Impacts of Design/Information Technology on Project Outcomes

Published

July 1, 2004

Author(s)

Stephen R. Thomas, S H. Lee, J D. Spencer, R L. Tucker, Robert E. Chapman

Abstract

This paper describes a collaborative effort by industry, government, and academia to evaluate the use of design/information technology (D/IT) and to relate the degree of use to project performance. A detailed statistical analysis of 297 projects in the Construction Industry Institute (CII) database is used to produce baseline measures of performance and D/IT use. The relationship between these measures is used to assess the economic value of using the technologies. A set of projects that excelled in the use of D/IT and that scored high on performance measures is then examined. These exemplary projects provide a basis for further in depth analyses through on-site interviews with key project representatives. The results of this study establish that projects benefit from D/IT use. Both owners and contractors can expect construction cost savings of approximately 4 percent by increasing the use of D/IT. For owners there is clear evidence of schedule compression as well. Although the statistical analyses do not support schedule compression benefits for contractors, findings from the on-site interviews provide anecdotal support.

Citation

Journal of Construction Engineering and Management

Volume

130

Issue

4

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

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Keywords

building economics, construction, design/information technologies, economic value, technology implementation

Citation

Thomas, S. , Lee, S. , Spencer, J. , Tucker, R. and Chapman, R. (2004), Impacts of Design/Information Technology on Project Outcomes, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=860908 (Accessed October 24, 2025)