Web Based Communication

ATELCOMA Application of Teleworking in Construction Management Leonardo da Vinci Programm - No P/98/2/05349/PI/II.1.1.c/FP

Change Management for using a Project Website in Design Team Communication

A Project Website (PWS) has been advocated as an important tool for design teams of construction projects, because the tool is supposed to greatly enhance team communication. This, finally, should result in improved team performance in terms of increase of efficiency and effectiveness. PWS vendors claim these results on expected better communication of teams who share and update their design information using a PWS together. The growing use of IT tools by design team members who electronically generate, collect and update design information increases the need for such an IT tool that allow fast and easy access and overview of the status of the latest changed and generated design information of the whole team. Also due to the growing complexity of building projects, the number of design partners and the number of electronic means for communication, the need for better collective communication is more important then it has ever been before. However, due to the expanding complexity and changes in design information, the redundancy of design information is growing too and the risk to failures. Team members need new skills for collective use of a PWS. The use of the tool might need radical changes in information flows to become effective. It might be experienced also that use of a PWS formalizes team communication too much, or might be threatening because of ‘big brother effects’. Within this view the change to collective use of a PWS by a design team is not an automatic change to an effective communication environment as vendors like us to believe and many pitfalls can be encountered. In this paper the most important aspects of change to collective use of a project website for team communication will be discussed, based on the results of a Dutch PhD research project

Formal and informal computer mediated communication within within design teams for complex building projects

In this paper the information environment of design teams is discussed because of the use of Internet based Project websites (PWS) to improve the information exchange within design teams. Because design teams heavenly depend on informal information exchange and PWS is a tool for formalising information exchange the question is how a PWS can be used effectively within deign environments. To get a more holistic view on the information environment of design teams Davenport’s model for Information ecology is used (Davenport, 1997). The design organisation of DGW&T of the Ministry of Defense in the Netherlands is described by using the different aspects of information ecology. Finally informal information exchange processes within DGW&T are discussed as well as possibilities for improvement of information handling

Change Management for using a Project Website in Design Team Communication

A Project Website (PWS) has been advocated as an important tool for design teams of construction projects, because the tool is supposed to greatly enhance team communication. This, finally, should result in improved team performance in terms of increase of efficiency and effectiveness. PWS vendors claim these results on expected better communication of teams who share and update their design information using a PWS together. The growing use of IT tools by design team members who electronically generate, collect and update design information increases the need for such an IT tool that allow fast and easy access and overview of the status of the latest changed and generated design information of the whole team. Also due to the growing complexity of building projects, the number of design partners and the number of electronic means for communication, the need for better collective communication is more important then it has ever been before. However, due to the expanding complexity and changes in design information, the redundancy of design information is growing too and the risk to failures. Team members need new skills for collective use of a PWS. The use of the tool might need radical changes in information flows to become effective. It might be experienced also that use of a PWS formalizes team communication too much, or might be threatening because of ‘big brother effects’. Within this view the change to collective use of a PWS by a design team is not an automatic change to an effective communication environment as vendors like us to believe and many pitfalls can be encountered. In this paper the most important aspects of change to collective use of a project website for team communication will be discussed, based on the results of a Dutch PhD research project

Steering Creativity in Design Teams: An explorative study about the relationship between leadership and autonomy of professional designers

In this paper we explore the area of creativity that is particular to the complex setting of project organizations as faced by professional designers. These specialist designers can be characterized as being creative, visionary, spatially aware and abstract thinking practitioners with a high level of technical knowledge and experience (Schön, 1987). These professionals are usually designers who also hold management functions in their own mother organization. Since knowledge about the design exists on a cognitive level of the design team members, it is particularly important to have a better view on the ways cognitive processes can be steered. Any negative occurrences during a project can surely be transferred back to the mother organizations of the designers, which could cause a snowball-effect. Research in the area of creativity encompasses a substantial body of empirical evidence concerning the processes that people use to think and to solve problems, which allows us to examine and apply this information to different kinds of social settings. This empirical research has expanded the Componential Model of Creativity defined by Amabile (1983) and has therefore considerably contributed to our academic and practical knowledge concerning this widely used concept. Various leadership styles and the influences thereof on the autonomy of designing professionals were investigated. The importance of this relationship is conveyed in its consequence. Perceived autonomy of designers consequently influences their intrinsic motivation, which in turn influences the creativity of professionals. This phenomenon was studied in two conditions, namely low and high time pressure. Results have shown that autocratic leadership negatively influences the level of autonomy in both conditions, but this relationship is moderated by the setting of clear goals and responsibilities. Democratic leaders are susceptible to change to autocratic leadership during high time pressure. Negative influences thereof on the perceived autonomy are moderated by early creation of a positive environment. Further knowledge on this matter could offer project leaders interesting insights for enhancing creativity within a project organization, and could consequently enhance the performance of designing teams within mother organizations

A design control structure for architectural firms in a highly complex and uncertain situation

A large architectural firm in a highly complex and uncertain production situation asked to improve its existing ?production control? system for design projects. To that account a research and design project of nine months at the spot was defined. The production control in the organization was based on a mix of project management tools, resource allocation to whole projects, and regular updating of the project portfolio. The results of the research analyses showed that the situation of the firm?s design projects cannot be controlled with only such tools, due to lack of coherence between the ?production control? and the design situation. To improve the coherence, a basic ?production control? structure is designed. The design of this structure is based on the match between the research findings and theoretical principles of how decisions should be made in multi-project situations that are highly complex and uncertain. The design consists of four hierarchical planning functions (strategic resource planning, rough cut capacity planning, resource constraint project scheduling and detailed planning). After finalizing and presenting the design, the design led to new insights into resource allocation for the client and has been approved by the client and office management. The implementation of the design is however still in design proposition due to other priorities

BIM versus PLM: Risks and benefits

Applying Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a hot issue. The Building industry feels the urge to use it, but at the same time companies see huge risks, since the ownership and control of information becomes unclear when all building information is put together in one model. Also the cost and the benefits do not always land at the same place. To that account three Dutch firms operating in multi- disciplinary building & construction projects asked the authors to execute a research and design project how to solve this problem. As a result a framework for assessing risks was developed for setting up a successful BIM process. It seems the manufacturing industry is much ahead of the Building industry in using these concepts and technology, be it under the name of Product Lifecycle Management. However, comparing the approaches in the Building industry and manufacturing industry shows that, while construction is primarily interested in the risks, manufacturing is primarily focussed on the benefits. The paper tries to explain this difference and concludes with some suggestions to reduce risk and enhance the benefits of BIM for construction companies. Keywords:, Data collection, Product Lifecycle management, Building Information Modeling and Data storage

Web Based Communication

ATELCOMA Application of Teleworking in Construction Management Leonardo da Vinci Programm - No P/98/2/05349/PI/II.1.1.c/FP

Design communication within fast-track building projects

The factor time within building projects is on high pressure because the need for faster delivery of buildings is rising. Within fast-track, complex building projects the design process is an important key to fast-tracking. Based on case analyses of fast-track design processes (den Otter, Prins 2001) it became obvious that design processes function poorly within fast-track projects. Improvement of design methods, techniques and instruments is needed to facilitate these high-pressure design processes as well as high professional skills of the design team members to collaborate and communicate effectively. Solutions might be found in integral design methods with an increased level of collaboration and communication facilitated by electronic media for design information flows. In this paper, design communication facilitated by extranets within fast-track, integral design processes is analysed and modelled. Special attention is given to electronic mediated communication of design teams facilitated by reflection and action learning to increase the inter-activity of these design teams