Today, the complexity of products such as cars and airplanes keeps on increasing. Their design involves many experts in diverse competence fields such as microelectronics, the structural analysis, aerodynamics and information technologies.

This variety raises many problems when experts from different fields work together. Each specialty has its own vocabulary, its tools, methods, models and data. This diversity slows down the exchange processes and interactions between the different actors involved in the project.

Our approach to improve collaborative work processes is divided into 2 parts.

The first part concerns the modelling of the problem. It includes the expression of needs of a collaborative environment, the analysis of the communication interactions, cooperation and synchronization and the formal representation of data. Web Services are used to implement the various modules involves.

The second part focuses on optimization using genetic programming to enhance collaborative practices relying on the results obtained during the first phase.