Information exchange effectiveness in construction projects: from indicator importance to project-specific assessment

Previous studies have assessed construction communication in different ways, but the structure, relative importance, and project-specific assessment of information exchange attributes have typically been examined for different analytical purposes. This study developed a model for assessing information exchange effectiveness in construction projects. Indicators identified from the literature were refined through expert consultation, and 109 valid survey responses were analyzed using factor analysis. The analysis produced two components, subsequently labeled Information Quality and Communication Effectiveness. Analytic Hierarchy Process yielded respective weights of 0.677 and 0.323 for the two main indicators, together with local and global weights for their sub-indicators. Accuracy, Completeness, and Relevance ranked first to third globally, while Timeliness and Bidirectionality ranked fourth and fifth despite the lower weight assigned to Communication Effectiveness. Application to two construction projects produced overall scores of 79.01 (good) and 31.71 (poor). The same hierarchy is used for weighting and project assessment, so relative importance and project-specific scores are interpreted at corresponding levels. Relative importance therefore identifies what carries greater weight in the model, while project-specific scores reflect how information exchange is assessed in a particular project.