Fortune, C and Skitmore, M (1994) Quantification skills in the construction industry. Construction Management and Economics, 12(1), pp. 79-88. ISSN 01446193
Abstract
Measurement/quantification is a core skill of the quantity surveyor and such skills need to be placed within a more appropriate educational framework to ensure their continuing relevance. This paper reports on a study that sought first, to identify the characteristics associated with measurement/quantification skills and second, to weight or rank their relative importance. A total of 37 characteristics associated with a person undertaking the measurement task were identified following a search of available literature and a series of taped interviews with practitioners. These were then classified and grouped together into a model structured according to the fundamental requirements of educational soundness, technical soundness and personal soundness. Twenty-one representative characteristics of this model were then rated for importance by 77 undergraduate quantity surveying students and 30 qualified surveyors working in private practice. The resulting analysis enabled the subsets of the characteristics of measurement skill to be ranked in the following order of importance: ability to formulate and solve problems, sufficient knowledge of salient aspects of the task, good intellect, ability to activate responses, adequate construction capability, ability to transmit information, good character, practical capability and good physical characteristics. This ranking allowed the proposed model of the characteristics of measurement skills to be weighted to show that educational soundness was more important than technical and soundness.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | education; training; quantification skills; quantity surveying; skills modelling |
| Index terms: | private practice, quantification, quantity surveying, measurement skill, construction industry, modelling, undergraduate, surveying, interview, relative importance, practitioner, physical characteristic |
| Subjects: | analytical methods, health monitoring assessment and metrics, professional practice, curriculum development, data collection methods, profession, risk assessment, practitioner, measurement and scaling, industry analysis, professional development, material properties and characteristics |
| Topics: | Education, Roles and Professions, Risk Management, Construction Materials, Engineering Principles, Information Management, Research Practice, Health and Safety |
| 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