Ajibade Ayodeji Aibinu

The accuracy of pre‐tender building cost estimates in Australia

A pre‐tender building cost estimate is an important piece of information when making decisions at the project planning and design stage. The important project characteristics influencing the accuracy of pre‐tender building cost estimates are examined and practical improvement for increasing the accuracy of estimates are considered. A quantitative approach is used to address the research problem. Analysis of data from 56 projects and from a postal questionnaire survey of 102 quantity surveying firms suggests that the accuracy of pre‐tender building cost estimates varies according to project size and principal structural material. When eight identified project characteristics are controlled in a multiple regression analysis, the accuracy of estimates is influenced by project size. The estimates of smaller projects are more biased than the estimates of larger projects. It was discovered that pre‐tender building costs are more often overestimated than are underestimated. Overestimated forecasts are incorrect by a larger amount than underestimated forecasts. Data analysis also revealed that the accuracy of pre‐tender building cost estimates has not improved over time. The majority of the respondents are somewhat dissatisfied with the accuracy of estimates in the industry. Probability estimation and simulation of past estimates, reducing quantity surveying and cost engineering skill turnover, incorporating market sentiments into estimates, early involvement of the quantity surveyor at the brief stage, and proper documentation of experience gained in the estimation of projects should help firms increase the accuracy of estimates for new projects.

Status of BIM Adoption and the BIM Experience of Cost Consultants in Australia

AbstractThere is anecdotal evidence that the adoption of building information modeling (BIM) is on the increase. However, the extent to which quantity surveyors (QS) (also referred to as cost consultants or cost engineers) are now using BIM features is not clear. The research reported in this paper was aimed at understanding the BIM experience of QS firms and cost consultants in Australia as well as to understand the progress they have made towards the use of BIM features. Data collection was a web-based survey of 180 QS firms with 40 responses and two in-depth interviews. Findings from the study show that BIM features are not readily used by QS firms owing to uncertainties concerning the integrity of three-dimensional (3D) models issued by designers, incomplete information in models, lack of knowledge concerning new business processes to drive the use of BIM use, lack of demand by clients, cost of implementing BIM features within the existing practice and learning time required to adopt BIM features. It ...

More than a survey: an interdisciplinary post-occupancy tracking of BER schools

In February 2009, the Australian Government announced the

Cost estimation for electric light and power elements during building design

16.2b Building the Education Revolution (BER) as part of an economic stimulus package. In the context of a global financial crisis, the Government called for ‘shovel ready’ projects requiring state education departments to develop template designs to speed the delivery process. Three years later, new facilities have been completed in over 1100 government schools in Victoria (DEECD, 2012). This article outlines research by an interdisciplinary team to track the early occupation of a template design used in Victoria. The design template was unusual: it enabled schools to continue using traditional classroom teaching or to slide open walls to form larger neighbourhoods suitable for team teaching. Our research linked different methodological frameworks to undertake post-occupancy evaluation (POE) of the new spaces. POE strategies are often driven by construction and project management perspectives rather than focus on organizational issues and user behaviour.

Risks in PPP Water Projects in China: Perspective of Local Governments

Purpose – The study reported in this paper proposed the use of artificial neural networks (ANN) as viable alternative to regression for predicting the cost of building services elements at the early stage of design. The purpose of this paper is to develop, test and validate ANN models for predicting the costs of electrical services components. Design/Methodology/Approach – The research is based on data mining of over 200 building projects in the office of a medium size electrical contractor. Of the over 200 projects examined, 71 usable data were found and used for the ANN modeling. Regression models were also explored using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences Statistics Software 21, for the purpose of comparison with the ANN models. Findings – The findings show that the cost forecasting models based on ANN algorithm are more viable alternative to regression models for predicting the costs of light wiring, power wiring and cable pathways. The ANN prediction errors achieved are 6.4, 4.5 and 4.5 per ...

Identifying stakeholders’ involvement that enhances project scope definition completeness in Saudi Arabian public building projects

AbstractIn the last decade, China has implemented more public–private partnership (PPP) projects in the water sector compared to other sectors. However, efficient management of risks in these proje...

Construction Equipment Management Practices for Improving Labor Productivity in Multistory Building Construction Projects

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop an analytical decision-support model and a procedure that will help project management team to measure project scope definition, for completeness. The procedure is different from previous studies because the measurement of scope definition completeness accounts for differences in stakeholders’ interest and importance on project. Design/methodology/approach – Data collection and analysis was based on semi-structured interviews in three steps with a total of 46 respondents. The first step identified stakeholders with an interest in public building projects while the second step identified the scope elements that serve as input to defining the project scope as well as elements that each stakeholder should be involved when measuring project scope definition, for completeness. In the third step, AHP was used to identify and prioritise the contributions required from various stakeholders when measuring scope definition completeness for 42 scope elements. Finding...

Evaluations of BIM: Frameworks and Perspectives

AbstractConstruction project productivity can be enhanced by the implementation of good management practices. The purposes of this research are to identify construction equipment management practic...

Risk allocation in public private partnerships in China's water projects: a principal agent approach

This paper examines the evaluation of BIM-enabled projects. It provides a critical review of the three main areas of measurement, namely technology, organization/people and process. Using two documented case studies of BIM implementation, the paper illustrates the benefits realized by project owners and contractors, and illustrates a lack of attention relative to contextual factors affecting the adoption and deployment of BIM. The paper has three main contributions. First, it identifies and discusses the lack of and difficulty surrounding standardized assessment methods for evaluating BIM-enabled projects. Second, it proposes a conceptual model that includes contextual attributes and demonstrates how the proposed framework reaches beyond simple evaluation to encompass the documentation of BIM’s benefits, lessons learned, challenges and adopted solutions. Third, it shows how the framework can account for existing business processes, organizational process assets, and enterprise level factors. The paper aims to provide a conceptual basis for evaluation and a starting point for benchmarking.

Survey of management practices enhancing labor productivity in multi-storey building construction projects

Past research on China’s public private partnerships (PPPs) shows that due to local governments’ lack of understanding, risks are not allocated properly. Long term contracts in the water sector present its own risks, unique due to the characteristic of water projects; however, there is little or no research about risk allocation on these projects in the literature. Risk and their allocation in PPP water projects are regarded as any other PPP project and are not analysed independently. Most research regarding risks in PPP projects in China have been done from the private sectors’ perspective and very limited research have focused on the government’s point of view. In this paper, we develop a framework to examine risk allocation particularly for PPP water projects from the government’s perspective in the context of China. Based on a review of the literature on risk allocation, three criteria were identified and used for the development of the framework and these criteria were discussed using the principal agent (PA) theory approach.