A common structured integrated collaborative digitised (CrOsS) framework for the historic building repair and maintenance (R&M) sector

The UK historic building repair and maintenance (R&M) sector generates £9.7 billion in output. However, challenging delivering quality R&M are project under-performance, a lack of collaborative project practices, resulting in poor communication, underpinned by persistent skills shortages. These are not solely UK concerns; various international studies have echoed similar issues, however, to maintain focus, the scope of the research is within the UK context, in particular Scotland’s stone-built heritage. Adopting a four stage qualitative participatory exploratory action research strategy; this research aims to develop a framework, to support an effective integrated multi-disciplinary, collaborative, structured, and digitised Project Management and on-site practice approach, to aid increased efficiencies. Firstly, a synthesis of the relevant academic literature and industrial reports enabled direction towards the acquisition of appropriate intelligence, in order to guide and inform the study’s theoretical foundation. Secondly, 14 semi-structured interviews with Scottish SMEs were executed, which bounded the key findings under three main themes; senior management, human resource, and technical. Concurrently, through co-operative industry engagement, the generation of a best practice historic building SME R&M four-phase process map was undertaken. Thirdly, a common structured collaborative process standard framework was developed and finally, validated through active industry participation; a demonstration project, four semi-structured interviews, and two focus groups of six industry practitioners. The validation feedback confirmed that the developed framework is valid, credible, acceptable, and applicable as a process standard designed to offer a process model, map, and management tool.The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)Heriot Watt Universit

A dynamic model for project review in the construction industry

project review plays an essential role in the project management. It evaluates the past, current situations of the project and predicts for its future. It enables project managers to understand the real situation of the project and provides them with the relevant information which enables then to make decisions as early as possible either to continue or terminate the project in order to save money and labor and invest them on another successful one. This paper introduces a new technique in conducting project review. The generic Meta model constructed in this paper captures the main important variables, which need to be considered in performing a successful project review. This Meta model introduces to construct a generic stock and flow model using system dynamics methodology. The stock and flow model enables the project management decision makers to try different situations and find out the best for the project. This model has been verified using a case study from a construction industry and simulating different scenarios