Project based information systems for construction

The ‘Earned Value’ method for Government project performance measurement has assisted in defining relevant information needs for more traditional industrial and commercial building projects. Potential conflict emanates from the fundamentally different approaches to management. The Public Project Director is usually removed from production management and seeks to maintain control from feedback data (Earned Value). Implementation of the Earned Value performance measurement processes may require additional data collections of little relevance to the forward planning process and may deploy scarce site management resources into the ‘Feedback’ process rather than the ‘Planning’ and ‘Controlling’ processes. The ‘Earned Value’ methodology requires the overhead of formal integrated data. The emergence of low cost Information Management software provides the Commercial project manager with access to all project related information. A modified ‘Earned Value’ methodology combined with recently available Information Management software can provide effective low cost solutions for the management of Project Information.