Visual information access and management for life cycle project management

Computer and information technologies offer significant potential to improve management practices in the construction industry. However, the exchange of information between the phases of a facility and between the different participants on a project management is typically paper-based, even though all parties involved in construction rely on computers to do their tasks. This dissertation presents a visual database model as a solution to significantly improve use of computer and information technologies in communication, project documentation, and knowledge sharing among the different participants through the life-cycle of the facility. The Visual Information Access and Management (VIAM) model is organized in a format that is simple and accessible to the different users, and does not change or complicate the construction processes. The basis of the model uses the construction element as the least common denominator between the different participants throughout the life-cycle of the facility. Information related to the different construction elements are organized in tables and forms stored in a database. The different participants use computer applications to control, document, and communicate construction information and knowledge among themselves for the life cycle of the construction project. The model is developed around three different axes. The first axis focuses on the access and retrieval of construction information related to a certain construction element. The second axis is designed to report and provide feedback from the field on the work progress, quality assurance, and inspection. The third axis targets the executive management of the construction company in order to evaluate the performance of the construction crews, generate cost data and useful historical data for future reference. The first axis is in form of tables that focus on the construction information related to a certain construction element. This information is relevant to the field people in charge of the construction and the quality control activities. This information is organized and accessible to the builders in a simplified format, straight to the point in order to reduce errors and miscommunications of knowledge originated by the design entities. The second axis is designed to report and provide feedback from the field on the work progress, quality assurance, and inspection. This information is linked to the tables mentioned in the first axis through the common denominator, the construction entity. The third axis allows the project management entities to generate cost data based on feedback from the field. These data allow the generation of progress reports to keep track of actual versus as-planned schedule. Data generated along this axis is used to analyze productivity trends, predict behavior, detect delays and better understand the effect of changes on the construction processes. Historical data can be generated for reference for future bids and project approaches.