A Lessons-learned System for Construction Project Management: A Preliminary Application

AbstractConstruction companies are project-based organizations, since much of their knowledge is generated on site, from projects they carry out. In fact, projects are an important source of expert know-how and organizational knowledge, but lessons-learned from them are not systematically incorporated into subsequent projects, evidencing a lack of knowledge management and learning culture in local construction companies. This article describes a research effort that addressed this situation and developed a lessons-learned system to help construction companies to overcome these limitations. A multiple case-study methodology was applied to understand the knowledge and learning realities and needs of three Chilean construction companies. Based on these results, a mobile cloud-shared workspace to support knowledge management was developed. Results show that major concerns of users are associated with how the system acknowledges the particularities of construction projects and how it will be incorporated into daily activities. Main conclusions indicate that (1) companies acknowledge the need to develop a culture of innovation within the organization, (2) users consider the system as a tool that could really contribute to improve the construction project management process, and (3) the system needs improvements regarding database search and the Internet support before being fully implemented in the company as a project management tool

Rollout of a Digital Comprehensive Safety Management System in a Large Public Agency: A Case Study with Kentucky Transportation Cabinet

It’s understood that construction is extremely dangerous and highway construction has an added risk that comes from the presence of traffic. Many steps and prevention measures can be taken to reduce the risks to workers’ safety in highway work zones. Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) realized they had room for improvement and wanted to have a database that would allow for analysis of the common causes of incidents. The new software KYTC wanted to implement is called Origami Risk. Origami Risk is a cloud-based safety management system (SMS) software that offers a huge range of customizable risk management, RMIS, environmental health & safety, and data analytics tools in a single platform that is accessible via web browser and mobile app. To better understand how to implement a SMS in a public agency a literature review was done to review other Department of Transportation’s implementation process and what they learned from the experience. Researchers also held focus groups with KYTC to understand the expectations and concerns of the employees who will be using or administering the SMS. All this information was collected and distributed to KYTC to assist with developing an effective implementation process for a new digital comprehensive SMS

Developing front-end Web 2.0 technologies to access services, content and things in the future Internet

The future Internet is expected to be composed of a mesh of interoperable web services accessible from all over the web. This approach has not yet caught on since global user?service interaction is still an open issue. This paper states one vision with regard to next-generation front-end Web 2.0 technology that will enable integrated access to services, contents and things in the future Internet. In this paper, we illustrate how front-ends that wrap traditional services and resources can be tailored to the needs of end users, converting end users into prosumers (creators and consumers of service-based applications). To do this, we propose an architecture that end users without programming skills can use to create front-ends, consult catalogues of resources tailored to their needs, easily integrate and coordinate front-ends and create composite applications to orchestrate services in their back-end. The paper includes a case study illustrating that current user-centred web development tools are at a very early stage of evolution. We provide statistical data on how the proposed architecture improves these tools. This paper is based on research conducted by the Service Front End (SFE) Open Alliance initiative

Impact of COVID-19 on iot adoption in healthcare, smart homes, smart buildings, smart cities, transportation and industrial IoT

COVID-19 has disrupted normal life and has enforced a substantial change in the policies, priorities and activities of individuals, organisations and governments. These changes are proving to be a catalyst for technology and innovation. In this paper, we discuss the pandemic's potential impact on the adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) in various broad sectors namely healthcare, smart homes, smart buildings, smart cities, transportation and industrial IoT. Our perspective and forecast of this impact on IoT adoption is based on a thorough research literature review, a careful examination of reports from leading consulting firms and interactions with several industry experts. For each of these sectors, we also provide the details of notable IoT initiatives taken in wake of COVID-19. We also highlight the challenges that need to be addressed and important research directions that will facilitate accelerated IoT adoption.Comment: This is the version accepted at Sensors 202

Review and Comparative Analysis of Distributed Knowledge Management Systems

Distributed technologies attract researchers interest as they propose many technological, but as well organizational and end-user benefits. With development of Web 2.0 and Cloud computing, distributed networks are considered as new source of business opportunities. The present research will identify advantages and limitations of distributed knowledge management systems (DKMS). Thus technologies and models of distrubuted KMS will be assessed as an alternative approach to centralized KMS. A review of several theoretical DKMS model will be made in order to outline the common characteristics and alternative approaches to DKMS architecture. At the end will be summarised conclusions for development of new theoretical model of user-centered DKMS

PropTech 3.0: the future of real estate

Right now, thousands of extremely clever people backed by billions of dollars of often expert investment are working very hard to change the way real estate is traded, used and operated. It would be surprising, to say the least, if this burst of activity – let’s call it PropTech 2.0 - does not lead to some significant change. No doubt many PropTech firms will fail and a lot of money will be lost, but there will be some very successful survivors who will in time have a radical impact on what has been a slow-moving, conservative industry. How, and where, will this happen? Underlying this huge capitalist and social endeavour is a clash of generations. Many of the startups are driven by, and aimed at, millennials, but they often look to babyboomers for money - and sometimes for advice. PropTech 2.0 is also engineering a much-needed boost to property market diversity. Unlike many traditional real estate businesses, PropTech is attracting a diversified pool of talent that has representation from different regions of the world and entrepreneurs from a highly diverse career and education background. Given the difference in background between the establishment and the drivers of the PropTech wave, it is not surprising that there is some disagreement about the level of disruption that PropTech 2.0 will create. In this research we interviewed over 50 real estate professionals, entrepreneurs and capital providers. From one side, we heard that none of these startups know what they are doing and that young entrepreneurs misguidedly regard real estate as a sure thing. From the other, we heard that real estate people are not good at strategy and are determined to protect inefficient fee-earning practices. 2017 seems to mark a turning point. PropTech 2.0 has been building such mass and momentum that it will change the world. But real estate is a slow moving asset class, and the real estate industry is highly conservative. How will this play out? This, the Said Business School Oxford’s first real estate research report, maps this emerging sector and focusses in particular on the impact of tech change on the character of this enormous asset class

Are You Ready? A Proposed Framework For The Assessment Of Digital Forensic Readiness

This dissertation develops a framework to assess Digital Forensic Readiness (DFR) in organizations. DFR is the state of preparedness to obtain, understand, and present digital evidence when needed. This research collects indicators of digital forensic readiness from a systematic literature review. More than one thousand indicators were found and semantically analyzed to identify the dimensions to where they belong. These dimensions were subjected to a q-sort test and validated using association rules, producing a preliminary framework of DFR for practitioners. By classifying these indicators into dimensions, it was possible to distill them into 71 variables further classified into either extant or perceptual variables. Factor analysis was used to identify latent factors within the two groups of variables. A statistically-based framework to assess DFR is presented, wherein the extant indicators are used as a proxy of the real DFR status and the perceptual factors as the perception of this status

Rapid Digital Transformation Using Agile Methodologies for Software Development Projects

Now a day’s all organizations are moving towards digitalization. These consequences of the use of digital technologies made organizations seek for best and fast digital solutions. All software developer companies are also trying to draw consumer's attention by offering prompt services. In this regard, the critical issue in information technology and other areas of computation is how software can be created easily and rapidly for complex businesses. In this context, the main aim of the research is to show the agile methodology role in the rapid digital transformation. In this paper, we have surveyed different agile methodologies and tools for rapid software development and introduced an agile management tool having a backlog. We identified the key practices of agile methods and after a survey, it is suggested that the agile approach can help to achieve a balance between the applications generated by developers on customer demand. This paper illuminates and translates agile methodologies into agile project management tools for simple and rapid application development. Empirical research based on a case study is provided for better understanding and showing the importance of agility in software developmen

Robots learn to behave: improving human-robot collaboration in flexible manufacturing applications

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

The integration of lessons learned knowledge in Building Information Modelling (BIM)

Lessons learned systems are vital means for integrating construction knowledge into the various phases of the construction project life cycle. Many such systems are tailored towards the owner organisation’s specific needs and workflows to overcome challenges with information collection, documentation and retrieval. Previous works have relied on the development of conventional local and network/cloud-based database management systems to store and retrieve lessons gathered on projects. These lessons learned systems operate independently and have not been developed to take full advantage of the benefits of integration with emerging building information modelling (BIM) technology. As such construction professionals are faced with the shortcomings of the lack in efficient and speedy retrieval of context-focused information on lessons learned for appropriate utilization in projects. To tackle this challenge, we propose the integration of lesson learned knowledge management in BIM in addition to existing 2D-8D modelling of project information. The integration was implemented through the embedding of non –structured query system, NoSQL (MongoDB), in a BIM enabled environment to host lessons learned information linked to model items and 4D modelling project tasks of the digitised model. This is beyond existing conventional text-based queries and is novel. The system is implemented in .NET Frameworks and interfaced with a project management BIM tool, Navisworks Manage. The demonstration with a test case of a federated model from a pre-design school project suggests that lessons learned systems can become an integral part of BIM environments and contribute to enhancing knowledge reuse in projects