Organizational memory for knowledge and information management in the definition, analysis and design phases of civil engineering projects using an XML model

An ontology of civil engineering services is created by combining knowledge of the phases of the life cycle of an engineering design product, the steps in the phases in an engineering service and the technical, technological, scientific, social, economic, organizational and legal aspects associated with an engineering service. The documents containing information and knowledge related to projects are tagged using ontological concepts. The annotated documents are stored in an XML-Database, and constitute an organizational memory that enables access to, and reuse of information and knowledge. A case study of an engineering service is used to illustrate the proposed approach to the construction of the organizational memory.