71 research outputs found
Adoption of Collaborative Technology to Enhance Master Data Quality Across Municipal Administrations - Identifying Drivers and Barriers
In recent years, software for collaborative improvement of master data quality has been increasingly introduced into public administration. With the support of this collaborative software, master data is not only managed by one stakeholder such as an individual or department but rather cross-institutionally and across departments by groups of several stakeholders, e.g. several municipal authorities. In this paper, based on the Technology-Organization-Environment Framework, both driving forces as well as obstacles were identified, which influenced the adoption of such collaborative software. The results show, that positive factors concerning the adoption are perceived barriers, presence and importance of data standards as well as the successful implementation into the existing environment, whereas a complex IT-infrastructure impedes an introduction
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Building capacity in climate change policy analysis and negotiation: methods and technologies
Capacity building is often cited as the reason âwe cannot just pour money into developing countriesâ and why so many development projects fail because their design does not address local conditions. It is therefore a key technical and political concept in international development.
Some of the poorest countries in the world are also some of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Their vulnerability is in part due to a lack of capacity to plan and anticipate the effects of climate change on crops, water resources, urban electricity demand etc. What capacities do these countries lack to deal with climate change? How will they cope? What steps can they take to reduce their vulnerability?
This innovative and high-profile research project was part of a larger project (called C3D) and conducted with non-governmental organisations in Senegal, South Africa and Sri Lanka. The research involved several participatory workshops and a questionnaire to all three research centres
Web 2.0 and its impact on knowledge and business organizations
Today, information overload and the lack of systems that enable locating employees with the right knowledge or skills are common challenges that large organisations face. This makes knowledge workers to re-invent the wheel and have problems to retrieve information from both internal and external resources. In addition, information is dynamically changing and ownership of data is moving from corporations to the individuals. However, there is a set of web based tools that may cause a major progress in the way people collaborate and share their knowledge. This article aims to analyse the impact of âWeb 2.0â on organisational knowledge strategies. A comprehensive literature review was done to present the academic background followed by a review of current âWeb 2.0â technologies and assessment of their strengths and weaknesses. As the framework of this study is oriented to business applications, the characteristics of the involved segments and tools were reviewed from an organisational point of view. Moreover, the âEnterprise 2.0â paradigm does not only imply tools but also changes the way people collaborate, the way the work is done (processes) and finally impacts on other technologies. Finally, gaps in the literature in this area are outlined
A methodology for the 'live' capture and reuse of project knowledge in construction
The importance of capturing and sharing useful knowledge from construction projects has been recognised by the construction industry. However, issues such as the loss of important insights due to the time lapse in capturing the knowledge, the need for sharing the knowledge captured as soon
as possible in order to maximise the benefits brought about by reusing the knowledge, and the need to share the knowledge before the opportunities for reusing the knowledge diminish have not
been adequately addressed. To address this, it is crucial for knowledge to be captured as soon as possible once it is created or identified (i.e. 'live') in a collaborative environment, and presented in
a format that will facilitate its reuse during and after the project. This research was aimed at
developing a methodology that facilitates the `live' capture and reuse of project knowledge in construction.
An extensive literature review was first conducted on the concept of knowledge management and
the current practices for managing project knowledge. Subsequently, case studies involving six
companies were carried out to investigate the shortcomings of current practice and the end-user
requirements for the capture and reuse of project knowledge. These requirements informed the
development of the methodology for `live' capture and reuse of project knowledge. The Web IS
Development Methodology (Avison and Fitzgerald, 2003) employing ASP. NET 2.0 was adopted
to encapsulate the methodology into a Web-based prototype application. The evaluation of the
prototype revealed that the methodology can enable project knowledge to be captured and shared
`live' across different organisations without significant additional workload and costs.
It is concluded that the `live' capture and reuse of project knowledge in construction is important
in preventing knowledge loss and helping to harness the project knowledge captured. A
combination of both KM technologies and techniques is essential for the effective management of
tacit and explicit knowledge. The prototype application developed can facilitate the `live' capture
and reuse of project knowledge as shown by the results of the evaluation. There is scope for
enhancing this study by exploring the integration of the prototype application with other
information systems, and the use of software agents to automatically locate useful knowledge from
the Internet and project extranets. The methodology developed will help construction organisation
to leverage their knowledge in a timely way to meet the challenge of today's fast evolving world
Improving construction site management practices through knowledge management
There are several challenging engineering and management problems that occur on
construction sites. Failure in managing construction site problems results in a high
proportion of rework, defects, delays, disputes and cost overruns on construction
projects. In site management, knowledge is often embedded not only in documents and
repositories but also in organisational routines, processes, practices and norms.
However, site management teams still do not have a systematic approach to managing knowledge. Knowledge management (KM) processes can effectively be used to enable construction site managers deal with on-site problems and risks in a systematic and efficient way. With regard to these problems, the aim of this research was to investigate the improvement of construction site management practices through the integration of
knowledge management processes.
The research methodology adopted consisted of several methods. A literature review on
site management practices and knowledge management as first undertaken . This was
followed by case studies involving five construction sites which sought to investigate
the key problems of site management practices and to examine existing knowledge management practices on the construction site. They also explored how KM processes
could improve current site management practices. The cases tudy findings underpinned by literature results were used to develop a conceptual framework to managing
construction knowledge that is entrenched in site management processes. The integrated
K&4 framework (incorporating both proactive and reactive approaches) was intended to
enable site managers to adopt a knowledge management approach to addressing site
management problems. The framework was encapsulated in a computer-based
prototype system (developed using Microsoft Visual Basic) to simplify the use of the
integrated KM framework and provide construction organisations with a practical tool. Evaluation of the prototype system was carried out by industry practitioners and
construction researchers to assess its appropriateness and functionality. It was
established that the prototype system was highly effective in enabling site managers to
address site management problems from a knowledge management perspective. Several benefits of the system were also identified.
It is concluded that construction site management practices can be improved if the
knowledge dimensions of the problems are well understood and appropriately managed.
This research has developed an integrated KM framework that provides a structured
approach to achieving this. The framework is simple to use, requires a relatively short
time to implement, is scalable to any type of project and can easily be deployed on any
construction site. Knowledge gains economic value when it is used to solve problems,
explore opportunities and make decisions. The developed prototype system is expected
to increase the ability of the site manager to learn from previous experience and to
better address any site management problems that may occur. It also enables the site
manager to be proactive in minimising the number of problems that occur on the
construction site and to reduce the impact of those that do occur
An investigation into a distributed virtual reality environment for real-time collaborative 4D construction planning and simulation
The use and application of 4 Dimensional Computer Aided Design (4D CAD) is growing within the construction industry. 4D approaches have been the focus of many research efforts within the last decade and several commercial tools now exist for the creation of construction simulations using 4D approaches. However, there are several key limitations to the current approaches. For example, 4D models are normally developed after the initial planning of a project has taken place using more traditional techniques such as Critical Path Method (CPM). Furthermore, mainstream methodologies for planning are based on individual facets of the construction process developed by discrete contractors or sub-contractors. Any 4D models generated from these data are often used to verify work flows and identify problems that may arise, either in terms of work methods or sequencing issues. Subsequently, it is perceived that current 4D CAD approaches provide a planning review mechanism rather than a platform for a novel integrated approach to construction planning. The work undertaken in this study seeks to address these issues through the application of a distributed virtual reality (VR) environment for collaborative 4D based construction planning. The key advances lie in catering for geographically dispersed planning by discrete construction teams. By leveraging networked 4D-VR based technologies, multidisciplinary planners, in different places, can be connected to collaboratively perform planning and create an integrated and robust construction schedule leading to a complete 4D CAD simulation. Establishing such a complex environment faces both technological and social challenges. Technological challenges arise from the integration of traditional and recent 4D approaches for construction planning with an ad hoc application platform of VR linked through networked computing. Social challenges arise from social dynamics and human behaviours when utilizing VR-based applications for collaborative work. An appropriate 4D-based planning method in a networked VR based environment is the key to gaining a technical advancement and this approach to distributed collaborative planning tends to promote computer-supported collaborative work (CSCW). Subsequently, probing suitable CSCW design and user interface/interaction (UI) design are imperative for solutions to achieve successful applicability. Based on the foregoing, this study developed a novel robust 4D planning approach for networked construction planning. The new method of interactive definition was devised through theoretical analysis of human-computer interaction (HCI) studies, a comparison of existing 4D CAD creation, and 3D model based construction planning. It was created to support not only individual plannersâ work but multidisciplinary plannersâ collaboration, and lead to interactive and dynamic development of a 4D simulation. From a social perspective, the method clarified and highlighted relevant CSCW design to enhance collaboration. Applying this rationale, the study specified and implemented a distributed groupware solution for collaborative 4D construction planning. Based on a developed system architecture, application mode and dataflow, as well as a real-time data exchange protocol, a prototype system entitled â4DXâ was implemented which provides a platform for distributed multidisciplinary planners to perform real-time collaborative 4D construction planning. The implemented toolkit targeted a semi-immersive VR platform for enhanced usability with compatibility of desktop VR. For the purpose of obtaining optimal UI design of this kind of VR solution, the research implemented a new user-centred design (UCD) framework of Taguchi-Compliant User-Centred Design (TC-UCD) by adapting and adopting the Taguchi philosophy and current UCD framework. As a result, a series of UIs of the VR-based solution for multifactor usability evaluation and optimization were developed leading to a VR-based solution with optimal UIs. The final distributed VR solution was validated in a truly geographically dispersed condition. Findings from the verification testing, the validation, and the feedback from construction professionals proved positive in addition to providing constructive suggestions to further reinforce the applicability of the approach in the future.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo
A web-based collaborative decision making system for construction project teams using fuzzy logic
In the construction industry, the adoption of concurrent engineering principles
requires the development of effective enabling IT tools. Such tools need to address
specific areas of need in the implementation of concurrent engineering in
construction. Collaborative decision-making is an important area in this regard. A
review of existing works has shown that none of the existing approaches to
collaborative decision-making adequately addresses the needs of distributed
construction project teams. The review also reveals that fuzzy logic offers great
potential for application to collaborative decision-making.
This thesis describes a Web-based collaborative decision-making system for
construction project teams using fuzzy logic. Fuzzy logic is applied to tackle
uncertainties and imprecision during the decision-making process. The prototype
system is designed as Web-based to cope with the difficulty in the case where project
team members are geographically distributed and physical meetings are
inconvenient/or expensive. The prototype was developed into a Web-based software
using Java and allows a virtual meeting to be held within a construction project team
via a client-server system. The prototype system also supports objectivity in group
decision-making and the approach encapsulated in the prototype system can be used
for generic decision-making scenarios.
The system implementation revealed that collaborative decision-making within a
virtual construction project team can be significantly enhanced by the use of a fuzzybased
approach. A generic scenario and a construction scenario were used to evaluate
the system and the evaluation confirmed that the system does proffer many benefits in
facilitating collaborative decision-making in construction.
It is concluded that the prototype decision-making system represents a unique and
innovative approach to collaborative decision-making in construction project teams. It
not only contributes to the implementation of concurrent engineering in construction,
but also it represents a substantial advance over existing approaches
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