An information strategy to support effective construction design decision making

It has been established that problems of effective communication within the Construction Industry are due to its multi-party fragmented nature. New and alternative procurement arrangements have been adopted by clients dissatisfied with the quality of the product produced by more traditional arrangements. These arrangements have the potential to improve the level of integration between the building design and production processes. Recent studies that have considered effective communication within these arrangements have shown a lack of understanding of the information needs of the parties involved at the design stage. It is felt that the problem lies in the social cognitive domain of information and depends on how information is utilized in decision making. The paper seeks to review the literature on communication in construction and establish the case for an investigation of the role of communication in the design decision-making process. It also considers the research methodology adopted for the study.