The Construction Industry and Standardization of Information

This chapter describes the traditional practices of the construction industry by looking at the nature of the industry in terms of its product, process, and participants. Owing to the nature of construction, issues relating to challenges and barriers to learning and managing information and knowledge gained from a construction project are highlighted. Other problems of the construction industry are mentioned to provide a complete view of its traditional practices. The chapter also covers the various types of information that are generated and exchanged at three different levels – project, firm, and industry. In order to capture, store, and manage the information and knowledge generated at each stage of the project life cycle, as well as at the firm and industry levels, there has to be a unified construction information system established through standards to provide a common language. As such, the basis of creating and adopting standards is explained from a generic perspective to lay the foundation for this subject. Following this, aspects of information standardization in the construction industry is described, covering theory and practice. On practice, examples of both international and national programs are presented. Relevant standards developed for Singapore’s construction industry on the information standardization program are used as examples to explain the scope and objectives of the national plan for creating IT standards, as well as provide an update on the progress made. The chapter concludes with a summary of the main points covered on the construction industry and the need for standardization of information.