Monitoring construction projects using information technologies

Abstract

A project manager requires timely and accurate information that makes him aware of any potential or real problems. However, measuring progress in terms of cost and time, especially in the construction industry, is considered the most challenging problem. Information technology can help eliminate such problem by automating progress measurement and disseminating information thereby enabling timely decision making. However, research shows that the construction industry lags behind in their adoption of information systems as a result of unsupportive construction environment. With changing times, the construction industry is also changing but an effective automatic progress measuring system is yet to be realized. A study is thus undertaken to investigate how information technology can be more utilized to track the progress of a project at any moment and by those authorized to do so, thus helping save rework costs, facilitating communication and enabling timely decision. In this paper, the preliminary findings of the literature review stage are reported. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.