A Simulation Access Language and Framework For Project Management Applications

1. A Simulation Access Language and Framework For Project Management Applications Jinxing Cheng, PhD Student, Stanford University Gloria T. Lau, PhD Student, Stanford University Kincho H. Law, Professor, Stanford University The 10th International Conference on Computing in Civil and Building Engineering June 2nd-4th, 2004, Weimar, Germany

2. Presentation Agenda • Motivation • A Simulation Access Language (SimAL) • The SimAL Framework and Implementation Efforts • Example Demonstration • Summary

3. Motivation • Paradigm shift in software development • Lack of interoperability among different project management tools • Difficult to coordinate different applications (Figure: Courtesy of Professor Gio Wiederhold of Stanford University)

4. The Simulation Access Language (SimAL) • Design Goals • Developing a Simple, Easy-to-Use High-level Language • Coordinating Services and Managing Information Flow • Simulating and Comparing Scenarios • Major Components • Invocation Statements (SETUP, INVOKE) • Operation Statements (QUERY, UPDATE) • Control Statements (IF-THEN-ELSE, WHILE) • Decision-support Statements (SCENARIO CREATION, SCENARIO COMPARISION, etc.)

5. Operation Statements in SimAL • Operation statements include QUERY and UPDATE • QUERY statements • SELECT, to query information from the simulation results • UPDATE statements • SET, to update project models in simulation tools • DELETE, to delete objects in project models • INSERT, to insert objects in project models e.g., reset the duration of activity ID100 UPDATE(“Set duration = 4 where activityID = ID100”, arho, %%)

6. An Example SimAL Program SimAL ComparisonDemo { psl_svc = SETUP("ServicePsl") query_svc = SETUP("ServiceQuery") p3_svc = SETUP("ServiceP3") update_svc = SETUP("ServiceUpdate") gcl_svc = SETUP("ServiceGCLEstimator") arho = psl_svc.INVOKE("to-psl", %%) cost = gcl_svc.INVOKE("Re-estimate", arho, %%) sn1 = SCENARIO("Original Schedule"){ stat1 = query_svc.QUERY("select finishDate", arho1, %%) sn1.SETSCENARIO(stat1) } sn2 = SCENARIO("Expedite Delivery"){ update2 = update_svc.UPDATE("set startDate = 2003-11-20 where activityID = ID210", arho, %%) arho2 = p3_svc.INVOKE("reschedule", update2, %%) stat2 = query_svc.QUERY("select finishDate", arho2, %%) sn2.SETSCENARIO(stat2) } res = COMPARE(sn1, sn2) DISPLAY(res, "Compare Two Scenarios") DISPLAY(cost, “Original Project Cost”) } Initiate Connections Obtain Cost Information Specify Scenario 1 Specify Scenario 2 Compare Scenarios & Display Results

7. The SimAL Framework FICAS (Flow-based Infrastructure for Composing Autonomous Services) developed by Dr. David Liu

8. Wrapping Project Management Applications

9. Invoking Project Management Applications • Wrappers developed for each legacy application • Standalone and embedded services invoked differently

10. Example Results– Collaborative Demonstration • Tested on the Arnold House Project from Vite • Collaboratively demonstrated between Scotland and Stanford

11. Example Results-- Workflow in the Demonstration • Dynamically incorporating online weather information • The whole process automated • Viewing the impact whenever there is a concern Workflow in the Weather Demonstration

12. Example Results-- Snapshots from the Demonstration Weather Reports Impact of Weather Information View the Impact on Schedule View the Impact on Task Backlogs

13. Summary • Data Integration PSL is used to exchange project information among different applications. • Workflow Management and Decision Support A simulation access language (SimAL) and framework to allow users to simulate scenarios involving multiple tasks supported by different software applications. • Example Demonstration We demonstrated the system by incorporating online weather information into project management.

14. Acknowledgements • Professor Bimal Kumar of Glasgow Caledonian University • Dr. David Liu of Mckinsey • A Stanford Graduate Fellowship • The Product Engineering Program, NIST • Center for Integrated Facility Engineering, Stanford University

15. End of Presentation Thank You Questions and Comments: Jim Cheng (cjx@stanford.edu)