A Knowledge Engineering Approach to Analysis and Evaluation of Vertical Construction Schedules

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Computerized project management systems are widely acknowledged as deficient planning aids. Specifically, their inability to collect and interpret qualitative and subjective project data requires construction managers to interpret such information largely unassisted. Research in the field of Artificial Intelligence, which has been proven to be successful in many other fields, holds promise for providing such assistance in construction schedule analysis. The proposed knowledge engineering research project will extract, formalized, articulate (1) empirical and judgmental knowledge about construction network analysis and (2) traditional project management theory to develop a prototype intelligent assistant. This research advances the state-of-the-art by formalizing an amorphous mass of construction knowledge and by automating some of the tasks that senior project managers now know how to do well. The methodology utilized is stepwise simple and aimed at first and foremost extracting knowledge. The methodology also dispenses measureable milestones to provide a way to verify progess. While the results of this research will indicate that many of routine, and tedious operations can be automated, the principal goal is to establish that knowledge-based decision- support systems can allow project managers to become pro-active rather than re-active. The investigator has a strong background in project planning and control and the research team is geared to conduct the work. The budget is appropriate and the institutional resources are appropriate. An award is recommended for the first year of a two-year grant.