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Functionality as a measure of project performance encompasses definitions across literature, relevance and essentiality in construction as the industry moves towards sustainable construction. Functionality in this section shows details in social functionality, as well as functionalities expressed in assessing, implementing project performance within set out target and goal. Furthermore, for functionality to be truly experienced in construction, many factors have to be gotten right. One of such is decision making that tends towards standard expatiated in the contract agreed without compromising budget, performance, collaboration, health and safety, communication, profit, satisfaction, quality, project cost, profitability among others.

Purpose: Construction in Malta is generally characterised by small projects operated through fragmented contractual ties and limited technological advances. Through this study, the authors aim to examine the impact of changing client requirements on local construction, analyse the impact of these shifts on project expectations and explore how client requirements can be integrated into the ongoing design phases during the life cycle of the structure. Using a multi-million-euro, multi-phase residential, commercial, and redevelopment construction project as a case study, this paper presents an in-depth analysis of the short-term disruptions and long-term impacts while considering the implications for trade-offs.

Methodology: A mixed-methods approach was used to conduct the analysis. Qualitative data collected from semi-structured interviews showed that projects have different impacts on relationships even when the same organisations work on different trades within the same project. The quantitative data collected was used to analyse the variations caused by trade-offs from the original contracted work packages. The case study setting represents an example of a phenomenological methodology. It adapts existing theories to interpret what happens by examining an example of a phenomenon of interest. Although the conclusions cannot be generalised to the whole construction industry, its merit is that it addresses relationships and processes and is therefore ‘holistic’ rather than limited to isolated factors.

Findings: The findings, illustrate the effects or factors supported by the empirical data towards the main framework that supports the research study model for mapping trade-offs. The model is presented as a three-dimensional framework illustrating the dynamics of objectives, considerations, and time across project life cycles, and goes beyond the control parameters of the project management, cost, quality, and time triangle.

Conclusion: A set of recommendations are presented in relation to the drawing up of project briefs, procurement strategies, and the limitations and implications of embedding client changes.

This study aims to develop an interrelation model between critical parameters for assessing the construction readiness (CR) of abandoned housing projects, using Malaysia as a case study. To achieve that aim, the study objectives are to (1) identify critical parameters for assessing the CR of abandoned housing projects; (2) develop underlying constructs to categorize interrelated critical parameters and (3) assess the influence of the underlying constructs on the CR of abandoned housing projects.

This study identifies potential parameters for assessing the CR of abandoned housing projects by reviewing existing literature and interviewing industry professionals. Then, the list was used to develop a questionnaire survey. The collected survey data were analyzed using normalized mean analysis to identify the critical parameters. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to develop underlying constructs to categorize interrelated critical parameters. Finally, the influence of the underlying constructs on the CR of abandoned housing projects was examined through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The analyses suggest that 21 critical parameters are affecting the CR of abandoned housing projects. The critical parameters can be categorized into four underlying constructs: construction site evaluation, management verification, uncertainties mitigation and document approval. Finally, the analyses confirmed that all four constructs affect the CR of abandoned housing projects.

This study is a pioneering effort to quantitatively analyze the parameters for assessing the CR of abandoned housing projects. The findings significantly benefit researchers and industry professionals by providing a list of critical parameters associated with the CR of abandoned housing projects.

In Malaysia, there seems to be no mutual and general agreement among construction industry players and researchers on what the critical success factors (CSFs) of construction projects are since characteristics of construction projects vary across various projects complexity. This chapter thus examines the CSFs for affordable high-rise public housing projects in Malaysia through a thorough review of the literature on the CSFs, which were then contextually customised via a pilot study and presented in the form of Relative Importance Index (RII). Primary data were collected via administration of questionnaire surveys to 170 construction stakeholders of affordable high-rise public housing projects in Malaysia. The findings of this study revealed that the top 10 ranks are good management and supervision at site, good personal behaviour by all participants, good implementation in safety management and practice, high commitment in quality control by management, competent manager/supervisor, good communication and coordination, good and enough material and equipment, experience worker, clear objective and goals and good support by senior employee/management, whereby it is crucial in ensuring the project success of affordable high-rise public housing projects in Malaysia. This chapter provides clear guidelines for the contractors of affordable high-rise public housing projects to be more competitive in the construction industry by illustrating the important factors to be considered while delivering the projects to their respective clients.

Due to the increasing size and complexity of construction projects, construction engineering and management involves the coordination of many complex and dynamic processes and relies on the analysis of uncertain, imprecise and incomplete information, including subjective and linguistically expressed information. Various modelling and computing techniques have been used by construction researchers and applied to practical construction problems in order to overcome these challenges, including fuzzy hybrid techniques. Fuzzy hybrid techniques combine the human-like reasoning capabilities of fuzzy logic with the capabilities of other techniques, such as optimization, machine learning, multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) and simulation, to capitalise on their strengths and overcome their limitations. Based on a review of construction literature, this chapter identifies the most common types of fuzzy hybrid techniques applied to construction problems and reviews selected papers in each category of fuzzy hybrid technique to illustrate their capabilities for addressing construction challenges. Finally, this chapter discusses areas for future development of fuzzy hybrid techniques that will increase their capabilities for solving construction-related problems. The contributions of this chapter are threefold: (1) the limitations of some standard techniques for solving construction problems are discussed, as are the ways that fuzzy methods have been hybridized with these techniques in order to address their limitations; (2) a review of existing applications of fuzzy hybrid techniques in construction is provided in order to illustrate the capabilities of these techniques for solving a variety of construction problems and (3) potential improvements in each category of fuzzy hybrid technique in construction are provided, as areas for future research.

Several different simulation techniques, such as discrete event simulation (DES), system dynamics (SD) and agent-based modelling (ABM), have been used to model complex construction systems such as construction processes and project management practices; however, these techniques do not take into account the subjective uncertainties that exist in many construction systems. Integrating fuzzy logic with simulation techniques enhances the capabilities of those simulation techniques, and the resultant fuzzy simulation models are then capable of handling subjective uncertainties in complex construction systems. The objectives of this chapter are to show how to integrate fuzzy logic and simulation techniques in construction modelling and to provide methodologies for the development of fuzzy simulation models in construction. In this chapter, an overview of simulation techniques that are used in construction is presented. Next, the advancements that have been made by integrating fuzzy logic and simulation techniques are introduced. Methodologies for developing fuzzy simulation models are then proposed. Finally, the process of selecting a suitable simulation technique for each particular aspect of construction modelling is discussed.

This chapter discusses the application of fuzzy cognitive map (FCM) modelling to construction management (CM) challenges and problems. It focuses on the critical issue of managing the complexity and uncertainty inherent in CM by providing a new intelligent layer that enhances classical approaches to construction modelling and management. It investigates how the myriad types of internal and external factors affecting the feasibility and performance of construction projects can be modelled using a fuzzy hybrid method that explores the complex relationships among many contributing factors and assesses and evaluates their impacts on past and future projects. This chapter proposes a hybrid modelling approach in the traditional context of cost, schedule and risk management and describes how augmenting and enhancing existing state-of-the-art tools and processes in CM can assist construction managers. This chapter provides a background on the theory of FCMs, presents foundational and current research, and explains how to apply this approach in the CM domain. This chapter also provides a detailed description of how to develop, modify and employ interactive models to specific CM challenges and problems. It includes a customisable, interactive base model and demonstrates how the model has been applied to specific CM events and issues. Examples are presented that highlight the interplay between project-specific goals and characteristics and the way these impact the interrelated and often opposing triad of cost, schedule and risk. The presented examples and practical applications make this state-of-the-art approach useful to both academic and industry practitioners.

The idea of implementing supply chain management (SCM) principles for the construction industry was embraced by construction stakeholders to enhance the sector's performance. The analysis from the literature revealed that the implementation of SCM in the construction industry enhances the industry's value in terms of cost-saving, time savings, material management, risk management and others. The construction supply chain (CSC) can be managed using the pull or push system. This chapter also discusses the origin and proliferation of SCM into the construction industry. The chapter revealed that the concept of SCM has passed through five different eras: the creation era, the use of ERP, globalisation stage, specialisation stage and electronic stage. The findings from the literature revealed that we are presently in the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) era. At this stage, the SCM witnesses the adoption of technologies and principles driven by the 4IR. This chapter also revealed that the practice of SCM in the construction industry is centred around integration, collaboration, communication and the structure of the supply chain (SC). The forms and challenges hindering the adoption of these practices were also discussed extensively in this chapter.

Claims and disputes are often unavoidable in the construction industry due to its unique and complex characteristics involving the massive investment of capital, lengthy project duration, and multiple project stakeholders. This chapter intends to identify the critical construction claims attributes, compare the perceptions of major stakeholders on different claim attributes, and investigate the contrast of the top five claim attributes between this study and previous ones. The literature review resulted in 48 claim attributes responsible for the construction project schedule delays. These attributes were then presented to Vietnam construction industry (VCI) practitioners in the form of a questionnaire survey. Data analysis was done based on the collected 113 qualified samples. Relative importance index (RII) was applied to determine the ranking of claim attributes. The results were that the top five causes of claims, that is, payment delays, mistakes by contractor during construction stage, delays in work progress by the contractor, financial failure of the contractor, and frequently changing requirements by the owner, lead to the schedule delays in VCI. These findings can assist the local industry practitioners and foreign companies seeking a share in the VCI market in understanding the causes of construction claims comprehensively and formulating the countermeasures to minimise their impacts and hence reduce the unnecessary losses and raise the likelihood of success as well as maintain sustainable relationships among stakeholders.