Potential positive impacts of digitalization of construction-phase information management for project owners

Abstract

Productivity in the US construction industry has been widely reported to be on the decline and among several causes identified, the lack of innovation in project management practices has been described as having led to lost productivity, especially in the face of growing project complexity and the increasing need for enhanced stakeholder collaboration. Digitalization has the potential to improve project management and thus help in reversing this decline in productivity. However, several public agencies have not fully adopted construction or document management software, known herein as digital construction-phase information management (DCIM) systems. This paper identifies the potential positive impacts that stem from the use of such technologies towards project management with the goal of incentivizing their use. Eighteen such potential positive impacts of DCIM systems on project management for public owners were identified and verified using a systematic literature review and statistical analysis of survey responses from industry professionals. Furthermore, a comparison between two representative types of public owners was performed to identify how owner preferences vary in the industry. The results show an overall agreement amongst end-users regarding the identified potential positive impacts of DCIM systems. The result further identified the top five potential positive impacts with a significant strong agreement. The analysis also identified differences in what impacts were most significant to the two types of tested sub-populations. These findings can enhance project owners’ understanding of the potential positive impacts brought using digitalization in the project administration and delivery process. This research can also enhance DCIM systems developers’ understanding of the needs of end-users, particularly project owners, and guide the development of future solutions for project administration and delivery.