Williams, T P (2007) Application of treemaps to the analysis of competitively bid project cost overruns. Construction Innovation, 7(4), pp. 340-356. ISSN 1471-4175
Abstract
Purpose – Competitively bid construction projects are often completed for amounts greater than the original low-bid amount. Improved methods of predicting a projects potential to experience large cost overruns would be useful to government agencies for planning capital budgets. The purpose of this paper is to explore the application of treesmaps to the analysis of competitively bid project cost overruns. Design/methodology/approach – In this research a data visualization technique called treemaps was explored as a method of describing the nature of the bids for highway construction projects, and as a method of relating the characteristics of a projects bids to the observed increase in completed project cost. Ratios were calculated that measured bid characteristics for projects from Texas and California. Treemaps were constructed that related the level of the bidding ratios to the level of the difference between the completed project and the original low-bid amount Findings – It was found that the treemaps indicated that projects with high-ratio values typically experienced a larger weighted average percentage difference between the low bid and completed project cost than projects with low ratio values. Research limitations/implications – Future research should include consideration of other project factors in the treemaps, and testing of the treemaps to determine their usefulness to practitioners. Practical implications – Treemaps present a way of understanding complex relationships between construction bidding data and the cost increases that occur during construction without the need to construct complex mathematical models. Originality/value – The paper shows that bidding ratios can be used as indicators of a projects potential for cost overruns. The paper presents a new way of visualizing the construction bidding ratio data.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction operations; cost estimates; data handling; project management; visual media |
| Index terms: | construction operation, cost overrun, project management, testing, cost estimate, media, highway construction, data visualization, overrun, project cost, mathematical model, government agency, bidding, practitioner, construction project, cost increase, methodology |
| Subjects: | practitioner, mathematical modelling, construction operations, professional practice, bidding, data science, financial and cost management, production management, project management theory and practice, economics, civil engineering, research methods, administrative law, project controls, sociology |
| Topics: | Cost Management, Project Management, Research Practice, Engineering Principles, Roles and Professions, Procurement, Legal Issues, Digital Applications, Site Management, Time Control |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
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