Complications arising from poor collaboration are the source of a variety of the construction industry's biggest problems. This book provides clear explanations of how to successfully devise and implement a collaboration strategy.

Complications arising from poor collaboration are the source of a variety of the construction industry's biggest problems. It is now widely recognized that an effective collaboration strategy based on the implementation of information systems and careful consideration of the wider organizational issues is key to delivering construction projects successfully. Against a backdrop of rapidly developing communication techologies, and continuing efforts to improve working practices, this book provides clear explanations of how to successfully devise and implement a collaboration strategy. The concepts introduced include: collaborative working as a holistic concept in construction a new framework on how to plan and implement effective collaboration change management approaches for introducing collaborative working systems, and implementing new technologies in construction projects. Examinations of emerging technologies like mobile and wireless are combined with overviews of relevant management theories, and industry case studies, to provide a comprehensive guide suitable for both practitioners and students. Underpinned by research carried out by leading academics in co-operation with practitioners using the latest technologies, this is the most up-to-date and relevant guide to this crucial subject available. This is essential reading for all practioners and serious students of management in the built environment.

The guide that explores how procurement and contracts can create an integrated team while improving value, economy, quality and client satisfaction Collaborative Construction Procurement and Improved Value provides an important guide for project managers, lawyers, designers, constructors and operators, showing step by step how proven collaborative models and processes can move from the margins to the mainstream. It covers all stages of the project lifecycle and offers new ways to embed learning from one project to the next. Collaborative Construction Procurement and Improved Value explores how strategic thinking, intelligent team selection, contract integration and the use of digital technology can enhance the value of construction projects and programmes of work. With 50 UK case studies, plus chapters from specialists in 6 other jurisdictions, it describes in detail the legal and procedural route maps for successful collaborative teams. Collaborative Construction Procurement and Improved Value: Examines the ways to create an effective contract that will spell success throughout the procurement process Contains helpful case studies from real-world projects and programmes Explores the benefits of the collaborative construction process and how to overcome common obstacles Bridges the gaps between contract law, collaborative working and project management Includes the first analysis of the NEC4 Alliance Contract, the FAC-1 Framework Alliance Contract and the TAC-1 Term Alliance Contract

Provides a practical framework and toolkit for improved construction project outcomes based on trust and collaboration This book explores the concept of trust as a tool in improved construction procurement strategies, and provides important insight into the influence of trust on the success of construction projects and redevelopment programs. It is a practical guide that offers readers a solid outline and expert strategies for improving project outcomes through collaboration—ultimately proving that teamwork can really make the dream work. Building Collaborative Trust in Construction Procurement Strategies: A Practical Guide incorporates a toolkit, complete with flowcharts, to introduce certain trust building interventions within projects. It shows how initiatives and factors that influence collaborative trust can be easily implemented and embedded in construction management for improved practice. It also covers potential challenges, risks, problems, and barriers when it comes to trust. In addition, the book looks at the influences for collaborative trust in the construction industry as well as implications in practice for it in construction. It finishes by looking at the future of collaborative trust in construction procurement. Teaches the importance and influence of trust on collaborative working and partnerships principles Examines to what extent trust within collaborative working arrangements influences the success of collaborative working practices Covers the effect that certain factors and trust building mechanisms have on collaborative working and partnerships and how they can be embedded into procurement of projects Discusses what constitutes best practice and how trust in collaborative procurement practices influences the success of construction projects Building Collaborative Trust in Construction Procurement Strategies: A Practical Guide is an excellent book for construction management professionals, including clients, consultants, and contractors. It will also serve as a helpful text for undergraduate and postgraduate students and academics.

The Collaborative Construction of Pretend explores the origins and development of social pretend play in children. It begins with the infant's first attempts to play pretend with an adult; discusses the beginnings of toddler pretend with peers; and investigates the fully developed social play of preschool and school age children. The author argues that social pretend play can fulfill several different developmental functions and that these functions change with development. Each of these functions are rooted in the individual development of the child and in the social context. Thus the book looks at developmental progressions not only in the forms of social pretend play but in the meaning of the play to the child.

Most construction projects are large and costly. Collaborative working involves two or more stakeholders sharing their efforts and resources to complete the project more effectively and efficiently. Collaborative, integrative and multi-disciplinary teams can tackle the complex issues involved in creating a viable built environment. This tends to be looked at from three interrelated perspectives: the technological, organizational, and social; and of these the key issue is to improve productivity and enable innovation through the empowerment and motivation of people. This book provides insights for researchers and practitioners in the building and construction industry as well as graduate students, written by an international group of leading scholars and professionals into the potential use, development and limitations of current collaborative technologies and practices. Material is grouped into the themes of advanced technologies for collaborative working, virtual prototyping in design and construction, building information modelling, managing the collaborative processes, and human issues in collaborative working.

In the construction industry, the relationship between clients and contractors has been usually characterized by uncertainty and adversarial behaviour. More recently, their relationship is said to be changing from a traditional and arms-length basis to more collaborative forms, e.g. partnering. There is evidence that such collaborative forms can have a substantial impact on project performance, not only with regard to time, cost and quality objectives, but also with regard to more general outcomes, e.g. greater innovation and improved user satisfaction. However, such benefits are less well understood due to limited research and in particular an absence of robust and appropriate methods of evaluation. The purpose of this research is to address this shortfall and seek to evaluate these wider aspects of project performance relative to different degrees of collaborative working. To achieve this, collaborative working and project performance first need to be transformed into a measurable form by breaking them down into a variety of attributes or indicators. Surrounding these attributes/indicators, item statements are developed and a Likert Scale is then adopted for questionnaire design. Questionnaires were mainly administered by semi-structured interviews in which the client and contractor from the same project were invited to evaluate their collaborative working and the corresponding project performance. After unidimensionality and reliability testing for the composite measures, the response difference between client and contractor group is explored through conducting paired samples t-test. Subsequently, cluster analysis is conducted to produce a taxonomy of collaborative working and correlation and regression analysis are conducted to explore the associations between collaborative working and project performance. The final conclusion strongly supports the existence of a strong positive linear relationship between collaborative working and project performance, provides valuable regression formulas to make project performance predictions and gives a more precise classification of collaborative working to help reduce the confusion over its definitions in a novel way.