Project management : integrating architecture and structural engineering design processes

The efficient integration of Architecture and Structural Engineering design processes is required to the full accomplishment of schedule, cost and quality in a project development environment. This paper presents a Management Model for integrating architecture and structural engineering design processes to improve the whole building design production process. The management model presented is based mainly on the “Project Management Body of Knowledge” (2004) and on the “Handbook of Scope of Project and Services” (in Portuguese, 2003). Through the analysis of those documents, a project management life cycle for building design was presented and the building design activities were inserted in two processes of the PMBOK® Project Integration Management knowledge area. To demonstrate a mapping of the activities, processes were designed using the graphical representation Business Process Management Notation (BPMN). With this, the necessary conditions to establish a basis for integrating architecture and structural engineering design processes were accomplished