Heuristics in Construction Project Management

Modern construction projects are delivered in complex, fast pace environments. Stakeholders are required to participate in dynamic project settings with resource constraints, information constraints, and time constraints. To overcome gaps in knowledge, to deliver decisions quickly, and to overcome human limits in cognitive ability, decision makers typically employ heuristics, or rules of thumb to arrive at relatively quick answers. Heuristics are cognitive shortcuts that an individual employs to arrive at quick decisions (Goodwin et al., 2004). These heuristics are used in a variety of ways, ranging from using the process of elimination (elimination heuristic) to applying different cognitive weights to options based on recent experience, reputation, or familiarity (Shah and Oppenheimer, 2008). This research aims to identify heuristics present in the implementation phase of construction. By summarizing the results of two studies conducted with a Mid-Atlantic Contractor, this thesis prescribes seven heuristics commonly used by construction stakeholders.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Civil Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Sprinkle, Zachary Joseph

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Shealy, Earl W.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Garvin, Michael J.
• Iorio, Josh

• heuristics
• decision science
• rules of thumb
• construction
• project management

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:18709

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/87089