Diversification of professional quantity surveyors' roles in the construction industry: The skills and competencies required

Because of technological advancements, competition, and the dynamism of the industry, the c onstruction industry expects construction professionals to play diversified roles to meet contemporary requirements. Being a key professional in the industry, a quantity surveyor (QS) is also expected to diversify his/her job to meet the increasing expectations of the clients and the changing business environments. Thus, this study aimed to identify the diversified roles that QSs are now expected to play and the skills and competencies they require to perform those roles, so that any existing gaps could be identified and addressed. The study used a mixed approach comprising semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire survey. The data collected from the interviews and the questionnaire survey were analysed manually using content analysis and mean rank method, respectively. The study identified 20 roles of QSs that are diversified and in high demand in Sri Lanka together with 5 most important skills and 5 most important competencies that the quantity surveyors have to acquire to perform satisfactorily each of the diversified roles that were identified.