Abstract

Construction is a dynamic and fragmented industry which has many interacting stakeholders’ represented by either individuals or organizations who are involved in a common project for a certain period of time. The simple form for the stakeholders consists of owner, consultant and contractor. As such, construction industry is depending on appointing a consultant, by the owner, to carry out the design of the project and then assigning a contractor, which is responsible to allocate a team to build and give them the sufficient tool to communicate and report. Each party shall formulate its organization chart for such project and assign a project manager on top of hierarchy of this chart. For all involved stakeholders, managing construction projects requires controlling its running schedule and cost comparing to the planned ones. In order to do that, project managers for each stakeholders need periodical reports that represent the status of the project to predict any potential problems and consider taking the necessary measures on the proper time to maintain the project course and budget. Most problems in the construction industry are referred to communication and reporting problems. The links between the different stakeholders have to be built on a robust communication and reporting system that allows to acquire precise, simple and accurate information. Lack in communication and reporting system, shall result in having a misleading information which consequently lead to wrong decisions. This research tackles the consequences of poor communication and reporting systems and provide some tips to have an effective one. Followed by, describing the current used reporting techniques where their suitability for use is assessed. Furthermore, a user friendly reporting technique is presented where the used data in developing the technique was acquired from literature study and structured interviews with 29 professional expert in construction industry. The proposed technique aims to integrate the communication process to allow project managers to acquire a simple overview about the projects progress and obstacles. The suggested interface is pointing to achieve the balance between simplicity, accuracy and effectiveness with a reasonable cost. Through simple tables and graphs, it gives a quick overview for the managers to understand the status of their projects for each activity and the assigned resources, evaluate the progress through the key performance indicators, predict the problems at early stage and appraise the project’s cash flow to act in a proactive mode not in a reactive one. The proposed interface depends on acquiring on-spot information from each of the project team members about the progress and incurred costs for all project activities through user friendly interface which is designated with its simplicity. Formerly, the acquired information for the progress shall be translated to comprehensive progress report which allows the project manager to understand the status of the project. The offered technique is suitable to be used in any of stakeholders firms as long as it has projects enclose planned activities associated with costs. However, the contractor perspective is considered in this study.

Department

Construction Engineering Department

Degree Name

MS in Construction Engineering

Graduation Date

6-1-2017

Submission Date

May 2017

First Advisor

Ezeldin, Samer

Committee Member 1

Waly, Ahmed

Committee Member 2

El-Husseiny, Ossama

Extent

141 p.

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Rights

The author retains all rights with regard to copyright. The author certifies that written permission from the owner(s) of third-party copyrighted matter included in the thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study has been obtained. The author further certifies that IRB approval has been obtained for this thesis, or that IRB approval is not necessary for this thesis. Insofar as this thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study is an educational record as defined in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 USC 1232g), the author has granted consent to disclosure of it to anyone who requests a copy.

Institutional Review Board (IRB) Approval

Not necessary for this item

Download

Share

COinS