352 Int. J. Product Lifecycle Management, Vol. 1, No. 4, 2006 Copyright © 2006 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Towards PDM extension to support the exchange of preliminary information in design Khadidja Grebici* GILCO-INPGrenoble, 46 Avenue Félix Viallet, 38031, Grenoble Cedex, France LSR-SIGMA- IMAG, 2 Place Doyen Gosse, 38031, Grenoble Cedex, France Fax: +33 4 76 57 46 95 E-mail: Grebici@gilco.inpg.fr *Corresponding author Eric Blanco GILCO-INPGrenoble, 46 Avenue Félix Viallet, 38031, Grenoble Cedex, France Fax: +33 4 76 57 46 95 E-mail: eric.blanco@gilco.inpg.fr Dominique Rieu LSR-SIGMA- IMAG, 2 Place Doyen Gosse, 38031, Grenoble Cedex, France Fax: +33 4 76 57 46 95 E-mail: dominique.rieu@imag.fr Abstract: The earlier designing process of technical artefacts requires collaborative activities among various disciplines. The organisation requires the actors to exchange the preliminary information, which is non-mature. Designers often make decisions relying on the information that is invalid and not finalised. Current computing systems, particularly those that are intended to manage the technical data Engineering Data Management System (EDMS), such as Product Data Management (PDM) are hard to conciliate with the dynamic and the evolutionary aspects of the design data. Design data are partially integrated in PDM and represent consolidated and valid states. This article is based on a qualitative study of the engineering projects. The framework proposed in this article represents preliminary information management models. They are based on the maturity of information and workspace concepts. The present model-based framework reports only the two workspaces, among four that corresponds with the management of preliminary information. We argue that such management supports designers in their day- to-day collaboration and allows them in exchanging preliminary information. Keywords: collaborative design; data maturity; design feature; EDMS; preliminary information; workspace. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Grebici, K., Blanco, E. and Rieu, D. (2006) ‘Towards PDM extension to support the exchange of preliminary information in design’, Int. J. Product Lifecycle Management, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp.352–366.