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Abstract
The incidence of building defects and construction site problems has become a subject of attention in the building construction industry. Previous research concluded that poor quality project information is one the major causes and usually centres around two issues; communication between the various parties involved in the process of producing project information, and co-ordination between project documents.
Furthermore, the traditional method of producing project information does not provide good lines of communication within the modern construction industry. Information Technology (IT), which has been applied successfully in other industries, offers the potential to improve the quality of information in this process.
This study aimed to investigate the impact of IT on the quality of project information produced by the architectural offices in Saudi Arabia. To satisfy this aim, two questionnaire surveys were conducted in Saudi Arabia. The first investigated the level of using IT in the process of producing project information in the architectural practices. The second questionnaire evaluated the quality of project information produced by a sample of these offices. Data obtained by the two surveys have been statistically analysed to investigate whether there is an evidence for association between the level of automation in these offices and the quality of project information produced.
The first questionnaire revealed that although these offices have a high level of IT usage in some activities, such as drafting, less attention has been given to the utilisation of this technology in exchanging and co-ordinating information between project participants.