Database Framework for Cost, Schedule, and Performance Data Integration

Abstract

Cost, schedule, and performance control are three major functions in the project execution phase. Along with their individual importance, cost-schedule integration has been a major challenge over the past five decades in the construction industry. While much effort has been exerted to propose an ideal integration system, a distributed approach has prevailed. Consequently, cost-schedule integration has remained an unsolved problem. The primary purpose of this paper is to propose a new approach to integrate cost, schedule, and performance data. This paper concentrates on project execution data related to project control functions including quantity takeoffs, cost estimation, cost control, schedule control, periodic monthly payment, and performance measurement. The terms for an ideal integration are analyzed, and a construction information database framework (CIDF) is proposed that supports multiple perspectives and levels of detail with a relatively small number of control accounts.