CSimulationTable can provide functions
for collecting and storing the required data for simulating construction
processes, which can decrease data handling time; (d) Others: the Data-
Manager will provide functions for assisting the internal operations
3D Object Scope
Fig. 4. Multi-directional data link of the integrated data model.
75
User-Defined Data Model
Quality Statistics Objects Scope Objects
Relationship Objects
within the PIIM Framework, such as opening and saving the PIIM
Project which includes the integrated data and the related views and
graphs.
3.4.3. DataAnalyst
This research employs the Earned-Value analysis method [35–37],
which is a project management technique used for measuring the
project progress in an objective manner, and for controlling and mon-
itoring the construction project. The EVM function in the VisPMIS
combines measurements of schedule performance (i.e., behind/
ahead of schedule) and cost performance (i.e., under/over budget)
within a single integrated window. When properly applied, EVM
can provide an early warning of performance problems and commu-
nicate this to all stakeholders. After the integrated data model is
established, the class CCalEarnedValue of DataAnalyst can provide
the calculation functions of Earned Value analysis, including for
example, Budgeted Cost of Work Schedule (BCWS), Budgeted Cost of
Work Performed (BCWP), Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP),
Schedule Variance (SV), Cost Variance (CV), Cost Performance Index
(CPI) and Schedule Performance Index (SPI). DataAnalyst also pro-
vides the indispensable calculation functions of the schedule progress
and quality statistics.
Activity Cost Document
76 I.-C. Wu, S.-H. Hsieh / Automation in Construction 23 (2012) 71–86
<<XML Data Model >>
Fig. 5. Example for the data structure of the integrated data model.
3.4.4. DataViewer
A good visual representation of data can assist people in efficiently
acquiring applicable information. To achieve this, DataViewer pro-
vides five styles of visualization for communication among the pro-
ject participants: (a) 1D Visualization: to show the attributes of
objects and general project information; (b) 2D Visualization: to
show the important graphs and charts related to the objects and pro-
ject information; (c) 3D Visualization: to display the 3D models of the
building; (d) 4D Visualization: display of the various 3D models
incrementally at the various stages of construction activities as con-
struction progresses over time; and (e) nD Visualization: to show
the integrated data after data binding.
3.4.5. DataExporter
For data exchange and sharing, DataExporter can provide func-
tions for exporting project data to three different file formats. The
first is the IFC data format, which is used for data exchange with
IFC-based systems. The second is the ifcxml data format, which is uti-
lized for data exchange with general information management sys-
tems using XML technology. The third format is the GML data
format, which is used for integrating with 3D-GIS geo-data [38].
3.5. Summary
The PIIM Framework is constructed on the basis of object-oriented
techniques. Object-oriented analysis and framework design are char-
acterized by features such as modularity, reusability and extensibility,
which are recognized as facilitative to the evolution and the mainte-
nance of application systems.
Modularity
frm3D
DataViewer
frm4DView
AxOctagaModellerX
Fig. 6. The modularity of PIIM Framework.
Key Attributes
Of IFC Objects
IFC Data Model
Reference
In terms of modularity, the PIIM Framework segments complex
objects into manageable pieces or modules according to particular
purposes, and encapsulates complex implementation details behind
stable interfaces. The modules are similar to the Lego pieces which
can be assembled and connected in many ways, to construct different
applications easily. Fig. 6 illustrates how the import function for 3D
objects is developed. Users can utilize the functionalities of the
DataAdapter for receiving 3D Objects, the DataManager for trans-
forming data structure and the DataViewer for viewing 3D models
into the application system. Hence, applications can be built quickly
and development effort can be reduced.
In terms of reusability, the PIIM Framework enhances reusability by
defining generic components that can be reapplied to create new applica-
tions. For example, coding is achieved in the same way as calculating the
percentage of scheduled progress and quality statistics in engineering
projects, and so a class CCalPercentage which calculates the percentage
is provided in the DataAnalyst for both to use, as shown in Fig. 7.
Lastly, the PIIM Framework is designed to include hook methods
and mechanisms for enhancing the system with new capabilities,
without requiring major changes to the system infrastructure. Fig. 8
shows an example of extensibility in PIIM Framework. The interface
IGetEntityAndAttribute is used to specify the required attributes and
behavior of object querying. From the research above, two positive
achievements are derived for application development. One is that
the same interface can be inherited to implement the different
classes. Once the application is based on the PIIM Framework, the de-
veloper can add new querying features to an existing application
without having to change any existing code. Another is that new attri-
butes and behavior can be added into the interface, which would be
DataAdapter
Return
C3dObjectsAdapter
frmMain
DataManager
Return C3dObjectsTreeView
 I.-C. Wu, S.-H. Hsieh / Automation in Construction 23 (2012) 71–86 77

Reusability

frmOne

DataAnalyst
percentage of scheduled progress
Return

Return

percentage of quality statistic CCalPercentage

frmTwo

Fig. 7. The reusability of PIIM Framework.

updated for the related class automatically. In this way, the functions
of classes will be effectively extended.
4. Prototype system
This research prototyped a visual project management informa-
tion system for a construction management firm named VisPMIS to
test the feasibility of the PIIM Framework.
4.1. Engineering example
In this research, we selected an actual engineering project in the
campus of National Taiwan University (NTU) as a case study. The pro-
ject involved the construction of an underground parking area and an
information center. As illustrated in Fig. 9, the organization of this
project is divided between three main participants and areas of re-
sponsibility: (a) NTU, the property owner with contractual relation-
ships to Company A and Company B; (b) Company A, a professional
engineering and consulting service provider which provided profes-
sional construction management services to NTU, while supervising
and managing Company B; and (c) Company B, a construction firm
which provided the physical workforce for the design and construc-
tion of this engineering project. Each of the major project participants
executed their respective project management responsibilities.
However, in this research, the majority of the work was the responsi-
bility of the construction management firm. We analyzed the project
management requirement by interviewing Company A and NTU.
After interviewing NTU, we were able to understand the responsibil-
ities of Company A as stipulated in the contract and as requested by
the owner. After interviewing Company A, we were able to visualize
the project management process in a practical context.
4.2. Requirements analysis of prototype system
The main objective of Company A was to monitor and control all
aspects of a project to achieve project goals, such as completing the
project on-time and to the specified cost, quality, and performance.
The work performed by Company A was mainly focused on project
management during engineering construction. As shown in Fig. 10,
the main work activities could be divided into three phases: (1) the
Project Preparation Phase, (2) the Project Construction Phase, and
(3) the Project Completion Phase.
During the Project Preparation Phase, the main focus of Company
A before construction was project information collection and verifica-
tion. Company A obtained the planned project information from
Company B and other project participants. The information included
schedule information, cost information, 3D models of the project,
and relevant documents. After receiving the project information,

Extensibility
DataManager

<<Interface>>

frmQuery IGetEntityAndAttribute

Return

CGetEntityAndAttributeByName CGetEntityAndAttributeByGUID

Original Method Extended Method

Fig. 8. The extensibility of PIIM Framework.

78 I.-C. Wu, S.-H. Hsieh / Automation in Construction 23 (2012) 71–86

Company A examined the project information and verified its feasibil-

ity in order to implement corrective or preventive actions to bring the
project into compliance with the project management plan. Company
A then submitted the planned project information to NTU. After NTU
approved the plan, the planned project information was then base-
lined and functioned as a reference for controlling the project.
The Project Construction Phase consisted of the processes used to
complete the work as defined in the project management plan to ac-
complish the project's requirements. Therefore, Company A con-
trolled the execution of the project, monitored the ongoing project
activities against the project management plan and evaluated the
project performance baseline in this phase. Additionally, Company
A was responsible for effective communications with other project
participants as information was needed to facilitate easy, effective,
and timely decisions. These work items were required for achieving
the project objectives on-time and within the planned scope and
budget.
In the Project Completion Phase, the main focus of Company A in-
cluded administrative activities such as project information manage-
Fig. 9. The organizational relationship of the NTU project.
ment, project information maintenance, and information sharing.

Company B Company A NTU

Construction Firm Construction Management Firm Owner

Summit Planned Project

Information

Preparation
Collect
Project Information

Examine and Verify Summit

Project Information

Update Actual Project

Prove
Information Feedback

Monitor and Control

Construction

Engineering Project

Summit
Evaluate Performance

Prove
Feedback

Manage
Project information
End

Exchange and share

Project Information

Fig. 10. The activity diagram for the NTU project.

 I.-C. Wu, S.-H. Hsieh / Automation in Construction 23 (2012) 71–86 79

VisPMIS
Graphic User Interface requirements for assisting Company A in achieving the objectives of
the NTU project.
Application Service

4.3. Design and implementation of prototype system

DataAdapter DataManager DataViewer DataAnalyst DataExporter

PIIMFramework
Data Access Interface
Integrated Data Model
Fig. 11. System architecture of VisPMIS.
During this phase, Company A was responsible for filing and preserv-
ing the related project information and documents. Furthermore, the
reciprocal sharing of project information would allow the receiver to
use the information for their own purposes, and thus supply value-
added services. This research prototyped VisPMIS according to the
The system architecture of VisPMIS is shown in Fig. 11. All of the
application functions implemented by VisPMIS are based on the
PIIM Framework. Core project management services and the compli-
cated functionality of project information integration, management
and visualization were implemented in the PIIM Framework. In this
paper, we focused largely on the application service and the graphical
user interface (GUI). With regards to the application service, we
implemented the application functions as they were needed by
Company B, using the services supported by the PIIM Framework.
Furthermore, we designed and implemented the GUI to meet the re-
quirements according to the specific workflow and needs of Company
B.
Object-oriented technology was employed for the development of
VisPMIS. Therefore, the conceptual model was developed using the
Unified Modeling Language (UML), depicting the process and logical

frmAddScope

Return
Return

frmDocument frmAddDocument
frmNd frmCreateNdProject
Return

frmSimulation
DataViewer
frm4DView

frmMonitor

frmEarnedValue frmMain

frmQuery

DataAnalyst DataManager
Return

frmControl
Return

Return
Return

frm3D frmExportIfcxmlFile

DataAdapter DataExporter

frmSchedule frmExportGmlFile

frmExportIfcFile
frmCost

Fig. 12. The main class diagram of VisPMIS.

80 I.-C. Wu, S.-H. Hsieh / Automation in Construction 23 (2012) 71–86

Fig. 13. The main graphic user interface of VisPMIS.

views of VisPMIS. As depicted in Fig. 12, VisPMIS was established on Microsoft Visual Basic .NET environment. For developing VisPMIS,
the five easy-to-use modules of the PIIM Framework, while eighteen we only wrote several hundred lines of code and created eighteen
GUI forms were available for the user to control and manipulate GUI forms. It is clear that using the PIIM Framework can reduce devel-
VisPMIS. The implementation of VisPMIS was carried out in the opment efforts.

Integration

IFC
DataAdapter

frmImport 3D

Ifcxm l

Save

frmImport Schedule
ProjectXML Save
Save

IFC 2x3
Integrated Data Model
frmImport Cost
xls

Fig. 14. Importing data examples.

 I.-C. Wu, S.-H. Hsieh / Automation in Construction 23 (2012) 71–86
4.4. Demonstration
The NTU project was used as an example to test and demonstrate
the functionality of VisPMIS. Fig. 13 illustrates the main graphical user
interface (GUI) of VisPMIS. The upper-most menu bar (as indicated by
Frame A) consists of menu items for quick access to the functions of
VisPMIS. The second upper-most toolbar (as indicated by Frame B)
is used to control the action of the construction simulation. The
right-hand side window (as indicated by Frame C) is used to sepa-
rately manage various construction project data. The left-hand side
window (as indicated by Frame D) is used to facilitate the nD binding
tasks. The middle window (as indicated by Frame E) is for the graph-
ical visualization of 3D models and 4D simulation. The bottom win-
dow (as indicated by Frame F) is used to show related information
for simulation and the Earned-Value method analysis.
The main set of functionalities designed and implemented in
VisPMIS are demonstrated in this section. The various functionalities
of VisPMIS can be categorized as follows: (1) Multi-Dimensional Inte-
grated Data Model, (2) Project Management, (3) Visualization, and
(4) Information Exchange and Sharing.
4.4.1. Multi-dimensional integrated data model
VisPMIS provides functions to assist the user in establishing the
multi-dimensional integrated data model. Figs. 14 and 15 show
that developers can build the application using the DataAdapter of
PIIM Framework as a base for receiving and integrating the different
data formats into the integrated data model and GUI. Subsequently,
in order to bind a multi-dimensional integrated data model, the
user can simply drag and drop selected 3D objects, schedule objects,
cost objects, quality objects, and document objects to the target
scope item in the left-hand side window, as shown in Fig. 16. The
Fig. 15. Importing a 3D model.
81
user is then able to save the data to create a new integrated data
model.
4.4.2. Project management
VisPMIS provides many useful functions for project management.
As shown in Fig. 17, a user can employ the Earned Value Management
(EVM) method to control and monitor the project. Users can specify
the date and name of the project using frmMain, and then use the
DataAnalyst function of the PIIM Framework to calculate the related
value for earned-value management. Finally, the outcomes will be
shown in frmControl and the related graphs will be shown in
frmEarnedValue as depicted in Fig. 18. As illustrated in Fig. 19, VisP-
MIS provides a main panel for users to monitor the project status
according to the specified date. Additionally, the system can provide
a multi-data-view for users to search for and obtain the necessary
and relevant data in a more direct and efficient way, as shown in
Fig. 20.
4.4.3. Visualization
In VisPMIS, by representing the project information visually, the
project manager can visualize at once the present stage of the ongo-
ing project, and communicate and coordinate project tasks according-
ly with other project participants more efficiently. As shown in
Fig. 21, VisPMIS can provide 1D (text), 2D (graph and chart), 3D
(3D Model), 4D (3D + Time Simulation), and nD (multi-dimensional
information) visualization for ease of communication among the pro-
ject participants. A visualization example for construction simulation
is shown in Fig. 22. After DataManager is used to collect the required
data for construction simulation, the results will be shown in frmSi-
mulation. Users can use the panel in frmMain to control the construc-
tion simulation which is shown in frm4DView.
82 I.-C. Wu, S.-H. Hsieh / Automation in Construction 23 (2012) 71–86

Fig. 16. nD model binding.

4.4.4. Information exchange and sharing
Especially notable is the information exchange and sharing func-
tionalities in VisPMIS. VisPMIS is not only able to integrate the project
data, the information of the integrated data model can also be
exported in three different file formats for data exchange and shar-
ing, such that the value of the system is increased and the applica-
tion of the integrated information is extended. As Fig. 23 shows,
VisPMIS can export GML data format, which is used for integration
with 3D-GIS geo-data.
5. Conclusion
This paper has detailed the development processes of the PIIM Frame-
work, explaining the requirements of multi-dimensional information

Management

DataAnalyst
frmControl
frm4DView
Return

Return
CCalEarnedValue

frmMain DataViewer

frmEarnedValue

ZedGraph

Fig. 17. Development example for earned-value management.

I.-C. Wu, S.-H. Hsieh / Automation in Construction 23 (2012) 71–86 83

Fig. 18. GUI of earned-value management.

Fig. 19. Monitoring project work.

84 I.-C. Wu, S.-H. Hsieh / Automation in Construction 23 (2012) 71–86
integration, management, and visualization of engineering projects,
which we found by way of the questionnaire survey and industry inter-
view. According to these requirements, we designed and developed
the PIIM Framework. Furthermore, the PIIM Framework is an appli-
cation framework which is constructed on the basis of object-
oriented techniques. Developers can take advantage of programming
techniques to include features such as modularity, reusability and
extensibility to facilitate the development and the maintenance of
application systems. This research prototyped a VisPMIS system
based on the PIIM Framework. VisPMIS can assist construction man-
agement firms in controlling and managing engineering projects. We
compared the efficiency gains from using VisPMIS for the NTU pro-
ject. There are five major benefits from applying VisPMIS in the
NTU project, as follows:
(1). Single Window
In the original method, the project data was stored on different
systems. Users were required to retrieve the specific data from
the specific systems and to arrange the data again to access the
useful information. By establishing an integrated data model,
engineering project information can be stored in an intact
and complete manner in VisPMIS. Users can then find the
necessary and relevant data needed from the integrated data
model through a single window. Furthermore, VisPMIS provides
many query functionalities for assisting users to retrieve data
quickly and accurately.
(2). Communication
In the original method, the teams primarily used paper-based
views of project information to share information with each
other in project meetings. This leads to difficulties in commu-
nicating relationships between project information for project
management and decisions making. In VisPMIS, by representing
Queried Object
Related Schedule Object
Related Cost Object
Related Document Object
Fig. 20. Multi-data-view.
the project information visually, the project manager can grasp
more quickly the present status of the ongoing project, and com-
municate and coordinate more efficiently with other project
participants.
(3). Multi-Data-View
Much of engineering document management is file-based man-
agement, which is stored and preserved in the project files on
the file server or in the file cabinet. As such, data retrieval
through files is very slow and inefficient. With the support of
data query functions from the Multi-Data-View in VisPMIS,
users can find necessary and relevant data in a more direct and
accessible way.
(4). Project management
VisPMIS provide additional functionality to assist project
management. Firstly, through performance evaluation and sta-
tistical analysis, project management teams are assisting in
measuring the project progress accurately. Secondly, through
establishing an integrated data model, this helps the project
management team to retrieve useful project information more
efficiently. Thirdly, through the various visualization tech-
niques, this helps the project management team to communi-
cate with the other project participants more clearly.
(5). Information Exchange and Sharing
In VisPMIS, the information of the integrated data model can
be exported to different file formats for data exchange and
sharing, such that the value of the system is increased and
the application of the integrated information is extended.
VisPMIS cannot only integrate and manage engineering project in-
formation for construction management firms, it can also effectively
assist in controlling and monitoring the engineering project. All of
the characteristics mentioned above are inherited from the PIIM
 I.-C. Wu, S.-H. Hsieh / Automation in Construction 23 (2012) 71–86 85

1D & 2D Visualization 3D Visualization

4D Visualization nD Visualization

Fig. 21. Visualization types of VisPMIS.

Framework. Through the feasibility study of VisPMIS, we found that dimensional information integration, management, and visualization
the PIIM Framework cannot only assist construction management in engineering project, it can also decrease programming effort on
firms to develop their own systems to solve the issues of multi- developing a useful system from less to more.

Visualization
frmMain DataManager

CSimulationTable
frmSimulation

DataViewer

frm4DView

AxOctagaModellerX

Fig. 22. Development example for construction simulation.

86 I.-C. Wu, S.-H. Hsieh / Automation in Construction 23 (2012) 71–86
a) User Interface of IFC2GML
Fig. 23. GML exporting function in VisPMIS.
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