Categorisation of data management solutions for heterogeneous data in collaborative virtual engineering

Computer based virtual development is the basis of product engineering, called virtual engineering. The increasing demand of virtual engineering solutions for new domains and companies leads to a huge width of approaches in this area. To enhance the communication and collaboration between engineers, engineering processes and tasks are supported by specialized applications. Each of the collaboration solutions has benefits and weaknesses, depending on the tasks. This paper analyzes collaboration approaches, i.e., different exchange and integration techniques for the virtual engineering domain. To enable the classification and comparison of existing data management solutions, collaboration techniques and technical approaches to handle heterogeneous data are categorized. The developed categories will help choosing or developing new collaboration systems.