IT support of single project, multi-project and industry-wide integration

This paper discusses the social or organizational context in which integration in the architecture-engineeri ng-construction industry takes place. We distinguish types and examples of integration at the project level, the multi-project level and the industry level. These types of integration motivate opportunities for the use of information technology. The paper then discusses work related to integration technology in support of integration, in particular in the area of information modeling. It addresses several research challenges with respect to purpose, representation reasoning, user interface and testing of these models. The goal of this paper is to provide the background for the focus of this journal issue. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.