An expert system to manage dispute resolutions in construction projects in Egypt

This study attempts to shed a great deal of light on the problem of construction disputes in the Egyptian projects. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the available literature on analysis of disputes. The objective of this paper was to provide an expert system can evaluate the overall dispute settlement procedures at company’s projects. A questionnaire has been used to study dispute sources and resolution methods. Four case study applications have been provided to check the validity of the proposed system. Results confirmed that the most important source of disputes was contract management 74.04%, the second was contract documents 71.49%, the third was financial issues 67.80%, the fourth was project related issues 63.92%, and the lowest one was other sources (such as force majeure) 61.58%. Finally, the expert program facilitates dispute resolution by using alternative dispute resolution methods instead of going direct to arbitration or litigation.