Transformation of construction project management toward situational awareness

Abstract

PurposeWith the ongoing digitalization of the construction industry (CI), situational awareness (SA) is becoming increasingly important in construction management. The purpose of this article is to identify the requirements of SA system development in the CI and to provide recommendations for the future development of SA systems.Design/methodology/approachIn this exploratory multi-case research study, a literature review and five Finnish cases were used to gather the evidence on how system developers have planned SA systems and what motives and objectives were behind their development efforts. An analysis of the cases, along with a review of SA models and concepts from other sectors, was used to identify requirements and deficiencies of the SA systems developed by CI actors.FindingsThis study reveals deficiencies in the recent SA systems. The systems seemed to be based on traditional project models, in which the role of the individual as the creator and interpreter of an SA system is still significant. Major requirements and future development of the systems are related to better SA levels of perception and projection and data quality.Research limitations/implicationsThis study contributes to an understudied area of SA in the construction context and provides new insights into how construction companies develop their SA systems. The main study limitations are its geographically limited case selection and the limited generalizability of the results.Practical implicationsThe research (1) shows what requirements and systemic weaknesses SA developers in the CI must consider in future development work and (2) shows developers the requirements to obtain holistic SA.Originality/valueThe study provides insights into the content of newly developed SA models and integrates developers' requirements into the SA theory.