Modern construction projects are delivered in complex, fast pace environments. Stakeholders are required to participate in dynamic project settings with resource constraints, information constraints, and time constraints. To overcome gaps in knowledge, to deliver decisions quickly, and to overcome human limits in cognitive ability, decision makers typically employ heuristics, or rules of thumb to arrive at relatively quick answers. Heuristics are cognitive shortcuts that an individual employs to arrive at quick decisions (Goodwin et al., 2004). These heuristics are used in a variety of ways, ranging from using the process of elimination (elimination heuristic) to applying different cognitive weights to options based on recent experience, reputation, or familiarity (Shah and Oppenheimer, 2008). This research aims to identify heuristics present in the implementation phase of construction. By summarizing the results of two studies conducted with a Mid-Atlantic Contractor, this thesis prescribes seven heuristics commonly used by construction stakeholders. / Master of Science / Modern construction provides a difficult decision making environment for workers. Construction stakeholders often work in environments with limited time, with limited information, and with limited knowledge. Decision makers in these environments typically use mental rules of thumb (formerly known as heuristics). These rules of thumb help decisions makers arrive at quick answers and often increase efficiency. They can be used in a variety of ways. An individual may use the process of elimination to find a solution. Others may base their decision off a company, person, or object ‘s reputation. Others may only choose an option that is recognizable. Rules of thumb take many forms and are used by all people. Studying rules of thumb can benefit an industry. This has already been proven in many industries, such as insurance (Handel & Kolstad, 2015), medicine (Martin et al., 2012), and economics (Grandori, 2010). The construction industry has begun to study rules of thumb that impact early stages of the construction process, but it still lacks rules of thumb that impact the process of physical construction. This paper aims to assist the construction industry in gaining a fuller view of decision making shortcuts used by its stakeholders. By summarizing the results of two studies conducted with a Mid-Atlantic Contractor, this thesis outlines seven heuristic used by construction workers.

This paper presents a quantitative comparison of perfective and corrective software maintenance performed by a large military contractor using a formal program release process. The analysis techniques used in the comparison make use of basic data collected throughout the maintenance process. The data collected allow the impact of performing perfective and corrective maintenance to be quantitatively compared. Both parametric and non-parametric statistical techniques are applied to test relationships between and among process and product data. The results provide valuable information for predicting future process and product characteristics, assessing perfective and corrective maintenance impact, and quantitatively comparing the impact of both types of requirements volatility. The results also support one common rule of thumb, cast some doubt on another, and lead to the formulation of a new one.

<p>This thesis deals with problem solving of general practitioners (GPs), which is explored with different methods and from different perspectives. The general aim was to explore and describe rules of thumb and to analyse the management of respiratory and urinary tract infections (RTI and UTI) in general practice in Sweden. The results are based upon focus group interviews concerning rules of thumb and a prospective diagnosis-prescription study concerning the management of patients allocated a diagnosis of RTI or UTI. In addition unpublished data are given from structured telephone interviews concerning specific rules of thumb in acute sinusitis and prevailing cough.</p><p>GPs were able to verbalize their rules of thumb, which could be called tacit knowledge. A specific set of rules of thumb was used for rapid assessment when emergency and psychosocial problems were identified. Somatic problems seemed to be the expected, normal state. In the further consultation the rules of thumb seemed to be used in an act of balance between the individual and the general perspective. There was considerable variation between the rules of thumb of different GPs for patients with acute sinusitis and prevailing cough. In their rules of thumb the GPs seemed to integrate their medical knowledge and practical experience of the consultation. A high number of near-patient antigen tests to probe Streptococcus pyogenes (Strep A tests) and C-reactive protein (CRP) tests were performed in patients, where testing was not recommended. There was only a slight decrease in antibiotic prescribing in patients allocated a diagnosis of RTI examined with CRP in comparison with patients not tested. In general, the GPs in Sweden adhered to current guidelines for antibiotic prescribing. Phenoxymethylpenicillin (PcV) was the preferred antibiotic for most patients allocated a diagnosis of respiratory tract infection.</p><p>In conclusion, the use of rules of thumb might explain why current practices prevail in spite of educational efforts. One way to change practice could be to identify and evaluate rules of thumb used by GPs and disseminate well adapted rules. The use of diagnostic tests in patients with infectious illnesses in general practice needs critical appraisal before introduction as well as continuing surveillance. The use of rules of thumb by GPs might be one explanation for variation in practice and irrational prescribing of antibiotics in patients with infectious conditions.</p> / On the day of the public defence the status of the articles IV and V was: Accepted.

This thesis deals with problem solving of general practitioners (GPs), which is explored with different methods and from different perspectives. The general aim was to explore and describe rules of thumb and to analyse the management of respiratory and urinary tract infections (RTI and UTI) in general practice in Sweden. The results are based upon focus group interviews concerning rules of thumb and a prospective diagnosis-prescription study concerning the management of patients allocated a diagnosis of RTI or UTI. In addition unpublished data are given from structured telephone interviews concerning specific rules of thumb in acute sinusitis and prevailing cough. GPs were able to verbalize their rules of thumb, which could be called tacit knowledge. A specific set of rules of thumb was used for rapid assessment when emergency and psychosocial problems were identified. Somatic problems seemed to be the expected, normal state. In the further consultation the rules of thumb seemed to be used in an act of balance between the individual and the general perspective. There was considerable variation between the rules of thumb of different GPs for patients with acute sinusitis and prevailing cough. In their rules of thumb the GPs seemed to integrate their medical knowledge and practical experience of the consultation. A high number of near-patient antigen tests to probe Streptococcus pyogenes (Strep A tests) and C-reactive protein (CRP) tests were performed in patients, where testing was not recommended. There was only a slight decrease in antibiotic prescribing in patients allocated a diagnosis of RTI examined with CRP in comparison with patients not tested. In general, the GPs in Sweden adhered to current guidelines for antibiotic prescribing. Phenoxymethylpenicillin (PcV) was the preferred antibiotic for most patients allocated a diagnosis of respiratory tract infection. In conclusion, the use of rules of thumb might explain why current practices prevail in spite of educational efforts. One way to change practice could be to identify and evaluate rules of thumb used by GPs and disseminate well adapted rules. The use of diagnostic tests in patients with infectious illnesses in general practice needs critical appraisal before introduction as well as continuing surveillance. The use of rules of thumb by GPs might be one explanation for variation in practice and irrational prescribing of antibiotics in patients with infectious conditions. / On the day of the public defence the status of the articles IV and V was: Accepted.

Background: Entrepreneurship plays an indispensable role in today’s society. Especially, the creation of new ventures promotes economic growth and new opportunities. Hereof, Sweden is viewed as a role-model, since it is one of the most innovative and entrepreneurial active countries in the world. Almost 6% of Sweden’s inhabitants are currently characterized as nascent entrepreneurs and thus, are engaged in early entrepreneurial activities without having started an official venture yet. Considering the fact that nascent entrepreneurs have no prior entrepreneurial experience while facing uncertain environments, they have to evaluate the attractiveness of new venture ideas and decide whether they are worth to pursue or to drop them. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore the evaluation approach of nascent entrepreneurs in the light of new venture ideas. More precisely, we want to investigate what kind of approaches they make use of when evaluating the attractiveness of those ideas and their motives behind the approaches. Method: This thesis is of qualitative nature while following an inductive approach and conducting a multiple case study with ten cases of different nascent entrepreneurs. The data is collected through semi-structured interviews, which were conducted in personal face-to-face meetings. For analysing the empirical findings, we engaged in within-case and cross-case analyses, where we identified and analysed common patterns and differences across the cases. Conclusion: All of the research respondents apply a variety of evaluation approaches, where they make use of their cognition as a means of judging and assessing the attractiveness of new venture ideas. Besides utilizing their social network, existing knowledge and future estimations, all nascent entrepreneurs are using heuristic rules-of-thumb for evaluating the idea attractiveness. Thereby, we identified Passion, Monetary Incentives, Resources and Market Potential as the most outstanding rules-of-thumb in the clear majority of the cases.

Designing architecture is related to producing vast amounts of information based on constraints, experience or common sense, and at the same time, those designs are assisted by specialized software, but, are the results of those processes giving you advantage or are they leading you in the wrong way? For example, should you include shading elements or less glazing? Should you change the shape of the building or improve envelope specifications? This research is a start to understand how to approach to design problems related to solar geometry, recognize which variables are worth modifying, reduce potential of error when iterating, and take truly advantage of the output delivered by modeling tools. / Master of Architecture

Idag byggs fler bostäder än vad som gjorts under de senaste 60 åren. Det finns många utmaningar med den volym bostäder som behöver byggas. Många bostäder kommer byggas i exploateringsområden, detta ställer krav på infrastrukturinvesteringar exempelvis i form av nya skolor. Enligt prognoser kommer antalet grundskoleelever öka med 250 000 till år 2025. Detta innebär ett behov av 1000 nya skolor på tio år. Behovet av skolor är långsiktigt och lärmiljöer behöver planeras för att vara långsiktiga. Dagsljus och utblick har en stor inverkan på vår arbetsmiljö, prestation och är nödvändig för vår hälsa. Studier har visat att dagsljusbelysta skolmiljöer får elever att prestera bättre. Trots detta har vi sedan 50-talet halverat kravet på dagsljusnivåer i skolor från 2 % till 1,0 % dagsljusfaktor. Idag har vi samma dagsljuskrav för klassrum som för ett sovrum i en bostad. Syftet med examenarbetet är att problematisera moderna skolmiljöer sett ur dagsljusets betydelse för hälsa och prestation i relation till dagens myndighetskrav för tillgång av dagsljus. Vidare syftar arbetet till att ta fram goda exempel på dagsljuslösningar som kan nyttjas vid utformning av moderna skolmiljöer. För att bedöma moderna skolors dagsljustillgång har ett urval av fem skolor i Stockholmsområdet utgjort studieobjekt där tillgången på dagsljus undersökts mot myndighetskraven. Undersökning av studieobjekten har utförts genom 3D modellering i Rhinoceros 3D samt dagsljusfaktorsimuleringar i programmet Grasshopper och Honeybee. Studieobjekten har modellerats upp efter inhämtade bygglovsritningar och dagsljussimuleringarna har utförts med simuleringsmotorn Radiance. Resultatet från dagsljusfaktorsimuleringen visar att ingen av de undersökta skolornas fullt ut uppfyller myndighetskraven. Anledningen till varför skolornas undersökta rum inte uppfyller kraven varierar mellan eller utgör en kombination av; rumsdjup, fönsterstorlek, fönstersättning i fasad, avskärmningsvinklar, avskärmande byggnadsdelar och fast solavskärmning. Undersökningen visar att rum som hemvistytor och uppehållsrum ofta saknar fönster mot det fria och följaktligen underkänns. Dessa rum är vanligt förekommande vid nyttjande av progressiva pedagogiska inriktningar. Beroende på rummens tilltänkta användning kan de komma att klassas som vistelserum och behöver därför tillgång till dagsljus. Ur litteraturgenomgången förstås att en tidig integrering av dagsljusdesign i gestaltningsprocessen är nödvändigt för att säkerställa en god tillgång till dagsljus i lärmiljöer. Som del av examensarbetet har därför ett gestaltningsförslag tagits fram där en dagsljusdesign nyttjas. Iterativt under gestaltningsprocessen har dagsljustillgång simulerats för att motivera gjorda designval och säkerställa en god dagsljusnivå. För jämförande och platsspecifika resultat har klimatbaserade simuleringsmetoder använts. Det nyttjade mätvärdet Optimal Day-lit Area (ODA) simulerar användbarheten i det tillgängliga dagsljusets belysningsstyrka över ett år. Samtidigt tar ODA hänsyn till överbelyst golvyta som kan vara problematisk då obehagsbländning och överhettning kan uppstå. Det presenterade gestaltningsförslaget utgör ett konceptförslag i syfte att gestalta användningen av en integrerad dagsljusdesignprocess och dess resultat. / Currently more housing is being built than in the past 60 years. There are many challenges accompanied with the volume of housing that needs to be built. Many of the dwellings that are going to be built are placed in new densely planned urban areas, which imposes requirements for infrastructure investments, for example in the form of new schools. According to forecasts, the number of students in primary school will increase by 250,000 by the year 2025. This implies a need for approximately 1000 new schools in ten years. The need for new schools are long term and therefore the learning environments need to be designed to be long term. Daylight and view have a major impact on our work environment, performance and are necessary for our health. Studies have shown that daylight-lit school environments enhance the performance of the students. The building legislation regulates the required levels using the daylight factor metric. Since the 50’s the requirements of daylight levels in schools have been approximately halved from 2 % to 1,0 %. Today the daylight requirements are the same for classrooms as for bedrooms in dwellings. The purpose of this thesis is to examine modern school environments in relation to today's regulatory requirements for access to daylight. Furthermore, the work aims to produce good examples of daylight solutions that can be used when designing modern school environments against the regulatory requirements. To assess the daylight access in modern schools, a selection of three nursery schools and two primary schools in the vicinity of Stockholm were chosen. Case studies were conducted using the 3D modelling software, Rhinoceros 3D and the daylight factor was then simulated using the Grasshopper and Honeybee plug-ins. The schools were modelled according to the acquired drawings and daylight were performed using the simulation engine Radiance. The result from the daylight factor simulation show that none of the schools examined fully meet the requirements. The reasons why the examined schools do not meet the requirements vary between or constitute a combination of; room depth, window size, window façade, obstruction angles, obstructing components and shading devices. The study shows that rooms such as: common areas and study hall often lack windows towards the outside and therefore only gets borrowed light from other areas. These kinds of rooms are common when using progressive pedagogical approaches. Depending on the intended future use of the rooms, they may be classified in such a way that they need to fulfil the regulations regarding daylight. From the literature review it is understood that early integration of daylight design in the design process is necessary to ensure good accesses to daylight in learnings environments. As a part of the thesis project, a design proposal has been developed using a daylight design process. During the design process, the access to daylight has been iteratively simulated to motivate selected design choices and ensure a good daylight level.  For comparison and site-specific results, climate-based simulation methods have been used. The use of the Optimal Day-lit Area (ODA) metric measures the usefulness of the available daylight illumination intensity over a year. At the same time, ODA takes the eventual over lit areas that may cause overheating and glare into account. The presented design proposal demonstrates the use of an integrated daylight design process and its results.