Abstract
This paper proposes an open data management facility called Collaboration Oriented Data Agent (CODA) for computer supported collaborative work in design community. CODA provides a proactive service for engineering data management, supporting data consistency, concurrent access, multidisciplinary teamwork, and engineering workflow. It is equipped with a number of advanced technologies and several important behavioral and functional features. This paper is concerned with combining agent based technologies with project oriented data management to develop CODA based framework. The design and implementation issues have been identified and addressed in terms of agent paradigm to facilitate engineering data management. This framework has been incorporated into a prototype of a multidisciplinary design optimization environment.