Identification of the barriers of information and communication technology implementations in relation to productivity of building construction sector in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The building construction industry is one of major contributors in Sri Lanka economy. Growth rate of the industry has recorded 9% in previous years. Constraints faced by the industry in preceding years have substantially gone up. Major hindering factor is the productivity problem that time and cost over runs. Thereby Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can play a vital role in building construction productivity concerned. Purpose of this study is to identify the ICT implementation barriers and ICT value added activities from the contractors‟ perspectives. Research study was based on the previous researches in same context. An industry-wide questionnaire survey was carried out to gather the views of professionals attached to large scale building construction companies during November – December 2010. Ten critical barriers were identified under four main areas along with eleven influencing factors belong to the three key areas. Survey was limited to the large scale contracts due to the problem of high productivity concern and problem in the knowledge extraction from the lower grades. Research model was adopted from Sri Lanka construction context which has been conducted over productivity. Preliminary studies revealed that ICT collaboration is marginal in construction sector which affect to the productivity. High productivity is always demanded by the economy growth of the country. Research comprised of extensive literature survey in locally and internally conducted researches. Study shows most of the identified barriers are critical except two and all value added activities are equally important.