Integrated lifecycle requirements information management in construction

Effective management of information about client requirements in construction projects lifecycle can contribute to high construction productivity; within budget and schedule, and improve the quality of built facilities and service delivery. Traditionally, requirements management has been focused at the early stages of the construction lifecycle process where elicited client requirements information is used as the basis for design. Management of client requirements does not extend to the later phases. Client requirements often evolve and change dramatically over a facility’s life. Changing client requirements is one of the principal factors that contribute to delays and budget overruns of construction projects. This results in claims, disputes and client dissatisfaction. The problems of current requirements management process also include: lack of integrated and collaborative working with requirements; lack of integrated requirements information flow between the various heterogeneous systems used in the lifecycle processes, and between the multiple stakeholders; inefficient and ineffective coordination of changes within the lifecycle processes; manual checking of dependencies between changing requirements to facilitate assessment of cost and time impact of changes. The aim of the research is to specify a better approach to requirements information management to help construction organisations reduce operational cost and time in product development and service delivery; whilst increasing performance and productivity, and realising high quality of built facilities. In order to achieve the aim and the formulated objectives, firstly, a detailed review of literature on related work was conducted. Secondly, the research designed, developed and conducted three case studies to investigate the state-of-the-art of managing client requirements information. A combination of multiple data collection methods was applied which included observations, interviews, focus group and questionnaires. Following this, the data was analysed and problems were identified; the necessity for a lifecycle approach to managing the requirements information emerged. Subsequently, an innovative integrated Framework which defines a life cycle approach to managing client requirements information was developed; based on information-centric, process and service-orientation. It describes how information technology and/or information systems can serve as support tool to all the project stakeholders. The key features of the Framework include life cycle requirements information availability; coordination, visibility and auditability of the request for change process; decision support; traceability and dependency checking which is crucial for assessment of cost and time impact of proposed changes in requirements. A prototype system comprising a repository and change management system was developed as a proof-of-concept to implement and operationalise the Framework. Evaluation of the Framework and prototype system was conducted via a focus group comprising industry experts. The findings indicated that adoption of the Framework in construction project life cycle could contribute towards more efficient and effective management of client requirements information.