Social Media Platforms for Construction Project Management

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Social Media Platforms for Construction Project Management Social Media Platforms for Construction Project Management By Viliame Rawalai A thesis submitted to the School of Architecture, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Building Science Victoria University of Wellington 2017 Acknowledgements The completion of this written work would not have been possible without the help of my close family and friends. I would like to say a big “Vinaka Vakalevu”, to my Parents Luke and Kini for their support throughout the process. I would also like to acknowledge my supervisor Marc for his patient guidance. My deepest gratitude also goes to Koi and the Suva-shore family for being with me every step of the way. i ii i. Abstract There is a need for all stakeholders of building process to interact efficiently and effectively. However, this is not always possible due to the different knowledge background and complexity of building projects. Technologies transfer communication, leadership, democratic interaction, teamwork, social engagement and responsibility away from the instructors to the participants. Implementing social network-enabled communication can move design and production beyond its conventional realm and enables stakeholders to develop architectural, management and production knowledge that is embedded into a community of experts with their expertise both online and offline. Current media tools that are available need to be adopted and optimized to match the specific tasks of project delivery. The current single communication tools don’t allow the inclusion of all stakeholders and don’t support a social and collaborative project environment. Communication management is a crucial knowledge area for Project Managers (PMs) who are expected to effectively and efficiently communicate the four constraints (Scope, Time, Cost, Quality) of a project to other stakeholders. This thesis explores the concept of using social media (SM) for construction project management (CPM) and in supporting collaboration within construction project teams. This thesis employs the research methods of a Literature Review, Survey, and a Software Review to achieve this. The literature review identified that there was a knowledge gap regarding SM use by PMs. While construction industry professionals recognised a need for SM, there were no strategies in place to capitalise on SM use. Current tools being used by construction PMs as identified in this thesis include, web-based project management software (WPMS) and Social Software/Groupware. Both tools are used to support core PM processes while also providing a collaborative electronic workspace on the Internet. The emergence of Project Management 2.0 (PM 2.0) and Social Project Management (SPM) methodology/Software as a response to Web 2.0, has seen the adaptation of the social networking (SN) and the ‘re-tweet’ paradigm in project communities. Currently there are SPM software available which is being largely used by PMs in the information technology (IT) industry. A Survey which was administered online to industry professionals, showed that survey respondents while dubious about the use of SM for project related work were interested in using software that integrated more SM-like features. The survey further identified that survey respondents were not aware of SPM software but that they were using some semblance of Social software which were akin to SPM. The dissertation presented a review of current state- of-the-art SPM software and was also used to identify core PM features. In addition to this, ten SPM software were reviewed for features that were fundamentally Web 2.0/ SM based. The findings from the software review and literature review is finally culminated in the outline of the conceptual SPM software-Gantt 2.0 which is intended for CPM. iii iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- i i. Abstract ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ iii ii. List of Figures ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- xi iii. List of Tables------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- xiii iv. List of Abbreviations ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- xv 1 Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1 1.1 Background ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 1.1.1 IT Use in Construction ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1 1.1.2 The Internet ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 1.2 Significance of Research ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 1.3 Research Question and Scope --------------------------------------------------------------------- 9 2 Thesis Outline --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12 2.1 Introduction ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12 2.2 Literature review ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12 2.3 Research Methodology ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13 2.4 Survey Analysis ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13 2.5 Software Review ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 13 2.6 Concept Platform ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13 2.7 Conclusion ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13 3 Literature Review ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14 3.1 Background ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 14 3.1.1 The Construction Project -------------------------------------------------------------------- 14 3.1.2 Information Flow ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 3.1.3 Web 1.0 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 3.1.4 Intranets Vs Extranets ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 17 3.1.5 Internet-based Communication Model --------------------------------------------------- 17 3.1.6 Project Management Software ------------------------------------------------------------- 18 v 3.1.7 Web-based Project Management Systems ----------------------------------------------- 20 3.1.8 Social Software -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23 3.1.9 Summary --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25 3.2 Web 2.0 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 26 3.3 Social Media------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 27 3.3.1 Social Media in the AEC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 29 3.3.2 Social Media in Project Management ------------------------------------------------------ 30 3.4 Enterprise 2.0 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 32 3.5 Project management 2.0 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 34 3.5.1 Social Project Management ----------------------------------------------------------------- 38 3.6 Summary --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 40 4 Research Methodology ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 41 4.1 Survey ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 41 4.1.1 Survey Method -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 41 4.1.2 Analysis Framework ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 42 4.2 Software Review ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 43 4.2.1 Software Criteria ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 43 4.2.2 Analysis Framework ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 44 5 Survey------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 47 5.1 Results ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 47 5.1.1 Participant Background --------------------------------------------------------------------- 47 5.1.2 IT use in the Workplace---------------------------------------------------------------------- 49 5.1.3 Social Media Use ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 54 5.1.4 Social Software Awareness------------------------------------------------------------------ 56 5.2 Limitations of Survey ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 58 5.2.1 Survey duration ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 58 5.2.2 Distribution ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recommended publications
  • Andrew Nealen
    Andrew Nealen Interactive Media & Games Division Prof. Dr.-Ing. Andrew Nealen USC School of Cinematic Arts 1535 6th Street, Apt 301 3470 McClintock Avenue Santa Monica, CA 90401 Los Angeles, CA 90089 [email protected] [email protected] http://www.nealen.net Professional Game design, artificial intelligence, game programming/technology, computer Interests aided game design, computer graphics, interactive techniques, geometric mod- eling, human perception, computer animation, physically-based modeling Current Associate Professor of Cinematic Arts and Computer Science position(s) USC Cinematic Arts / USC Viterbi Work Associate Professor of Cinematic Arts and Computer Science experience USC Cinematic Arts / USC Viterbi (December 2019 { Today) Associate Professor of Cinematic Arts USC School of Cinematic Arts (May 2019 { November 2019) Visiting Associate Professor of Interactive Media & Games USC School of Cinematic Arts (September 2018 { May 2019) Assistant Professor of Computer Science NYU Tandon School of Engineering (September 2012 { September 2018) Core Team Member Hemisphere Games (September 2007 { Today) Assistant Professor of Computer Science Rutgers University (September 2008 { July 2012) Game Designer/Programmer Area/Code (September 2010 { May 2011) Postdoctoral Researcher and Lecturer Technische Universit¨atBerlin (October 2007 { August 2008) Teaching: game design and programming Research Assistant, Teaching Assistant and PhD Student Technische Universit¨atDarmstadt and Technische Universit¨atBerlin (June 2003 { September 2007)
    [Show full text]
  • A Survey of Collaborative Tools in Software Development
    1 INTRODUCTION A Survey of Collaborative Tools in Software Development Anita Sarma Institute for Software Research Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences University of California, Irvine [email protected] ISR Technical Report # UCI-ISR-05-3 March 22, 2005 1 Introduction Collaboration is at the heart of software development. Virtually all software devel- opment requires collaboration among developers within and outside their project teams, to achieve a common objective. It has in fact been shown that about 70% of a software engineer’s time is spent on collaborative activities [219]. Indeed, col- laboration in software development has been studied by researchers in the fields of Software Engineering and Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) since the 1980s and has produced a wide range of collaborative tools. Enabling software developers to collaborate effectively and effortlessly is a difficult task. The collaboration needs of the team depend to a large extent on environmental factors such as, the organizational structure of the team, the domain for which the software is produced, the product structure, and individual team members. Accordingly, research in collaborative development has produced a host of tools, each typically focussing on a different aspect of collaboration. Most teams have their favorite repertoire of tools that has been built from historical use. These tools may not always be the best suited for the team, but the team still uses them nevertheless as the inertia and cost of trying out new tools surpasses the benefits. A number of classification frameworks exist that can be used to classify collaborative tools. In addition to placing the various tools in context, developers can use these frameworks to select the right mix of tools fit for their needs.
    [Show full text]
  • Collaborative Education in a Virtual Learning Environment Hani Bani
    Collaborative Education in a Virtual Learning Environment Hani Bani-Salameh Department of Software Engineering, The Hashemite University, Zarqa 13115, Jordan E-mail: [email protected] Jafar Al-Gharaibeh Architecture Technology Corporation, Eden Prairie, MN 55344, United States E-mail: [email protected] Clinton Jeffery Department of Computer Science, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83843, USA E-mail: [email protected] Ziad A. Al-Sharif Department of Software Engineering, Jordan University of Sci. & Tech, Irbid, Jordan E-mail: [email protected] Abstract: For the last few decades, there was tremendous interest in harnessing 3D virtual environments for education and training. Multi-user game-like environments make use of non-player characters and quest activities in tutoring and training. This approach incorporates successful active learning and incremental progress. This article presents issues encountered while adapting the multi-user online game genre for educational virtual environments. In this endeavour, non-player characters play a central role in organizing and delivering educational content. Educational virtual environments call for additional kinds of extension beyond generic user content creation as delivered in some virtual worlds like SecondLife. Support for these environments will emphasize the creation of new activities. A set of libraries and techniques named Portable Non-player character tutors and Quests reduces the effort needed to develop and integrate educational non-player characters. These non-player characters are introduced in CVE, a platform for rapidly developing educational virtual environments. The Portable Non-player character tutors and Quests framework enables formatted web-based exercises, quizzes, and educational content to be incorporated into Copyright © 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
    [Show full text]
  • The Computer Games Journal Ltd Registered Company No
    ISSN 2052-773X The Computer Games Journal Ltd Registered company no. SC 441838 Registered address: 5 Golf Course Rd, Skelmorlie, North Ayrshire, UK (post code PA17 5BH) journal website: www.computergamesjournal.com journal enquiries: [email protected] The Computer Games Journal Volume 2 Edition 2 Lammas 2013 Reproduction rights owned by The Computer Games Journal Ltd ©2012-14 The Computer Games Journal 2(2) Lammas 2013 Volume 2 Edition 2 Lammas 2013: contents Editorial The need to play and develop video games in order to understand them Phil Carlisle 3 - 4 Papers Physical responses (arousal) to audio in games Raymond Usher, Paul Robertson, Robin Sloan 5 - 13 Technical paper - running a business in The Cloud Sean Reilly, Gordon Dow 14 - 51 Game audio – an investigation into the effect of audio on player immersion Nicola Gallacher 52 - 79 On keeping graduates maximally skilled and visibly so to enter the computer games industry as software developers John Sutherland and Martin Williamson Smith 80 - 102 Audio immersion in games Stephen Gormanley 103 - 123 A quality-driven approach to game physics engine development using the Entity Component Pattern Christopher Reilly , Kevin Chalmers 125 - 149 Reproduction rights owned by The Computer Games Journal Ltd 1 ©2012-14 www.computergamesjournal.com The Computer Games Journal 2(2) Lammas 2013 The Computer Games Journal Editor-in-Chief Dr John N Sutherland BSc, MSc, EdD, CEng, CISE, CISP, MBCS Deputy Editors-in-Chief Dr Tony Maude BSc (Hons), PhD, BD (Hons) Dr Malcolm Sutherland BSc
    [Show full text]
  • Invisible Crowds in Cyberspace
    Invisible Crowds in Cyberspace: Mapping the Social Structure of the Usenet1 Marc A. Smith University of California, Los Angeles Published in: Smith, Marc. “Invisible Crowds in Cyberspace: Measuring and Mapping the Social Structure of USENET” in Communities in Cyberspace: Perspectives on New Forms of Social Organization.. London, Routledge Press, 1999 SURVEYING SOCIAL CYBERSPACES The Usenet is a quintessential Internet social phenomenon: it is huge, global, anarchic and rapidly growing. It is also mostly invisible. Although, it is the largest example of a conferencing or discussion group system,2 the tools generally available to access it only display leaves and branches - chains of messages and responses. None present the trees and forest. With hundreds of thousands of new messages every day, it is impossible to try to read them all to get a sense of the entire place. As a result, an overview of activity in the Usenet has been difficult to assemble and many basic questions about its size, shape, structure and dynamics have gone unanswered. How big is the Usenet? How many people post? Where are they from? When and where do they post? How do groups vary from one another and over time? How many different kinds of groups are there? How many groups successfully thrive and how many die? What do the survivors have that the others lack? How do different social cyberspaces connect and fit together and form a larger ecology? There is no shortage of questions. But we lack a historical record of the transformations of social cyberspaces3 just at the point when network interaction media are being widely adopted.
    [Show full text]
  • Adopting a Collaborative Software Development Process in the Scientific Community
    Adopting a Collaborative Software Development Process in the Scientific Community NOAA's 32nd Climate Diagnostics and Prediction Workshop (CDPW) Mike Charles DOC/NOAA/NWS/NCEP/CPC Motivation To advocate improved software development and project management techniques, including collaborative software development and the use of project management software. Who does this apply to? • Universities • Government • Private sector • Any software developers From now on, for the sake of brevity, "collaborative work" will include use of project management software. Disadvantages of Non- Collaborative Work Non-Collaborative Work A developer works alone • Work goes unchecked by others • If the owner leaves, nobody knows how the software works • There are no ideas contributed by others during development Non-Collaborative Work A developer doesn't log changes • Hard to revert to a previous version of the code • Can't remember what they did last week • Can't tell why a specific change was made Non-Collaborative Work A developer doesn't create documentation • Hard for others to adopt code • Hard for backup code owners to fix bugs and/or run code • Hard to share code with others Advantages of Collaborative Work Collaborative Work How should developers be working? • Collaboration - Working with others leads to more ideas and creativity, and more QCing of code • Tracking Changes - Using revision control software, tracking changes to code and keeping a log makes it easier to revert to older versions of the code, and keep track of work • Documentation - Creating
    [Show full text]
  • WHY USE a WIKI? an Introduction to the Latest Online Publishing Format
    WHY USE A WIKI? An Introduction to the Latest Online Publishing Format A WebWorks.com White Paper Author: Alan J. Porter VP-Operations WebWorks.com a brand of Quadralay Corporation [email protected] WW_WP0309_WIKIpub © 2009 – Quadralay Corporation. All rights reserved. NOTE: Please feel free to redistribute this white paper to anyone you feel may benefit. If you would like an electronic copy for distribution, just send an e-mail to [email protected] CONTENTS Overview................................................................................................................................ 2 What is a Wiki? ...................................................................................................................... 2 Open Editing = Collaborative Authoring .................................................................................. 3 Wikis in More Detail................................................................................................................ 3 Wikis Are Everywhere ............................................................................................................ 4 Why Use a Wiki...................................................................................................................... 5 Getting People to Use Wikis ................................................................................................... 8 Populating the Wiki................................................................................................................. 9 WebWorks ePublisher and Wikis
    [Show full text]
  • Creating Games ART & CS 107 Spring 2013 Schedule Revised April 24, 2013; the Schedule Adapts to Your Interests and Ideas Throughout the Semester
    Creating Games ART & CS 107 Spring 2013 Schedule Revised April 24, 2013; the schedule adapts to your interests and ideas throughout the semester. Morning: TR 8:30 – 9:45am Hyperlinks are underlined. Chapter Afternoon: Thu. 1 – 4 pm reading is in McGuire and Jenkins, Office hours: (TCL 308) By appointment Creating Games, A K Peters 2008 + (I’m generally accessible–let me know when is best for you) errata TA hours: See website “Homework” is independent work due at the beginning of the following class session. I encourage you to discuss ideas with other students but your work product should solely be your own. When a written response is appropriate, note that scholarly writing includes citations to primary sources, terse style, appropriate vocabulary and tone, and proper English style. The writing center and my office hours are great resources to improve your writing. “Read” and “Play” material has no specific deadline, but should be done close to that day so that we have a common base for discussion. For games, spend at least two hours in actual gameplay, and try to play with other students in the class. Having played a game (i.e., a social and intellectual activity) with someone will help you to know if you can work together effectively on a project. Unless explicitly noted, you are welcome to play a game on a different (equivalent) platform or with your own copy instead of using the library resource. If you make a reasonable attempt to play a game and it is not available, then you can substitute a different game listed on the course web page.
    [Show full text]
  • Collaborative Software Performance Engineering for Enterprise Applications
    Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences | 2017 Collaborative Software Performance Engineering for Enterprise Applications Hendrik Müller, Sascha Bosse, Markus Wirth, Klaus Turowski Faculty of Computer Science, Otto-von-Guericke-University, Magdeburg, Germany {hendrik.mueller, sascha.bosse, markus.wirth, klaus.turowski}@ovgu.de Abstract address these challenges from a software engineering perspective under the term DevOps [2], [3]. In the domain of enterprise applications, Corresponding research activities aim at increased organizations usually implement third-party standard flexibility through shorter release cycles in order to software components in order to save costs. Hence, support frequently changing business processes. application performance monitoring activities Therefore, DevOps enables a culture, practices and constantly produce log entries that are comparable to automation that support fast, efficient and reliable a certain extent, holding the potential for valuable software delivery [4]. However, especially for collaboration across organizational borders. Taking enterprise applications, IT departments usually make advantage of this fact, we propose a collaborative use of existing standard software components instead knowledge base, aimed to support decisions of of developing solutions entirely in-house [5]. In such performance engineering activities, carried out cases, activities referred to as Dev, rather include during early design phases of planned enterprise requirements engineering, architectural design, applications. To verify our assumption of cross- customization, testing, performance-tuning and organizational comparability, machine learning deployment [6]. Here, key service levels typically algorithms were trained on monitoring logs of 18,927 include performance objectives, expressed in terms of standard application instances productively running average response times, throughput or latency, in at different organizations around the globe.
    [Show full text]
  • Personalizing the Collaborative Learning Environment with Pictures
    Personalizing the Collaborative Learning Environment with Pictures Brian Mackie OMIS Department, Northern Illinois University DeKalb, IL 60115, USA [email protected] and Charletta F. Gutierrez ABF Department, Northeastern Illinois University 5500 N. St. Louis Avenue Chicago, IL 60625, USA [email protected] ABSTRACT that are geographically and time-dispersed [3]. Making the most efficient use of time is critical in today’s fast-paced world. The Internet and Web-based technologies, as well as rapid Collaborative software can expedite the ability of groups to globalization, are changing the way businesses communicate. develop a shared understanding of a problem or task and move Continuous progress in Information Technology (IT) enables towards a solution. According to [4], new technology should be effective and efficient communication, particularly with the use developed in such a way that it enhances the existing culture. of collaborative systems. Such systems have many different That is, such technology should be developed from within the types of interfaces and attributes, and one such attribute is the use organization, rather than being pushed down from upper of visuals. This research assesses the usefulness of participant management [4]. Technologies should not just adapt to the pictures in a collaborative exchange. To evaluate the usefulness existing culture, but should help the organization change the of such pictures, participants were asked a series of questions existing norms; otherwise such technologies are likely to fail regarding the use of pictures in CAMS, a collaborative [5],[6]. To be effective, these technologies must do more than environment. The results suggest that, in a collaborative setting, automate existing practices; they should improve processes not the use of pictures is valuable in enhancing a “sense of only in the business organization but also in educational settings community,” particularly in cases where participants have not [6],[7].
    [Show full text]
  • Wikis As a Tool for Collaborative Language Learning: Implications for Literacy, Language Education and Multilingualism
    ISSN 2335-2019 (Print), ISSN 2335-2027 (Online) Darnioji daugiakalbystė | Sustainable Multilingualism | 5/2014 http://dx.doi.org/10.7220/2335-2027.5.8 Selami Aydin Balikesir University, Turkey WIKIS AS A TOOL FOR COLLABORATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING: IMPLICATIONS FOR LITERACY, LANGUAGE EDUCATION AND MULTILINGUALISM Summary. This study presents a review of the literature concerning the use of wikis as a tool for collaborative learning in the second language acquisition and foreign language learning process, as research on the use of wikis is relatively new. The study first introduces the theoretical background behind the use of wikis in the mentioned processes. Then, it reviews the studies concerning wikis as a tool for collaborative language learning. The study concludes that the use of wikis improves basic language skills, encourages positive perceptions of learning, increases motivation, provides opportunities to practice autonomy, and enhances inquiry learning and critical thinking, although they appear to have no effect on cultural proficiency. More importantly, Wikis appear to be an advantageous tool for improving writing, and may have additional benefits in developing literacy in multilingual contexts where access to minor languages in the educational process is limited. The paper ends with practical recommendations for teachers and researchers. Keywords: collaborative learning; collaboration; foreign language learning; learner autonomy; second language learning. Introduction Within the contexts of second language acquisition and foreign language learning, wikis constitute a quickly emerging and popular learning tool. Because research on their efficiency is relatively new, wikis’ efficacy in the language acquisition and learning processes remains an open question. This study aims to review various scientific studies on the use of wikis as a tool for collaborative learning and their role within second language acquisition and foreign language learning contexts.
    [Show full text]
  • Enterprise Collaboration & Social Software
    Enterprise Collaboration & Social Software June 2013 INDUSTRY REPORT INSIDE THIS ISSUE Enterprise Collaboration & Social Software 1. Introduction INTRODUCTION 2. Market Trends This report focuses on technologies for collaboration and socialization within the enterprise. A number of forces are currently playing out in the enterprise IT 3. Competitive Landscape environment that are creating an inflection in the adoption and deployment of social and collaboration technologies. This significant uptrend has provided strong 4. M&A Activity growth for the sector and is driving a substantial amount of M&A and investment activity. This report includes a review of the recent M&A and private investing 5. Private Financings activities in enterprise social and collaboration software, particularly within the areas of group collaboration & workspaces, private social platforms, project and 6. Valution Trends social task management, event scheduling, web collaboration, white boarding & diagramming, and other related technologies. We have also profiled about 50 emerging private players in these subcategories to provide an overview of the 7. Emerging Private Companies breadth and diversity of the players targeting this sector. OVERVIEW Socialization and collaboration technologies are currently reshaping the established enterprise collaboration market as well as creating whole new categories of offerings, especially around private social platforms. In addition, many other enterprise applications such as CRM and unified communications are heavily transformed through the incorporation of new technologies including group messaging & activity feeds, document collaboration, and analytics. Much of this change is being driven by the consumerization of IT and the incorporation of social technologies. As businesses look to leverage the benefits of improved “connecting” and “network building” that employees have experienced with Facebook and other social solutions, a convergence is occurring between the enterprise social software and collaboration markets.
    [Show full text]