Misconceptions About Integrated Project Databases

The notion of an integrated project database (IPDB) has existed for decades. Over that time many projects have been undertaken to develop the technologies and frameworks required to implement an IPDB. Also over that time, there has been promotion of the benefits and impacts that IPDB systems will have on the industry. As there are still no industrially stable IPDB systems in existence, the industry's perception of what they are and what they can do has diverged from many of the original presentations. It is also clear that researchers and de-velopers involved in IPDB development have many different ideas about what constitutes an IPDB and what is, or is not, possible to create. This paper aims to describe misconceptions which are growing up around IPDB systems, and presents the authors' view of reality (informed by the opinions of the UK network of experts in ob-jects and integration (URL-1 1999) which was run by the DETR).

Amor, Robert and Ihsan Faraj. ITcon (2001). Articles>Information Design>Databases