Collaborative Knowledge Management for the Support of Through Life Building Processes
Start Date: 06/10/2008
End Date: 05/04/2010
Project Status: Closed
Introduction:
Background
The design and construction of buildings is a highly complex process involving the creation of large amounts of information, much of which must be passed between various actors and used in multiple ways. In addition, there is often a lack of understanding about precisely what information is required further along the project process. This complexity is further increased when recent calls to better integrate the design and construction process with facility and operation management, and to shift towards integrated service provision are considered. Coupled with this is an increasing awareness of the built environment's importance in providing the infrastructural context through which all aspects of life and work are mediated. As a response to these issues, there is currently an increasing interest within the construction sector in finding ways to produce, share and utilise various data from manifold stakeholders and actors in more integrated and robust ways
Research Outline and Objectives
The research proposed here serves as a preliminary 18 month study which lays the groundwork for further, more ambitious collaborative research in the future. It will be undertaken jointly by the Innovative Construction Research Centre, and the Informatics Research Centre at Reading. It draws on and combines the interdisciplinary skills and expertise located across the two centres. The main objectives are to:
- Identify and analyse various stakeholders involved in the construction process, and their requirements for data production and use,
- Develop theoretical and practical frameworks for capturing and managing both the data produced, and the IT-mediated interactions between stakeholders,
- Design prototype ICT tools and related concepts and methods for capturing, manipulating and managing data across the construction process for concept testing and viability analysis. These will be informed by the stakeholder analysis, and grounded in the frameworks developed,
- Develop a vision and road-map for the future development of an extensive knowledge management system which builds on the work conducted and the prototype tools developed.
A range of approaches will inform the project. However, an integral and novel aspect of the research is the identification of current expectations around and practices of data and knowledge management amongst stakeholders. This will be used to ground the transition to new ways of working in current understanding and existing processes.
Qualitative approaches will be employed to identify stakeholders and their current practices and associated data requirements. This will form the broad context for understanding the dynamics of both data management activities within construction and the interactions between the tools themselves and their multiple users. It will inform the theoretical and practical grounding on which to develop the new methods and tools. Semiotics-based methods will be employed to develop requirements capture models and underpin the development of concepts and prototype applications.
Team details:
Dr Chris Harty
Lecturer and Principal Investigator
Co-investigator
Co-investigator
Mr Bill Collinge
Research Fellow