A Systems Approach for Resolving Complex Issues in a Design Process

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1 A Systes Approach for Resolving Coplex Issues in a Design Process Ead Marashi, John P. Davis Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TR, UK. {Ead.Marashi, John.Davis}@bristol.ac.uk Abstract: Engineers dealing with large-scale, highly interconnected systes such as infrastructure, environental and structural systes have a growing appreciation that they deal with coplex adaptive systes. We propose a systeic ethodology based on discourse and negotiation aong participants to help in the resolution of coplex issues in engineering design. Issues arise which affect the success of each process. There are a nuber of potential solutions for these issues which are subject to discussion based on the available evidence assebled fro a variety of sources with a range of pedigrees. An evidence-based arguentation is used to asseble and balance the evidence which results in a success easure showing how well each solution eets the syste s objectives. The uncertain arguents used by the participants and other iperfect evidences are cobined using an extension of the atheatical theory of evidence. This process-based fraework helps not only in capturing the reasoning behind design decisions, but also enables the decision-akers to assess the support for each solution. The coplexity in this situation arises fro the any interacting and conflicting requireents of an increasing range of stakeholders. There is never a right answer, only a satisfactory resolution which this syste helps to facilitate. Keywords: Systes Approach, Process Modelling, Uncertainty, Arguentation, Evidence theory. Introduction There is an ever-increasing need to design engineering artefacts and systes capable of eeting stakeholders requireents in coplex, uncertain and dynaic situations. A coplex syste or proble contains any coponents and layers of subsystes with ultiple, non-linear interconnections that are difficult to recognise, anage and predict (Maxwell et al., 00). In addition, a coplex syste involves people, organisations, cultural and political issues and software agents capable of affecting whole or a part of a syste. Characterisation of these systes and their coponents is generally incoplete, often vague, and riddled with significant uncertainties (Hall et al., 004). An organisation s success in solving coplex probles through design will depend largely on its ability to anage the coplexity associated with these probles. This requires a ethodology and process to reduce and anage the coplexity associated with the syste. Coplex systes can exhibit behaviours which are properties of the whole syste. These properties see ore intricate than the behaviour of the individual parts. An effective and efficient design could not usually be achieved without a proper understanding of the relationship between the whole and its parts as well as the eergent properties of the syste. A wicked and essy proble (Conklin & Weil, 1997) like engineering design has any interlocking issues and consequences which ay be unintended. The vast range of stakeholders involved in an engineering design project, e.g. public, client, construction tea, designers, financers, anagers, governental agencies and regulating bodies; and their changing requireents fro the syste, escalates the coplexity of the situations. Furtherore, the objectives change in response to the actions taken and each attept for a solution changes the proble situation. In other words, the proble definition evolves as new possible solutions are considered or ipleented. This is in contrast with tae probles that are understood sufficiently to be analysed by established ethods. The proble stateent is well-defined and the solution can be objectively evaluated as right or wrong. In practice, there is no specific boundary between tae and wicked probles in design, but the tae probles are surrounded by the wider wicked proble. In fact, a design tea need to be well-equipped with a ixture of capabilities in solving both. As we go down fro initial social context to the detailed technical solutions, the proble s face gradually changes fro wicked to tae. For a typical design activity of a construction project, this transient change ay happens during design stages as shown in Figure 1. Design stages are presented according to BS7000-4, Design anageent systes (BSI, 1996).

2 Figure 1 - Transient change of proble nature during design stages The overall ai of the research described here is to address the need for iproveent in anaging engineering design and its decision-aking process. A syste-based approach is adopted to anage coplexity, using a ulti-level description of design activities. The proposed ethodology also provides a fraework for representing and capturing knowledge in order to offer a richer picture of design process by articulating process attributes, issues, alternatives and arguents leading to decisions. Counicating design intents between stakeholders and docuenting the design process for review, verification, odification and reuse is another ai of this syste. Process Modelling: A Systeic Way to Approach Coplexity The socio-technical and ulti-disciplinary nature of design in engineering systes does not lend itself easily to a pure scientific and technical way of thinking. The systes oveent which began during 1940s is a set of attepts to explore the consequences of holistic rather than reductionistic thinking. Syste Thinking (Checkland, 1999) is introduced as a holistic paradig to understand the situation by seeing the big picture and the connectivity between eleents in the situation. It is a ethod of learning the way towards effective action by looking at connected wholes rather than separate parts. The UML approach to enterprise odelling (Marshall, 1999) and the Soft Systes Methodology (Checkland & Scholes, 1990) are other exaples of systes approaches, but recent developents in process odelling (Blockley, 000), (Davis, 00) ay offer ore clarity and accord with the engineering practice. For instance, the ipleentation of a process-based approach is a core requireent of International Standards for Quality Manageent Systes (ISO 9001, 000) and Total Quality Manageent. As such, it is essential to achieve a unified, siple and intuitive understanding of a process in order to ipleent the process approach. The processes can be defined at different levels of definition to give a continuous spectru of hierarchically structured odels. This is in line with the characteristics of a coplex syste as described by Sion (1999). In this view, coplex systes are usually hierarchical, and these hierarchically organised coplex systes ay be decoposed into sub-systes. Because of their hierarchical nature, coplex systes can frequently be described in ters of a relatively siple set of sybols. This allows for a description of syste at a range of coplexity levels. Such ulti-level fraeworks ust provide a coherent calculus that allows for the transfer of inforation or knowledge between the levels. For instance, within a coplex syste such as the rail network, evidence on perforance ust propagate upwards fro the lowest levels to network anageent levels. On the other hand, governent targets ust be filtered down to the level of train operators and then to local network anagers. Blockley (1999, 000) has identified a nuber of attributes for a process and an algorith for building a process odel based on its attributes. Although Checkland does not use the process ter, the notion of building purposeful activity odels in Soft Systes Methodology using CATWOE notation (Custoers, Actors, Transforation, World-view, Owner and Environent) resebles a siilar view.

3 We describe the process here as a set of activities which realises a transforation. The process eleents can be described in ters of the siplest sentence structure, i.e. Subject + Verb + Adverbials, which is eaningful in the context of a language. The core eleent of every process is a transforation, which is a verbal definition of the action in a process. The transforation is carried out by or affects a nuber of huan or software agents in a specific context. In this definition, the iportant eleents of a process can be categorized in ters of Agent, Transforation and Context (Marashi & Davis, 004b). This is what we call the ACT odel (Figure ). Context Agent Transforation Agent: Those who are involved, affected or concerned about transforation Transforation: The conversion of a state or entity to another state or entity Context: The situation in which the transforation is eaningful Figure - Eleents of a process using the ACT odel Based on this general categorisation of process eleents, a unified understanding of process attributes which enables a coplete definition of a process is presented in Table 1. The transforation is an answer to the question what to do as well as how and why to do it. Selecting the site for windfar power generation and Evaluating the noise level of windfar are two exaples of process. The root process can be decoposed to a nuber of sub-processes. The contractual agreeent or the scope of work of a project could be used as a guideline for start. In the absence of such inforation, a careful investigation of the activities and their nature should be done in order to identify the required sub-processes. Although the identification of sub-processes is soewhat subjective, it is constructive to think about each process in ters of three stages of Appreciating, Operating and Controlling (Table 1), as it is discussed in (Checkland, 1999). This leads naturally to the concept of a hierarchically structured set of sub-processes which realises the achieveent of the defined objectives of that decision (see also Davis & Hall, 003). In fact, process odelling can augent the notion of Checkland s purposeful activity systes by introducing a ulti-level, connected set of processes which is ore anageable and industry-oriented. The ACT odel also generalises the CATWOE notation in Soft Systes Methodology to a for that is closer to the structure of natural language. It is iportant to recognize that there is no right answer to this identification and the process odel is not a unique, one-off outcoe for the whole life-cycle of the project. Several different hierarchies should be built by the design tea in an iterative way until one eerges which is perceived to be robust enough and practical for the task in hand. It should be borne in ind that the engineering process creates systes for a purpose; that purpose is to satisfy the requireents of the systes stakeholders. Thus, the characterisation of stakeholder requireents is a crucial sub-process. At the heart of the ethodology ust be the recognition that creation and anageent of real engineered systes requires any disciplines and capabilities to work in harony. This is one of the weaknesses of the existing engineering approach, which is based on disciplinary dearcations that inhibit interdisciplinary working. At the lowest level of hierarchy, the achieveent of each process ay be viewed as addressing one or a nuber of issues. This could raise a debate which will be structured in an arguentation fraework as we will see in the next section. Evidential Discourse for Engineering The need for arguentation and discourse is apparent in ost coplex decision-aking situations. In general, a group of people reach a decision through debate and negotiations. Each stakeholder ay have his own sets of preferences and view points, with arguents for or against a potential solution. Arguentation is priarily useful for tackling wicked and essy probles (Conklin & Weil, 1997).

4 Table 1- Attributes of a process based on the ACT odel Agent Transforation Context Who? Why? /What? /How? Where? /When? Roles (people): Custoer Client Stakeholder Sponsor Owner Manager Worker Roles (other agents): Function Roles: Responsibility Authority Accountability Counication Appreciating: Objectives Purpose Scope Issues Criteria Success Failure Operating: Activity Input Realization Output Sub-activities Controlling: Perforance Measureent Monitoring World-view Tie Place Description of Situation: Hierarchy Uncertainty Environent: Resources Constraints Hazards Risks Subject, Object Verb Adverbials Social/Cultural diensions Roles Nors Values Political situations In contrast to tae probles, the definition, requireents and criteria for whether a solution has been reached are not well-defined. Ill-structured probles, like those encountered in design and anageent, lack the predeterined linear route through proble solution stages applicable for structured probles. This is the reason why solving essy probles is an arguentative process requiring logical as well as inforal reasoning. The study of arguentation is deeply rooted in various disciplines such as philosophy, logic and linguistics, but it is iportant to note that arguentation study tries to deal with the verbal, contextual, situational and other pragatic factors of counication process in areas where logic can not adequately address the situation.. Arguentation is defined as The action or operation of inferring a conclusion fro propositions preised (OED, 005). The study of arguentation dates back to Greek antiquity, around 400 years ago. The developent of inforal logic and arguentation theory within philosophy has represented a backlash against foral logic. Despite iense power and wide application of foral logic, it is not a suitable choice for representing and characterising coplex, natural and real world language and arguents. Toulin developed an interediate approach between foral proofs of logic and persuasive strength of rhetoric (Toulin, 1958). He developed a layout of arguent which has been used largely for the analysis, evaluation and construction of arguents, especially in jurisprudence context. According to Toulin (1958), the arguentation process starts with forulation of a proble in the for of a question. A list of possible solutions is taken into consideration in the next stage, setting aside the solutions that appear inadequate straight away. The possible solutions are then weighed up against each other. A choice has to be ade between possible solutions in order to select the best one, though it ight be difficult to arrive at a solution in soe fields of arguentation which deal with soft aspects of huan affairs. An open-ended, dialectical process of collaboratively defining and debating issues, having its roots in dialectic of Aristotle, is a powerful way for reaching a consensus and conclusion. This perspective otivated the developent of Issue-Based Inforation Systes (Kunz & Rittel, 1970) as a fraework for odelling arguentation. Having its background in planning and policy probles, IBIS addresses design probles by using arguentation structures to facilitate a discussion aongst the stakeholders about issues, which allows the proble to be explored and fraed. IBIS tries to identify, structure and settle issues raised by proble-solving groups. Issues are brought up and disputed because different positions are possible.

5 This fraework has also been developed through the Copendiu ethodology (Selvin et al., 001) and HERMES syste for ultiple criteria decision-aking (Karacapilidis & Pappdias, 001). Fletcher & Davis (003) also proposed a fraework for siulation and capture of dialectical arguentation in a coplex situation. Arguentation structures based on IBIS and QOC (Question, Option, Criteria) have also attracted a lot of attention in developing design rationale systes (Shu & Haond, 1994). The arguentation structure in IBIS odel consists of Issues, Positions and Arguents. The issues are brought up by the participants and are subject to debate. Issues norally have the for of a questions or a controversial stateent, which is raised, argued, settled, dodged or substituted. Each issue consists of a set of positions or options which represent the possible answers, ideas or choices of action that could be taken in response to that issue. Arguents are asserted by participants to support or rebut a position. The arguentation structure attached to each process is presented in Figure 3. Uncertainties associated with addressing Issue 1 A potential answer to Issue 1 Uncertain easure representing the degree of favourability of Position Degree of support/rebut associated with Arguent Figure 3 Evidential Discourse for ENgineering (EDEN) fraework (Marashi & Davis, 004b) This graphical representation of arguentation enables externalization and counication of discourse aong participants and stakeholders. This integrated fraework is called EDEN (Evidential Discourse for ENgineering) and its software ipleentation is under way in the Civil Engineering Systes Group at the University of Bristol, through extending its predecessor software tools Juniper and PeriMeta (Davis & Hall, 003). Fro a linguistic point of view, this odel allows for the representation of participle phrases (processes), interrogative stateents (issues) and declarative stateents (positions and arguents) which adds to the expressiveness of the process odelling syste. The arguents taken for or against a position are the basis for developing an uncertain success easure for the perforance of that position or option. It shows the level of acceptance of that option in coparison with other options under the sae issue. These easures provide a clearer understanding of which alternative solution is ore proinent at the oent. In the sae way, the uncertain easures attached to issues represent the successfulness of the debate in addressing that issue. These easures are cobined and propagated up through the hierarchy using atheatical theories of uncertainty which is the subject of discussion in the next section. The advantage of this arguentation fraework copared to previous works based on IBIS is that it provides the coputational support for assessing the strength of arguents as well as a graphical representation of the connectivity of the arguentation eleents. The use of visual language

6 has been shown to be a powerful tool in the facilitation of dialogue and debate (Horn, 1998). Like any other for of knowledge representation and elicitation, the added expressive diension of arguentation would however bring in its own overhead to the designers. This could be balanced by longer ter benefits that the syste can provide during design review and reuse. Arguentation is also a way of recognising, counicating and protecting stakeholder s social and technical interests and requireents (Goguen, 1994).Another difficulty arises with cultural and political diensions of knowledge sharing, especially during the elicitation of tacit knowledge in an organisation (Turban & Aronson, 001). An exaple of the application of this fraework has been presented later in this paper. Cobining Uncertain Evidence In any cases, there is insufficient knowledge to allow for the perfect transfer of inforation between levels and hence the incorporation of uncertainty anageent and propagation is vital for any ulti-level syste. Theories of evidence allow us to cobine uncertain pieces of inforation issued fro various sources dealing with the sae subject. Unlike the Bayesian approach, these odels do not require the additivity of beliefs, so ignorance and inconsistency in sources of evidence is also peritted. The uncertain positions are cobined using the generalized natural cobination rule which has been derived fro a generic ethod of aggregation of uncertain evidence, called Triangular-nor-based Cobination Rule (Marashi & Davis, 004a). This new cobination ethod has eerged fro an aalgaation of generalized fuzzy set operations with belief functions coputations. This rule allows the aggregation of uncertain inforation with various levels of dependency between bodies of evidence. Let Ω be a finite set of eleents called the frae of discernent. It can be seen as a set of possibilities or hypotheses under consideration. By definition, a ass assignent could be built over the power set of Ω, such that : Ω [0,1] and X Ω ( X ) = 1 X Ω (X ) represents that part of belief that supports X as being the true hypothesis. Now lets consider two pieces of evidence represented by ass assignents 1 and, supporting proposition A Ω. The ai of the TCR cobination rule in Eq. () is to su up the asses assigned to a subset A during the eet of two or ore evidence, and to redistribute the conflicting ass ( ) on a specified subset P Ω according to weighting factors w in noralization step. The cobined ass can be expressed as: ( A) = XY + w( A, ). ( ) A Ω \ X Y = A = XY XY T ( 1 ( X ), ( Y )) ( X, Y) S F1 F XY X Y = (1) ( ) = w ( A, ) = 0 A P w ( A, ) = 1, A P A P where F and 1 F are sets of focal eleents for ass assignents and 1, respectively. S is a subset of F 1 F for which the asses are allocated using a t-nor. P is a subset of Ω on which the conflicting XY ass should be distributed and w are weighting factors associated to each subset of P. Function T is a triangular nor. The selection of eleents of S and values for should be in such a way that satisfies a XY set of constraints iposed by support pairs, i.e. = A F S n ( A) 1 AY 1 Y F = A F S n ( A) XA X F1

7 X F1 Y F XY = 1 Now consider the following special case for a bipolar frae of discernent: Ω Ω = { A, A}, = {,{ A},{ A},{ A, A}} The following ass assignent for this representation introduces a support pair (Baldwin, 1986) as A [ S n, S ] where S is the necessary support and n S is the possible support for proposition A : : p ( A) = S ( A) ( A) = 1 S ( A) ( Ω ) = S ( A) S ( A) n p p This concept with its graphical illustration called the Italian Flag is used to represent the support pairs (see Figure 7). The green area on the left hand side represents evidence in favour of A, the red area in right is the evidence against A, and the white area is the aount of ignorance about A. The generalized natural cobination rule is derived using the following assuptions in Eq. (1) (Marashi & Davis, 004a): p n AA AA A A AA = T = T F λ ( 1 ( A), ( A)) F λ ( 1 ( A), ( A)) F = T1 ( 1 ( A), ( A)) λ F = T1 ( 1 ( A), ( A)) λ λ = 0 in( x, y) x. y λ = 1 F x y Tλ ( x, y) = ( λ 1)( λ 1) log 1+ λ λ 1 λ ] 01, [ U] 1, [ ax( 0, x + y 1) λ = where T F λ ( x, y) is the Frank s triangular-no function (Frank, 1979). The paraeter λ can be used to odel various dependency assuptions between bodies of evidence. Cliate Change Ipacts on Electricity Supply Indusry: a Case of Application There is growing evidence that the UK cliate is changing over the coing decades due to a cobination of natural and huan causes. The Electricity Supply Industry (ESI) is an exaple of a coplex utility which needs to tackle the cliate change by: coplying with the policies for reducing greenhouse gas eissions planning to adapt the industry to the unavoidable ipacts of the cliate change The ESI is involved with a diverse range of stakeholders. Since privatisation, the gas and electricity industries have becoe fragented and the central long-ter planning of the pre-privatisation period has largely disappeared. The ain players involved here are the generators, transitters, distributors, suppliers which provide electricity to the custoers under Ofge (Office of Gas and Electricity Market) regulations in Britain. These relatively large groups of stakeholders place their own particular perforance deand on the syste. Effective anageent of the ESI ust recognize this, and treat specific deands, such as those arising fro cliate change, in a holistic anner alongside other syste requireents. Energy supply, and particularly electricity generation, was responsible for a quarter of the UK s greenhouse gas eission in 000. Consequently, ESI is under growing pressure to reduce the consuption of fossil fuels by increasing the use of renewable sources. The Energy White Paper (DTI, 003) has set a 10% target for the fraction of the UK s electricity that should be supplied fro renewable energy by 010. A large part of this renewable energy will be provided by windfars both on and offshore, as wind power will be the ost copetitive for of renewable energy in the ediu ter. Through the following brief exaple, we deonstrate how the EDEN ethodology and tool can be used during the course of the feasibility studies and design of a new windfar. Figure 7 shows a snapshot of a process odel for designing a windfar. The root process Designing the windfar power generation has been broken down into a nuber of sub-processes, naely Developing

8 the initial brief, Perforing the feasibility study and Perforing the basic and detail design. Feasibility study of a power generation plant requires a wide range of technical, social, econoical and environental studies. Selecting the site location is an exaple of a process that not only needs to satisfy technical specifications of different design disciplines, but at the sae tie is involved with getting perission fro local authorities, inquiring about public viewpoints and dealing with environental capaigners. For this exaple, we only focus on two issues that have been raised which are the subject of discussion as shown. The first question here is to identify objectives/criteria, which has been answered subsequently through quantitative and descriptive explanations. The objectives/criteria can be translated to perforance indicators using an appropriate value function. The value function can be nueric or linguistic depending on the nature of evidence. The iportance of each criterion can be adjusted by setting the weighting factors attached to that perforance indicator. Figure 5 shows an exaple of an S-shape value function for assessing a site based on its distance fro the dwellings. Two alternatives are under consideration for the location of this new windfar. We assue that the local authority requires a iniu distance of k fro dwellings in order to iniise visual doination, noise and reflected light. The arguent for Alt-1 which is located at 3 k fro the city has been apped to an Italian Flag using the value function in Figure 5. The evidential value of an arguent is being assessed by easuring the value of its attributes against a set of criteria assigned to that arguent. This is what we call the justified evidence for or against an option as it is based on the explicit criteria. The iportance of the arguent can also be adjusted through the iportance factor assigned to its link. The cobined interval value represents the uncertain support easure of the corresponding alternative. In a siilar way, other objectives/criteria, e.g. wind speed, are translated into a value function. One of the iportant qualitative aspects of a windfar is its visibility. This is one of those subjective issues that can not be easily assessed without incorporating public and experts viewpoints. A fuzzy apping has been used to handle qualitative and linguistic assessent of the visual aspects. Opinions can be expressed in ters of a linguistic scale like very poor, poor, ediu, good and very good, together with the confidence of the evaluator on her assessent. Figure 6 shows the value function corresponding to a good assessent of visual aspect with ediu confidence. Note that Connection to the network is easy has been added as an arguent without referring to an explicit criteria. These types of arguents enable the participants to express their opinions and iplicit judgents in an inforal way. The participants are allowed to express their subjective opinions without a reference to a perforance indicator. This feature of the ethodology enables the inclusion of expert subjective opinions into the decisionaking process. The graphical representation of the arguents and its effect on supporting or rebutting a potential option helps the design tea to easily counicate the reasons behind their decisions. The arguents should not be necessarily independent of each other, as the uncertainty calculi is able to deal with various levels of dependency between bodies of evidence. Each option should be assessed against the sae set of perforance indicators related to that issue, based on the value of the corresponding attribute of that option which could also be uncertain. Distance (k) Figure 5 - Value function for site distance fro the dwellings; support pair for x=3±0.5 k Figure 6 - Value function for good visual aspect with ediu confidence

9 Figure 7 - A Snapshot of arguentation during a design decision-aking process Conclusion An integrated fraework is presented based on process decoposition and arguentation to help designers tackle coplex, essy and ill-structured probles. The ethodological steps are as follows: Understand the proble situation Decopose the coplex syste to its sub-systes and sub-processes Identify process objectives and criteria Resolve issues based on evidence through discourse and negotiation Decide on appropriate action and solution Continually review and update the above steps A systeic view of the activities in the design process recognises the need for handling uncertainty, which is being addressed through a novel use of evidential and arguentation theories. Design rationale can be represented aong of stakeholders in a ore intuitive way. Visualizing the trend of arguents, with appropriate calculi for assessing the strength of clais, results in a clearer picture of the design decisions.

10 Acknowledgeent The authors acknowledge the support of the EPSRC project entitled A Generic Process for Assessing Cliate Change Ipacts on the Electricity Supply Industry and Utilities, grant no. GR/S189, in generation of the case study entioned above. References Baldwin, J.F. (1986). Support Logic Prograing. Int Journal of Intelligent Systes 1: Blockley, D. & Godfrey P. (000). Doing it differently: Systes for Rethinking Construction, Thoas Telford, London, UK. Blockley, D. (1999). Process odelling fro reflective practice for engineering quality. Civil Engineering and Environental Systes (16): British Standard Institute (1996). BS Design anageent systes, Guide to anaging design in construction, BSI. Checkland P. & Scholes, J. (1990). Soft Systes Methodology in Action, John Wiley, UK Checkland, P. (1999). Systes Thinking, Systes Practice: Includes a 30-year retrospective, New Ed., John Wiley, UK. Conklin, J. & Weil, W. (1997). Wicked probles: naing the pain in organizations. GDSS Inc. ( Davis, J.P. & Hall, J.W. (003). A software supported process for assebling evidence and handling uncertainty in decision-aking. Decision Support Systes (35) 3: Davis, J.P. (00). Process Decoposition. Proc. Int. Conf. on Hydroinforatics, Cardiff. Departent of Trade and Industry (003). Our Energy Future: Creating a Low Carbon Econoy, C 5761, HM Stationery Office, London, UK. Fletcher, A. & Davis J.P. (003). Dialectical evidence assebly for discovery. Proceedings of Discovery Science. Lecture Notes in Coputer Science 843: Frank, M.J. (1979). On the siultaneous associativity of F(x, y) and x + y - F(x, y), Aequationes Matheatica, 19: Goguen, J. (1994). Requireents Engineering as the reconciliation of social and technical issues, Req. Engineering: social and technical issues, Hall, J.W., Le Masurier, J.W., Baker-Langan, E.J., Davis, J.P. & Taylor, C.A. (004). A decision-support ethodology for perforance-based asset anageent. Civil Engineering and Environental Systes (1) 1: Horn, R.E. (1998). Visual Language: Global Counication for the 1 st Century. MacroVU Inc., USA ISBN: X International Standard Organization (000). BS EN ISO Quality Manageent Systes. BSI. Karakapilidis N.& Papadias D. (001). Coputer supported arguentation and collaborative decisionaking: the HERMES syste. Inforation Systes 6: Kunz W. & Rittel H. (1970). Issues as eleents of inforation systes. Working Paper No. 131, Inst. of Urban and Regional Developent, University of California, USA. Marashi, E. & Davis J.P. (004a). A generic rule for cobination of uncertain inforation in the fraework of evidence theory, 10th Int. Conference on Inforation Processing and Manageent of Uncertainty in Knowledge-based Systes (IPMU 04), Perugia, Italy, pp Marashi, E. & Davis, J.P. (004b). A fraework for supporting discourse in the design decision-aking process, 4th International Conference on Decision-Making in Urban and Civil Engineering, Porto, Portugal Marshall, C. (1999). Enterprise Modelling with UML, Addison, Wesley. Maxwell, T.T., Ertas, A. & Tanik, M.M. (00). Harnessing coplexity in design. Journal of Integrated Design and Process Science (6) 3: Oxford English Dictionary (005). online, viewed: 5/01/05 Selvin, A., et al. (001). Copendiu: Making Meetings into Knowledge Events, Knowledge Technologies, March 4-7, Austin TX, USA. Shu, S.B. & Haond, N. (1994). Arguentation-based design rationale: what use at what cost. Int. J. Huan-Coputer Studies (40) 4: Sion, A. H. (1999). The Sciences of the Artificial, Third Edition, The MIT Press, Cabridge, MA. USA. Toulin, S.E. (1958). The Uses of Arguent, Cabridge University Press, Cabridge. Turban E., Aronson, J.E. (001) Decision Support Systes and Intell. Systes, 6 th Ed., Prentice Hall, NJ.

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