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The documentation of design decisions in civil engineering projects : an application in road infrastructure development

Kinneging, A.L.T. (2018) The documentation of design decisions in civil engineering projects : an application in road infrastructure development.

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Abstract:Documentation of design decisions contributes to the traceability of significant decisions that shape a project’s development process. It helps to deal with changes in the project and prevents the recurrence of old discussions. Yet little attention is given to the documentation of design decisions in SE and civil engineering literature. In this study, a theoretical framework for the key elements of this documentation process was developed. Four road infrastructure SE projects were studied and compared to this framework by means of pattern matching. This method compares theoretical and empirical patterns and determines whether they match or do not match. This analysis helped to identify if documentation of design decisions in current practices is in keeping with theory or not. The findings of the project studies demonstrate that the accessibility of documentation for all involved project parties and distribution of documentation tasks are in line with literature. However, the explicit documentation of design decisions and their rationale is not as extended as is recommended in theory. In literature, also the documentation of interrelations and context of decisions is described, but this is hardly performed in practice. Findings show that in current practices, neither immediate documentation nor periodical monitoring is applied, as recommended in literature. This research also provides a strategy for the documentation of design decisions, which aims to improve the key elements of this documentation process in civil engineering projects. This strategy was developed for a specific engineering consulting firm and it was validated by experts of this firm, specialized in other disciplines of the civil engineering sector than road infrastructure.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Clients:
Witteveen+Bos, Deventer, The Netherlands
Faculty:ET: Engineering Technology
Subject:56 civil engineering
Programme:Civil Engineering and Management MSc (60026)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/76850
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