Developer platform exploration
From c,mm,n
| c,mm,n developer platform |
|---|
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| Remmert Stipdonk Delft University of Technology LogicaCMG Stichting Natuur en Milieu |
| Project setup Main page Orientation Conceptualization Prototyping Testing Evaluation |
Contents |
Translation from analysis to exploration
To come to a concept covering all explored fields of the previous phase, a general vision has to be formed. This vision has to be based on the facts and figures found in the disciplines of social psychology, community organizations, today automotive design, CAD and the software methods that are available to realize the product. It is important to find the right combination between these fields of discipline to come up with the right concepts. In the end the goal will be to have a general image of how the ideal collaboration software would be organized and what it would look like. Next to that, the goal will be to design the collaboration software in such a way that it can be realized today, with the possibilities we have now.
Concept starting points
The starting point will be the most important goal of the platform: a fully designed car. This car has to be designed by a community, built upon the time people spend on it voluntarily. These people need to keep motivated to keep contributing to the community. For this there are several social mechanisms that need to be built in into the platform. User profiling and social visibility are important factors that need to be kept in mind when designing the platform. This is explained in chapter 4.1, "cooperation mechanisms".
If the community contributes enough, and enough members are working on the car, there is an organization. This organization needs some kind of manageable structure, so that decisions can be taken and progression can be made. Because designing a car requires an organizational structure, the community will not be equally flat; some members will have more rights and will have a more important vote than others. To make this acceptable to everyone in the community, every decision taken has to be transparent to the community and the status of individual members have to be unambiguous too.
To start up the design process, an automotive package is needed which clearly states the c,mm,n vision, specifications and envelope container of the car so that every member can join in on his or her favorite subject. For designing the parts efficiently, members need to have the possibility to team up for designing the part or subassembly they like most. When designing the part has started off, it will go through several phases until it is finished and ready for testing. This process has to be hosted by the platform and needs to be transparent so that the team members are aware of the status of their ideas and concepts. Because a car has many different aspects that need to be worked on, to-do lists are needed so that (new) members are aware of the aspects of the car that are still unfinished and need work. This is a combined conclusion of the organizational structure described in chapter 5, "content management", and chapter 7, "automotive development process".
To guarantee quality and liability of the car, experts in fields of testing and vehicle dynamics should have access to the platform and perform tests on the designs. The test results have to be available to the designers again.
The rate of integration between different parts and sub-assemblies of the car will make it essential that there is a well structured mechanism for mapping and communicating relations between teams and car parts. When these relations are unambiguous, members and team managers can understand what the boundaries are, why they are there and who they have to contact if they want to break these boundaries. Constraints between parts are very important in CAD models, because they tell how the total model is constructed and if it can be made in real life. If the constraints are not clear or not correct, than the real life model can never be made. The problem with this is that different members of the community will use different CAD software systems which cannot be shared in their original format. A standard for sharing these files need to be found. Although it is important to state that there are two types of sharing: editing each others’ files and reviewing each others’ files. In the first case one needs the original file, in the second case an exported image with additional information might be enough. This is a conclusion coming from chapter 8, "CAD modeling in automotive design".
To summarize
The working process, car infrastructure, team structure and relational data need to be captured in one collaboration platform that intuitively invites people to contribute to and interact with the community. This can be done with Enterprise Content Management software as a starting point, specifically adapted to the requirements of using it for sharing and managing 3D CAD content and live interaction between voluntary members. As a general starting point of the process, a clear and unambiguous automotive package has to be stated out, containing a list of specifications, envelope container and most importantly the c,mm,n vision as a common guideline for all community members. The platform must give space to members that feel the need to fork, within the c,mm,n vision but outside the original automotive package. For this, the platform needs to have a path with a frozen design that will lead to a fully designed car, the “frozen space”. Next to that it needs a path which leads to new designs and new automotive packages, the “open space”.
References
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