Employing Data Warehousing for Contract Administration: e-Dispute Resolution Prototype
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 139, Issue 6
Abstract
Although data warehouse is very practical for decision making, its application in contract administration is rather limited because of the complicated legal issues and the voluminous data involved. This research attempts to bridge this gap in two ways. First, conceptual models of data warehouse are developed to explain the contents and overall features of the system that were verified by 12 experts in Malaysia. Second, an electronic dispute resolution template, known as e-Dispute Resolution (e-DR), is prototyped by using a database tool based on the guidelines of contractual variations agreed by the experts. Subsequently, the prototype is evaluated by 16 professional quantity surveyors from an established consulting firm. The prototype was organized based on a systematic breakdown of issues and incorporated a Boolean keyword search feature. The results show that the concept of data warehouse is applicable to contract administration and is well received by practitioners. Overall, this article renders significant theoretical and practical contributions in which the resulting e-DR does not only lead toward more informed decision making but is also able to mitigate or prevent contractual disputes in the construction industry, where such a phenomenon seems to be inevitable.
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Acknowledgments
This research is supported and funded by Construction Research Institute of Malaysia (CREAM) for Vote Number 4405/C01, under the Construction Industry and Development Board, Malaysia.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 139 • Issue 6 • June 2013
Pages: 611 - 619
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 26, 2011
Accepted: Sep 18, 2012
Published online: Sep 20, 2012
Published in print: Jun 1, 2013
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