Lessons learned system in construction management

Abstract

Learning lessons from past experiences, thereby avoiding the same mistakes and repeating successes achieved in the past can enhance a construction company's competitiveness in the marketplace. Almost every existing lessons learned system in the construction industry either tries to solve design-related problems or is limited to a specific type of project. The construction industry has been inadequate in capturing the lessons learned from its projects relative to construction management practices. The objective of this study is to create a lessons learned system that allows a construction company to acquire, store, retrieve, and disseminate lessons learned about construction management practices. For this purpose, construction management practices were categorised into 12 main categories that were in turn broken down into five hierarchical levels of subcategories; the relationships between the subcategories were systematically identified; and the information was organised into a database named 'CMAID' that allows easy input and retrieval of construction management-related lessons.