Impacts of Design/Information Technology on Project Outcomes

This paper describes a collaborative effort by industry, government, and academia to evaluate the use of design/information technology (D/IT) and to relate the degree of use to project performance. A detailed statistical analysis of 297 projects in the Construction Industry Institute database is used to produce baseline measures of performance and D/IT use. The relationship between these measures is used to assess the economic value of using the technologies. A set of projects that excelled in the use of D/IT and that scored high on performance measures is then examined. These exemplary projects provide a basis for further in-depth analyses through on-site interviews with key project representatives. The results of this study establish that projects benefit from D/IT use. Both owners and contractors can expect construction cost savings of approximately 4% by increasing the use of D/IT. For owners there is clear evidence of schedule compression as well. Although the statistical analyses do not support schedule compression benefits for contractors, findings from the on-site interviews provide anecdotal support.