An Object‐Oriented Model of Building Procurement

This paper reports on an object‐oriented building procurement model being developed at the University of Salford as part of an integrated database for the construction industry (ICON). The model is based on a top‐down approach using the information engineering method (IEM), object‐oriented method (OOM), and an object‐oriented CASE (computer‐aided software/system engineering) tool. This paper illustrates the way the information requirements of the building procurement process are identified and stored as graphic representations using activity, object, and process models. Ultimately, code is generated from these graphic representations, and a physical object‐oriented database (OODB) for the building procurement process is established. The object‐oriented approach to information modeling will be described in detail with an illustration of how the use of a CASE tool can help the analysis phase. Various features of the object‐oriented paradigm will be described within the building procurement context. In addition, examples will be given to help the reader understand the recent developments in the object‐oriented field. Finally, the different modeling techniques used within the object‐oriented method such as object and event schemas will be presented and analyzed.