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For the full text of this licence, please go to: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ Collaborative Technologies for Mobile Workers and Virtual Project Teams Sean Thomas McAndrew British Telecommunications plc (BT) Centre for Innovative and Collaborative Engineering (CICE) BT Exact Department of Civil & Building Engineering Adastral Park Loughborough University Martlesham Heath Loughborough Ipswich Leicestershire Suffolk LE11 3TU IP5 3RE COLLABORATIVE TECHNOLOGIES FOR MOBILE WORKERS AND VIRTUAL PROJECT TEAMS By Sean Thomas McAndrew A dissertation thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Engineering Doctorate (EngD) degree at Loughborough University July 2009 © by Sean Thomas McAndrew 2009 British Telecommunications plc (BT) Centre for Innovative and Collaborative Engineering (CICE) BT Exact Department of Civil & Building Engineering Adastral Park Loughborough University Martlesham Heath Loughborough Ipswich Leicestershire Suffolk LE11 3TU IP5 3RE Acknowledgements ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Dr Tarek Hassan and Professor Chimay Anumba, both of whom provided support, encouragement and showed the patience of Saints by persevering with me. Professor Dino Bouchlaghem, Professor Tony Thorpe, Jo Brewin, Sara Cowen, Colette Bujdoso and Nadine Smith at the Centre for Innovative and Collaborative Engineering at Loughborough University. The friendly and unique culture and diversity of the Centre and its staff is in no doubt attributable to its success and attraction as one of the UK’s leading academic institutions providing applicable research and development to industry. Alistair Duke and Ian P Smith, my supervisors at BT. BT and the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) for graciously sponsoring me. My old colleagues at Taylor Woodrow, especially Rob Ramsay and Jon Taylor. My late mother, Bridie, and father, John, who always provided the best for me. Emma, who married me. Finally, my present compliment of children: Molly, Nancy, Finbarr, and Martha whom I am sure will never read this. iii Collaborative Technologies for Mobile Workers and Virtual Project Teams ABSTRACT Information Technology is advancing at a frightening pace. Cloud computing and its subset, Software as a Service (SaaS), are rapidly challenging traditional thinking for enterprise-level application and infrastructure provision. The project-centric nature of the construction industry provides an environment where the utilisation of SaaS is commercially appropriate, given its ability to provide rapid set-up and predictable costs at the outset. Using project extranets, the construction industry has been - unusually for it as an industry sector - early-adopters of this cloud computing model. However, findings from the research highlight that there is a gap in the information and documents that pass from the construction phase into the operational phase of a building. This research considers examples of the SaaS IT model and how it has been used within a construction and facilities management industry context. A prototype system was developed to address the requirements of facilities management work order logging and tracking process. These requirements were gathered during detailed case studies of organisations within both the construction and facilities management sectors with a view to continue the use of building-specific information through its full life-cycle. The thesis includes a summary of the lessons learnt through system implementation within the construction-contracting organisation Taylor Woodrow, and it concludes with an IT strategy proposal that was developed based on a cloud computing model. KEY WORDS Collaboration, Project Extranets, Mobility, SaaS, Cloud Computing, Document Management, Content Management, Internet, Construction Industry, Virtual teams iv Preface PREFACE The research presented within this thesis constitutes the requirements of the EPSRC- supported Engineering Doctorate (EngD) programme run by the Centre for Innovative and Collaborative Engineering (CICE) at Loughborough University. The Engineering Doctorate is a four-year postgraduate award intended for the UK's leading research engineers who want a managerial career in industry. It is a radical alternative to the traditional PhD, being better suited to the needs of industry, and providing a more vocationally oriented doctorate in engineering. The EngD is examined on the basis of a thesis supported by peer-reviewed publications or technical reports. One journal paper and two conference papers support this thesis. Specific detail on the research can be found in papers presented in the appendices of this thesis, whilst the preceding chapters of the discourse provide the reader with a broader overview of the work undertaken throughout the period of the research. v Collaborative Technologies for Mobile Workers and Virtual Project Teams USED ACRONYMS / ABBREVIATIONS 3G 3rd Generation Wireless Communication Technology AEC Architectural, Engineering and Construction AJAX Asynchronous JavaScript and XML ASP Application Service Provider BAA British Airports Authority BEng Bachelor of Engineering BT British Telecommunications CAD Computer Aided Design CICE Centre for Innovative and Collaborative Engineering CMS Content Management System CRM Customer Relationship Management DETR Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions DSSS Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum DTI Department of Trade and Industry EDMS Electronic Document Management System EngD Engineering Doctorate EPSRC Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council FM Facilities Management GPRS General Packet Radio Service GPS Global Positioning System GSM Global Systems for Mobile Communications HSDPA High-Speed Downlink Packet Access ICT Information and Communication Technologies vi Used Acronyms / Abbreviations IE Internet Explorer IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers IP Internet Protocol IPR Intellectual Property Rights IS Information Systems ISBN International Standard Book Number ISP Internet Service Provider ISSN International Standard Serial Number IT Information Technology KM Knowledge Management LAMP Solution stack of software: Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP/Perl/Python MSc Master of Science MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology MRT Mobile Repair Technician NCCTP Network for Construction Collaboration Technology Providers O&M Operation and Maintenance PC Personal Computer PDA Personal Digital Assistant PFI Private Finance Initiative PHP PHP: Hypertext Pre-processor1 R&D Research & Development RFI Request for Information RFID Radio-frequency Identification RFQ Request for Quotation 1 PHP is a recursive acronym that stands for PHP: Hypertext Pre-processor vii Collaborative Technologies for Mobile Workers and Virtual Project Teams ROI Return on Investment SaaS Software as a Service SLA Service Level Agreement UAT User Acceptance Testing UK United Kingdom URL Uniform Resource Locators Wi-Fi Wireless Fidelity WLAN Wireless Local Area Network XML eXtensible Mark-up Language viii Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements .........................................................................................................iii Abstract ........................................................................................................................... iv Key Words ...................................................................................................................... iv Preface .............................................................................................................................. v Used Acronyms / Abbreviations.................................................................................... vi Table of Contents ........................................................................................................... ix List of Figures ............................................................................................................... xiv List of Tables .................................................................................................................. xv List of Papers ................................................................................................................ xvi 1 Background to the research .............................................................................. 17 1.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 17 1.2 The Construction Industry’s approach to Information Technology .................... 17 1.3 The Research Context .......................................................................................... 19 1.3.1 Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) ........... 19 1.3.2 The Industrial Sponsor - BT ................................................................... 20 1.3.3 The Comparison Organisation – Taylor Woodrow Construction .......... 23 1.3.4 The Author ............................................................................................. 24 1.4 Scope of Research ................................................................................................ 25 1.5 Structure of Thesis ............................................................................................... 25 1.6 Synopsis of Papers ..............................................................................................