Tenth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

The efficacy of construction highly depends on the cost performance of the project. Cost-overrun in the construction industry is the most chaotic problem globally as it leads the project failure. Though the number of researches on cost overrun factors, cost control practices and cost performance improvement are significantly growing, many of them are not practical or sufficing the required outcome. Most of the researches consider that the causes are independent, identify the significant factors for the cost-overrun and develop a regression model for the forecast. In addition, very little attention had been found on the interrelationships among factors. Hence a specific analysis of cost-overrun factors associated with the interrelationships is required for the improvement of project cost performance. To address this, a decision support tool is developed using Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCM) which deals with the complicated dynamic nature of cost-risk factors with their interrelationships. This tool helps to capture the behaviour of complex systems accurately and illustrate any complex environment based on the experts’ perceptions and by graphical representations. A case study is delineated for developing a real-time collaborative network to depict the complexities at site execution and management and applied in different decision-making problems such as corrective actions, preventing actions, forecasting behaviours, policy analysis, decision maker’s opinions, preparedness assessment, and stakeholders’ collaboration. The proposed tool will help practitioners to manage cost-risks and decision-making problems effectively and proactively.