Kiziltas, S and Akinci, B (2009) Contextual information requirements of cost estimators from past construction projects. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 135(9), pp. 841-852. ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Past project data sources provide key information for construction cost estimators. Previous research studies show that relying only on one's own experience during estimation results in estimators' bias. Having and referring to historical databases, containing objective information on what happened in past projects, are essential for reducing estimators' biases. The first step toward development of useful project history databases is to understand what information estimators require from past projects. The research described in this paper targets estimators' information needs identified through interviews, brainstorming sessions, task analyses, and card games conducted with estimators with different experience levels and specialized in heavy/civil and commercial construction projects, and exploration of historical and standard databases available in companies to determine what is being currently represented. Findings show that estimators need contextual information, depicting the conditions under which specific production rates were achieved, so that they can identify which production rate would be more realistic to use during the production rate estimation of an activity in a new bid. Comparison of the contextual information needs identified in this research with information items available in historical data sources (such as company cost reports, RSMeans, previous studies) highlighted some gaps and important opportunities for improvements in those sources. The identified contextual information items are significant for practitioners in developing ways to augment their existing project history databases to make them more beneficial for estimators.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction management; costs; data collection; databases; decision support systems; information systems |
| Index terms: | construction cost, bias, estimation, construction project, estimator, decision support, database, task analysis, project data, information system, exploration, history, practitioner, commercial construction, interview, cost estimator |
| Subjects: | data collection methods, production management, profession, architectural and construction history, scope management, data management, information systems, decision analysis, environmental resource management, financial and cost management, construction type, probability and distributions, practitioner |
| Topics: | Project Management, Cost Management, Construction Technology, Risk Management, Roles and Professions, Research Practice, Sustainability, Digital Applications |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here