Evaluating IT applications for innovative construction management

The construction management has been under pressure to reduce operating costs and to improve productivity using innovative information technologe (IT) solutions conformed to structural characteristics, site conditions and past experiences. Given the growing emphasis on effectiveness and efficiency in construction projects, there is an imminent need to develop a formal procedure to select the best IT application for each proposed construction project and research and development (R&D) project. As there are numerous factors that have to be considered in selecting appropriate IT in a given situation, decision-makers need to have multicriteria decision-making ability. To enable them to make the most appropriate decision in any situation, it is important that effective tools incorporating multicriteria decision-making techniques are available. In this paper, an Analytic Network Process (ANP) model is conducted for the selection of appropriate IT application for innovative construction management prior to construction or research. The paper concludes that the ANP is a viable and capable tool for conducting IT application selection in multicriteria decision-making environment.