Social Network Analysis (SNA) for Construction Projects' Team Communication Structure Optimization

The construction industry is one of the most information-dependent industries where effective communication greatly affects the successful delivery of a project. Whereas the best way to communicate is to involve project participants in all activities throughout the duration of project, lack of collaboration in projects' early stages could result in a great deal of waste in the design, rework in construction, and delay or even failure to achieve initial goals. Although a considerable amount of research expanded the existing knowledge toward effective construction communication, studies show that there are still difficulties in controlling the spread of information during many projects. The objective of the presented research is to develop strategies for resolving early-stage communication problems by focusing on team structure and information diffusion in construction projects. To address those issues, a team structure optimization framework through social network analysis (SNA) is proposed. This paper first introduces SNA as a tool for understanding the spread of information in construction projects. A model then is developed to simulate project participants' interaction and analyze potential communication problems. An illustrative example finally is presented to demonstrate how to optimize team structure for balancing communication in a construction project.