Design process management in concurrent design environment

As the design problems that today's electronic designers face become ever more complex, and the time in which these designs must be carried out become ever shorter, the need has emerged for better design process management services to aid designers in their task. To solve the problem of process management in concurrent design environment, this paper proposes an extended network graph model, which combines traditional network graph model with petri net. The model integrates both design project management and process management mechanisms in a single system. It applies network graph to decompose and schedule design objects, and it-adopts petri net to control and monitor the execution of task now. The model provides a comprehensive and consistent view about all the related aspects of design process. In addition, this paper presents three fundamental approaches for designer's cooperation and coordination: result sharing, task sharing, and planning.