Developing data standards for construction--An IAI perspective

This paper will discuss the potential role of information technologies (IT) in general and data standards in particular for improving work within the construction industry. As an example, it will focus on the work of the Project Management Domain Group of the North American Chapter of the International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI/NA). The paper will have two main parts. The first part will focus on describing a vision for how IT can improve the construction industry. The role of data standards within this overall vision will be discussed. The paper will look briefly at the "tangle" of emerging standards, and will examine the role of data standards relative to research effort, relative to software development, and relative to end users. Having positioned data standards within the overall outlook for IT in the construction industry, the second main part of the paper will focus on one particular data standards effort as an example, that of the Project Management Domain Group of the IAI/NA. The work of this group will be presented. First, the paper will describe the development methodology followed by the group. Second, the paper will give an overview of the specific data standards projects underway within the Project Management group. Both authors are directly involved in the activities of the IAI/NA (one is the group chair) as well as being active researchers in the area of IT for the construction industry.