Digital technologies and related competences in construction management in the era of fast-paced digitalisation

Abstract

Digitalisation is changing both our personal and our professional lives. This change is continuous and fast-paced. Construction management professionals are required to work smart, using various smart digital technologies during a construction project and to deliver a smart building at the end of the project. To cope with this change from the traditional technologies to digital technologies, continuous competence development is needed and it can be argued that the current mechanisms for this are inadequate to respond to the magnitude and pace of the change. This paper presents part of a larger research project, which has the aim of identifying what digital technology competences a construction management professional requires, and how continuous professional learning can be used to support the professionals in developing these competences. The research as a whole is multi-method qualitative research relying on the constructivist paradigm. A conceptual design framework to support the development of the required competences will be developed and tested. Research methods used will be a combination of literature reviews, document analyses, interviews and focus groups to inform the different stages of the framework development. The research methods used for the current part of the research are systematic literature reviews and document analysis supported by literature reviews. The key terms of ‘digital technology’, ‘construction management’ and ‘competence’ have been defined. A framework consisting of construction management and digital technology functions has been developed to accommodate the construction management-specific digital technologies. The investigation into competences has revealed that basic word processing and spreadsheet skills are the most commonly required digital technology competences and construction management-specific or advanced digital technology competences are very rarely seen as important when employing new staff. The next stage of the research will include further investigation on the competence requirements and on continuous learning methods to address the competence development.