A review on past, present and future of web based project management & collaboration tools and their adoption by the US AEC industry

摘要

The term "Construction Project Extranet" (CPE) in this paper refers to Internet sites, which offer communication platforms, project management functionalities and hosted collaboration spaces for Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) Industry projects. The paper focuses on web-based CPE offerings and examines in-depth analysis of the past, present and future of CPE solutions for design and construction projects as implemented by the AEC industry in United States. The paper builds upon previous research as well as structured interviews that were conducted with technology providers, users, and experts. The findings from the interviews and literature search were analyzed to address these questions: How has CPE technology been developed? How much are these systems accepted and used? What are the barriers to widespread adoption? How will the market for such systems evolve? The main goals of this paper are to fulfill the need of research related to the developments in this field, to provide a concise, updated overview of existing implementation practices and the current situation of CPE market, to discuss the reasons for slow adoption of CPE technology by the industry, and to understand the adoption and technology development patterns to forecast the future trends in this field.