Managing data and information quality in construction engineering : a system design approach

Following the ADR method made it possible not only to develop a tool, but also to formulate design principles and abstract the findings to a generalizable level. This study contributes to knowledge and practice in several ways. First, I offer five design principles for DQ/IQ assessment tools. These design principles are specifically aimed at mitigating the unavoidable challenges and their consequences in construction engineering projects. By accepting these unavoidable challenges and consequences and subsequently providing means for managing the results in a controlled manner, these principles makes it possible to avoid project delays and still reach a sufficient level of DQ/IQ in the end. Second, the development and implementation of a tool in which these design principles are embedded demonstrates the effectiveness of the design principles. A formal evaluation performed by comparing a project that used the tool with two projects that did not, showed a significantly better level of DQ/IQ in the project using the tool. Third, as a result of implementing the tool in a total of 12 construction engineering projects, it was possible to determine three needed and sufficient quality dimensions for rule-based assessment. This finding offers valuable information to theory as well as to practitioners aiming at assessing DQ/IQ in their projects. Fourth, by revealing the relationship between unavoidable challenges and their consequences in construction engineering, this thesis offers unique insights into the nature of projects in that field, which is highly needed when performing DQ/IQ assessment. These insights will help DQ/IQ researchers enhance their understanding of a very complex and under-researched context. Fifth, by providing a ranked list of DQ/IQ problems experienced at EUMEC, this thesis offers a more detailed explanation of DQ/IQ problems causing delays and cost overruns than is the case in previous research. All in all, this research reduces a gap in the existing literature, namely the scarce amount of DQ/IQ research on construction engineering. The complexity of this industry makes it difficult and time consuming for an information systems researcher to fully understand the nature of construction engineering. This complexity might explain the scarce amount of research in this cross-disciplinary field, and this thesis helps reduce that gap.