IT supported collaborative work in A/E/C projects: A ten-year review

The strategic implementation of innovative, collaborative and integrated information is essential for the sustainable development of construction organizations in the new century. The emerging information technologies (ITs) offer construction organizations great potential to develop collaborative work (CW) management information systems in architecture, engineering and construction (A/E/C) projects. This paper presents an in-depth literature review of IT supported CW in A/E/C projects. Based on selected papers from well-known academic journals in construction management over a ten-year period (2000–2009), the review focuses on the implementations of IT in collaborative design, collaborative construction project management, and integrated inter-organization management information systems. A synthesis is presented on the state-of-the-art and trends of IT supported CW in A/E/C projects. Some limitations of past research studies in IT supported CW in A/E/C projects are discussed and future research directions are recommended.

Research highlights
► Information technologies (ITs) offer construction organizations potential to develop collaborative work (CW) information systems.
► We present an in-depth literature review of IT supported CW in architecture, engineering and construction (A/E/C) projects.
► The review focuses on collaborative design, collaborative project management, and inter-organization information systems.
► A synthesis is presented on the state-of-the-art and trends of IT supported CW in A/E/C projects.
► Some limitations of current studies are discussed and future research directions are recommended.