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CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT Abdul Samad Samad Many construction projects are hampered by delays in decision making from project participants and executives. Decision making authorities may not be available at multi-project locations at a given time and required information may not be readily available at all times and locations. Technological advancement such as the use of the World Wide Web for information access independent of time and location is fast becoming a medium for distance communications and decision making. This article looks into the prospects of information technology (IT) enabled decision making through effective use of the World Wide Web and illustrates a prototype multi-media project reporting system developed at the Asian Institute of Technology. CURRENT SITUATION In today's complex and dynamic construction project decision making environment, most decisions are based on the availability of paper based information or in some cases, computer generated or supported information. Unfortunately, when a decision maker is not on "location", or doesn't have updated information, decisions are based on the information available. This information may not be current and may not be sufficient. In such circumstances, if proper information usage is to be made for effective decision making, up-to-date and sufficient information must be accumulated. By the time this occurs, the project will have proceeded and more information is forthcoming. THE IT PROMISE The implications of IT in terms of application delivery were commended by Parsons (1983), "The speed, cost, size, and capabilities of new IT continue to improve rapidly, and there appear to be unlimited applications that could be 'computer enhanced' " Senn (1989), went further on to explicitly identify some direct value added deliverables of IT; Capacity, Control, Purchasing Power, and Competitive Advantage. Later on, Davenport (1994) pointed out that we must be careful with IT. According to him, IT will only deliver its promised value added deliverables once it's appropriately exploited by proper consideration of the humans who form the core IT user group and their requirements. THE WORLD WIDE WEB THEN AND NOW When the WWW era initially emerged, application development required significant programming knowledge. This consideration alone stagnated application development from most non-computer gurus. With the current emergence and influx of easy to use application development tools, the development of a website on the Internet has ceased to be a hindrance to effective IT exploitation in Internet applications. For a new user for example, to create a simple homepage does not require more than 15 minutes (based on chosen application development tool). Extending this ease of development concept to application development for construction management on the Internet and exploitation of the main features of the Internet, time and space independent information access, certain advancements in terms of effective and efficient decision making can be made. Now managers can access specific project information in desired formats in an accurate, timely, and pertinent form from anywhere across the globe and at practically any time. They can even view live happenings at the site location without physically being at the site, in its city, or even country. PROTYPE MULTI-MEDIA PROGRESS REPORT SYSTEM A simple and easy to use prototype multimedia progress report system application for the Internet was recently developed at the Asian Institute of Technology (Intrapanich, 1998). The system relies on automatic information retrieval, updating, and storage from normal day-to-day construction information planning, and control software. This information is automatically uploaded to the Internet for usage for project reporting and associated decision making activities. The system starts off with a login screen requesting authorization. This feature is used to ensure that only authorized persons can access the information provided by the system. Once authorization is confirmed, a list of projects is displayed for associated information browsing and retrieval purposes. Here too, authorization is required. The system has been particularly configured provide information to three distinct management levels: Executive; Middle; and Functional. Since the nature and detail of information and their associated sensitivity varies, different information display formats are used for all managerial levels. The purpose of authorization at this point is to ensure that certain sensitive information is appropriately secured and access to it limited. For each individual project that has been uploaded to the system, reports in different formats and forms are available. For example, general project information is available in text and audio formats. A visual report is also available to help visualize the happenings at the project location without really being at the project location. For better project analysis purposes, information is provided at different detail levels. From a summarized project report to one in detail of a functional task may be viewed. Video reports for specific functional tasks are also provided. Overall, the system is simple to develop, monitor and control. Having a friendly user interface, different project participants may seek project information in any form they please and at any place and time. System updating as mentioned previously is done automatically. VALUE ADDITION TO THE DECISION MAKING PROCESS The main benefits that may be derived from the developed prototype Multi-Media Progress report system extend beyond the visual display of information in different forms and levels of details. One key feature of such a system is the ability to act as a provider of accurate, timely, and pertinent project information at all times. Furthermore, being Internet based, the system is accessible from all corners of the globe at all times. Certain security measures have been incorporated to provide informational security where and when necessary. Most important of all, however, the system is a facilitator of better decision making. It breaks across all traditional time and spatial boundaries that restrict efficient decision making in construction projects. REFERENCES: Parsons, G.L (1983) IT: A New Competitive Weapon, Sloan Management Review, Fall. Senn, J.A. (1989) Analysis and Design of Information Systems (2nd Ed.), McGraw Hill, Singapore. Davenport, T.H. (1994) Human Centered Information Management, Harvard Business Review, March-April. Intrapanich, S. (I 998) Multi-Media Progress Report System. Masters Thesis, AIT, Thailand. Abdul Samad Kazi is currently pursuing his PhD of Engineering in Construction Engineering and Management at the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok Thailand. He may be contacted at the Institute, Mail 953, P. O. Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathumthani, 12120, Thailand. Return to the List of Articles Return to the Association for Project Managers Main Page Email the Association for Project Managers
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