The proceedings of a major conference on the built environment ran by the RICS to examine recent research and development in: investment; building procurement and construction; and building performance analysis.

This book presents the proceedings of an international symposium which aimed to establish at the highest level the best practice and research in three important scientific and technical themes within the domain of residential buildings across the European Community: quality management and liability building economics construction management. In addition the symposium will discuss the future evolution and development of each theme.

The construction industry is an information-intensive sector and low levels of productivity are often blamed on inadequate integration of information. This book shows how the different types and sources of information can be integrated to benefit individual construction projects, construction companies and in the construction industry at world-wide level.

This new edition of a core undergraduate textbook for construction managers reflects current best practice, topical industry preoccupations and latest developments in courses and fundamental subjects for students.While the construction process still requires traditional skills, changes over recent decades today demand improved understanding of modern business, production and contractual practices. The authors have responded accordingly and the book has undergone a thorough re-write...

In most cases of civil engineering development, a range of alternative schemes meeting project goals are feasible, so some form of evaluation must be carried out to select the most appropriate to take forward. Evaluation criteria usually include the economic, environmental and social contexts of a project as well as the engineering challenges, so engineers must be familiar with the processes and tools used.The second edition of Engineering Project Appraisal equips students...

Collecting, Managing, and Assessing Data Using Sample Surveys provides a thorough, step-by-step guide to the design and implementation of surveys. Beginning with a primer on basic statistics, the first half of the book takes readers on a comprehensive tour through the basics of survey design. Topics covered include the ethics of surveys, the design of survey procedures, the design of the survey instrument, how to write questions and how to draw representative samples. Having shown readers ...

You’re now responsible for a programme, or you’ve got a portfolio to manage? Where do you start? Right here!Projects are not simply the bread and butter of an organisation. Form them into programmes or portfolios and they can be prioritised and integrated to deliver change to your organization in line with your strategic vision. You will be able to control costs and risks and bring together a complex series of themes effectively.This overhauled second edition now combines p...

The issue of data quality is as old as data itself. However, the proliferation of diverse, large-scale and often publically available data on the Web has increased the risk of poor data quality and misleading data interpretations. On the other hand, data is now exposed at a much more strategic level e.g. through business intelligence systems, increasing manifold the stakes involved for individuals, corporations as well as government agencies. There, the lack of knowledge about data accurac...

What is text mining, and how can it be used? What relevance do these methods have to everyday work in information science and the digital humanities? How does one develop competences in text mining? Working with Text provides a series of cross-disciplinary perspectives on text mining and its applications. As text mining raises legal and ethical issues, the legal background of text mining and the responsibilities of the engineer are discussed in this book. Chapters provide an introduction t...

Enterprises, from small to large, evolve continuously. As a result, their structures are transformed and extended continuously. Without some means of control, such changes are bound to lead to an overly complex, uncoordinated and heterogeneous environment that is hard to manage and hard to adapt to future changes. Enterprise architecture principles provide a means to direct transformations of enterprises. As a consequence, architecture principles should be seen as the cornerstones of any a...

Your business reputation can take years to build—and mere minutes to destroyThe range of business threats is evolving rapidly but your organization can thrive and gain a competitive advantage with your business vision for enterprise risk management. Trends affecting markets—events in the global financial markets, changing technologies, environmental priorities, dependency on intellectual property—all underline how important it is to keep up to speed on the latest f...

Requirements engineering is one of the most complex and at the same time most crucial aspects of software engineering. It typically involves different stakeholders with different backgrounds. Constant changes in both the problem and the solution domain make the work of the stakeholders extremely dynamic. New problems are discovered, additional information is needed, alternative solutions are proposed, several options are evaluated, and new hands-on experience is gained on a daily basis. Th...