Computers and Quantity Surveyors (PDFDrive) PDF
Computers and Quantity Surveyors (PDFDrive) PDF
A.J.Smith
Department of Surveying
Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham
M
MACMILLAN
© A. J. Smith 1989
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Smith A. J.
Computel'S and Quantity Surveyors
1. Great Britain. Quantity surveying.
Appllcations of micro computer systems
I. Title.
624.1'042'0285416
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xi
1 GENERAL CONCEPTS 1
1 The Quantity Surveyor and the Computer- a Short History 3
2 Computer Hardware 17
3 The Selection and Management of an Office Computer System 42
4 Computers and the Law 65
5 General Purpose Software 80
6 Public Information Systems 93
7 The Development of In-house Systems 101
8 'Expert systems' -the Future? 115
Index 203
It is difficult not to believe that the computer will become the
medium through which increasingly large parts of design and
construction will be done in the future; taking over from the
manual process just as inexorably as steam power and
machines took over from manual labour in the industrial revolu-
tion.
John Chalmers
'Computing for construction in the 'eighties'
Chartered Quantity Surveyor May 1 979
Preface
The quantity surveyor and the computer have been partners in an intense
love-hate relationship for over 30 years; indeed, it would be difficult to
find any other profession in which the relationship between man and
machine has generated, by turns, so much discussion; hope and optimism;
disappointment and disillusion. Even now the rank and file of the profession
is still sharply divided between those who claim 'computer literacy' and
who consequently venerate the computer and all its works and those who,
with apparently equal pride, proclaim themselves to be 'techno-peasants'.
It is not the intention of this book to attempt to persuade students or
fellow practitioners to follow either view. The intention is to attempt to
inform rather than to influence; to try to blow away some of the mystique
which still surrounds the use of computer systems in order that, no matter
which side of the computing fence one eventually elects to stand, at least
the decision is made on some rational basis.
This book is therefore divided into two parts, the first part (chapters 1 to
8) dealing with general concepts of information technology, and the latter
part (chapters 9 to 12) dealing with specific quantity surveying issues. In
many ways this division is, of course, artificial as indeed is the subdivision
in part 2 between the various aspects of quantity surveying, and the notion
that the quantity surveyor stands alone from the rest of the construction
team. I also recognise that there are some areas of work in which quantity
surveyors are employed which are not specifically considered here; none-
theless, the first part of the book should still provide a useful introduction
to the technology.
The book is directed primarily towards providing students with a basic
grounding in the use of computers by quantity surveyors. It covers a wide
range of subjects, and I am only too aware that some areas are treated in a
very superficial way; this is partly deliberate and partly imposed by pressures
of space, but I hope that the references given will aid the research of those
wishing to pursue particular aspects of the subject to a greater depth. I
hope that the book may also be of interest to those quantity surveying
practitioners who have yet to come to terms with the technology, and also
to students and practitioners of other construction disciplines.
A.J. Smith
Acknowledgements
data and the like. By the end of the second world war the use of such
machines was commonplace and companies such as IBM were already
well established in the data processing field. The origins of data processing
can therefore be said to pre-date the development of the electronic computer
by almost half a century.
It was then against this background of data processing experience and in
the spirit of new optimism just after the war that J. Lyons & Co. began, in
1947, to investigate the use of computers for commercial data processing
and eventually, in consultation with computer specialists from the com-
puting laboratory at Cambridge University, installed LEO, the Lyons
Electronic Office. LEO finally became operational towards the end of
1953, although Lavington (1980:p. 35) points out that LEO was really a re-
engineered version of the EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic
Calculator) originally developed in Cambridge in 1949.
Although LEO was the first computer in the world to be used for
commercial data processing, Lavington (1980:p. 41) claims that the world's
first commercially available computer was the Ferranti Mk.1 based on the
Manchester Automatic Digital Machine (MADM) developed at Manchester
University, the first of which was delivered in February 1951. Evans
(1980:p. 92) however claims that the first commercially successful computer
was the UNIVAC 1 the first of which was delivered in March 1951.
It should be pointed out that by no means everyone viewed the future of
the computer with the optimism shown by Lyons. Fisher, McKie and
Mancke (1983:p. 14) quote Cuthbert Hurd, then IBM Head of Applied
Science, as stating that he was told, in 1949, by IBM president Thomas
Watson Snr. that the single IBM Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator
then in existence could solve all of the important scientific problems in the
world requiring calculation. Hurd is also reported as saying that a sub-
stantial body of opinion within IBM at the time:
... could not imagine that enough problems or applications could ever be
proposed by IBM's potential customers to keep a computer busy because
such machines were to have the capability of processing several thousand
operations per second.
In the beginning...
for the abstracting stage of the bill production process. The true origins
may in fact be even earlier, since Nott (1967) claims that discussions
began in the Architects Department of Hertfordshire County Council as
early as 1955/56.
Stafford's ideas appear to have been first put into practice by quantity
surveyors in the CLASP group attached to Nottinghamshire County Council
working in conjunction with Derby and Coventry City Councils, and the
first successful implementation of a punched card sorting system for this
kind of work was reported in The Builder in August 1958 (Cooke (1958)).
Eighteen months later, in March 1960, Braine and Pritchard (1960)
described another system, again using punched card sorting equipment,
this time developed within the Quantity Surveying Division of the War
Office. It is interesting to note that the publication of Braine and Pritchard's
article provoked a rather acerbic response from the respected quantity
surveyor and author A.J. Willis, Willis (1960), who questioned whether the
reporting of such fringe activities was not a waste of valuable magazine
space.
Willis's reservations were not however shared by all, and it was later
reported in the Chartered Surveyor (RICS (1961 a)) that:
In September 1959 the Quantity Surveyors Committee endorsed the
appointment of a Working Party to consider and report on the possible
place of computers in quantity surveying practice. A further Working
Party was formed in February 1960 to deal with one facet of this
investigation namely 'to look into the possibilities of the use of computers
in connection with the working up of quantity surveyors dimensions'
and to report to the main working party.
The final report of this latter working party, RICS (1961 b), was presented at
a quantity surveyors general meeting held on the 18th October 1961, and
the ideas presented, together with the views expressed in the interim
report, RICS (1961 a), had a profound influence on the development of
computer systems for quantity surveyors for the following twenty years.
Among the main themes were:
i) Bill production by computer was not only possible but relatively easy:
We therefore recommend that the RICS should ... consider the produc-
tion of a standard coded library...
(RICS (1961 b))
iii) one result of the use of computers would probably be a co-ordinated
approach to project information and planning:
The building and civil engineering industries ... are being urged, and
are themselves striving to improve their planning and construction
methods... the adoption by the quantity surveying profession of data-
processing techniques might well be the catalyst for speeding up the
desired changes.
(RICS (1961 b))
iv) the re-use of the quantity surveyor's data by the contractor was seen as
a good idea:
Using the data which produced the bill of quantities to provide data
for:
1) planning constructional operations
2) ordering materials
3) forecasting labour requirements
4) bonusing
(RICS (1961 b))
v) computer processing of bi lis of quantity was to reduce the cost of
building:
We forsee the adoption of integrated data processing techniques
speeding construction and lowering costs.
(RICS (1961 b))
With hindsight one could perhaps query the validity of all of the above.
So far as the first was concerned development of a comprehensive,
working and marketable system as opposed to a test or demonstration
system proved, for most developers, to be anything but easy. As an
example consider the system developed by the Development Group of
Chartered Quantity Surveyors, a consortium formed of twelve of the
leading quantity surveying practices in the United Kingdom, who began
work on a billing system before mid 1966 (see RICS (1967a)) with the
intention of having a system operational by the end of that year. RICS
(1967a) however admits that anticipated completion of a basic system
would be delayed by about a year, and the complete system would not
be ready before 1968. By November 1972 an acceptable commercial
system was still not generally available, and general release was not
anticipated until mid 1973. (Development Group of Chartered Quantity
Surveyors (1972)). Whilst part of the delay can undoubtedly be attributed
to the metrication of the Standard Method of Measurement in 1968, it is
The Quantity Surveyor and the Computer - a Short History 7
clear that the early programs were not satisfactory and that the difficulties
of development were severely underestimated.
It could also be argued that the preoccupation with coding of the data
has restricted rather than advanced the march of progress. The impact of
coding was airily dismissed in the initial reports, RICS (1961 b) for example
said:
In the course of time however... the taker-off may write just brief
descriptions plus the code number. Coding may then actually speed
up taking off rather than delay it.
Dent (1964:p99) went even further:
Once it is decided that a modification of existing taking off procedure is
acceptable then the obvious person to do the coding is the taker-off
himself. The pattern which will eventually emerge is probably one in
which conventional descriptions disappear altogether from the dimen-
sions, and codes will take their place.
There is little doubt that the readiness of those quantity surveyors
involved in systems development to accept the necessity of coding, and
their occasionally ingenious attempts to find economic ways to do it,
allowed this archaic, error prone, boring and unpopular chorP. to be
tolerated in quantity surveying systems long after alternative techniques
became available.
The hope that the adoption of data processing techniques by the
quantity surveyor would lead to better co-ordinated project documentation
and planning might have appeared to be convincing at the time in the
light of contemporary developments in information science, but in the
cold light of day it is difficult to believe that quantity surveyors seriously
expected the architectural and engineering professions to change their
ways simply because the quantity surveyor wanted to use a computer.
Perhaps the true reason why so much time, money and effort was
expended on billing systems is none of the altruistic ones given in the
working party reports. Perhaps the true and overriding reason is set out
in the first few paragraphs of RICS (1961 a) and is rather more selfish:
During the past 15 years these traditional methods (of bill production)
have, however, suffered for the following reasons:
(1) the raised status of the quantity surveying profession has attracted
entrants who, in the main, aspire to taking off as quickly as possible
and who are not content to treat working up as a career. This has
created a chronic staff shortage of workers up and
(2) the high levels of salaries payable to juniors by reason of full
employment and the competition from industry and commerce for their
services.
B Computers and Quantity Surveyors
Local authority 74
Central government 15
Private practice 35
Computer manufacturers 3
Others (institutions etc.) 11
138
How then should this period be judged? Had the quantity surveying
profession as a whole really begun to enthusiastically embrace automated
techniques as claimed by Smart, or was the profession in general still as
uninterested and ambivalent as Fletcher (1967) had imagined and NJCC
(1978) appeared to confirm?
On the one hand it can clearly be seen that a few very successful
systems were developed. The ideas first proposed in Monk and Dunstone
(1965) for example which were later marketed by Oldacres Computers Ltd.
have clearly stood the test of time, and the system marketed until the end
of the 1970s by LAMSAC, which was itself based on earlier work by
Hertfordshire County Council and CLASP (described in Harlow, Chapman
and Swanston (1972)) was very successful and achieved widespread use,
being installed in some 60 organisations worldwide. Of the other systems
the MPBW 'Enviro' system, first described in Crisp (1967), was a brave
attempt to eliminate the separate coding process and the Development
Group system mentioned earlier, although never truly successful, embodi~d
at least the philosophy of automatic generation of some quantities from
'key' information thus attempting to influence the taking off process.
On the other hand, however, it appears that, apart from a few large
practices mainly based in London, the lack of easy access to computers
restricted the main thrust of development to local and central government
organisations. This process was fuelled as much by the twin enthusiasms of
a fledgeling computer industry eager to sell its wares and local authority
treasurers who were eager to buy them, as it was by the well thought out
plans of quantity surveyors. Looking back on events then it does seem that
in many authorities the computer was used because it was there; to take
advantage of spare time; to ensure full usage of a very expensive piece of
equipment. Of course once the machine was used to full capacity the
treasurer had a very good argument for expanding the facilities to cope
with the inevitable peaks which result from the full utilisation of any
resource. The entire process then becomes a spiral, and the true cost of
using the system for any particular task becomes impossible to calculate
and often irrelevant.
So far as the computers themselves were concerned the machinery
available had evolved from devices such as the Elliot 803B, which had 4K
of main storage, four tape decks and paper tape input and output as used
by Northamptonshire County Council in 1967 (see RICS (1967b):appendix
A), to machines like the IBM 370/3031 in use in Derbyshire County
Council in 1980, which had 3000K of main storage and 9518MB of disk
backing storage serving 56 video display terminals, described in Widdeson
(1980). Despite the dramatic increase in available computer power however
the basic techniques used by quantity surveyors to solve their problems
had, with the addition of a few relatively minor enhancements, remained
The Quantity Surveyor and the Computer- a Short History 11
virtually unchanged since the early 1960s. Truly innovative research and
development had effectively come to an end by the mid 1960s and was
not to re-emerge until the advent of the microcomputer at the end of the
1970s.
Whatever the true picture, in response to the quantity surveyors' pleas, the
RICS, in 1981, commissioned CICA firstly to undertake a study of the use
of microcomputers in the profession, and secondly to prepare a handbook
which would act both as a guide to the implementation of microcomputers
and would also highlight some of the pitfalls into which the unprepared
could fall. The completed work, CICA (1981 ), was published in 1981, and
much of the contents are still valid. This publication was revolutionary in
that, for the very first time in a 'text book' about computing for surveyors,
the authors concentrated on the quantity surveyor as a user and manager
of the machine rather than attempting to teach computing. Whilst other
commentators (e.g. Dent (1964), Alvey (1976) and Brandon and Moore
(1983)) wrote volumes about how computers worked and how to program
them, CICA (1981) relegated a brief description of their workings to an
appendix and stated, quite firmly, that relying on quantity surveyors them-
selves to program operational systems was not, generally speaking, a good
idea (CICA (1981 ):p. 16).
The same period began to see developments in the use of the computer
for other quantity surveying activities. Links between bill production
systems and computer aided design systems were perceived to be an
important area, and systems are described in Daniel (1979) and Hawkins
and Davidson (1979). It is however evident that the pace of development
in this direction was painfully slow, and it was not until 1987 that the
profession as a whole made an effort to confront the issue, when the RICS
commissioned Reading University to undertake a study of computer aided
design systems and the quantity surveyor. The results of the study have
been published as RICS (1987). In an article describing the research Edgill
and Atkin (1987) write:
Before the project commenced in earnest it was evident that many
misconceptions were held by QS's. Whatever those amounted to it was
clear that CAD was not well understood.
The use of computers in other areas however has apparently proceeded
apace. In the post contract field the introduction of the NEDO formula for
calculation of increased costs provided a fertile area for development and
many practices developed their own programs. Some were made available
for wider use and a typical example is described in Howard (1979),
although many practitioners have since accomplished the same thing using
a spreadsheet rather than by writing programs. Much interest has also been
The Quantity Surveyor and the Computer- a Short History 13
expressed in the use of computers for cost modelling, and the 'state of the
art' in this area was explored at a conference held at Salford University in
1987. The papers presented, published in Brandon (1987), reveal the
enormously wide range of research and development in this field.
In the area of bill production, although some of the old mainframe
packages still remain, converted of course to run on microcomputers, the
era of the micro has seen major developments. Hunt (1982) and Hunt
(1983) for example both review systems using digitisers for measurement,
whilst Hunt (1984a) reviews a revolutionary bill production package the
operation of which implies fundamental changes to traditional measure-
ment techniques. The use of computers to access and process data from
remote data bases has become commonplace, and the BCIS On-line
service described in Robertson (1983) is now well established.
In the realm of research the profession has once again provided a lead to
the industry by securing the only construction industry project to be
funded from the Government's Alvey programme of research into fifth
generation computer systems. The project, which is concerned with the
use of knowledge based 'expert' computer systems in quantity surveying is
described in Brown (1987), and further consideration of expert systems is
included in chapter 8.
How then can we sum up the reaction of the quantity surveying profession
to the use of computers in the age of the micro? On the one hand it is
obvious from the foregoing that some practitioners have made enormous
strides in exploiting the power of the machine. On the other hand it would
appear that, after almost 30 years, by no means all quantity surveyors are
convinced of the benefits of computerisation, although one must admit that
it has proved very difficult to establish just what the level of usage really
is. Hunt (1984b) reports that the number of quantity surveying firms using
computers rose from between 3 and 5 per cent in 1982 to 36 per cent by
the spring of 1984; a year later the figure was quoted at 50 per cent (Hunt
(1985)), and by the summer of 1986 useage was reported to be 'well in
excess of 50 per cent and increasing daily' (Hunt(1986)). Lowe (1986) also
quotes a figure of 'circa 50 per cent', although he goes on to say that
'many practitioners remain hostile to computerisation'. Lowe also believes
that increased computer literacy from the new generation of surveyors is
essential for the profession to prosper. All of this seems, at first sight, to
point to a profession in which, although there may still be a few doubters,
at least a majority have come to terms with the machine and yet, in late
1987, Hunt writes:
When I was asked recently how quantity surveyors had progressed in the
use of computers over the past decade or so, I was tempted to say 'very
little' but that would not be quite true neither would it be the whole
story. The acid test of course is determined by the proportion of the
14 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
References
Objectives
such as the American space programme, which has led directly to the wide
range of cheap and very powerful computing equipment now available.
In the main, computer programs are stored on some type of magnetic
medium, for example a disk or tape, and are 'read' into the computer's
memory when required. Once the machine is switched off, however, the
contents ofthe memory are normally lost and the program must be reloaded
from the disk or tape the next time it is required. Some machines use special
chips which can be programmed by a manufacturer or a system supplier in
such a way that the stored program remains intact when the power is
turned off, thus obviating the need to load the program from tape or disk
each time the system is to be used. An example of such a chip might be
that used to control an automatic washing machine. Chips such as these
are therefore part hardware, the chip itself, and part software, the stored
program, and are usually termed 'firmware'. Programmable chips may take
a number of forms, those which have the software permanently written to
them by the manufacturer are often referred to as 'read only memory'
(ROM), whilst those which are supplied unprogrammed by the manu-
facturer and are subsequently programmed by a system supplier are referred
to as 'programmable read only memory' (PROM). A special class of
PROM which can be programmed, subsequently erased, usually by means
of intense ultra-violet light, and re-programmed is known as 'eraseable
programmable read only memory' (EPROM). The capacity of ROM type
chips is usually limited and programs are usually restricted to either simple
sequential routines, such as those used in an automatic washer or a
computer controlling some kind of repetitive process plant, or to contain
'start-up' instructions which then themselves initiate the process of loading
larger programs from disk or tape. This latter type of routine is known as a
'bootstrap loader'.
Computer 'generations'
some form of input device to allow the user(s) to communicate with the
machine, some form of output device to allow the computer to com-
municate with the user(s), a calculation and control unit (the computer
itself, sometimes referred to as the central processing unit or CPU), and
some form of storage device to permit long-term storage of data and
programs in machine readable form when the machine is switched off
(often called 'backing storage'). The logical arrangement of the units for a
simple small business system is shown in figure 2.1.
BACKING STORAGE
/
IDISK OR TAPE)
INPUT
OUTPUT IKEYBOAROl
IVIDEO SCREE )
In physical terms in the smallest computers all of the functional units may
be contained in one box. In this case the input device will generally be a
keyboard, the output device is likely to be some form of screen or liquid
crystal display, the backing storage is likely to be a built-in disk drive and
the computer itself may all be housed on a single printed circuit board. In
contrast a large computer installation may have a whole network of many
video display units each acting as an input and output device, some
Computer Hardware 21
perhaps located many miles away from the computer centre and connected
to the machine via telephone or data transmission cables. In addition a
large computer would be likely to have a number of output devices such
as printers, plotters etc. The central processing unit of a large computer
may well take up several large cabinets and the backing storage will
consist of a number of high capacity disk drives. The central processor and
disk units will usually be housed in a large, specially designed room or
suite and the system will require the services of a number of specialist
operators.
Mainframe computers
Machines at the largest end of the scale. They are physically large
and require purpose-built air-conditioned accommodation and a care-
fully regulated power supply. They will require specialist operators to
control them and will usually be geographically remote from their users.
Since the volume of backing storage is huge, often measured in terms of
thousands of millions of characters, they are very good at information
storage and retrieval and are often used to suppport large tele-processing
networks. Such machines excel at tasks requiring the handling of large
amounts of data. They will therefore be used by organisations such as
banks, large local authorities, central government departments such as the
Driver and Vehicle Licensing Centre, or as the central machine of a large
company.
Minicomputers
Minicomputers are perhaps the hardest group to define since at one end of
the spectrum the larger minis overlap both in appearance and function
with the smaller mainframe machines, and at the other end those
computers called small minis are virtually indistinguishable from those at
the top end of the micro band.
22 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
Microcomputers
ranging from machines costing only a few hundred pounds at one extreme
to systems costing tens of thousands of pounds at the other. They are very
reliable and much publicity centres around their alleged ease of use. After
a late start IBM have now, by pure commercial muscle, established the
unofficial industry standards, and most micro manufacturers, apart from
one or two that have specialised in particular sectors of the market, offer
'IBM compatibility'. This does not necessarily mean that their hardware is
constructed in the same way or to the same standards as those manufactured
by IBM, they merely claim that their machines will run software written for
the IBM range. A survey conducted by lnfomatics magazine in September
1987, lnfomatics (7 987), found 53 different manufacturers offering IBM-
compatible machines, but beware - some machines are more IBM-
compatible than others!
Batch processing
In general, present day commercially used computer systems are only
capable of executing one instruction at a time. In early systems information
was presented to the computer either on punched cards or on punched
paper tape, the whole job being prepared before being presented, as a
batch, to the machine. The machine then processed the data, working
exclusively on that batch until completion before beginning the next task.
This method of processing is known as 'batch processing', and is still in
use for commercial applications where large amounts of data are required
to be processed with little human intervention, for example a large monthly
company payroll or the final printing of a bill of quantities. Such a method
of operation is ideally suited to this kind of work and many mainframe
computers use this approach extensively for commercial data processing.
When using a batch processing approach incoming jobs are 'queued' in
an input queue, and output from completed jobs will be placed onto an
output queue. A diagrammatic representation is shown in figure2.2. Although
in early systems the information was presented on cards or punched tape it
is now much more likely to be submitted via a video display terminal.
Most commercial systems will allow multiple input queues to allow jobs
to be processed according to criteria set by the system operations manager.
Examples of such criteria might include the time of submission (a simple
first come first served approach), but this is likely to be modified by factors
such as the priority requested by the user (higher priorities often incur a
premium charge for faster turnaround), and the level of processing
resources required to do the job (processes expected to generate large
amounts of print or jobs requiring special arrangements may be given a
lower priority by the system manager because of the resources required).
24 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
USER 2
us ER 1 USER 3
NEW JOBS
ADDED TO
QUEUE
' JOB 11
I
JOB 10
JOB 9
8
--
JOB
JOB 7
JOB 6
INPUT QUEUE
COMPUTER
SYSTEM
(PROCESSING JOBS)
OUTPUT QUEUE
JOB 4
OUTPUT RETURNED
JOB 3 TO USERS WHEN
PROCESSING
JOB 2
COMPLETE
JOB 1
USE R 1 USER 3
USER 2
Interactive processing
Distributed processing
USER 1 USER 2
PROCESSOR CYCLES
ROUND ALL USERS
CENTRAL BY ALLOCATING EACH
USER A 'TIME SLICE"
COMPUTER
BEFORE SAVING THE
SYSTEM
TASK AND MOVING
ON
USER t. USER 3
USER I US ER 2
0 0
CENTRAL MAINFRAM E
MASS STORAGE AND
CENTRAL SPECIALISEO OUTPUT
MAINFRAME
FACIL ITIES [PLOTTER
COMPUTER LASER PRINTER ETC I
called the main memory, and the total amount of backing storage (usually
disk space) accessible by the processor at any one time. The 'size' of the
central processor is usually quoted in 'bytes', where 1 byte generally
equals 1 character, but because the numbers tend to be large it is
conventional to give the information in 'K' bytes (KB) where K=2 10 or
1024. Sometimes KB is colloquially abbreviated simply to K, so a machine
described as having 256K (256KB) of main memory will therefore have a
central processing unit with the ability to store 256 x 1024 characters of
information. This measure is important since information held in main
memory can be manipulated much more quickly than information held on
disk, and it is therefore likely that the larger the main memory the faster the
machine will be able to process complex programs using sizeable volumes
of data.
The amount of backing storage available is also usually given in bytes,
but because the numbers tend to be even larger than for main memory,
figures tend to be quoted in 'M' bytes (MB) where M = 220 or 1 048 576.
1MB therefore= 1K2 bytes. As an indication of what this means in terms of
text, Gooch(1986:p13) estimates that 1MB is approximately equivalent to
400 average A4 pages. Backing storage figures for larger computers,
particularly mainframes, may be given in Giga-bytes (GB) where 1GB =
230.
Whilst such measures are useful in gauging the capacity of a system they
say nothing at all about its performance. It is rather like saying a car has
four seats. In addition to the above therefore some manufacturers quote the
speed at which the processor operates, usually in cycles per second quoted
in mega-hertz (MHz), but this again tells a prospective user little about
how well the machine will actually perform a particular task in a working
environment; to return to the car analogy the measures we have so far are
equivalent to the number of seats and the maximum speed of the engine.
What the prospective buyer really wants is some way of comparing how
well each ofthe machines on offer will do the job, and the most often used
way of attempting this is to construct some hypothetical test data consisting
of a mix of representative operations which can then be processed on each
machine, the results being compared one with another. Such tests are
usually termed 'benchmarks', and as Jones (1987) says:
Good benchmarks should compare systems doing the same tasks, and
ideally those tasks should closely resemble the ones users will actually
want to carry out.
One set of benchmarks developed to test the calculation speed of micro-
computers has been developed by the magazine Personal Computer World
and is described in Walker (1986). Benchmarks can of course also be
developed to compare the performance of a number of software packages
on the same machine, rather than of the machines themselves, and an
Computer Hardware 29
Input devices
These devices currently provide the most popular and widely used method
of interactive communication between the user and the computer, and all
modern computers will have at least one. The unit is connected to the
computer by a cable, and information typed via the keyboard is transmitted
to the processor. Terminals may communicate with the host computer
either on a character-by-character basis or the input may be 'buffered'
within the terminal until some special key, often the 'carriage return' or
'enter' key is pressed. Responses from the computer are displayed on the
screen.
Most keyboards will have the main character keys set in the normal
typewriter style (often called the QWERTY pattern after the arrangement of
the characters on the top row), although other patterns have been tried
from time to time. All terminals will also have other special purpose keys
as well, and many terminals have 'function' keys, the meaning of which
can be controlled from within particular programs.
30 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
These systems, as the names suggest, are all attempts to 'read' information
either written or printed on paper.
Optical mark recognition relies on the location by a scanning device of
written marks (generally indicating a 'yes' response) or the absence of
marks (usually indicating a 'no' response) on a pre-printed form. It is
obvious that OMR techniques are therefore very useful for jobs such as the
evaluation of data gathered during market research studies. The limitations
of OMR techniques are the limited range of input options, and the fact that
the forms must be manufactured to reasonable tolerances and must be kept
clean if spurious entries are to be avoided, although some systems do
overcome the dirt problem with the use of special graphite pencils. Typical
data capture speeds are between about 25 000 and 30 000 characters per
minute.
The logical progression from OMR is the recognition of actual characters
rather than just marks on a piece of paper. The first method evolved
entailed printing the characters in a special magnetic ink in a very stylised
type font, the characters then being scanned electronically. This method is
known as magnetic ink character recognition, and is perhaps most widely
known for its use by banks for sorting and processing cheques.
MICR is however only of use where the characters can be printed on the
page in magnetic ink. A different approach is required to recognise
characters written on an ordinary document, and this has led to the
development of optical character recognition (OCR) systems. Most OCR
readers examine each character as if it were made up of a pattern of tiny
dots. When the whole pattern has been scanned the pattern detected is
compared with a set of standard patterns held in the machine and when a
reasonable match is found that character is considered to be the one read.
If no match can be achieved within the tolerances allowed then a read
error occurs and the character is flagged as an error. Two standard
character sets were originally used, OCR 'A' and OCR 'B', but OCR
Computer Hardware 31
readers are now available which can cope with typewritten documents.
Much more development is required before OCR techniques can be applied
to hand-written documents. Modern OCR readers will operate at about
2400 characters per second but are conventionally operated at much
slower speeds for greater accuracy. A potted history of OCR and an
indication of future research in this field was given in Howard (1986).
A number of companies have experimented with OCR systems to read in
bills of quantity for subsequent processing by contractors estimating
packages and an example of such a system is described in Lane (1985).
Perhaps the most promising initiative in this area is the development, in
America, of a hand-held scanning device reported by Bajarin (1987) and
now available in the United Kingdom. Such a device will vastly increase
the scope for this type of data input. However whilst the technical prob-
lems of transferring text from typewritten copy into the computer may soon
be solved, the software required to interpret the words is very complex.
A digitiser (and its smaller brother the graphics tablet) is a form of input
device which permits co-ordinate information to be taken from a drawing
directly using an electronic pen to either trace around shapes or 'pick off'
particular points. Conventional digitisers work by having a very fine matrix
of wires embedded in the board which register a signal in both horizontal
and vertical directions when the board is touched with the special pen.
The computer can therefore calculate the X and Y co-ordinates of the point
selected by the pen, and suitable software can then calculate distances
between points using conventional co-ordinate geometry. Such devices are
of obvious use in computer aided measurement (see also chapter 9).
An unusual form of digitiser is that used by Techsonix in connection
with their computer aided measurement software. This system uses ribbon
microphones positioned along the X and Y axes of the board and the signal
is produced by a special pen which generates an ultra-sonic sound when
pressed onto the board.
Digitisers are available to accommodate A3, A2, A1 and AO size drawings,
and smaller graphics tablets are available to accommodate A4 size sheets.
The price increases rapidly wlth the size.
These devices usually consist of either a pressure pad or a solid state board
similar to a digitiser. Information is written by hand onto a sheet of paper
laid over the board, the characters written are deciphered by a small in-
built microprocessor and the resultant code is transmitted to the host
computer. Such devices are of obvious benefit although the units available
32 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
at the time of writing tend to be expensive, are limited in size and can only
'read' capital letters.
Output devices
Printers
fonts is available by changing the print wheel, and the main advantage of
the daisy-wheel printer is the print quality which is indistinguisable from
that produced by an electric typewriter. The main disadvantage is the
speed which is limited to about 55 characters per second.
Matrix printers generate the characters from a pattern of dots formed by
pressing small needles against the paper via a conventional typewriter style
ribbon. Most matrix printers will possess the ability to print either at high
speed in 'draft' mode (say up to about 450 characters per second), or to
print what is known as 'near letter quality' (NLQ) by building up more fully
formed letters from multiple passes across the document. Near letter
quality print is therefore much slower than the draft mode, but nevertheless
does produce a very acceptable typewriter-style text. Most matrix printers
have the facility to print a number of different fonts, at different pitches and
with text in different sizes, even changing from one to another actually in
the body of a document; they are thus much more flexible than the daisy-
wheel type.
As noted earlier, small laser printers developed by companies such a
Xerox and Canon using state of the art electrostatic printing techniques are
rapidly gaining ground in small computer installations, due mainly to their
ability to produce virtually any style of print very quickly, very quietly,
with superb clarity at speeds up to about twenty pages per minute. Laser
printers are becoming very popular when used in connection with 'desk-
top publishing' software (see also chapter 5). The main disadvantage of
laser printers at present is the relatively high cost but no doubt this will be
overcome in time.
Other types of printer, based on alternative technologies, are also
available; for example, some manufacturers use an ink-jet mechanism
whilst others use a thermal technique using special paper. Such machines
are however at the moment very much in the minority. Printer technology
is however constantly changing, but Stobie (1988) contains a good review
of the contemporary scene. Stobie also comments that significant techno-
logical improvements now mean that ink-jet printers may be about to make
a significant impact on the market. Such machines have advantages over
laser printers in that they can print on continuous stationery, can handle
paper of greater width, are as quiet or quieter in operation and can print in
a number of different colours.
Plotters
Plotters are used to enable the output of drawn information from the
computer, and the principal use therefore tends to be in computer aided
design although small plotters are sometimes used for the production of
graphs and charts. Plotters may be of two basic configurations:
34 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
Magnetic tape storage is probably the most widely used form of computer
readable secure storage. Some early micro systems used cassette tapes of
the kind used in portable tape recorders, but modern cassette systems use
special cassettes which are much larger, more expensive, can store much
more information and can be accessed much more quickly. Mini and main-
frame systems use special computer tape reels W' wide with either seven or
nine recording tracks. Information is encoded as patterns of magnetic dots
across all tracks. The principal disadvantage of magnetic tape systems is
that the information must be accessed serially, i.e. to find a specific piece
of information it is necessary to begin at the beginning of the tape and read
each record in turn until the required information is found. This obviously
means lengthy (at least by computer standards) search times if the required
information is near the end of the tape.
Computer Hardware 35
The most widely used backing storage devices are magnetic disk units.
Each disk consists of a flat platter coated on both sides with a magnetic
recording medium. Information is encoded on the disk as a pattern of
magnetic dots in concentric circles (called 'tracks') usually on both sides of
the disk. Disks therefore overcome the main problem encountered when
using magnetic tape, that is that information can only be accessed serially
beginning from the start of the tape. With disks, in addition to dividing
each surface into tracks, surfaces may also be divided into sectors, and the
tracks sub-divided into blocks. Direct addressing of information is therefore
possible by quoting the appropriate track/sector/block address.
In large systems several disks may be mounted one above another on a
common spindle and the resultant assembly is known as a disk 'pack'.
Three main types of magnetic disk are in common use and are shown
diagrammatically in figure 2.5.
Optical disks
Optical disk technology has been around since the late 1970s, and during
the period since the mid 1980s a number of systems have been built which
integrate video-disk playback systems and contemporary computer
technology. Perhaps the best known application is the BBC
'Doomsday' project, described in Linderholm (1987). Data is stored on
optical disk by 'burning' small pits in the surface with a laser, and may
later be retrieved by scanning again with a laser beam. Such systems have,
for a number of years, been proposed as an alternative to magnetic disk.
The principal advantages are seen as being the ease with which visual
information can be stored and accessed by computer database
management software, coupled with an increase in the amount of
information which could be stored on a disk of any given size. The major
disadvantage however is that once the data is written to the disk it cannot
currently be subsequently erased. The computer industry, with its
insatiable appetite for acronyms, refers to such systems as WORM (Write
Once Read Many times) technology.
A report published in 1987 by a leading research company (Wharton
(1987)) predicts a big growth in systems built around optical disks during
the 1990s, predicting total sales of such systems at £66m by 1991
compared with only £2.5m in 1986. Optical disk units are now offered for
use with personal computers, and a number of manufacturers are believed
to be close to offering systems which will allow information to be erased or
overwritten.
,
USER
Star network
Ring network
Bus network
network itself. Note that this software does not normally prevent the nodes
from working as stand-alone computers in their own right, but does allow
them to communicate with each other should the need arise. An excellent
introduction to the practicalities of local area networks is given in Malcolm
(1987a) and Malcolm (1987b).
References
Bajarin T. (1987) 'Microsoft signs up with Alps for handheld scanners' Personal Computer
World Vol.1 0 no.8 (August 1987) p. 90
Brandon P. S. and Moore R.G. (1983) Micro Computers in Building Appraisal Granada
Computer Weekly (1988) 'Survey data captured' Computer Weekly 14.1.88 p. 32
Feigenbaum E. and McCorduck P. (1983) The Fifth Generation Addison Wesley
Gooch B. (1986) The Computer Guide for Builders Privately published
Gross-Nicklaus M. (1987) 'Psion organiser II' Personal Computer World Vol.10 no.8
(August 1987) pp. 114-118
Computer Hardware 41
the organisation as a whole, and whilst the above statements might, at least
in part, even be true, an organisation which installs a computer system
using any of the above for justification is doomed to disappointment. There
is no magic in computer systems; computers will not take an unprofitable
business and make it successful. If computer systems are to be used
effectively then the application of them must be carefully researched and
the costs and benefits must be realistically assessed.
Both Parret & Stead (1986) and Atkin (1987) consider the problem of
choice of an office computer system. Essentially what is required is a three-
stage process to discover:
i) Is there a problem?
ii) If there is a problem is a computer solution appropriate?
iii) If a computer solution is appropriate, how is the most suitable system
to be chosen, implemented and operated?
This first stage is really part of the routine monitoring process which every
business should undertake as a part of its overall business strategy. The
questions to be asked therefore are questions about the performance of the
business itself:
i) What are the objectives of the organisation?
ii) Are they being achieved to the satisfaction of the p~oprietors?
iii) Will the organisation continue, as far as can be foreseen, to achieve
them in the future?
Questions such as these should indicate whether any further investigations
are justified. If the honest answer to all of the above is 'Yes' then the
indications would be that there is no need to undertake detailed investiga-
tion of computer systems which might be costly; if however the answer to
any of them is 'No' then there is a need to progress to stage 2.
The above scenario views the possible selection and implementation of
a computer system very much as the solution to a particular problem. A
further question which may arise, particularly, in a forward-looking organ-
isation, might be:
Although I'm satisfied that the organisation is achieving the required
objectives at the moment, could computers help me to achieve them
more effectively in the longer term?
This question is very much more difficult to answer as it implies the need
for some on-going appraisal, research and development. The extent to
which an individual organisation will consider this to be worthwhile will
obviously depend upon the importance which the organisation attaches to
44 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
being at the front of the pack. It must be remembered that research and
development is a high risk venture which can be very costly.
Stage 1 of the process identifies that a problem exists, the next question to
be resolved is to decide precisely what the cause of the problem is and
what is required in order to overcome it. Some problems may be simple in
that one particular process or activity can be seen to be inefficient, but
others may have a number of causes; a number of contributory factors may
combine together to create the obstruction. Problems such as these may
require one composite solution or they may simply be symptomatic of
other hidden problems. In any event it is vital to be sure that the precise
cause(s) of the problem have been identified before going further.
Having established the precise cause of the problem(s), it is then
necessary to ask two further questions:
(1) Would a computer help?
(2) Would use of a computer be cost effective?
The analyst
then an external consultant may prove to be the better choice although the
cost is likely to be high.
Hunt (1982b) identifies the qualities which an 'in-house' analyst should
possess as:
A suitable candidate for the task must start with an open mind, must
have an analytical approach and sufficient knowledge of quantity survey-
ing procedures to enable extraction of all relevant information'.
Parrett & Stead (1986), whilst in general agreement with the above, go
further:
The person you choose must display the following qualities:
1 Ability to use initiative
2 Self-motivation
3 Willingness to learn and be open-minded- you cannot afford to select
someone with tunnel vision
4 Genuine interest in modern technology
5 Analytical ability and preferably a detailed knowledge of the organ-
isation and its systems
6 A basic concept of computer programming and a broad knowledge of
what computers can do
7 Commitment to the project
It may also be an advantage if the candidate is a user rather than a
computer specialist, because a computer specialist might tend to:
(i) Compromise on management needs in favour of programming needs
(ii) Design systems for ease of programming rather than ease of use
(iii) Fail to analyse the management requirements as well as a user,
basically because a user normally knows the existing formal systems
and the informal systems which surround them
(iv) Have an in-built bias towards hardware and software with which
they are already familiar
(v) Have a lesser sense of urgency and commitment to the project
(vi) Be unable to look beyond the present application
Above all, the analyst must have the authority to do the job and in
particular the authority to investigate and comment on the existing manual
procedures. This will inevitably necessitate complete backing from higher
management, at either director or partner level as appropriate. The analyst
must also of course be given the necessary administrative back-up in the
form of secretarial staff, travel facilities and so on.
46 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
There are essentially only three ways in which software can be obtained:
(i) 'Off the shelf'
(ii) In-house development
(iii) Specially commissioned from a software house
There is a very wide range of 'off the shelf' software available for many of
the more standard applications, for example word processing, spreadsheet
calculators, data manipulation, accounting, project scheduling etc. If these
are the applications required then it is highly likely that a suitable program
can be found off the shelf.
Hunt (1982a) gives a general checklist of points to examine, and Barrett
(1987b) offers a series of criteria for the evaluation of project management
software. Both lists include the general characteristics described above in one
form or another, and the following general rules may be derived:
(i) How heavy duty is it? Will it contain all the information you need to
process, not only now but in the forseeable future?
(ij) Can it do all of the things you want to do?
able?
(iv) How easy is it to use? How difficult is it to break? Are the error
messages easy to understand?
(v) Does it process the data fast enough?
(vi) How well supported is the package? How good is the documenta-
tion, is there a user 'hotline', how much training is included/
The Selection and Management of an Office Computer System 49
In-house development
For this option to be even considered the organisation must either have
staff already trained who can carry out the work, staff willing to be trained
who can be spared from other duties or be prepared to employ trained
specialist staff to do the work. Software development in-house is a very
expensive activity, and it is most unwise to think that staff who may have
written small programs for themselves in the past are capable of writing
operational systems for use in an office. The only way that this option can
work effectively is for the work to be done by trained computer specialists;
it is therefore an option which should be approached with great caution.
On the other hand however this approach is likely to produce the 'best
fit' solution for any particular organisation. Most of the currently available
quantity surveying packages originated in just this way, and the authors are
now attempting to recoup some of the considerable initial outlay by selling
the product to other practitioners. The quality of such software is very
variable. The development of 'in-house' systems is considered in more
detail in chapter 7.
50 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
As might be expected this is by far the most expensive option and the cost
of the software is likely to exceed the cost of the hardware. It is however
likely to produce a very good 'fit' between the users' requirements and the
final computer solution. An organisation following this route could expect
to shed all of the responsibilty for production of the software, testing and
implementation. The disruptive effects of the installation of the system will
therefore be minimised but the cost is likely to be very high.
The actual process of 'purpose-built' software development is con-
sidered in more depth in chapter 7.
The decision about how to pay for the chosen computer can, as Lawrence
(1986) points out, be rather tricky. Whilst the position of any one particular
company is likely to be to some extent unique, and changes in tax
allowances and interest rates can alter the position, Lawrence offers the
following general guidelines:
(i) Only rent or lease for less than two years if you're sure you have no
long-term use for the system and aren't worried about the money
(ii) Buy if you've got the money in the bank
(iii) Lease if you aren't worried about the tax concessions and you
haven't the money to buy
(iv) Don't lease for as long as seven years, over that pe.riod it is cheaper
to buy
(vi) Use an operating lease if you want to keep the expenditure off the
balance sheet
The best advice is to seek the help of an accountant to assess the precise
position at the time.
therefore impossible to predict how long the machine will be out of action.
Whilst this might not particularly matter in an organisation using computers
in a non-critical way and where an easy return to alternative manual
methods is possible, for example simple word processing, it is likely to be
of considerable importance where the computer has become established at
the centre of a business and perhaps particularly where the computer is
used to keep financial records. One may also consider 'going bare' in the
case of an organisation using a number of computers of the same type,
particularly if there is some inbuilt redundancy, where one computer can
be be taken out of service for repair and the work load can be redistributed
temporarily onto other machines.
For those organisations adopting a rather more structured policy there
are a number of maintenance plans available depending upon the type of
equipment installed and the level of service required. At the largest end of
the scale, mainframe and minicomputer suppliers will advise on the
selection of a suitable maintenance plan, whilst a number of specialist
companies exist to serve the microcomputer market.
The cost of a maintenance plan will depend basically upon the level of
service required, and companies will prefer to quote for particular installa-
tions depending upon the customer's precise requirements, but the cost will
largely depend upon the required speed of response. A figure of up to 15
per cent of the initial capital equipment cost per year for example might
give a microcomputer installation a guaranteed repair or replacement of
faulty equipment within 24 hours.
The information stored in a computer system, which might well have been
collected over a number of years, may well be much more valuable to an
organisation then the equipment itself. The security and integrity of the
data is therefore of paramount importance and all systems should contain
some procedures to limit the possible consequences of destruction.
Excluding vandalism and fraud, which are discussed later, information
stored in the computer is under threat from a number of sources including:
• physical damage caused by faulty machinery, for example a defective
disk drive may physically damage the disk
• corruption of the information stored on the disk due to a faulty
program
• damage caused by lightning strike, power cut or electrical surge
rendering the data unreadable
• operator error causing incorrect data to be written to the file
• physical damage resulting from some outside cause. In the case of a
hard disk this may be fire, flood etc., but in the case of information
stored on floppy disks may be the result of exposure to extreme heat
e.g. sunlight through a window, use of the disk as a coffee mat etc., or
even loss of the disk itself
The most common method of ensuring day-to-day security of the data is to
take security 'back-up' copies on a regular basis. The frequency and extent
of the copies will depend upon the type of data and the frequency with
which it is usually updated, but most users of hard-disk systems for
example will take a complete 'dump' copy of the whole disk perhaps
weekly onto either floppy disk or magnetic cartridge tape, with regularly
used files perhaps being copied to floppy disk every day. Such a system is
known as a 'father/son' arrangement, and it ensures that information can
be recovered from a known point in time should any of the above
catastrophes occur. Note that with the father/son, or 'single generation'
copy arrangement, the copy tape is overwritten each time the information
is secured; both the original and the copy are therefore in the machine at
the same time, and if a problem occurs during the security operation then
54 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
both the master and the copy may be lost. The problem may be overcome
by using a separate security tape each time, but after a time the number of
tapes to be stored becomes unmanageable, and the method tends to be
very expensive. A common compromise is to employ either a two or three
generation technique where either two or three security tapes are used in
rotation. There are therefore always at least two previous copies of the
information available at any one time from which the system can be
restored.
Remember also to store back-up copies in a safe place away from the
computer room; it's not much good having back-up copies of the data
from which to restore the system in the event of fire in the computer room
if the back-up tapes are themselves destroyed in the fire!
Much has been made in the recent past of the need for computer systems
to be 'user-friendly'; to help users to get the best from the system.
Unfortunately this faoor may also make the systems very vulnerable to
access by unauthorised people and may therefore make them susceptible
to unauthorised alteration of the information which they contain, either
fraudulently or mischievously or both. Whilst the installation is small there
may not be a problem, but the problem assumes greater importance the
more complex the installation and the more widespread the operation
becomes. Norman (1983) classifies a large number of cases revealing the
possible effects of computer insecurity, and also discusses the ways in
which computer managers can minimise the risk involved. It appears
however that many users are unaware of the problem; according to David
56 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
On the larger machines the security and integrity issues are, of course,
taken very seriously by the manufacturers and suppliers, and it is perhaps
microcomputers, and particularly microcomputers connected in networks,
which are most susceptible to the opportunist. Kochanski (1986) sums
up the problem:
Microcomputers are a familiar sight in an increasing number of offices;
but it's still remarkable how little thought is given by the average user to
the sensitivity of information held on the system. People who would not
dream of leaving filing cabinets unlocked have no objection to leaving
computers accessible, with exactly the same information in them.
Kochanski also summarises the main threats to data security and integrity:
First, detectable alteration, where someone erases a report that took days
to prepare; second, undetectable alteration, such as adding false invoices
to the purchase ledger; third, detectable reading, where a disk containing
the customer mailing list goes missing; and fourth, undetectable reading,
where a maintenance engineer makes a copy of the file containing next
year's business plan and takes it with him.
The solution to some of these problems relies on physical security. Floppy
disks, and back-up copies, containing sensitive data should be locked
away, and it is possible to fit the microcomputers and terminals themselves
with a Yale type lock to prevent unauthorised usage.
At the software level the most common protection is the 'password',
some secret combination of characters which must be entered before the
computer will allow access to particular systems or data files. There are
however a number of factors which should be considered if passwords are
to remain effective:
(i) Passwords must, of course, be meaningful to the user if they are to be
easily remembered, but they must be sufficiently obscure that they
cannot easily be guessed. Passwords such as 'FRED', the user's name
or 'chairman' represent no protection at all.
(ii) Passwords must be changed often; the longer a password stays
unchanged the greater the number of people likely to learn it.
(iii) Passwords must be kept confidential to those who need to know
them and this will normally mean that they must not be written
down; stories of passwords being written on the side of terminals are
commonplace, and one computer security adviser is reported in
Ernest-Jones (1987) as knowing of a bank which has a notice in its
payment room saying 'Today's password is... .'
(iv) It is little use having users password-protect their files if the operating
system passwords are left as set by the supplier. Access at the
58 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
Arrangements to actually use the system will, of course depend upon the
software to be installed. In the case of a single-user system which will only
be used by one person, for example a word processing system, the answer
is simple, but the question requires more thought in the case of a multi-
user system or a single-user system which is to be used by a number of
different people. In this case it is essential to have some one person in
control and responsible for the day-to-day running of the computer,
including backing up data in accordance with the procedures laid down in
the operations manual, ensuring that printers are supplied with paper and
ribbons, maintaining stocks of consumables such a floppy disks, liaison
with maintenance contractors etc. A most important function of the
The Selection and Management of an Office Computer System 59
Training is one of the most difficult areas to plan satisfactorily, and yet
adequate staff training is essential if an organisation is to get the best from
its computer investment. Experience also appears to show that this is
probably the one area above all others in which management try to
economise. Powell (1987), reporting on research carried out in 1985,
states that on average, for a new system, management allocated only one
day to training and this tended to be largely on a seminar consisting of a
demonstration of the system. Even when more comprehensive training
programmes are available the result is not always totally satisfactory.
Andrew (1987) examines the question of training in a number of quantity
surveying practices which had recently introduced a computerised billing
system, and found that although the firms were not disappointed with the
quality of the training offered, in fact the three-day programmes themselves
were rated by many as very good, nonetheless:
The survey revealed that not all firms feel that they have achieved
extensive utilisation of the system, and that many who have achieved
this level have only done so after a lengthier period than originally
anticipated.
There is an instinctive feeling that the best way to learn to use computers is
by trial and error, and there is no doubt that it is possible to learn this way,
provided that management does not expect the system to be in operational
use at the same time. The basic mistake which is made over and over again
is to expect that a computer system will be working at full capacity almost
within hours of installation. This hardly ever happens, and whilst manage-
ment might well be unwilling to spend money on formal training courses it
must nonetheless be prepared to allow staff the opportunity to gain familiarity
with new systems without the pressures imposed in a production
environment. Adequate allowance must then be included in the castings
60 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
for a new computer system to allow for the inevitable loss of productivity
which will occur during the familiarisation process.
Although trial and error can result in very good appreciation of the
workings of a computer system, it is essentially a random process which
relies to a great extent on the availability of a comprehensive manual from
which to learn; something which many computer systems lack. In addition
the time taken to achieve familiarity with a system on a trial-and-error basis
will vary widely from one person to another due to the amount of time
likely to be spent in following 'blind alleys'. The contribution which can
be made by a formal training course in terms of controlled training over a
known period of time should not be overlooked.
Computer-aided training courses, in which the computer itself leads the
user through a series of tutorials, are becoming more popular as an
alternative to organised group training sessions. Whilst they do have
advantages in terms of allowing users to learn at their own pace, they also
have significant disadvantages in that their ability to answer queries raised
by the user during the session are very limited. The absence of the
stimulation which results from the inter-personal contact of a well run
group training session is also very difficult to overcome.
Hunt (1987) has much good advice about the training of quantity
surveyors in the use of computer techniques.
Yes, but it is difficult to look further ahead than you can see. The planned
operational life of a modern microcomputer system should be taken as no
more than about five years; this is not to say that the equipment will be
worn out after this length of time, but the technology is advancing at such
a rate that systems installed today will be obsolete within this period of
time. It is therefore pointless to attempt to plan too far ahead.
It is however very tempting, following the successful implementation of
one system, to attempt to add more and more to the original system. This
temptation should be viewed very carefully; new applications should be
subject to just as searching a scrutiny as was the original in order to assess
the cost effectiveness of the proposal. In addition the impact of the new
applications on the existing systems must also be carefully considered if
degradation of the existing service is to be avoided.
Much has been written over the years regarding the human aspects of
computing, both from the point of view of human/machine interaction and
also with regard to the health and safety of the operators.
62 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
of their total working time actually working at a VDU. Muscular aches and
pains can similarly be eased by the provision of suitable adjustable chairs.
On a psychological level there seems to be some evidence in the
Newham survey to support the view that poor job satisfaction often
manifests itself in apparent physical symptoms of tiredness, hypertension
and irritability. There is also evidence that workers feel that in some cases
the computer dictates the pace of the work, that the machine is pushing
them along, that they have in some sense lost control, and that this may
also give rise to a high incidence of hypertension and similar stress-related
illness.
Psychological problems such as these are very complex and in part
may impinge on the human/computer interaction issues discussed earlier.
Management must however involve staff at all stages of computerisation if
feelings of insecurity are to be avoided, and it may be that the kind of
stress-related problems mentioned above can be reduced if workers are
aware of, and in agreement with, the likely impact on their role from the
outset and are actively involved in the whole process from feasibility to
implementation.
A satisfactory resolution of the human issues should perhaps be the
most important consideration of any organisation planning to introduce
computers. The process will be much more successful and the systems will
run much more smoothly if staff are committed to making it so.
References
Andrew J. (1987) Computerising and the need for a training programme Disse rtation
submitted for BSc(Hons) in Quantity Surveying, Trent Polytechnic
Arthur C. (1987) 'Fraud inspires CBI to act' Computer Weekly 22/1/87
Atkin B. (1987) 'Computerising' Chartered Quantity Surveyor March 1987 p. 10
Barrett D. (1987a) 'Secrets sold for £45' Computer Weekly 26/3/87
Barrett D. (1987b) 'Head scratching stuff Computer Weekly 24/9/87 p. 38
Brown J. (1987a) 'When it's more than a movie' Computer Weekly 14/5/87 p. 30
Brown J. (1987b) 'How to assess the impact of disasters' Computer Weekly 28/5/87 p. 31
Brown j. (1987c) 'Fleeing the grim reaper's grasp' Computer Weekly4/6/87
Brown J. (1987d) 'Don't panic as disaster falls' Computer Weekly 18/6/87 p. 17
Brown). (1987e) 'The best laid plans.. .' Computer Weekly 25/6/87 p. 30-31
Brown J. (19870 'Prevention- as good as a cure' Computer Weekly 16/7/87
Carter D.J. (1984) 'Who checks the softwarel' Construction Computing October 1984p. 32
CICA (1981) Chartered Quantity Surveyors and the microcomputer RICS
ClarkS. (1987a) 'Pilot highlights human factors' Computer Weekly7/5/87
ClarkS. (1987b) 'Are you sitting comfortablyl' Computer Weekly 1/10/87
Computer Weekly (1980) '80% of DP frauds result of 'pure opportunismH Computer
Weekly 6/11/80
64 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
Donnelly F. {1986) 'Coping with chaos' lnfomatics August 1986 pp. 26--28
DOC (1980) Miaos in construction Design Office Consortium (now Construction
Industry Computing Association)
Ernest-jones T. (1987) 'Why network security needs tightening up' Computer Weekly
26/11/87 p. 11
Fraser G. (1987) 'Making a full recovery' lnfomatics December 1987 pp. 51-52
Holdsworth I. (1987a) 'Working the system' Computer Weekly 23/7/87 p. 20
Holdsworth I. (1987b) 'Hackers' spree spans Europe' Computer Weekly 24/9/87 p. 9
Hunt G. (1982a) 'Micronotes: A question of verification' Chartered Quantity Surveyor
March 1982 p. 235
Hunt G. (1982b) 'Micronotes: Halve labour costs - don't use computers' Chartered
Quantity Surveyor April 1982 p. 275
Hunt G. (1987) 'Micronotes: Get in training' Chartered Quantity Surveyor February
1987 p. 12
Huws U. (1987) The VDU worker's handbook London Hazard !.entre, 103 Borough
Rd., London SE1
Kochanski M. (1986) 'Locking up the data' lnfomatics August 1986 pp. 44-45
Lawrence j. (1986) 'Rent, buy, lease - a beginners guide' Construction Computing
january 1986 p. 8
McTaggart T. (1986) 'Are your security measures up to scratch?' Computer News 13/
11/86
Mulholland KA. (1986) 'finding the right software supplier' Construction Computing
Winter 1986 pp. 15-16
Norman A.R.D. (1983) Computer Insecurity Chapman and Hall
Parrett K. & Stead D. 'Computers: who needs them?' (1986) Construction Computing
Autumn 1986 pp. 34-41
Powell M. (1987) 'Training is all Greek to some' Computer Weekly 28/5/87
Winfield I. (1986) Human resources and computing Heinemann
4 Computers and the Law
Objectives
Introduction
Copyright
programs has offered all illegal users of their packages an immunity from
prosecution and the right, for a small fee, to become legitimate and to
receive future updates in return for naming the source of their programs.
Such methods will plainly only work if users are aware that the version
they are using is in fact illegal.
A further area of concern to computer users is the unauthorised copying
and use of the data stored within a computer system rather than the
programs themselves. Whilst Nicolle (1988) reports that data bases and
programs created by artificial intelligence will be covered by the proposed
new Copyright Designs and Patents Bill, the situation under present law is
far from clear-cut, and in any event the burden of proof, particularly for
files such as databases, may present a serious problem. It has been
suggested that users might 'mark' their files with some 'dummy' informa-
tion specifically to allow a positive identification in the event of proof of
theft being required. The position with regard to data is also complicated
by the fact that it was held in Oxford v Moss (1979) that pure 'information'
does not fall within the definition of 'property' which may be subject to
theft under the criminal law. Information alone therefore cannot be stolen.
Perhaps the best advice is to introduce and maintain suitable security
systems to prevent the theft of such information in the first place.
Trade secrets
In addition to any rights of action under the copyright laws, rights of action
may also apply under the law relating to trade secrets. This branch of the
law is not primarily based in statute but is instead based on that principle
of equity which attempts to protect relationships of confidence. The law
will therefore act to prevent or restrict one party from taking unfair
advantage of the relationship by preventing him from using confidential
information in an improper way. In the words of lord Denning, the law is
essentially based on:
....the broad principle of equity that he who has received information in
confidence shall not take unfair advantage of it. He must not use it to the
prejudice of him who gave it without obtaining his consent.
(Seager v Copydex (1967))
The law Commission in 1974 recognised three factors to be considered in
any particular case:
All of the normal rules of contract law governing offer, acceptance and
consideration apply, of course, to contracts for computer systems, but there
are a few additional pitfalls which might arise because of the typical
quantity surveyor's lack of familiarity with the details of computer systems.
Sellors (1984) gives a good introduction to the problems inherent in the
successful negotiation of contracts for computer systems, and Gooch
(1986) includes detailed comment on the successful selection and purchase
of computer systems for small contractors. The major potential problem
areas which must be specifically addressed during the negotiation and
contracting process have been identified by Bigelow & Nycum (1975) as:
Basic requirements
The system specifications must be settled before any contracts are signed.
Details may be based upon some sort of performance specification, but in
this case it is important to specify as precisely as possible the circum-
stances under which that optimum performance is to be achieved. Although
this method of evaluation is widely used, for example for bill production
systems, such systems are often purchased on the basis of their performance
in one particular user's office, often the firm which developed the software
in the first place. There is no guarantee that because a system performs
adequately in one environment it will also do so in another; what is
perfectly satisfactory to one office or firm may be quite unacceptable to
another. It is equally important, particularly for systems which mix hard-
ware from one supplier with software from another, to establish exactly
who is responsible for ensuring that the system as a whole meets the
specified criteria. Noise control may also be a problem, and maximum
permissible levels should be stated where appropriate.
Site preparation
Training
of training required and the cost must be established and included in the
contract price.
Financing
The time and method of payment must be agreed, including the cost
of 'extras' such as additional training days, maintenance etc. lawrence.
(1986) gives a good introduction to possible financing options.
Maintenance
Establish the necessary maintenance procedures for both the hardware and
the software (see chapter 3). Do not forget to make some provision to cater
for catastrophic failure.
Warranties
multiple copies of the software. Note also that the licence is only granted
whilst the user abides by its terms, and the implication is that the licence
is automatically revoked in the event of a breach.
This software and the accompanying written materials are the subject of
copyright, and the copying of the software or of the written materials is
strictly forbidden except as expressly provided herein. You may make
one copy of the software solely for back-up purposes provided that the
copyright notice is included on the back-up copy.
Copyright in the material is established, but note that the agreement does
allow copying of the software but only for back-up purposes. Note that this
provision will not be of any value if the original disk is copy-protected.
You may not transfer the licence to use software to anyone without the
prior written consent of the copyright holder. Any authorised transferee
shall agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.
Software authors attempt to keep track of the authorised users of their
packages by maintaining a register. The aim is to enable the users of
'pirated' software to be discovered, but the efficiency of this method must
be very questionable.
This software and the accompanying written materials including the
instructions for use are provided 'as is' without warranty of any kind.
The authors do not warrant, guarantee or make any representation
regarding the use, or fitness for purpose, or the accuracy of the results
obtained from the use of the software. The entire ris'< as to the results or
performance of the software is assumed by the licensee, and if the
software is defective the licensee will take full responsibility for and
assume the full cost of any repair or corrective action. Neither the
authors nor anyone else involved in the creation, production or delivery
of this product shall be liable for any direct, indirect, consequential or
incidental damages arising from the use or abuse of this product.
The authors attempt to exclude themselves from any liability whatsoever.
Note the attempt to make the customer liable not only for the con-
sequences of the use of the software, but also for the consequences where
the software is defective and even for remedying defects in the software
itself! This provision could have extremely serious consequences particu-
larly, for example, in the case of programs for structural design.
Fortunately, it is extremely doubtful whether such a clause would be
upheld by a Court of Law.
Computers and the Law 77
As illustrated above the authors and vendors of most off the shelf software
packages attempt to severely limit their liability for the effects of 'bugs' in
the product. There is presently considerable argument about whether or
not software of this kind is governed by consumer protection legislation
and, more important, the extent to which it is subject to the Sale of Goods
Acts and the Consumer Protection Act (1988) (see Ernest-Jones (1987),
Thomas (1987) and Arthur, Mehta & Ernest-Jones (1988)). The basic problem
centres around whether or not the software can be classified as a 'product'
within the terms of the Act. Whilst the physical medium upon which the
program is written is undoubtedly a product, and is therefore covered, the
same would not necessarily apply to the program itself. It is however
important to note that the Act covers only personal injury and damage to
private property; economic loss is not recoverable.
Both software purchasers and third parties may have a right of action in
tort against the software author if it can be proved that the author was
negligent. It is important to remember that, although in· contract the
doctrine of privity exists, there is no such obligation in tort. It was
established in Donaghue v. Stevenson (1932) that a duty of care is owed
to:
persons who are so closely and directly affected by my act that I ought
reasonably"'to have them in contemplation.
It is therefore possible that even third party users of a software package
could, in theory at least, sue the author for negligence if it can be shown
that he had been negligent in the writing of the program. The practicalities
of doing so would however be somewhat difficult.
Damages for loss of business property are available in negligence, and
have in the past also been awarded for pure economic loss (e.g. Junior
Books v. The Vietchi Co. Ltd (1982)). The Courts are however backtracking
somewhat from the decision reached in Junior Books, and it is now
unlikely that damages for pure economic loss would be awarded in
negligence.
In the case of software written especially for a particular firm however,
particularly if the contract for the system contained clauses such as those
mentioned earlier (for example governing permissible standards of accuracy
etc.), the situation is likely to be somewhat more straightforward. In this case
it is likely that, although the user will carry the responsibility for the
correctness of the computer's results, if he can show that the software is
defective then he will have a right of action under the law of contract
against the software author and may thus be able to 'step down' his
responsibility.
78 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
Negligence
References
Arthur C., Mehta A. and Ernest-Jones T. (1988) 'Learning the facts of life' Computer Weekly
7.1.88p.18
Bigelow R.P. and Nycum S.H. (1975) Your computer and the law Prentice-Hall International
Brett H. & Perry L. (eds) (1981) The legal protection of computer software ESC Publishing
Computer Weekly (1988) 'Report by the Parliamentary Correspondent' Computer Weekly
7.1.88 p. 6
Ernest-Jones T. (1987) 'Software bugs can end in court' Computer Weekly 1.1 0.87 p. 3
Ernest-jones T. (1988) 'Software pirate is first in gaol' Computer Weekly 14.1.88 p. 1
Computers and the Law 79
Objectives
In the beginning all computer software packages dealt with specific prob-
lems, for example a payroll program, a program to calculate the size of a
steel beam or a program to process Bills of Quantity. Programs such as
these are commonly written in one of the so-called 'higher level' computer
languages such as COBOL or Fortran, and one's ability to use the computer
to solve new problems using such methods obviously requires familiarity
with a conventional programming language.
During the mid-1970s however the advent of small desk-top computers
led to the development of interactive general purpose computer programs
such as spreadsheets for the manipulation of mathematical data, word
processors for the manipulation of text and data manipulation systems to
allow information to be stored, classified, sorted and retrieved in accordance
with user defined criteria. Such programs can obviously be used to solve a
wide range of different problems, and such 'general purpose' packages
have now been developed to the point where they offer very powerful
tools to the computer user without the need for conventional programming
skills. Collectively they probably now constitute the most widely used
range of computer software.
They are in general extremely reliable and easy to learn. McDonagh and
Daly (1987) gives an excellent account of the use of general purpose
software packages in a private quantity surveying practice.
General Purpose Software 81
Word processors
There are three basic groups of facilities which will be present in all word-
processing systems:
(i) Facilities for entering and editing text including the ability to move
sections of text around within a document, copy text from one part of
the document to another etc.
(ii) Facilities to control the appearance of the text on the page typically
including control of margin widths, number of lines per page, text
justification etc., and also a mechanism to allow the use of special
printer facilities such as control of the type font, underlining, italics,
sub and superscripting, bold face, line spacing, character pitch etc.
(iii) Facilities for storage and retrieval of standard blocks of text including
the ability to merge into other documents as required.
The above facilities should be present in all modern systems but in
addition particular systems might offer:
(i) A spelling checker whereby the computer will check the spelling of
all words in the document against a stored dictionary and will report
any words not listed; the report will therefore include any mis-spelt
words. Many systems allow correction dynamically during the spell-
checking process, and some systems will even offer to correct
unmatched words with close matches selected from the dictionary.
Associated with the spelling checker there is, of course, a set of
dictionary maintenance routines to allow updating as required, a
most useful facility since most word-processing dictionaries seem to
come with American spellings!
(ii) Automatic indexing facilities are normally provided only on the more
expensive systems, but can be very useful in large documents.
General Purpose Software 83
Perhaps the most important social effect which has typically followed from
the development of word processors, particularly those implemented on
portable lap-top computers has been an increasing tendency for executives
to do much more of their own typing rather than either writing longhand or
dictating either to a dictaphone or directly to a secretary.
In the words of Reis (1984):
Word processing is not just for secretaries. Anybody can use a word
processor, in fact in my office we have no typewriters at all -everything
is done on a word processor and we do most of the typing ourselves.
One of the major advantages of word processing is that mistakes can be
easily rectified; therefore bad typing is not a major problem. I find it
quicker to word process myself than to dictate or write the stuff for a
typist to type it out for me.
Other effects of the word-processing revolution may therefore be:
(a) not only to reduce the demand for pure typists but also to render those
previously highly prized and accurate typists much less desirable than
those who might be less accurate but faster
(b) to ensure that basic keyboard skills form an essential component of
the budding executive's skills portfolio
Spreadsheets
A B c D
2 apples 10
3 pears 5
4 total (B2+B3)15
Figure 5.1
Relational databases
The problems mentioned above obviously become more acute the larger
the collection of information becomes, and the administrative problems
involved in controlling both access to and updating of the information
become more difficult to satisfactorily resolve as the number of users
increases. There is therefore the need to establish some logical structure
within the computer, within which the information can be stored and
which will allow the information to be referenced in such a way as to
permit the scanning, selection, analysis and presentation of relevant informa-
tion in accordance with particular criteria specified by the user.
Collections of data organised in this kind of structured way have become
known as 'databases', and a wide variety of software tools have been
designed specifically to organise and manipulate such databases, ranging
from simple electronic 'card index' systems suitable for use on the smallest
of microcomputers up to very large systems designed for use on large
mainframe machines.
General Purpose Software 89
From the point of view of the microcomputer user, the three general
purpose software tools so far described, word processors, spreadsheet
systems and information management systems, form three complementary
parts of a complete business system. In the past limitations on the available
memory capacity have meant that it has only been possible to run one of
the three packages at a time, and users have therefore been largely
deprived of the facility to integrate information from one element, e.g. a
spreadsheet, into another element, e.g. a word-processed report. The develop-
ment of much larger microcomputers led directly to the development of
software packages which integrated the three basic elements and attempted
to provide facilities for the interchange of information between one element
and another.
A number of such packages now exist, among the most popular are
'Symphony' from Lotus and 'Framework' from Ashton-Tate, but it should
be noted that such packages are at best a compromise and are unlikely to
provide the power of, for example, a dedicated database package such as
dBase Ill.
General Purpose Software 91
Desk-top publishing
References
Betts M. (1987) 'A co-ordinated system of information retrieval for building contractors
tendering' in Brandon P. (ed.) Building Cost Modelling and Computers E. & F.N. Spon
Brandon P. (1987) (ed.)Building Cost Modelling and Computers E.& F.N. Spon
92 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
Budgett H. (1987) 'What every desktop publisher should know' Personal Computer World
August 1987 pp. 146-150
Cooke B. and Balakrishnan S.V. (1985) Computer spreadsheet applications in building and
surveying Macmillan
Ellis C. (1986) 'M and E computer spreadsheets' Chartered Quantity Surveyor january 1986
PP· 10-11
Hares j. (1988) 'Tapping the trends' lnfomatics February 1988 pp. 68-70
Hawkins P. and Massey R. (1985) Spreadsheet examples Trent Polytechnic Department of
Surveying
Hunt G. (1986) 'Micronotes: The enormous abstract sheet' Chartered Quantity Surveyor
February 1986 p. 15
lnce D. (1988) 'Defining The Object' lnfomatics July 1988 pp. 66-71
lnfomatics (1988) 'Survey of relational databases' lnfomatics February 1988 pp. 74-78
McDonagh N.H. and Daly J.P. (1987) 'Cost management of construction projects' in Brandon
P. (ed.) Building Cost Modelling and Computers E. & F.N. Spon
PMA Consultants (1979) Relevance of information syntax to computer data structures PSA
Directorate of Architectural Services Data Co-ordination Branch
Reed D. (1987) 'Playing the fourth generation game' lnfomatics October 1987 pp. 57-60
Reis G. (1984) 'All you wanted to know about word processing but were afraid to ask'
Construction Computing April 1984 p. 4
Smith j. (1986) 'Measuring quantities with the aid of a computer spreadsheet' Construction
Computing Autumn 1986 pp. 21-23
Weber J, (1987) 'Working to rule' Personal Computer World June 1987 pp. 130-133
Williams G.R. (1987) 'The development of a spreadsheet application for the cost modelling of
buildings during the early design stages' in Brandon P.S. (ed.) Building Cost Modelling and
Computers E. & F.N. Span
6 Public Information
Systems for Quantity
Surveyors
Objectives
Bulletin boards
Electronic mail
A logical development of the early bulletin board services was the develop-
ment of personal communication systems based on computers; essentially
a system in which every user has his own private bulletin board onto
which anyone with the correct telephone number and password can leave
messages. In effect the system provides each user with an electronic mail
box, and such systems have therefore become known as 'electronic mail',
often abbreviated to 'Email'. The principal advantage of the technique is
usually quoted as one of speed since the message is received so soon after
transmission as to be almost instantaneous; devotees of the technique
therefore frequently refer to the more traditional mail services as 'snail
mail'. Many private organisations have their own electronic mail systems,
often extending over considerable geographical distances.
The two best known publicly available electronic mail services in the
UK are probably 'Prestel' and 'Telecom Gold'.
By far the largest and most dramatic growth in the area of electronic
communication has been achieved by Fax (facsimile transmission) systems.
The transmission side of a Fax machine essentially consists of an image
scanner connected via a microprocessor to the telephone network. It can
therefore scan and mail any image whether text or picture. Receipt of
information is also controlled by the microprocessor, and reproduction of
the image is usually by electrostatic means. Whilst the quality of drawn
information is not particularly good at present the system is adequate for
sketches and text. Nonetheless, Fax has revolutionised business communica-
tion in a very short space of time. The vast majority of firms now have a
Fax machine, and it is possible for written and drawn information to be
communicated almost instantly to many parts of the world. Improvements
in the technology will doubtless mean that in the near future electronic
communication of written and drawn information will become the norm
and a reduction in the price of small machines will soon bring them within
the reach of the domestic consumer. It is unlikely, however, that conven-
tional postal systems will completely disappear. Fax is not at present
suitable for documents larger than A4 or consisting of more than a few
sheets, although no doubt even these restrictions will in time be overcome.
At the same time as the hobbyist community was establishing its open-
access bulletin boards a number of private organisations were also
developing similar systems for information dissemination either for use
within individual companies or for particular restricted groups of people,
and within a very short period of time it became apparent that information
was a highly marketable commodity. Many such systems now exist, and
many are available for general use upon payment of a subscription.
Some information systems, for example Ceefax and Oracle, are free of
charge and do not even require a computer, merely a suitable television
set, although conversation with such systems is of course a 'one-way'
process and the system does not allow for any 'filtering' of the information
by the user. Information is passed in 'pages', and the user must then select
the parts required from the block of information presented.
The use of a computer to interrogate an information system means that
the user can instruct the host system only to provide that part of the data in
which he is specifically interested. The user is therefore able to search very
large databases of information much more selectively.
A number of such systems exist which may be of direct use to quantity
surveyors and which are generally available upon payment of the appro-
priate fee. Examples of such systems include:
Programmers and software authors are not, generally, paid for software
in the public domain, and whilst the range of public domain software is
very large, the quality tends to be somewhat variable. In most cases the
distribution diskette also includes program documentation and user
manuals. The basic problem is that such software is not in any way
supported and is offered 'as-is'. Users might therefore find bugs and
problems for which there is no easy fix, but as Goodwin (1987) points out
the same criticisms may be applied to a good deal of commercial software.
A variation on the public domain theme is 'shareware'. The shareware
concept again originated in the United States, and is based upon the
philosophy that most people will be prepared to pay something for good
software. Accordingly the software is freely available, initially free of
charge but users are asked to make a donation to the author of whatever they
consider the software to be worth. Most authors undertake, upon payment
of a stated minimum fee, to offer some degree of support including free
updates to the software as and when they become available, and often
access to a help line. Unfortunately the authorsofmostofthe shareware avail-
able in the United Kingdom live in the United States and telephone help lines
may not be all that useful!
A further twist is 'approval-ware'. This concept, common in the United
States but so far uncommon in the United Kingdom, is very akin to the
shareware concept described above, except that in this case users are in
effect sent software 'on approval' through the public domain system. In this
case users who decide to keep the software are asked to pay a stated sum
of money as a licence fee. Similar incentives to those offered by shareware
authors often apply.
USER"S
MICROCOMPUTER
PUBLIC TELEPHONE
NETWORK
Modems
V21 operates at 300 baud full duplex (approximately 30 per second in both
directions simultaneously). This standard is now somewhat old
fashioned and mainly used for acoustic couplers
V22 operates at 1200 baud full duplex, approximately 120 characters
per second in both directions simultaneously. This standard is pre-
sently the most popular choice for communication over the public
switched telephone system since it offers the fastest practical speed at
which reliable communication can take place withoot complex error
checking software. A wide variety of modems is available offering
this standard
V23 operates at a split speed of 1200 baud in one direction and 75 baud in
the other in full.duplex mode. This standard is peculiarly British and
was developed specifically for the Prestel electronic mail service.
Equivalent character transmission speeds are about 120 characters per
second in one direction and 7.5 characters per second in the other
V22bis2400 baud full duplex, approximately 240 characters per second in
both direction simultaneously. Problemsofline 'noise' become critical
at speeds as high as this and complex error checking routines must
be employed. Toothill (1987d) discusses the problem in more detail
Note that the above speed restrictions only apply because of the
deficiencies of the telephone technology. Over short distances very much
faster transmission speeds are commonly used; 9 600 baud full duplex
(960 characters per second) is common with mainframe systems and
speeds up to 19 200 baud full duplex (1 920 characters per second) are not
unknown. In the future long distance communication speeds can be
expected to increase dramatically with the widespread introduction of fibre
optic cables and digital telephone exchanges.
100 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
Communications software
References
Goodwin S. (1987) 'Computer answers "Free software" Personal Computer World October
1986 p. 206
Stewart A. (1987) 'Postage stamped out' Building 22/5/87
Toothill P. (1987a) 'News Bulletin' Personal Computer World May 1987 pp. 174-175
Toothill P. (1987b) 'UK Bulletin Boards' Personal Computer World August 1987 p. 214
Toothill P. (1987c) 'Go by the board' Personal Computer World june 1987 pp. 174-175
Toothlll P. (1987d) 'Clearing the line' Personal Computer World April1987 pp. 174-176
7 The Development of
In-house Systems
Objectives
The above definition, of course, allows some very complex systems. Indeed
the whole of life could be seen as a system, and it is therefore common to
break large systems down into component sub-systems, a process commonly
known as 'factoring'. The system for the traditional production of a Bill of
Quantity could therefore be seen, not as one system but as a collection of
inter-connected sub-systems, for example taking off the dimensions,
squaring, abstracting, billing, editing, typing and reproduction each of
which is actually a system in its own right containing its own inputs,
processes and outputs. Such sub-systems can therefore be arranged in a
hierarchy to give a much more complete picture of the bill production
process; the 'system' as a whole. It is the definition and analysis of such
systems which is the primary task of the systems analyst. In the words of
NCC (1978):
It should be clear that the major task of the systems analyst is to define
the system in terms of its objectives, inputs, processes, outputs, boundary,
and the interfaces between its subsystems.
The second task for the systems analyst is to understand how the the
system behaves.
In the context of the above it is therefore obvious that systems analysis as a
science, although it has in many minds become synonymous with
computer applications, actually owes its origins to the management science
techniques of operational research, the study of organisation and methods,
and work study.
104 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
Preliminary assessment
PRELIMINARY
ASSESSMENT
l
CONTINUE? REVIEW ABANDON
l tI
I
I
INITIAL STUDY
l
CONTINUE? REVIEW ABANDON
1 t
I
I
I
DETAILED STUDY
1
PRDTOTYPING REVIEW ABAN'DON
l •
DETAILED DESIGN
1
PROGRAMMING
1
IMPLEMENTATION REVIEW ABANDON
l
MAINTENANCE
~
Figure 7. 1 The system life cycle
106 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
Working from the study proposal generated during the preliminary assess-
ment phase the systems analyst will now begin an initial study of the
problem. The study is likely to concentrate on an analysis of the existing
system, inputs, outputs and processes in order that the analyst may formu-
late an understanding of the key areas and in turn develop an overall
assessment of feasibility, time scale and cost. It is perhaps at this early
stage that accurate communication between the analyst and the client is
most important. It is at this stage that the analyst is likely to know least
about the client's business; this stage where inaccurate perceptions of the
problem may be formed; this stage where a complete understanding and
common perception of the problem area is essential ifthe following stages
are to be successful.
It is at this stage that the analyst is attempting to prepare the first
tentative estimates of the scale of the problem, beginning to think about
possible overall strategies and to prepare the first 'ball-park' estimates of
cost. The analyst's job at this stage is to some degree akin to that of a
quantity surveyor faced with a client who knows that their existing accom-
modation is inadequate but is unsure about whether to extend, refurbish or
re.build on a new site.
The outcome of the process should be a report detailing the analyst's
perception of the problem including approximately costed alternative
pro~oosals together with projected time-scales and a note of the advantages
and disadvantages of each. It is vitally important that this report should be
writt,en in a language and style that the client can understand, as it is on
the b•asis of this report that the client will decide whether or not to invest
substamtial sums of money.
Once again the outcome will be either a decision to continue, to review
and revise, which may also at this stage involve a reappraisal of the
original problem assessment, or to abandon the project altogether. Total
expenditure to this point is likely to still be relatively small and abandon-
ment is therefore still a practical proposition. Beyond this point costs begin
to rise s1teeply and the financial consequences of abandonment become
progressively more serious. In the words of Davis (1983:p. 10):
This presentation marks a crucial decision point in the life of the project.
Many projects will die right here; only those promising a sufficient return
on investment should be pursued.
A good example of the kind of problems which can occur when the early
stages are not successful is reported in Ernest-Jones (1988).
The Development of In-house Systems 1 07
Following successful completion of the outline study phase the analyst will
now proceed to a detailed study of the problem and will attempt to
prepare firm proposals for the system with more accurate estimates of time
and cost.
There is a considerable degree of overlap between the detailed study
and the detailed design phase, with no hard and fast rules about which
phase certain processes fall into. I prefer for example to consider the
detailed formulation of input and output mechanisms as a part of the
detailed study phase, whereas other commentators (e.g. NCC (1978))
consider this to be part of the systems design phase. Nonetheless, the
detailed study process is largely analogous to the sketch planning stage of a
building contract with the analyst combining the roles of architect and
quantity surveyor.
It is at this stage that the detailed 'systems analysis', or analysis of the
customer's business is carried out. It is not the purpose of this text to give a
detailed explanation of systems analysis techniques, but NCC (1978),
Davis (1983) and Rothery, Mullally and Byrne (1976) all provide very
readable introductions to the subject.
It is also at this stage that the most contentious decisions may have to be
taken. Many laymen might see the function of the systems analyst as being
merely to computerise existing manual processes, but this may be very far
from the truth. NCC (1978:p. 33) says:
The systems analyst is concerned with analysing systems with a view to
making them more effective either by modification or by substantial
redesign.
and later, p. 43:
The systems analyst is an agent of change ...
The systems analysis is likely to be much more concerned with the input to
a system and the output from it rather than the manual process linking the
two. It is therefore highly likely that the analyst may propose alternative
and more economical ways of accomplishing the particular process, and
this may have a very significant effect on existing jobs, techniques and
work practices and hence upon the degree of acceptance of the final
system by the end user.
As an example, imagine that one were to ask a systems analyst to
investigate the bill production process with a view to maximising the
efficiency of the use of computers and bearing in mind possible future links
with computer aided design systems. The result of such an analysis might
well be a system which might work by constructing a mathematical model
of the building inside the computer from which the computer itself could
108 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
then one of the alternatives will be selected and this conceptual model will
form the blueprint for the physical system.
In practical terms completion of this stage represents the latest point for
the incorporation of major variations to the philosophy of the system.
Major structural changes beyond this point will have disastrous effects
upon the project in terms of time and cost overruns. It is therefore essential
for the philosophy of the system to be fully and finally agreed before
proceeding to the next stage of detailed systems design.
Once the detailed study is complete and the system proposal is agreed
then work may begin on the detailed systems design. As mentioned earlier
some commentators prefer to consider this phase as partly creative, but I
prefer to consider the design process to be essentially a technical one
concerned with the design of files, various computer processes, the detailed
selection of equipment etc. The detailed design stage is therefore analogous
to the 'working drawings' stage of a construction projea; it resolves the
technical problems inherent in converting the conceptual design into a
physical reality. The output from this stage is therefore a complete design
for all aspects of the proposed system which can then be passed to a
programmer for conversion into a computer language.
It may still be possible to accommodate minor variations during the
systems design phase but usually, as in a building project, only at the
expense of additional time and cost.
Programming
Upon completion of the detailed design phase, or perhaps with some large
systems overlapping with it, comes the process of converting the analyst's
paper design into a working system; it is therefore analogous to the
construction stage of a building project. The choice of programming
language will already have been made by the analyst and the programming
task is almost entirely a technical one.
In the early days of computing, programming was considered to be
essentially creative. Tiny amounts of memory, extremely slow processors
and very limited backing storage meant that considerable time and effort
were expended in devising ingenious ways to use the computer most
efficiently. Early system design techniques also left much to be desired,
and tended to mean that much of the design was done by the programmer
himself on a trial and error basis, with the result that programming was a
very hit and miss affair with many changes of direction. Such systems thus
11 0 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
Implementation
down, staff become familiar with it and the process begins to run smoothly.
The management problems associated with introducing new systems have
already been documented in chapter 3.
The ease with which a new system is implemented is a direct reflection
of:
(i) the level of commonality and true agreement reached by the
analyst and the client during the requirements analysis phase,
(ii) the skill displayed by the analyst in translating the agreed require-
ment into a working system and
(iii) the level of management expertise employed during the design and
implementation stages
As noted earlier, it is in the first of these that the analogy with a construction
project begins to break down. Construction projects are three-dimensional
things which can be physically represented both on paper as architectural
and artistic drawings, and in three dimensions by models. It is therefore
comparatively easy to see whether the designer has correctly interpreted
the client's brief. In contrast, computer programs are intangible ethereal
things, and it is only at this final stage that the accuracy of the initial
requirements analysis is eventually revealed.
The final stage in the system life cycle is the maintenance and review
phase. Even if the previous phases have been completely successful and no
amendments are required at initial implementation, most computer
systems will need modification at some stage during their life, perhaps
because of changes in legislation, for example a payroll system, or because
of changes in methods of working, for example the introduction of a new
Standard Method of Measurement.
Typically, most well designed systems can cater for some amount of
change provided that the change does not strike at the basic philosophy of
.the system itself, but there will eventually come a point at which the extent
of the changes, or the cumulative effect of a number of changes carried
out over a period of time mean that a redefinition of the problem is
required and the system life cycle must therefore begin again. The critical
management activity must be in recognising when this point occurs; it is
very easy to fall into a position where continued maintenance of an
outdated and over-complex system imposes an ever-increasing main-
tenance burden and yet the very high level of investment in the system
deters management from throwing it away and beginning anew. A good
example has to be the case of the British air traffic control system reported
in Computer Weekly (1987). The article reports that because of a large
112 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
Bell (1987) and Neale (1987) both point out that, although software is an
intangible thing, the management of software projects is not really that
different from the management of any other project be it the construction
of a building, building a ship or planning a production line. In essence the
same management tasks apply; those of planning and controlling the use of
the available resources in order to achieve successful completion of the
project within the originally agreed parameters of time, cost and quality. It
would therefore follow that the kind of management techniques used in
other industries would be likely to be equally applicable to the develop-
ment of computer software.
We should therefore consider:
(i) forecasting of time and cost
(ii) economic justification
(iii) monitoring techniques
Initial forecasting of time (and cost) is even more difficult for a computer
system than it is in the early stages of a building project. Bell (1987:p. 76)
reports that:
Error factors of 200 per cent or 300 per cent are not unknown and worse
figures are known.
Historically, managers have either based their estimates of time on previous
projects or have used some form of formula. The use of previous project
data requires an initial appraisal of the scheme to be completed, together
with an outline assessment of the various tasks to be completed. Data from
The Development of In-house Systems 11 3
previous jobs is then applied and cost, resource and time forecasts are
produced. lnce (1987b) calls this the 'pragmatic method', and it is of
course very similar to the historical cost approach for early estimates of
building cost. This approach has in some cases been computerised and
systems have been built to automatically generate time scales for new
projects based on such historical information. lnce (1987b) reports on the
use of such a tool, called Cocomo, developed in the United States.
Alternative estimating methods use formulae of one sort or another. One
example, the use of which is reported in lnce (1987b), is called 'Function
Point Analysis' and was originally developed at IBM in the late 1970s. The
method works by measuring the proposed system in terms of the functions
required; the number of inputs, outputs, enquiry types, master files and
interfaces required in the complete system. Each total is then given a
weighting and a formula applied and the resultant number gives an indica-
tion of the time a new project will take. It is then a simple matter to
combine the time with existing known staff costs to calculate the total
estimated cost of the project.
Computer software development also has other parallels with the
construction industry in that any time or cost figure given to the client, no
matter how sketchy the information and no matter how approximate the
figure, automatically becomes the maximum allowable and no matter how
accurate subsequent predictions are the first figure given is the only one
which will be remembered as if engraved on a tablet of stone! It is
therefore essential that a sufficient contingency sum is allowed to take
account of problems which might arise.
Bell (1987:p. 44) gives the following list of possible problem areas and
suggests that the more items from the list that apply to the project the
greater the chance that the project will not proceed as forecast:
(i) Large team involved.
(ii) Long time scale.
(iii) Need to sub-contract.
(iv) New skills required.
(v) Senior management commitment unknown.
(vi) Users not experienced in system projects.
(vii) Large change in the user area.
(viii) Several distinct users involved.
(ix) Change in users' power position.
(x) New computer equipment.
(xi) New terminals or communications required.
(xii) New operating system.
(xiii) New language or environment.
(xiv) Several equipment suppliers involved.
114 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
Economic justification
Monitoring techniques
References
Objectives
During the late 1960s -and early 1970s a number of factors came together
to radically change the way in which computers were used in business and
commerce.
In terms of the computer hardware, interactive terminal-driven systems
were becoming the norm, and mainframe computers had grown very large
indeed with the capacity to store and manipulate vast quantities of informa-
tion. Minicomputers were also well established both as stand-alone
machines in smaller companies and also as front-end processors to larger
and more complex mainframe machines. The microcomputer, although
still regarded as a hobbyist's toy, had also begun to appear as a direct spin-
off from the space race of the 1960s. The dramatic increases in both
commercial computer usage and available computer power meant that
virtually limitless quantities of information could be stored, and the use of
terminal meant that the whole of that information could be made available
to executives and managers at the touch of a button in the shape of a so-
called computerised Management Information System (MIS).
The only problem in this corporate garden of Eden was the surfeit of
116 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
Artificial intelligence
program which sent pay clerks the way of the dinosaur. The payroll
program can easily be seen as an example of an expert system - it
embodies the total sum of human expertise on the subject of payrolls.
But nobody thinks of it like that anymore.
Since we cannot find a comprehensive definition of an expert system,
perhaps it would be best to attempt to establish what the charaderistics of
such a system ought to be. The following is a shortened and paraphrased
version of the characteristics identified by lansdowne (1982), although he
is careful to point out that not all systems display all of these properties:
(i) They know a great deal about a limited but useful area of interest.
The knowledge may be aquired from experience but, more likely,
from a human expert.
(ii) They give their advice conversationally in the manner of a human
consultant and can understand and respond to simple questions
posed in plain, although somewhat specialised, language.
(iii) Their knowledge is embodied in the form of sets of rules with
corresponding adions. This feature makes for easier correction of
deficiencies or errors in the knowledge base as well as the acquisi-
tion of new knowledge. The knowledge usually exists indepen-
dently of the program and this should make it possible to use
the same program with a variety of knowledge bases able to deal
with different tasks.
(iv) Expert systems often give their advice in probabilistic rather than
absolute terms.
(v) The questions posed by expert systems are limited to those which
are relevant to a particular line of reasoning. Thus if at any time the
system decides that it has sufficient information to arrive at a
conclusion it does not continue to ask questions.
(vi) Expert systems can explain and justify their reasoning in such a
way that experts can accept their credibility and non-experts can
learn from them.
Generally research seems to indicate that expert systems may be of most
uses where:
(i) The performance of the task is more dependent upon factual
knowledge rather than computational method.
(ii) The area of interest is limited and specialised.
(iii) The knowledge base can be built up gradually over a period of
time.
(iv) Consultants exist and are available for consultation.
122 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
Types of problem
It has already been shown that management tasks may be sub-divided into
a number of overlapping groups depending upon the degree of human
intuitition needed to resolve them, and that much work has been carried
out in the construction of computer based decision support systems aimed
at helping the manager make the most appropriate decision in each case. It
has also been shown that the more highly structured a task becomes the
more likely it is that a complete computerised solution will be possible.
The types of problem for which computers may provide some assistance
may be classified as:
Problems of classification
Problems of selection
Many situations are governed by well defined but often extremely complex
rules, and the solution to problems can often become clear once the rules
are understood. Perhaps the most obvious, and the most complex, mani-
festation of this type of problem is the Law, where considerable volumes of
statute and case law form a large body of rules which guide practitioners in
the resolution of disputes. Oakley (1987) gives an introduction to the use
of expert systems in law, and a more detailed account is given in Susskind
(1987). Oakley (1987) also reports on an expert system developed by
Expert Systems - the Future? 123
Susskind and Capper called the Latent Damages Advisor which attempts to
unravel the mysteries of the Latent Damages Act 1986. Other similar
obvious contenders in construction include the various Standard Methods
of Measurement, Building Regulations, and the various Planning Acts.
Such systems would differ from simple data retrieval systems by being able
to respond to queries such as 'List the measurement rules in SMM7 relating
to the measurement of concrete formwork' or 'Display the criteria to be
satified for a contractor to succeed in an application for payment of loss
and expense under the JCT80 form of contract'.
Problems of prediction
0 0 0
The knowledge base is the central reservoir from which the system will
ultimately formulate its advice and opinions. The contents of the knowledge
base therefore need to comprise far more than mere facts or information.
According to Feigenbaum and McCorduck (1985:p. 7), knowledge is ' ...
information which has been pared, shaped, interpreted, selected and trans-
formed', and in order to achieve this the knowledge base needs to contain
not only the facts about the relevant 'domain' or sphere of activity, but also
a representation of the 'weighting' which the human expert would give to
those facts; the experience which enables him to provide a balanced
judgement or reach a reasoned conclusion about the facts of any particular
case. In short the knowledge base must firstly contain a set of 'rules'
embodying the facts of the domain, secondly a set of 'goals' denoting
Expert Systems - the Future? 125
possible results and thirdly some mechanism to relate the 'rules' to the
'goals'. The simplest form is obviously shown by the
IF(rule) THEN(goal)
construct indicating that a certain outcome will occur if a certain rule is
satisfied. It is sometimes extended to
IF(rule) THEN(goal probability x)
indicating that some uncertainty exists. A number of different mechanisms
have been developed and are simply explained in Landowne (1982).
The inference mechanism forms the part of the expert system which
connects the problem with the information stored in the knowledge base.
A number of different mechanisms have been developed, but perhaps the
A USERS
(MANY)
---,
KNOWLEDGE INPUT/OUTPUT
~UISITION S'f"STEM • SYSTEM
COMPUTER
SYSTEM
KNOWLEDGE INFERENCE
BASE SYSTEM
L ______ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _j
KNOWLEDGE
ENGINEER
Most experts now agree that the initial knowledge acquisition is best
accomplished by a 'knowledge engineer'. Knowledge engineering is a very
new skill which is still not completely defined, but the task of the knowledge
engineer is to extrad the necessary relevant knowledge from the experts
and build up the knowledge base of the system.
In general terms the task can be sub-divided into:
(i) A background study. The knowledge engineer needs to study the
background material on the subject and become familiar with the
jargon in order both that he understands what the expert says, and
also in order that the expert's time is not wasted by needless
explanation.
(ii) The knowledge engineer must discuss the problem domain with
the expert in order to understand the domain boundaries.
(iii) The knowledge engineer must select a problem solving strategy
suitable for the particular domain under consideration.
(iv) The knowledge engineer then 'extrads' the appropriate knowledge
from the experts and develops an early 'test' version of the system.
(v) Ask the expert to 'use' the draft system and determine whether the
output is satisfactory. Ask other experts to use the system and
collect a range of opinion.
(vi) Refine the system by repeating steps (iv) and (v) until the experts
agree that the result is satisfadory.
Feigenbaum and McCorduck (1985:p. 83) report the development of the
following 'rules' for knowledge engineering:
(i) It is very difficult for domain experts to be their own knowledge
engineers; an outsider is required in order to see the problem
clearly.
(ij) The knowledge engineer must be prepared to throw things away;
the first draft will never be acceptable.
(iii) Problems must be carefully chosen and clearly bounded with a
need for specialist knowledge.
(iv) Knowledge engineers must be flexible, and good communicators
on many levels.
(v) If no tools exist to do what is required then build new ones.
(vi) The knowledge engineer needs to develop weighting procedures
to cope with statements such as 'I strongly believe ... '.
128 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
Although the early expert systems such as MYCIN were special purpose
tools developed to fulfil specific tasks, it quickly became apparent that the
same problem solving process could be used for many different problem
domains; that it was possible for the 'inference system' to be, to a large
extent, independent of both the actual problem data and the domain
knowledge base. Development was therefore concentrated on the con-
struction of 'empty' expert system shells which could, once the domain
knowledge base had been added, be used as general purpose problem
solvers.
A large number of such shells have been developed in recent years
employing a range of different problem solving strategies. As explained
earlier some strategies are better at solving some problems than others, and
Allwood, Stewart, Hinde & Negus (1985) contains an evaluation of the
suitability of various shells for use in the construction industry. NCC (1987)
contains examples of a number of different types of system shell.
In addition to the work cited above, Wager (1984) and Wager (1985)
contain good reviews of the use of expert systems in the construction
industry as a whole, and both Hamilton (1985) and Shaw (1985) discuss
the use of expert systems in building services. It is however in quantity
surveying that perhaps the most significant strides have been made to date.
In the final analysis quantity surveyors and other professionals must accept
and embrace the spread of 'smart' computer systems; to consider doing
otherwise would be as foolish as Canute attempting to halt the tide. If the
quantity surveying profession is to thrive however it must also evolve, must
transcend those highly structured rule based tasks for which the computer
provides an acceptable alternative in favour of those much less structured
tasks involving the exercise of human judgement. In the past a high
premium has been placed on those quantity surveyors who knew intimately
all of the rules of measurement, and could recite forms of contract, but
these are the very people who, in the future, face the prospect of being
upstaged in the same way as Naylor's payroll experts. Perhaps in the
future, although a working knowledge of the relevant rules will still be
essential, much greater emphasis will be placed on the inter-personal skills
of, for example, management, communication and negotiation.
References
Addis T.R. (1981) 'Definition of an expert system' British Computer Society Specialist Group
on Expert Systems Newsletter no.J Spring/Summer 1981
Allwood R.S., Stewart D.S., Hinde C.and Negus B. (1985) Evaluations of expert systems shells
for construction industry applications Loughborough University of Technology
Anthony R.N. (1965) Planning and control systems - a framework for analysis Harvard
University Graduate School of Business Administration
Ashworth G. (1988a) 'Elsie Plans Her Budget' Building 24/6/88 pp. 60-61
Ashworth G. (1988b) 'Go ask Elsie' Building l/7188 pp. 50-51
Bennett j. (1983) (ed.) Building decision support systems Addison-Wesley
Bramer M.A. (1982) 'A survey and critical review of expert systems research' in Introductory
readings in expert systems D.Michie (ed.) Gordon & Breach
Brandon P.S. (1984) Computers: friend or foe? Department of Surveying, Portsmouth
Polytechnic
Brandon P.S. (1987a) Building Cost Modelling and Computers E. & F.N. Spon
Brandon P.S. (1987b) Draft summary final report, Alvey community club project, the
application of expert systems to quantity surveying Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
Brandon P.S., Basden A, Hamilton 1., and Stockley j. (1988) Expert systems: the strategic
planning of construction projects Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
Brown G. (1987) 'RICS/Aivey expert systems research' Chartered Quantity Surveyor April
1987 pp. 15-16
d'Agapeyeff A. (1983) Expert systems, Fifth Generation and UK suppliers National Computing
Centre
Davis l. (1988) 'Inside Information' Chartered Quantity Surveyor january 1988 pp. 17-19
Dearden j. (1966) 'Myth of real time management information' Harvard Buisiness Review
Vol.44 No.3 pp. 123-132
Durham A. (1984) 'Fifth generation fever' Practical Computing October 1984 pp. 115-117
Evans C. (1979) The mighty micro Coronet Books
Feigenbaum E. and McCorduck P. (1985) The fifth generation Addison- Wesley
Gorry G.A. and Krumland R.B. (1983) 'Artificial intelligence research and decision support
systems' in Building decision support systems Bennett j. (ed.) Addison Wesley
Green A. (1980) 'Future perfect?' Personal Computer World November 1980
Hamilton G. (1985) Expert systems in building services Paper presented at the 1985
Construction Industry Computing Association Construction Expert Conference
Hamilton I. (1987) 'Developing expert systems for management applications' in Building Cost
Modelling and Computers Brandon P. (ed.) E. & F.N. Spon
jones R. (1987) 'Expert support systems' Computer Weekly 26/3/87
Kanter j. (1977) Management orientated management information systems Prentice Hall
Keen P.G.W. and Scott-Morton M.S. (1978) Decision support systems- an organizational
perspective Addison-Wesley
Lansdowne j. (1982) Expert systems: Their impact on the construction industry RIBA
Conference Fund
Lighthill j. (1973) Report on artificial intelligence- Report of a committee chaired by Sir james
Lighthi/1 Science Research Co unci I
Michie D. (1982) (ed.) Introductory readings in expert systems Gordon & Breach
Moore j.H. and Chang M.G. (1983) 'Meta design considerations in building decision support
systems' in Building decision support systems Bennett j. (ed.) Addison Wesley
Naylor C. (1983) Build your own expert system Sigma Technical Press
NCC (1987) Expert systems starter pack National Computing Centre
132 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
Nolan R.L. and Gibson C.F. (1974) 'Managing the four stages of EDP growth' Harvard
Business Review Vol.52 No.1 pp. 76-78
Oakley K. (1987) 'Legal eagles' Expert Systems User November 1987
Shaw M.R. (1985) Expert systems- an objective view Paper presented at the 1985 Conference
on Computers in Building and Services Design, Nottingham University
Shortliffe E.H. (1976) MYCIN: Computer based medical consultations Elsevier North Holland
Simon H.A. (1960) The new science of management decision making Harper & Row
Stefik M. (1982) et al. 'The organisation of expert systems- a tutorial' Artificial Intelligence
Vol.18 No.2
Stockley j.E. (1987) 'Knowledge acquisition for expert systems' in Building Cost Modelling
and ComputetS Brandon P. (ed.) E. & F.N. Spon
Suskind R. (1987) Expert systems in law Oxford University Press
Thomas R. (1984) 'Knowledge base techniques for decision support for management' BCS
Specialist Group on Expert Systems Newsletter No.11 june 1984 pp. 13-15
Wager D.M. (1984) Expert systems and the construction industry Construction Industry
Computing Association
Wager D.M. (1985) The future of expert systems in construction management Construction
Industry Computing Association
Coxnputers Applied to
Quantity Surveying
9 Computers in Cost
Planning
Objectives
In addition clients had become aware that the tender price of a project in
many cases no longer represented the most significant proportion of the
project cost. Huge rises in the cost of energy during the 1970s caused
building owners and developers to consider not only the capital cost of the
building but also the on-going revenue cost, and such factors of course
began to have a profound effect not only upon the design of individual
elements but more so upon the initial conception of building form. It was
plainly apparent that cost planning had to begin even before sketch plans
were prepared if the client was to achieve maximum value for money, and
furthermore some mechanism had to be developed to allow a number of
alternative design concepts to be evaluated and compared, not only in
terms of capital cost but in terms of total cost profile. A cost model was
required which would permit 'what-if' simulations in order to establish the
'best fit' solution for each individual client and each individual project.
Maver (1979) describes a number of such 'cost models' developed in the
Abacus unit at the University of Strathclyde, and Smith (1980) describes
the use of such techniques in local authority school building.
Despite early enthusiasm in some quarters, however, modelling tech-
niques such as these have not achieved general acceptance within the
profession as a whole. Brandon and Newton (1986) comment that:
For twenty years huge amounts of time and money have gone into the
development of models to improve building cost forecasting and manage-
ment. But an investigation of quantity surveying offices would reveal an
almost exclusive concentration on approximate quantities in various
stages of refinement, often used too late in the design process to be
effective in influencing the design.
Despite this lack of acceptance some commentators such as Beeston
(1983) and Newton (1986) contend that the quantity surveyor should make
more use of even more sophisticated mathematical and statistical tools in
the modelling process.
only of the building and its site, the peculiarities of the architect etc., but
also must consider and make some allowance for factors such as market
conditions. Even more difficult to foresee are factors such as the work-load
oftendering contractors and their keenness or otherwise to win the contract;
factors which the cost planner has no way of evaluating with any degree of
accuracy. There is therefore it seems little chance of a completely automated
cost planning system, but computers can nonetheless have a valuable role
to play in cost planning, in the collection and analysis of historical cost
data, in the processing of cost estimates and in the dynamic evaluation of
alternative design solutions through the medium of cost models.
It should however also be pointed out that modern cost planning is
essentially an iterative and interactive process, and that whilst some
attempts were made to use mainframe computer systems it is only really
during the last ten years that computers have become widely used in this
field.
Cost analysis
We have already seen that many of the quantity surveyor's traditional cost
planning processes depend upon the collection and analysis of historical
cost data gathered from accepted tenders, and facilities to carry out cost
analysis of this kind have long been provided as an 'add-on' to Bill
production packages. The scope of such programs tends to vary somewhat
from system to system, but the level of analysis available depends of
course upon the level to which the original information has been coded
(see also the discussion in chapter 10 entitled 'Data labelling').
The extent of data labelling required to analyse a project into, for
example, the form required by the RICS Standard Form of Cost Analysis,
may be very time consuming and may prove not to be cost effective unless
the labelled data is to be used for some other purpose, for example to
resort a work section tender Bill into elemental form for contract manage-
ment purposes. In addition, although most cost analysis data is presented
in the form of elemental cost/square metre of floor area, what is often
required for future cost estimates is the cost/unit area of a given element,
for example the cost/m 2 of external wall where the cost is related to the
area of external wall rather than to the floor area of the building. This cost
is usually called the 'element unit rate' (EUR), and some programs have
provided facilities for this to be calculated. They do however in general
require the input of the quantity of each element, the 'element unit
quantity' (EUQ), and the calculation of element unit rates is often done
more quickly without using the computer at all.
Computers in Cost Planning 139
One of the major problems encountered in using historical cost data for
the planning of new projects concerns the difficulty of adjusting tender
price data to take account of time. A study carried out in 1970 at the
University of london developed a method of indexing tenders using a
comparison of the 'price important' items in a given scheme with a
standard price schedule. The methodology developed is described in
Mitchell (1971), and the method is now in common use and forms a major
feature of the RICS Building Cost Information Service (BCIS).
The method, although not difficult to apply manually, requires a good
deal of calculation and a number of practitioners have developed small
computer programs of their own to handle the arithmetic involved.
Others have gone further and have used a file of tender price indices as
input to other computer programs employing statistical techniques to
predict future cost trends. Whilst services such as the BCIS do calculate
and publish predicted cost trends, the values calculated are often on a
national basis, and the national trend can sometimes be widely different
from that shown in a particular region. Some practitioners with sizeable
building programs in a small geographical area, for example local author-
ities, have found it useful to develop programs of this type for their own
use, and experience seems to show that fairly reliable forecasts can be
made up to twelve or fifteen months ahead using these techniques.
Cost estimating
The use of computers for cost estimating involves using the machine to
interface with some kind of database of cost information. Cost information
databases have been constructed using both historical cost analysis data
derived from previously tendered projects, and also using rates built up
from basic principles using current prices for labour, materials and plant.
Both methods have their supporters; the users of basic price data point out
that use of historical cost analyses is fraught with pitfalls since the method
and accuracy of pricing of previous schemes is unknown, whilst the
supporters of the historical approach contend that use of basic price data
takes no account of the competitiveness of tenderers or the state of the
market, and is in any event difficult unless some design decisions have
already been taken. Nonetheless both methods continue to be used.
As regards computer systems based on historical data, the majority work
by allowing the user to select from the database one or more cost analyses
from previous schemes which are as much like the present project as
possible in size, function etc. The analyses selected are then adjusted to
take account of time and location to bring them all to a common base, and
140 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
are then aggregated in some way to form a cost plan for the new scheme.
The BCIS 'On-line' service (see below) offers facilities of this type.
Those practitioners preferring to work from basic price data have a
number of systems available to them. Systems of this type generally
incorporate files of basic materials prices, labour constants, plant costs and
outputs in much the same way as those included in a builder's price book;
in fact some use systems originally developed to aid contractors in the
preparation of tenders. Such systems tend to be used mainly for cost
estimating once sketch designs have been produced, and the input options
available often include direct entry of dimensions with the computer then
performing an elementary abstracting and billing process. Some systems
include rudimentary libraries of descriptions similar to but less compre-
hensive than those included in packages for the production of Bills of
Quantities. Some systems make provision for digitised input. A more
complex system of this type is described in Holes (1987).
Many computer aided design systems include cost estimating routines,
most of which work by building up prices from basic rate information
stored with the graphical components, and the integration of computer
aided design and the provision of early cost advice is discussed further in
chapter 12.
Cost modelling
Conclusion
It can clearly be seen from the above that the drive to provide the client
with ever more accurate and reliable early cost advice is seen by some to
be one of the major areas of development in the field of 'traditional'
quantity surveying. The development of the necessary techniques is seen
by some to require the use of extremely sophisticated mathematical and
statistical techniques for which the use of computer systems is seen as
essential. On the other hand however the costing tools used most often by
the majority of quantity surveyors in their day-to-day work are still shown
to be those of approximate measurement and valuation, but even in this
case the advice is usually required very quickly if the design process is not
to be disrupted. The drive for greater and greater speed in the pre-contract
process, together with the use of contractual techniques which allow
overlap between the design and construction phases must mean that the
use of computers in this field will continue to increase.
Taking the broader view it can be seen that all of the different tech-
niques discussed above are likely to have some part to play in the costing
process. At the very beginning of a scheme, when a developer is attempting
perhaps to assess the viability of a new building as opposed to a rehabili-
tation, before any design decisions are taken, there is an obvious use for
interactive models, perhaps using more advanced mathematical and stat-
istical methods to manipulate historical data, implemented in the form of
expert systems, but as the design progresses there is an equally obvious
need for more traditional techniques based on the familiar principles of
measurement and valuation. Such techniques must however be imple-
mented in a form which allows design decisions to be evaluated
dynamically as the design progresses. For the majority of schemes such
techniques will probably be sufficient, but for larger and more complex
projects, in particular perhaps those designed using computer aided design
systems, models taking account of the construction process will probably
be required, and one can I think expect to see closer integration between
computer aided design systems, cost models and project management
software.
Whatever the eventual outcome it is obvious that the area of pre-
Computers in Cost Planning 143
contract cost advice is one in which there is considerable scope for the
development of new techniques and increasing application of computer
systems if the industry is to be able to provide the clients of the future with
the building they require at the right price, at the right time and to the right
quality.
References
Beeston D. (1983) Statistical methods for building price data E. & F.N. Spon
Beeston D. (1987) 'A future for cost modelling' in Building, cost modelling and
computers Brandon P.S. (ed) E. & F.N. Spon
Bennett]. and Ferry D. (1987) 'Towards a simulated model of the total construction process' in
Building, cost modelling and computers Brandon P.S. (ed) E. & F.N. Spon
Bowen P.A., Wolvaardt j.S. and Taylor R.G. (1987) 'Cost modelling: a process modelling
approach' in Building, cost modelling and computers Brandon P.S. (ed).
Brandon P.S. (1985) 'Data on tap' Chartered Quantity Surveyor March 1985 pp. 300-302
Brandon P.S. (1987) Building, cost modelling and computers E. & F.N. Spon
Brandon P.S. and Newton S. (1986) 'Improving the forecast' Chartered Quantity Surveyor
May 1986 pp. 24-26
Brandon P.S., Basden A., Hamilton 1., and Stockley j. (1988) Expert systems: the strategic
planning of construction projects Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
Holes L.G. (1987) 'Holistic resource and cost modelling' in Building, cost modelling and
computers Brandon P.S. (ed).
Maver T. (1979) 'Cost performance modelling' Chartered Quantity Surveyor December 1979
pp.111-115 .
Mitchell R. (1971) 'A tender based building price index' Chartered Surveyor july 1971
Morrison N. and Stevens S. (1980) 'Cost planning in theory and in practice: A construction
cost database' Chartered Quantity Surveyor june 1900 pp. 313-315
Pegg I.D. (1987) 'Computerised approximate estimating from the BCIS On-line database' in
Building, cost modelling and computers Brandon P.S. (ed).
PSA (1981) Cost planning and computers Department of the Environment Property Services
Agency
Smith G. (1980) 'Cost planning the design process' Chartered Quantity Surveyor August 1980
pp. 13-16
Williams G.R. (1987) 'The development of a spreadsheet application for the cost modelling of
buildings during the early design stages' in Building, cost modelling and computers
Brandon P.S. (ed).
l 0 Computers and Bills of
Quantity
Objectives
"TAKING OFF"
SQUARE ANO
CHECK DIMS
r----- -----,
I I
I I
I I
I I
I
COMBINED IN ''cuT AND
''wORKING UP" I SHUFFLE" SYSTEMS
I
OPERATIONS NEEDING ~
SKILLED as INPUT L__j
PRINT
OPERATIONS NOT NEEDING II
SKILLED as INPUT L__j
I MEASUREMENT
t
OAT A ENTRY
+
ABSTRACT AND
DRAFT BILL
+
EDIT AND AMEND
t
I
• CAMERA READY"
FINAL BILL
+
INPUT RATES
+
I RESORT BILL
l
I SKILLED Q S NEEDED 0
'
COST ANALYSIS
NO SKILLED Q s NEEDED D
C0~1PUTER PROCESSING I I
It has already been shown that the use of computers for Bill preparation led
directly to the need for a library of standard descriptions, and this was in
reality only a small extension of an already common practice in many
offices. Most firms of any size had an 'office standard' for descriptions,
even if this only consisted of following descriptions used in previous Bills,
and the idea of a formal library of descriptions for computer use was not in
itself remarkable.
What was perhaps more remarkable was the view taken by the RICS and
others, that the use of computers would lead directly to the the use of one
standard library of descriptions for use across the entire industry. The RICS
working party investigating the use of computers for working up said, in
1961:
Standardised descriptions are ultimately inevitable. This is in some
measure already done in some individual offices and departments but in
due course it must come for the profession as a whole.
Standardisation of descriptions ... would we feel help the industry to
build more cheaply. It would do so by assisting work study and thus
keen estimating.
(RICS 1961)
The perceived advantages of industry-wide standard descriptions have
historically been listed as:
Computers and Bills of Quantity 151
The simplest type of standard library would be one in which each complete
description were allocated a code. This type of library is therefore analogous
to the use of a Bill of Quantities from a previous job where the code for a
given item might simply be the page and item reference. If such a bill were
to be stored in a computer one could therefore 'code' dimensions for a
new project by using the page and item reference of the previous Bill, and
the computer would therefore be able to use the codes so allocated both to
collect like items together and to sort the items in the new project into an
acceptable order.
152 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
The basic problem with a library of this type is that to offer compre-
hensive coverage of all items, sizes and specifications likely to be
encountered it would need to be very large indeed. In order to be workable
therefore the library must be reduced to a skeleton form, with 'blanks'
inserted for all size also some specification information. This 'missing'
information is then included with items for the new projed as a part of the
code, and the computer substitutes the actual information provided for the
'blanks' in the library. This type of library has been used in a number of
systems; Cyril Sweet & Partners claimed, in 1978, to have developed a
comprehensive library of this type running to only 200 pages. (Sweet
1978).
More common is the 'articulated phrase' library in which descriptions
are de-composed into smaller constituent phrases each of which is then
given a code. Perhaps the most common method of de-composition is to
break descriptions down into a number of functional parts. Such an
approach requires descriptions to be phrased in a structured form, for
example the unstrudured description:
One brick wall in Class B engineering bricks (BS 392l) in cement mortar
(1 :3)
could be expressed in a rather more strudured form, and using SMM7
terminology as:
Masonry ....•....................... Primary SMM7 division
Code Description
C Demolition/Alteration/Renovation
D Groundwork
E Insitu concrete/Large precast concrete
F Masonry
G Structural/Carcassing metal/timber
SMM7 sub-division
Code Description
FlO Brick/block walling
Fll Glass block walling
F20 Natural stone rubble walling
Specification
Code Description
Description of work
Code Description
FlO Walls
F20 Isolated piers
F30 Isolated casings
F40 Chimney stacks
154 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
Size information
Code Description
The code for the item in question can therefore be formed by taking the
code for each facet and combining them together thus:
F Masonry
FlO Walls
RFG Roofing
The most commonly used approach to ease the coding problem centres
around the use of VDU screens both for coding and for the input of the
data. A number of systems use this approach.
In essence the method works by using the computer to display on the
screen all of the descriptions and their associated codes stored in the
156 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
structured in levels in the way described earlier. The text is then entered into
the computer by a clerk/typist exactly as written by the taker-off. Once a
batch of data has been input to the machine the computer then scans the
text at each level for 'keywords', from which it constructs an internal code.
This 'hidden' code is then used both to collect like items together and to
subsequently sort the data into Bill order.
The system also includes a number of other facilities to ease the taking-
off process such as the use of 'ditto' for each facet of the description, easy
duplication and re-use of previous descriptions with the option to make
changes, the use of job-specific or global tables of abbreviated descriptions
using 'shorthand' codes such as those described above and the facility to
copy either single items or ranges of items from either previous dimensions
or from previous Bills. The system therefore eliminates coding as a manual
process and makes no additional demands upon the taker-off. There is also
no need for each taker-off to have constant access to a VDU.
to follow similar lines on a drawing drawn at a scale of, say, 1:5, and it is
plainly preferable in many cases to measure using figured dimensions
when they are given. Remember that it is not for nothing that many
architects and engineers add a note to their drawings warning of the
dangers of using scaled dimensions!
Automated measurement
The use of the computer to 'automatically' measure a whole range of items
from one code has its roots in the very beginnings of computer billing
systems, and facilities of this type are described in several of the papers
presented at both the 1967 and 1973 RICS conferences on computer
billing systems. In essence the technique most commonly adopted uses the
computer to store pre-measured quantities for parcels of work each of
which is then given a unique code. The whole parcel may subsequently be
included into a new scheme and multiplied as necessary simply by quoting
the appropriate code and the 'number off', and thus considerable time can
be saved where particular constructional details or component assemblies
repeat from project to project. The most obvious examples occurred in the
1970s in the twin areas of local authority housing schemes and system
building where component assemblies or even whole standard house types
could be stored and recalled in this way. The technique has been given a
variety of names by various system developers, (e.g. 'Biackbox', group
quantities, unit quantities etc.); we shall use the term 'unit quantities'.
Tl-te technique is particularly important since it can also be used to form
a useful link between computer billing systems and architects' computer
aided design systems, and this is discussed further in chapter 12.
Unit quantities
One simple example of the use of unit quantities might be in the case of
standard timber windows, which are commonly coded by the manufacturer
and so identified in trade catalogues. A hypothetical example of such a
window range is shown in figure 10.3, and is used here to indicate the way
in which a unit quantity library could be constructed such that all of the
measured items required for each type of window could be stored in the
computer and associated with the relevant code.
Each window code would therefore need to generate the following items
for inclusion in the Bill:
(i) supply and fixing of the window frame
(ii) glazing
(iii) painting internally and externally
(iv) bedding and pointing the frame.
160 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
Height
09 - 900mm A09 B09 C09
12 - 1200mm A12 B12 C12
15 - 1500mm A15 B15 C15
Notes
(i) Height of top light is always 350mm, bottom light varies
(ii) Windows may be glazed with either 4mm clear sheet glass (code
C) or 4mm hammered obscure glass (code 0)
It is important to realise that the facilities available for this type of work
differ greatly from one system to another. The example shown here is
therefore not taken from any particular system but instead indicates the
kind of facilities which have been offered in the past. The unit quantity
library which might be prepared for the example given above is shown in
figure 10.4.
Code I !Measured item
----------------------------------------------------------------
A09-1 1l 1 ITimb wdw/Sw/wdw & fr/ref A09 cramp fxgl 2l
I
A12- 1 ITimb wdw/Sw/wdw & fr/ref A12 cramp fxg
I
A15- 1 ITimb wdw/Sw/wdw & fr/ref A15 cramp fxg
I
B09- 1 ITimb wdw/Sw/wdw & fr/ref B09 cramp fxg
I
B12- 1 ITimb wdw/Sw/wdw & fr/ref B12 cramp fxg
I
B15- 1 ITimb wdw/Sw/wdw & fr/ref B15 cramp fxg
I
C09- 1 ITimb wdw/Sw/wdw & fr/ref C09 cramp fxg
I
Computers and Bills of Quantity 161
I I
B--0 I 0.801 IGen glzg/stdd pln glas; 4mm hammered
I ~I lobsc./wd puty/in pane
I I I
B--0 I 0.801 IDdt. Ditto
I .o......!Q.I I
I I I
c--c I 1.10 I IGen glzg/stdd pln glas; 4mm clear sheet/
I ~I lwd puty/in pane
I I I
c--c I 1.10 I IDdt. Ditto
I .o......!Q.I I
I I I
c--o I 1.10 I IGen glzg/stdd pln glas; 4mm hammered
I ~I lobsc./wd puty/in pane
I I I
c--o I 1.10 I IDdt. Ditto
I Q...1QI I
I I I
I *I IPaint/pt wd/glzd wdw etc/g+300 m panes
I ~1(8) I
I I I
I *I Paint e/pt wd/glzd wdw etc/g+300 m panes
I ~I
I I
C12- I !9l I *I Ddt.Paint/pt wd/glzd wdw etc/g+300 m
I I ~I panes
I I I
C12- I I *I Ddt.Paint e/pt wd/glzd wdw etc/g+300 m
I I ~I panes
I I I
C12- I I *I Paint/pt wd/glzd wdw etc/g+300 1 panes
I I ~I
I I I
C12- I I *I Paint e/pt wd/glzd wdw etc/g+300 1 panes
I I ~I
I I I
ClS- I I *I Ddt.Paint/pt wd/glzd wdw etc/g+300 m
I I ~I panes
I I I
Computers and Bills of Quantity 163
(1) The size of the unit quantity library can be kept to a minimum by
calling forward items using only parts of the total code. In this case
the total number of windows in the range is nine and each
window extracts five items. In addition each window can be
glazed with either clear or obscure hammered glass. The code
therefore needs to consist of the window reference and the type of
glass, thus giving a total of 9 x 5 x 2 = 90 separate items to be
measured. Certain items however are only dependent upon a part
of the code, for example the item for bedding and pointing is
always required, and an item for the window frame is always
required regardless of the type of glass. Using this technique only
38 items actually need to be measured to cover the entire range.
(2) The abbreviations used are based on those included in SMM7
Library of Standard Descriptions.
(3) Another technique which is sometimes used to minimise the size
of the unit quantity library is to generate some dimensions auto-
matically from the code via a look-up table. In this example one
asterisk means that the dimension is generated from the first part of
the code, and two asterisks means that the dimension is generated
from the second part of the code. The code used here consists of
three parts:
(i) a letter denoting the width of the frame
(ii) a two character number denoting the frame height
(iii) a single character denoting the type of glass
The different parts of the code are often referred to as 'parameters',
and in this case look-up tables could be stored in the computer thus:
Thus when the computer finds a letter A as the first part of the code
the* entry in the dimension column is replaced by 0.60, and so on.
(4) This sequence of items measures the glazing to the top lights,
which are always the same size regardless of the window height,
hence only the width and glass type are significant.
(5) These items measure the glazing to the bottom lights.
(6, 7) Here the dimension extracted from the second parameter of the
code is multiplied by a given width to calculate the area of the
bottom pane. Although not good conventional taking-off practice it
again helps reduce the size of the unit quantity library to adopt the
slightly unusual approach of measuring the area of the whole
window and subsequently deducting the area occupied by the top
light.
(8) Here the dimensions for the painting items are both extracted from
look up tables before being multiplied together in the usual way.
(9) Although painting is required on all windows and is measured above,
these two windows only are divided into large panes and thus call
for special treatment. It is therefore necessary to deduct the painting
already measured and add back the correct painting items
If we assume that a given project requires 10 Nr. type B12 windows glazed
with clear glass and 2 Nr. type A09 windows glazed with obscure glass
then the relevant items would be extracted from the unit quantity library,
multiplied by the 'number off', and the dimensions shown in figure 10.5
would be merged with the traditionally measured work.
I
2/1 1 ITimb wdw/Sw/wdw & fr/ref A09 cramp fxg
I I
10/1 1 ITimb wdw/Sw/wdw & fr/ref B12 cramp fxg
I I I
2/1 0.601 ITimb wdw/mast/bed & ptg fr
2/1 0.901 I
10/1 0.901 I
10/1 1.201 I
I I I
2/1 0.501 IGen glzg/stdd pln glas; 4mm hammered obsc./
I .Q......QI lwd puty/in s panes (nr.2)
I I I
2/1 0.501 IGen glzg/stdd p1n g1as; 4mm hammered obsc./
I 0. 90 I lwd puty/in pane
I I I
Computers and Bills of Quantity 165
It can clearly be seen from the figure that the use of computerised
techniques of this kind can be extremely cost effective where repetition
occurs. It can however also be clearly seen from the above example that
the preparation of comprehensive unit quantity libraries can be a very time
consuming business, and it is therefore most important that one only
considers the use of such methods where the extent of repetition is
sufficient to justify the initial investment involved in establishing the library.
One must also remember that, even with the best will in the world,
architects and other designers seen incapable of leaving any standard
detail unmodified for very long, and the ease with which unit quantity
libraries of this type can be amended to take account of such changes will
also be a crucial factor in their long-term cost effectiveness.
270mm
DEPTH
d
. .
. ..• ;• ·~
.
~
..
TH ICKNESS
" ...· . ·, t
~ -· . ~ .. .. ~.. =:·· .. ·. - : ~.... ·:
WIDTH w
ware and this can prove very cost effective in some circumstances. The
approach is illustrated using the simple strip foundation shown in figure
10.6.
If the formulae required to calculate the quantities of work required for 1
metre run of the foundation were to be stored in a spreadsheet, then given
the total trench depth, foundation concrete thickness, trench width and
total length the computer will produce a schedule of all of the quantities
involved.
Figure 10.7 shows a spreadsheet set up in this way, with the relevant
formulae set up in cells F19 - F42. Figure 10.8 shows the input dialogue
with the user after the spreadsheet borders have been removed and the
sheet 'windowed' to display only the first thirteen lines. The relevant
information is then entered into cells F1 0- F13, and the resultant schedule
of quantities is shown in figure 10.7.
I A II B II C II D II E II F II G
11
21 SPREADSHEET MEASUREMENT EXAMPLE
31 ===============================
41
51 Simple strip foundation
61 -----------------------
71
81Enter the following information:-
91
101 foundation depth (mm max 2000) 0
111 trench width (mm) 0
121 concrete thickness (mm) 0
131 total length (m) .00
141
lSISchedule of quantities
161----------------------
171
181Excavate trench maximum depth not exceeding
191 .00 m maximum depth .00 m3
201
211Level and compact bottom of excavation .00 m2
221
231Earthwork support not exceeding 2.00 m
241between opposing faces not exceeding
251 .00 m maximum depth .00 m2
261
271Concrete in foundation in trench .00 m3
281
168 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
Schedule of quantities
Data labelling
systems have in the past allowed sub-division of the data by, for example:
house type
block- i.e. individual building within a total scheme
sub-block -a functional sub-divison of the above element
sub-element
location
SMM work section
Any or all labels are usually allowed in any one run, often in any
combination; thus it is possible, assuming that the appropriate information
has been coded, to produce for example a Bill sorted by block, sub-block
and SMM work section for tender purposes and to subsequently resort the
information into block, sub-block, element, and SMM work section form
for use on site.
The measurement of civil engineering works poses its own quite distinct
problems. Civil engineering works tend to be painted on a rather wider
canvas than do building projects; the construction of a road, for example,
tends to contain less of the fiddly detail than is usual on building projects
of comparable or even much lesser value, and this is of course reflected in
the rules for measurement of civil engineering work. In addition much civil
engineering measurement is carried out by civil engineers rather than
specialist quantity surveyors, and virtually all civil engineering work is
remeasured as executed. The combination of these factors has tended to
produce much simpler rules for the measurement of civil engineering
works, culminating in the 2nd. edition of the Method of Measurement for
Civil Engineering Works (CESMM2) which embodies not only the rules for
measurement but also a full and mandatory standard library of descriptions.
In addition of course the measurement of this type of work commonly
involves much more involved calculation than does the measurement of
building works. Such a situation is, of course, tailor made for computer-
isation.
Although most (if not all) of the billing systems designed for use on
building projects could be fairly readily adapted for use on civil engineering
works, they have tended in the main to be too complex for the type of
measurement required, and neither have they provided suitable facilities to
help ease the particular mathematical problems posed by civil engineering
measurement. Consequently a number of computer systems have been
developed specifically to cater for civil engineering works and these systems
in turn have little or no application to building projects.
Computers and Bills of Quantity 171
References
Objectives
Note that use of the computer for cost analysis is discussed in chapter 9
and is therefore excluded here.
Interim valuations
The use of computers for the working up of interim valuations has been
pursued for some considerable time and a number of companies market
programs of this type, either as stand-alone programs or as modules of an
integrated suite.
There is a wide range of approaches to the problem. At one extreme
some surveyors have found it most cost effedive to use a combination of
word processing and spreadsheet software to simply calculate and print the
valuation statement complete with notifications to nominated sub-
contractors, whilst at the other end of the scale one can conceive of
systems in which the quantity surveyor actually prepares the valuation at a
screen on site, extracting items from a priced Bill held on-line, and in
which the computer automatically performs all of the calculations and
prepares the relevant documentation. It is perhaps in this area that the use
of portable computers or site-based computer terminals linked to a remote
central system is likely to expand rapidly in the future.
Much use has been made of microcomputers for so called 'tick-sheet'
valuations, where the quantity surveyor prepares his valuation using some
form of computer generated chart upon which are recorded all of the
details of work completed, variations etc. The method is particularly suited
to work with a high degree of repetition such as housing, and examples of
systems of this type are described in Hunt (1981 b) and Belcher (1983). An
example of a spreadsheet representation of the same problem is given in
Hawkins and Massey (1988).
I A II B II c II D I lEI I F II G
11
21PROJECT:
31============================================================
41
51Tender value: .00
61===========================
71
BIDate:00/00/00
91=============
101
111List of variations and predicted final cost
121===========================================
131
141Arch. inst. Description Add Omit
151-------------------------------------------------------------
161
171
181Predicted final cost # .00
191
201
variation is recorded by simply inserting an extra row into the sheet after
line 16, and cell 018 contains a formula which allows the tender value
from cell CS to be adjusted by the sum of the values stored in columns
F16-F17 and G16-G17. As additional rows are inserted the spreadsheet
software itself adjusts this formula so that the amount given as 'predicted
final cost' is always the initial tender sum adjusted by the amount of total
additions and omissions from columns F and G. An example of the
spreadsheet in use, with the borders removed, is shown in figure 11.2.
Calculation of fluctuations
Most fluctuating price contracts now use one or other of the 'formula'
methods for the calculation of fluctuations. These methods rely on the use
of indices representing the average movement of prices for particular types
of work, and the most popular system for building works is the so-called
NEDO formula using indices prepared and published by central govern-
ment. The operation of this system is described in PSA (1977) and, whilst
176 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
Date:17/09/88
It should be obvious from the above that there are essentillly two
approaches to the use of computers for post contract work in the areas of
contract administration and financial management.
178 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
BUDGET COST
OUT-TURN
COSTS
FINAL
ACCOUNT
On the one hand lies what might be called the traditional'all-singing, all-
dancing' approach. This approach considers that since the process of
financial management of building contracts tends to be essentially cyclical
as shown in figure 11.3, centred on the use of cost data extracted from
priced Bills of Quantities, then computer systems should be linked together
to form integrated suites to facilitate this process. Such a philosophy
generally sees the central core of the system as an integrated database of
information based on the priced tender Bill. The post contract module of
such a system might typically provide facilities to handle:
• variations
• interim valuations
• cost monitoring and progress reports
• payment notifications to nominate sub-contractors
• formula fluctuations
• cash flow prediction
A diagrammatic representation of such a system is shown in figure 11.4.
Computers for Post Contract Work 1 79
VALUATION
VARIATIONS
NOTES
PAYMENTS TO
NEDO NOMINATED
INDICES SUB- CONTRACTORS
PAYMENT ADVICE
PROJECT COST TO NOMINATED
CONTROL REPORT SUB -CONTRACTORS
Suites of this type are usually menu-driven via a VDU screen and their
operation is quite straightforward. They do however tend to be rather
expensive and the cost effectiveness of such systems must be carefully
researched.
On the other hand, however, it is, as illustrated earlier, perfectly possible
to use software tools such as spreadsheets or even to write small self-
contained programs in a simple language such as BASIC to deal with
specific post contract tasks on a 'stand-alone' basis. The use of such tools
can be extremely cost effective, but one should always be conscious of the
factors discussed earlier in chapter 7.
The most important difference between the 'stand-alone' approach and
the integrated database concept described earlier is that in the latter case,
because all of the information is stored in one central set of files, then the
input of any new data via any of the routes shown in figure 11.4 will
immediately be reflected in all of the relevant outputs. Hence a change in,
for example, the estimated value of an Architect's Instruction will auto-
matically be reflected in reports s~..:ch as those for cash flow monitoring etc.
180 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
programme, but also require him to plan the project using a specified
computer based project management system in which the consultants have
a degree of expertise. This method of working thus enables the consultant
to check rather more thoroughly the contractor's progress against the plan,
to evaluate much more readily the time consequences of a change to the
plan, and even to indulge in 'what-if' simulations in order to predict the
best ways in which the required changes can be implemented.
This process has become known as 'claims management', and the use of
computer based techniques such as those indicated above appears likely to
increase in the near future.
A more comprehensive discussion of the use of project planning and
control systems by the quantity surveyor is given in chapter 13.
References
Belcher R. (1983) 'Speeding housing estate valuations' Chartered Quantity Surveyor june
1983 pp. 417-421
Hawkins P. and Massey R. (1988) Spreadsheet examples Department of Surveying, Trent
Polytechnic
Hudson K.W. (1978) 'DHSS expenditure forecasting method' Chartered Surveyor Building
and Quantity Surveying Quarterly Spring 1978
Hunt G. (1981a) 'Micronotes- finding the data' Chartered Quantity Surveyor February 1981
p.263
Hunt G. (1981b) 'Micronotes- micros at the post contract stage' Chartered Quantity Surveyor
March 1981 p. 285
PSA (1977) Price adjustment formulae for building contracts: Guide to the application and
procedure HMSO
12 Quantity Surveyors and
Computer Aided Design
Objectives
At the end of this chapter you will be able to:
• Discuss the production of quantities directly from a computer aided
design system in an integrated practice.
• Comment on the possibilities for the extraction of data from the
architect's project model by other private practice quantity surveyors.
• Discuss the problems which govern the exchange of data between
different computer systems.
• Comment on the legal and economic issues involved in the use of the
architect's data by the quantity surveyor.
One of the problems about CAD is that this particular set of initials has at
least two generally accepted meanings. CAD may, in some circumstances,
mean computer aided design, where the computer is used to actually assist
in the design process, but the same initials may equally well be used to
refer to computer aided draughting, where the computer is merely used as
a tool to produce working drawings. In an attempt to ease the confusion
some commentators refer to computer aided architectural design (CAAD),
whilst others prefer CADD (computer aided design and draughting). The
term CAD is used here to denote computer aided design.
Computers have been used to aid the engineering design process for
some 25 years, and their use in areas such the car and aeroplane manu-
facturing industries is well known. In industries such as these links have
long been formed between the computers used for design work and those
used to control the machines which actually make the parts from which
the final product is assembled; thus CAD/CAM (computer aided design/
computer aided manufacturing) is yet another acronym which the use of
computers has introduced to the vocabulary of the modern industrialist.
Almost from the very beginning engineering computer aided design
systems incorporated facilities to enable the computer to generate not only
drawings and instructions to drive machine tools but also to produce a 'bill
of materials', a list of components required to produce the final composite
assembly. The potential application of this technique to construction was
quickly recognised in theory but proved rather more difficult to achieve in
practice.
The amount of computing power required to 'model' designs for cars
and aeroplanes was huge, and more rather than less was required to model
large buildings. In addition companies involved in producing cars, aero-
planes and similar products tend to be very large, dealing in general with
sizeable production runs of a given product; construction on the other
hand tends to be a much more 'one-off' affair and most architectural
practices of the time were, with a few notable exceptions, unable to afford
the the hardware required. It therefore tended to be in the large local
authorities, largely on the back of the very large public sector building
programmes of the early 1970s, that computer aided architectural design
began to blossom. Similar developments had already taken place in civil
and structural engineering with computers being used to aid the design of
projects such as the St Lawrence Seaway and the Sydney Opera House,
and many widely used programs were developed for highway design, the
design of reinforced concrete and steel structures etc.
Probably the earliest comprehensive published account of computer
aided architectural design was Campion (1968), but by the mid- to late-
1970s a number of computer aided design systems were in regular use;
Quantity Surveyors and Computer Aided Design 185
Madden (1973) for example describes a system which had been in use in
West Sussex County Council since 1968, Carter (1973a-d), in a series of
four articles explored the application of computers in architecture, Maver
(1978) catalogues a number of contemporary CAD systems, and Daniel
(1979) and Hawkins and Davidson (1979) both describe ways in which
quantities could be extracted from such systems.
As with most other applications of computers a widespread interest in
the techniques really began with the general introduction of low cost
microcomputers during the late 1970s since which time a number of
comparatively low cost CAD systems have been developed.
There are essentially two types of system in common use. The majority of
the cheaper systems, usually based on small computers, will be described
as 2D (two-dimensional) systems, and are often little more than automated
draughting tools. They will generally permit the creation of working
drawings in a flat (i.e. two-dimensional) plane, often allowing commonly
used shapes or symbols to be defined, stored in a library and subsequently
retrieved and placed in a drawing, and will also provide functions to allow
shapes to be scaled, deformed or rotated in various ways.
In general however each drawing is a separate entity in its own right and
there is no transfer of information between the various drawings which
make up a project, hence if changes are made to one drawing they will not
automatically be reflected in other drawings for the same project.
Some two-dimensional systems do permit shapes to be given the
additional attribute of a third dimension, thus allowing some limited
facilities for the production of, for example wire-frame perspectives. Such
systems are commonly known as 2.5D systems, but the facilities offered
vary from system to system. It is therefore very difficult to define precisely
what a 2.5D system actually is.
The most sophisticated systems, in my view the only ones which can
rightly be called computer aided design systems, are those offering a true
three-dimensional modelling capability. Such systems are obviously known
as 3D systems. The most common approach for systems of this type is for
individual components to be defined to the computer in terms of plan,
front elevation and side elevation views, generally using the projection of
the object onto the top, front and side of an enclosing box. The computer
is then instructed as to the position of the component in three dimensions
within the building, and by this means a complete 'model' of the proposed
building is constructed within the computer's memory. With systems of
this type therefore individual project drawings are generated by asking the
computer to view the model from the desired direction. 'Layered' drawings
186 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
From the very beginning the use of computer aided design systems has had
a potential impact on the work of the quantity surveyor, primarily in the
areas of measurement and initial cost advice.
As regards measurement, we have already seen that CAD systems in
engineering produce bills of materials almost as a by-product, and the
construction of a building was perceived to be, in essence, no different
from the construction of an aeroplane. There seemed therefore no obvious
reason why Bills of Quantities should not be extracted from the CAD
model in the same way.
Quantity Surveyors and Computer Aided Design 187
The impact upon the extent of the quantity surveyor's role in giving
initial cost advice is equally obvious since one of the primary reasons for
architects using CAD systems in the first place was to enable a wider range
of options to be examined and evaluated within the same time scale as
traditional methods.
We have also seen that the early building CAD systems were largely
developed within integrated practices; quantity surveyors were therefore
on hand and could collaborate actively in the system development.
Problems of data transfer between one system and another therefore tended
to be minimal.
We have seen above that the majority of 3D CAD modelling systems, and
a number of 2D and 2.5D systems, operate through the use of 'components'
defined in a library held in the computer. A component might be a discrete
unit, for example a window, a door or a sanitary fitting with fixed
dimensions, or alternatively a 'stretchable' component such as an area of
floor slab or an area of brick wall. Components may also be composites
formed from combinations of other components, for example a standard
house type, and all components are generally referenced by some sort of
code.
This technique has much in common with the 'unit quantity' techniques
already in use in quantity surveyors' billing systems and described earlier
(chapter 9), and since the CAD systems already possess the ability to
'count' the number of each type of component used in a model the
integration of CAD and quantity surveyors' billing systems was, in a
number of cases, successfully exploited. Considerable success was achieved
in the 1970s particularly in the local authority sector, in West Sussex,
Derbyshire and Clwyd County Councils among others, and a typical
example is described in Daniel (1979). More recent work using the same
techniques is described by Wager and Wilson (1986), whilst a rather
different perspective on the same problem envisaging the use of data
extracted directly from a CAD model and subsequently converted to SMM
form via a spreadsheet is briefly described in Curran (1987).
Cost advice
The other major area of influence on the quantity surveyor's role lies in the
provision of initial cost advice for a number of different options on a given
scheme, and this problem was historically solved by including costs with
188 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
It has already been noted (chapter 2) that grave problems arise when
attempting to transfer data from one computer system to another, and this
is particularly true where CAD systems are concerned. Whilst it has
already been noted that data were transferred between CAD and quantity
surveyors' billing systems, this transfer in general took place among
machines of the same type, and generally involved the output of specially
processed data from one machine onto some physical medium, often
punched cards, which could subsequently be read back into another
machine. This method of transfer is extremely expensive and inefficient in
that it requires a special program to convert data from the host machine
into a suitable form for processing by the target system. Add to this the fact
that, on any particular project, data might also need to be exchanged
between the architect and quantity surveyor and the services and structural
engineers and the number of permutations, and hence the number of
special translation programs required becomes unmanageable.
Wix and Mclelland (1986) conducted a study of the problem, and report
on the development of a data exchange standard for graphics systems
called the Initial Graphics Exchange Standard (IGES). The central concept
underlying IGES is the establishment of a standard format to which all
graphics data should be converted. Hence if an archited with one CAD
system wished to transfer some data to an engineer with another system
then the architect would simply instruct his computer to output the data in
IGES format and the engineer would instruct his system to expect the input
in the same form. Each separate type of CAD system thus only needs to
provide one output processor and one input processor to be able to
communicate with all other IGES systems. IGES or systems like it could
therefore, in the future, provide a common interchange format for data
Quantity Surveyors and Computer Aided Design 189
transfer not only among CAD systems but also between CAD systems and
quantity surveying packages, project management systems and the like.
Other attempts at standardisation of format and equipment are described
in RIB E. V. (1982) and CICA (1982).
The use of CAD systems has proved both good and bad from the quantity
surveyor's point of view. In terms of benefits the automatic generation of
quantities and cost information has undoubtedly in many cases proved
most helpful, saving both time and cost and providing the client with better
value for his money.
On the other hand however there have been some disadvantages:
One surprising finding which emerged was how little CAD systems
seem to be used for producing standard details in architects'
offices... In practice we found that this hardly ever happened
although in the case of one architectural practice there had been a
considerable investment creating such a library. However when it
came to to using the library it was found that architects preferred to
work out their own details for a job rather than resorting to those
already available.
(Day, Faulkner and Happold 1986:p. 20)
(iii) Even worse than (ii) above, although in a way related to it, is the
tendency shown by some architects to manually alter drawings
produced by a CAD system. Again the architect will often see such
changes as trivial but the possible effect upon pre-measured
quantities is again obvious. Manual amendment of computer
generated quantities to take account of such changes is usually
very difficult and the modification and adjustment of such quantities
may take longer than measuring from scratch by manual methods.
(iv) The information flow from the architect may become disjointed by
the use of CAD. Day, Faulkner and Happold (1986) found that:
Because a whole set of drawings can be plotted relatively quickly,
there is a tendency to leave the plotting until immediately before
the due date for the information in order to ensure that all amend-
ments are incorporated.
and later:
... it appears that where there is the potential to issue a 'perfect'
drawing there is much greater reluctance to issue any drawing
until that perfect drawing is available.
techniques by the rank and file is likely to take a lengthy period of time.
What is perhaps likely to happen in the long term (say within the next
twenty years or so) as computer systems become more complex and the
problems of data exchange between systems are resolved is a fundamental
change in the tendering process itself to a stage where bills of quantities
are no longer necessary. Nationally agreed methods of measurement are,
after all, a compromise between what the contractor actually wants and
what the quantity surveyor is prepared to provide; the bill gives tendering
contractors little information about 'buildability' and yet the contractor's
assessment of this factor is arguably the one thing upon which he needs to
exercise his skill if his tender is to be successful and he is to gain an
adequate return on his investment.
It is, for example, easy to imagine a scenario in which tendering
contractors are each presented with a copy of the architect's CAD model in
computer readable form. From such a model contractors could not only
extract for themselves details of the quantities of work and materials
required for the scheme but could also, in conjunction with their own
management software, perform 'what-if' simulations in order to determine
the most efficient and economical method of construction bearing in mind
their own particular resource constraints.
A further factor which will influence the speed with which such changes
come about is the economic state of the construction industry. As we have
already seen, many of the earlier developments in CAD can be traced back
to a period of intense constructional activity in which standardisation and
computerisation became almost hallowed words. A significant increase in
demand could well accelerate the process of change, and this factor is
itself likely to be affected critically both by the possible influx of European
companies following the removal of trade barriers in 1992 and also the
increasing activity of foreign firms such as the major Japanese construction
companies within the United Kingdom.
References
Atkin B. (1987) CAD techniques: opportunities for chartered quantity surveyors Royal
Institution of Chartered Surveyors
Brandon P. (1983) 'The writing on the wall' Chartered Quantity Surveyor May 1983 pp. 378-
379
Campion D. (1968) Computers in architectural design Elsevier
Carter j. (1 973a-d) 'Computers and the architect' The Architect's journal 3/10/73 pp. 81 5-
817,10/10/73 pp. 865-870,24/10/73 pp. 1003-1011 and 31/10/73 pp.1053-1060
CICA (1982) The specifiCation of a building industry computer workstation Construction
Industry Computing Association
Curran j. (1987) 'The quantity surveyor and the CAD system' Chartered Quantity Surveyor
October 1987 p. 11
194 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
Daniel P. (1979) 'Bills of quantity in a multi-disciplined design system' Chartered Quantity
Surveyor May 1979 pp. 141-142
Day A., Faulkner A. and Happold E. (1986) Communications and computers in the building
industry Construction Industry Computing Association
Edgill B. and Atkin B. (1987) 'CAD opportunities for the quantity surveyor' Chartered Quantity
Surveyor May 1987 p. 9
Hawkins M. and Davidson j. (1979) 'Computer aids Bills of Quantities' Chartered Quantity
SurveyorApril1979 pp. 99-105
jelly P. (1977) 'Project estimating by computer - a system in use' The Quantity Surveyor Apri I
1977 pp. 161-165
Madden L.W. (1973) 'Computer programs for We'll. Sussex' Building4/5f73 pp. 103-107
Maver T. (1978) 'The benefits of using computer aided design' RIBA journal March 1978 pp.
101-104
Peat, Marwick, Mclintock (1987) Building on IT Peat, Marwick, Mclintock Publications
RIB E.V. (1982) Feasibility study of common 1/0 conventions for the building industry
Rechen-und Entwicklungsinstitut Fuer Edv im Bauswesen
Wager D. and Wilson R. (1986) CAD systems and the quantity surveyor Construction Industry
Computing Association
Wix j. and Mclelland C. (1986) Data exchange between computer systems in the construction
industry Building Research and Information Association
13 Computers, Quantity
Surveyors and Project
Management
Objectives
At the end of this chapter you should be able to:
• Identify those parts of the project management process to which
computers are most likely to be applied.
• Comment on the early history of computer based project management
systems.
• Identify and comment on the features which a good project manage-
ment system should possess.
• Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of modern microcomputer
based project management software.
• Comment on the use of computer systems in the selection of an
appropriate.procurement methodology.
• Comment upon the possible uses of computers in quality control.
Introduction
Preceding chapters have considered the use of computers in 'traditional'
quantity surveying activities, and it is perhaps appropriate that the book
should end with a brief examination of the use of computers in project
management since it is, in a sense, through the management function that
all of the individual facets are united.
(i) Small and medium sized firms were unable to afford to purchase a
computer of their own and hence used bureaux services. These
were cumbersome, expensive and time consuming.
(ii) The gradual realisation that computer software, no matter how
clever, was no substitute for good management.
(iii) The technique required substantial volumes of data to be input.
Most firms did not have sufficiently detailed information about the
behaviour of costs and their relationship with work methods.
(iv) The systems were not user friendly, some required specialised staff
and they tended to be remote from the managerial work-face.
198 Computers and Quantity Surveyors
Simplicity
Systematic
Flexibility
Many project plans fail because they are too rigid. Any plan must be
dynamic and capable of rapid change to accommodate changes in circum-
stances. It is said that the only thing which is certain about any plan is that
it will go wrong, so when it does management must be able to evaluate the
effect of the problem and initiate the necessary corrective action.
Computers, Quantity Surveyors and Project Management 199
Responsibility
Every member of the team must know precisely what his responsibilities
are for the cumulative success of the total plan, and must be aware of the
probable effects of failure to deliver.
In order that these characteristics may be effective the plan must include
the following:
Objectives
A clear statement of objectives is needed before any project is begun. In
most cases these will be the conditions expected to apply once the project
is complete and will generally be expressed in terms of time, cost and
quality.
strategy often appears fairly obvious, programs such as these can assist in
clearly identifying those factors which are important in any particular
scheme, particularly perhaps in the case of an inexperienced client whose
true needs and priorities may not actually be those articulated in the
project brief.
References
Atkin B. (1986) 'Project planning and control' Chartered Quantity Surveyor September 1986
pp.11-13
Barrett D. (1987) 'Head scratching stuff' Computer Weekly 24/9/87 p. 38
Brandon P.S., Basden A, Hamilton 1., and Stockley j. (1988) Expert systems: The strategic
planning of construction projects Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
Hunt G. (1987) 'The Tuxedo package' Chartered Quantity Surveyor june 1987 p. 13
jackson M.j. (1986) Computers in construction planning and control Allen and Unwin
Morledge R. (1987) Procurement management - Evaluation and development of choice
methodology M.Sc. Thesis, Heriot-Watt University
Ind ex
Index