Traditional ways of capturing the progress of work on construction sites rely on manual means. This often involves subjectivity and is therefore prone to error. In addition, the timing of this manual approach is usually too infrequent to allow for prompt control actions. This study is about automating the process of measuring work in progress and integrating that with design, planning, and as-built documentation of progress information. The work reported in this study is a subset of an EPSRC funded project that aims to investigate applications of computer vision techniques to the measurement of work in progress. The key issues addressed are the conceptual design of the entire system and the computer implementation of a model for documenting as-built pro information.

The commitment and retention of employees in the construction industry has been a major concern for a considerable period of time. This problem is exacerbated by the inability of the industry to attract, develop, motivate, and retain employees. These factors have been identified as relating to the communication of employees' expectations in terms of the job role. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of line managers' communication practices on commitment and retention through the psychological contracts perspective of subordinate construction and project managers. To achieve this aim, the study draws from two well established theories: the concept of the psychological contract which is based on the theory of reciprocity, and Luhmann's social system theory which views communication as the elementary process constituting the social domain. These theories form the basis of exploring the conditions under which perceived employment obligations of line managers, by subordinate construction managers and project managers, have potential impact on their commitment and retention. A selection of construction and project managers in Nigeria and the UK, through an extensive two-stage Delphi study, provided a list of the most significant items of information subordinates in their positions required from line managers in order to undertake their job. The alignment of the expected information versus provided information was contrasted using a Wilcoxon Singed Rank Test which revealed a deficiency in the level of actual provided information by line managers. A further analysis of the perception of the "Communication Style" and the "Nature of communication" and the impact of these communication practices on subordinates commitment and retention show that line managers' communication practices significantly impact commitment and retention of subordinates' in the construction organisations. The findings revealed that organisational commitment and high commitment cannot be achieved without line managers aligning their communication practices with subordinates' expectations to do the job. Specific models are developed to provide a summative overview of line managers' communication practices which impact commitment and retention of their subordinates.

Changes to client requirements are inevitable during construction. Industry discourse is concerned with minimising and controlling changes, however, accounts of making changes are rare. Therefore, the aim is to explore how changes to client requirements are made on a live construction project. In response to calls for more research to be undertaken into working practices, an eight-month intensive ethnographic study is adopted to gain insights into the everyday, lived nature of changes on a hospital project. Contract change management procedures were used and modified on the project. Changes developed incrementally and grew into multiple sub-changes as information about requirements became available. Determining requirements of changes was difficult due to instability in the healthcare environment and a lack of design standardisation. The contract procedures do not acknowledge this way in which changes develop; everyday practices appeared protracted in comparison. Nevertheless, there was a strong emphasis on using contract procedures to investigate changes as a means of demonstrating best practice, transparent and accountable decision-making, even when it was known that a change was not required. Hence, the project team members' concerns for following procedures overshadowed considerations about the content of changes. Nevertheless, the contract procedures acted as boundary objects, coordinating the management of changes across communities of practice on the project. Similarly, the project team members drew upon past project experiences and often superficially reused technical terminology to mitigate their lack of understanding about changes. The original contribution to knowledge of this research is its in-depth insights into the complexity of managing changes on a construction project. It highlights the value that knowledge gained from ethnographic accounts, which respect the irreducibility of embedded practices, can have in improving understanding of construction. Furthermore, insights into how contract procedures facilitate and impede making changes can inform contract drafting.

A lifecycle information management solution utilising parametric design tools, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, and mobile computers was proposed for built environment facilities. It is argued that data, information, and performance characteristics of materials and components in a facility in use can be captured and fed back to members of design and construction teams by employing Information Technology (IT) tools. The research follows an inductive approach, and has an exploratory nature. A combination of social and engineering research methods were utilised. For understanding the scope of the problem, literature review and surveying techniques including interviews, workshops, and focus group studies were used. For investigating a technical solution, literature review, brainstorming sessions, prototype development, and demonstration techniques were used. Black box technology was chosen as an analogy to guide and aid developing the solution. Parametric design tools, RFID tags, mobile computers, and networking technologies were identified as candidates for being parts of the solution. Issues pertaining to the implementation of the solution using these technologies were investigated from technical, human, and organisational perspectives. A lifecycle information management solution incorporating the aforementioned technologies was devised and a functional prototype tool combining relevant hardware and software was developed. The main contribution to knowledge is the demonstration of a real need and case for the application of lifecycle information management solutions in UK construction sector. The research has identified a small step in offering a solution. The question is very wide and beyond the scope of any single thesis to provide an operational solution. However, this research has shown that it is possible to link design, production, and maintenance information by using technology from other industry sectors. The research identified that the human and organisational issues were of paramount importance. The temptation is to focus always on a technology solution. The research has shown that the technology solution must be balanced with the human and organisational interface issues.

This thesis relates to a number of connected initiatives, which over a 20 plus year period assisted design professionals to transfer building energy and environmental simulation technologies from the domain of specialists to routine use in practice. It is written in the context of worldwide concerns relating to climate change, energy profligacy and depleting reserves of finite resources, from fossil fuels to materials, and associated legislative measures relating to the environmental impact of the construction industry. The research conjectured and tested mechanisms, including performance assessment methods, quality assurance procedures and knowledge transfer, in order to encourage and support the uptake of simulation in design practice and to progress the embedding of the technology as a routine design process activity in Scottish energy sector and construction businesses. By assisting the uptake of simulation within the professions, the reported work has allowed construction sector businesses to transform existing work practices and in the process to make a significant, measurable contribution to carbon reduction targets over the last 20 years. Moreover, the work illustrates how the creation of support networks and an integrated, partnership approach between academia and practice can break down barriers to use in practices and increase the effectiveness of the transfer of new technologies resulting in cumulative positive environmental impacts that go significantly beyond the benefits of individual interventions. This conclusion is borne out by independent monitoring of the reported activities.

The importance of knowledge as a potential source of sustainable competitive advantage is increasingly appreciated by both policy-makers and practitioners. This issue is particularly pertinent to the construction industry, which represents a significant contribution to a nation's GDP and employment, but whose performance is repeatedly highlighted as unsatisfactory.

Complexity has been identified, in both literature and practice, as a critical project characteristic that needs to be managed to improve project delivery. Many authors have argued that complexity accounts for some of the delays and cost overruns experienced on projects. Within the construction industry, there has been a shift from procuring many, but smaller projects by clients, to few but large contracts, in response to the demand for more integration and one-stop responsibility. The characteristics of such projects have been found to be interdependent, non-linear, dynamic and uncertain. Project management approaches to managing complex projects, have been based on classical Newtonian principles which are linear, mechanistic and reductionist in nature, but do not reflect accurately the reality of delivering such projects in multiproject environments. As yet, no study has conceptualised, operationalized nor tested a model for managing complex construction projects in a multi-project environment by the contractor. This study attempts to fill this gap. Based on a conceptual model, that provided understanding on the actuality of complex projects delivery in multi-project environments, a theoretical framework, based on socio-technical systems, was used to serve as a lens for empirical analysis for the study. Five complex construction projects (being delivered by contractors as part of their multi-project portfolio) were explored. The cases were integrated procurement types, in the form of Design and Build or PFI's. Case-study protocol was used to provide guidance for collecting data, and the framework for investigation and analysis.

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Construction projects are always exposed to delay. Research has shown that most projects encounter delays and this problem is a global one. Previous research related to delays in construction projects have been dedicated to measuring and ranking the direct delays that have occurred. These types of delay are past delays and have already affected many aspects of the project's performance. This type of research is of the reactive type and handles delays after they have happened. The objective of this research is to model the construction project delays that can be used to predict the level of delays that the project could face during its future life. The proposed Delay Hierarchy Propagation Model (DHPM) is the first attempt to model delays in the construction project. This model is an innovative predictive approach to anticipate the future encountered delays before they become real. The model assumes that the direct delay is generated from earlier events or aspects that are found before the direct delay occurs; these events are called the root delay causes. These root delay causes need to be analysed, measured and managed in order to prevent or mitigate the effect of a later direct delay in the project life. The direct delays were analysed by a cause-effect technique to extract a set of root delay causes. The model assumes that the root delay causes will influence the project resources supply rate. The resource shortage then leads to activity delay and, hence possible delay to the whole project. The DHPM consists of two interrelated models: a Resource Shortage Possibility (RSP) model and the Predicting Project Delay model (PPD) model. The RSP model objective is to predict the possibility of resource shortage, whilst the PPD model objectives are to predict the project finish time and to define the critical areas for the project to delay using the output of the RSP model as input. The RSP model was verified through interview questionnaires with a number of selected personnel from the construction industry. The Delphi method was used to enhance the questionnaire results. The RSP model calculations used a combination of fuzzy logic, analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and multi-attribute theory to obtain the model output. A prototype computer program was introduced. The prototype computer program was then tested on a real construction project. The application of the RSP model showed that it is viable. The PPD model used probabilistic networking to predict the finish time of the project. The model introduced two new terms that can be used to define the most critical activities and the possible resource influence to delay. The comparison between PPD and the classical critical path method (CPM), programme evaluation and review technique (PERT) and Monte Carlo simulation revealed that the proposed model provides new information required to enhance delay management by project management staff.