Thesis Structure

1.9.1 Chapter One: Introduction

This introductory chapter gives a general overview of the research; it describes the background to client requirements information management, the motivation to carry out the research as well as the aim and objectives. The scope of the research is discussed and the anticipated potential industrial benefits to be achieved identified. Problems and research gaps identified in the literature and through the case studies are also discussed.

1.9.2 Chapter Two: Project & Information Management, and Collaborative Working

This chapter reviewed project management in construction projects drawing relevant experiences from other industries such as project failures and their causes. The value of information to organisations was examined and the importance of managing that information in project environments with emphasis on its contribution to successful project development and delivery.

Enterprise integration and systems, and collaborative working practice were reviewed with the aim of establishing its relevance not only to facilitate integrated project teams but also its contribution in the client requirements information management process. Building information modelling (BIM) was

13 evaluated to understand its contribution towards lifecycle building information sharing and exchange.

1.9.3 Chapter Three: Requirements Management

This chapter provides a critical review of existing literature and related work in information and requirements management as applied within the AEC/FM industry. The reviewed also included requirements management in other industries. A broad overview of requirements information and its management from different perspective is presented focusing on how information is collected, documented, stored, accessed, distributed and communicated between all stakeholders and across all project phases - i.e. information flow (share and exchange). Also discussed is how changes to requirements information is managed with respect to the coordination and control between those involved in the process and how those changes relate to the general requirements management principles with considerations on dependencies between requirements, traceability and impact analysis. Techniques and tools used in managing requirements information management, benefits realisation and value management are also reviewed.

1.9.4 Chapter Four: Business Process Management (BPM), Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Web Services

This research presents a process management orientation to managing requirements information and associated change processing as a component of the Framework. Chapter 4 studies theories and practice of work relating to process management from both a business and a technical point of view.

Thus literature on business process management was reviewed, focussing on process modelling, automation and implementation.

Inter-organisational/enterprise business processes as applied in a collaborative context with detail on integration and interaction between people, processes, information and systems are reviewed and analysed.

14 The chapter also documents the philosophical theory of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and the associated web services (WS) technology. A review of the associated problems and difficulties of systems integration and interoperability is carried out to understand the need for a SOA approach to systems development and WS implementation to facilitate solving this problem. Current trends and technological development within this domain are analysed with the view to comprehending its applicability to the topic of this research.

1.9.5 Chapter Five: Research Methodology

The methodology adopted by this research is discussed in this part of the Thesis. Firstly, a general overview of the different types of research (Qualitative and Quantitative) is reviewed as well as research philosophy and perspectives of research (positivism and Interpretivism) and research approaches (inductive and deductive). An appraisal of data collection methodologies was conducted with a view to selecting the most appropriate for this research. The chapter also discusses the research design and how it was applied with details of the research questions addressed.

1.9.6 Chapter Six: Case Studies and Analysis

In order to solve the research problem defined in this work, a roadmap was defined which specified how the necessary data were to be collected and analysed. As a result, three case studies were conducted. This chapter discusses these case studies detailing the research approach and methods taken, the data collected and how these data were analysed and presented.

Discussion of the results was made and a summary was made at the end with implications for the development of the Framework.

1.9.7 Chapter Seven: The eRIM Framework

Following the collection and analysis of data from the case studies, the Electronic Requirements Information Management Framework (eRIM) was developed. In this part of the Thesis, the development process of eRIM is

15 presented describing the constituents and their features. This also describes the methodological process taken in the development and the rationale behind the components based on requirements management theory and the quest to solving the described problems and bridging the research gaps.

1.9.8 Chapter Eight: Prototype Development and Evaluation

A software prototype was developed as a way of implementing eRIM as a proof-of-concept. The prototype comprises a requirements repository and a change management system. This chapter explores the development process of the prototype with a detailed discussion on the technology, the tools and the rationale behind their selection. The evaluation of the Framework and prototype is also explained.

1.9.9 Chapter Nine: Conclusions and Recommendations

This chapter summarises the work and identifies the conclusions of the research including the limitations to the study. It also provides recommendations and guidelines for future research to enable the extension of the Framework produced into an industry environment.

Figure 1.1 shows a graphical representation of the structure of the Thesis and how the different chapters are linked.

16 Chapters 2 – 4 - Review of Literature

Discussion

17

Chapter 2. Project & Information Management, and