
Irem DikmenUniversity of Reading · School of the Built Environment
Irem Dikmen
Prof. in Construction Engineering and Management
About
147
Publications
106,357
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Introduction
My research interests relate to construction project management, mainly risk management. I try to combine risk-related concepts from engineering, decision and organizational sciences to conceptualize and model risk in projects. I conduct research in collaboration with the industry to explore actuality of projects and develop frameworks/tools to support decisions at the enterprise and project levels.
Additional affiliations
November 1994 - November 2017
Publications
Publications (147)
Purpose
Despite extensive research on the underlying reasons for the energy performance gap in buildings, there is a critical need for stakeholders to standardize and facilitate the use of this knowledge and support its broader application by machines. Our research addresses this gap by developing both an ontology and a tool to utilize risk informa...
Although digitalization has become a prospect that is counted on for many problems in the construction industry, there have been limited attempts at exploring decision-making processes in construction firms concerning the integration of digital technologies and impacts beyond the projects. In this research, the system dynamics (SD) approach was pro...
The construction industry has long been criticized for being responsible for a significant portion of waste generation worldwide. Although different approaches have been developed over the years for waste reduction and control, they are not sufficiently implemented in practice, and waste generation in the construction industry still shows an increa...
Purpose
Megaprojects are large-scale and long-term investments. Three pillars of sustainable construction objectives, namely, social, environmental and economic, should be integrated into megaproject risk management to ensure long-term success. A risk assessment method, Risk Assessment Method for Sustainable Construction Objectives in Megaprojects...
The energy performance gap is a significant obstacle to the realization of ambitions to mitigate the environmental impact of buildings. Although extensive research has been conducted on the causes, minimization, or the quantifying of the energy performance gap in buildings, comparatively minimal work has been done on raising decision-makers awarene...
Complexity is the property of a project that makes it difficult to understand, foresee and control its behaviour due to interrelatedness between various project attributes such as tasks, parties, disciplines, and interfaces. Project complexity is an inherent part of mega construction projects due to their large scale, long period, the multiplicity...
Project risk communication comprises exchanging risk-related data and knowledge between different stakeholders so that they can comprehend the level of uncertainty and its consequences on project performance. Effective project risk communication enables decision-makers to interact and create a shared meaning using the available risk information. In...
Risk, complexity, and uncertainty are inherent components of mega construction projects due to their characteristic features. A failure to synthesize these concepts within a structured approach leads to unrealistic risk assessments, ineffective management strategies, and poor project performance. The Integrated Risk Assessment Process (IRAP) could...
Project portfolio management requires a systematic process that comprises assessment of portfolio risk and expected profitability, as well as strategic fit of individual projects with company objectives. After a needs analysis based on literature findings and surveys with experts, in this study, a process model and a tool, COPPMAN (COnstruction Pro...
Purpose
Megaprojects are known as complex projects that involve high levels of uncertainty. This interpretive study explores and portrays perceived complexity in mega construction projects by lived experiences of project managers.
Design/methodology/approach
This study utilises a ground theory approach to analyse data gathered from semi-structured...
Risk assessment in projects requires the integration of various information on project characteristics as well as external and internal sources of uncertainty and is based on assumptions about future and project vulnerability. Complexity is a major source of uncertainty that decreases the predictability of project outputs. In this research, the aim...
The dominant narrative of project risk management pays homage to scientific rationality while conceptualizing risk as objective fact. Yet doubts remain regarding the extent to which the advocated quantitative techniques are used in practice. An established counternarrative advocates the importance of intuition and subjective judgment. New insights...
This paper compares classification performances of machine learning (ML) techniques for forecasting dispute resolutions in construction projects, thereby mitigating the impacts of potential disputes. Findings revealed that resolution cost and duration, contractor type, dispute source, and occurrence of changes were the most influential factors on d...
Risk information that is used during project risk identification and assessment should be communicated well to enable risk-informed decision making. This study aimed to use risk descriptors for risk contextualization and explore how visualization can improve the communication of project risk information. Risk descriptors (e.g., assumptions and cont...
Risk, complexity, and uncertainty are inherent components of megaprojects due to their unique features. However, existing project management practices lack a structured synthesis of these concepts, which leads to unrealistic risk assessments, ineffective management strategies, and poor project performance. In order to fill this gap, this research a...
It is highly probable to encounter disputes in construction projects and construction disputes are detrimental as they may lead to cost overruns and delays. Knowing the compensation with some certainty can avoid parties from extending inconclusive claims. Decision support systems can be helpful to understand the aspect of the compensation, if any c...
Tunnel projects involve high levels of uncertainty stemming from the vagueness of geological conditions and the complexity of the mechanized tunnel boring process. Delay risk assessment is carried out by project managers to identify critical risk factors leading to time and cost overruns and formulate strategies to meet the project targets under di...
Although the construction industry is critical for sustainability goals due to the high amount of waste it generates, its waste management performance is still not at the desired level. One of the main reasons for this can be attributed to the lack of enough knowledge of construction companies on the sources/reasons of waste and amount of waste. Th...
Disputes, frequently encountered in construction projects, can substantially affect project success, necessitating a clear understanding of how and why disputes occur. Previous studies on disputes mostly yielded exhaustive lists or hierarchies of possible causes of disputes, which can hardly be used to understand how these causes come together to f...
The construction industry is overwhelmed by an increasing number and severity of disputes. The primary objective of this research is to predict the occurrence of disputes by utilizing machine learning (ML) techniques on empirical data. For this reason, variables affecting dispute occurrence were identified from the literature, and a conceptual mode...
Construction projects are often deemed as complex and high-risk endeavours, mostly because of their vulnerability to external conditions as well as project-related uncertainties. Risk management (RM) is a critical success factor for companies operating in the construction industry. RM is a knowledge-intensive process that requires effective managem...
The crucial role of innovation in improving or even maintaining the strategic position and competitive advantage of construction companies in a highly competitive industry is widely acknowledged. In this sense, construction companies are spending a substantial amount of money and time on innovation activities. However, an in-depth literature review...
It is a well-known fact that BIM application in construction projects enables several advantages such as better collaboration and communication, effective project visualization before construction, more efficient cost estimation and scheduling, and an increase in productivity. Although many of these advantages that BIM contributes to construction p...
Although complexity and risk are inherent characteristics of megaconstruction projects, existing project management approaches fail to incorporate complexity-based thinking into risk management. Complexity is usually considered as the source of risk events, along with uncertainty. However, prevailing risk management practices are oriented toward on...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a new conceptual life cycle performance measurement system (PMS) based on stage level key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the performance of build–operate–transfer (BOT) projects.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a literature review to reveal the deficiencies of existing PMSs for...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify and prioritize key performance indicators (KPIs) that can be used for stage-based performance assessment of build-operate-transfer (BOT) projects.
Design/methodology/approach
This research was conducted through focus group discussions and face-to-face questionnaires. Firstly, stage-level KPIs for BO...
Although conceptualized in various ways within the project management literature, complexity is usually identified as one of the drivers of uncertainty, which may result in deviations from the expected project performance in the construction industry. Effective strategies to manage risk and complexity can only be formulated by understanding the com...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address the limitations of conventional risk matrix based tools such that both positive and negative connotation of uncertainty could be captured within a unified framework that is capable of modeling the direction and strength of causal relationships across uncertainties and prioritizing project uncertaintie...
Organizational learning has been identified as a core competency for project-based companies with industry specific challenges. In this study, it is hypothesized that a web-based lessons learned management system may help construction companies to manage lessons learned effectively. A lessons learned management process model (LLMPM) was proposed fo...
Construction plays a crucial role in Turkey’s economic development, accounting for nearly 8-9% of GDP. The growing global competitiveness of Turkish contractors also contributes significantly to the balance of payments of Turkey. It is widely acknowledged that competitiveness of firms depends on national “innovation systems,” that is shaped by gove...
Risk management is deemed as a critical process toward achieving the objectives of any project. A number of tools and techniques have been developed to help project managers reduce the risk involved in complex projects as risk is generally perceived as a negative event. However, uncertainty, which may lead to risk events may well result in opportun...
In the globalized business world, construction companies start to seek new opportunities to invest on an international basis in order to gain profit. Therefore, construction companies have to conduct not only national projects but also international projects to be competitive. However, although these international projects can be profitable, the co...
The objective of this study is to contribute to the understanding of price formations in housing markets through an agent-based simulation that conceptualizes insights from behavioral economics. For this purpose, the study uses a prominent real estate market model as a benchmark and extends it to account for (1) behavioral heterogeneity and (2) dyn...
Purpose
In the global construction industry, experience gained in various countries is a major source of competitive advantage. By transferring the knowledge gained in previous projects using an effective knowledge management strategy, they can increase their competitiveness by adopting best practices and by not repeating the same mistakes under si...
Project managers have started to draw support from IT solutions to handle projects, which are more complex than before. Therefore, most of the companies have been generating solutions specific to their need in addition to available software for general use. Any designed product/software requires a testing process not only to check that it is correc...
Risk management is considered as a vital process contributing to the successful outcome of a complex construction project in terms of achieving the associated project objectives. The widely used industrial practice in managing construction project risks is to assign probability and impact values to each risk and to map risks on a risk matrix. The m...
During the feasibility study of BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) hydropower investments, the selling price of energy is the most critical parameter that impacts the net present value (NPV) estimated by the investors. Investors usually consider the price of energy guaranteed by the government during their feasibility studies which is the worst case scen...
Although the line-of-balance (LOB) method is widely used for the scheduling of repetitive construction projects, there are only a limited number of studies that deal with the issue of how to incorporate uncertainty in repetitive schedules. In this paper, a delay risk assessment method is proposed for projects scheduled by LOB. In the proposed metho...
Risk assessment is a systematic process to characterize and evaluate risk, with the available knowledge. Thus, its success depends significantly on the "availability of knowledge" during the assessment process. The knowledge elicitation from experts, the structure of the risk database and information visualization that may help sense-making from pr...
Mega construction projects have been receiving increased attention of construction management researchers in recent years. Management of mega construction projects has special challenges when compared with other types of projects not only because of their large size, long duration, and high societal and environmental impacts, but also due to their...
Public private partnership (PPP) is a well-established method for procuring public projects. Latterly, the PPP contracts have acquired substantial interest in construction industry of many different countries and therefore the importance of PPP project’s success has grown significantly and has become the eventual goal of both practitioners and gove...
Construction industry has become global with recent improvements within today’s business environment. Just like contractors all over the world, globalization has affected Turkish contractors who have been undertaking many projects for over 45 years successfully. Working
in so many projects for such a long time in many different countries has made t...
Mega construction projects are large-scaled construction projects that cost more than a billion dollars and number of mega construction projects have increased in the recent century. Considering the life cycle of the mega construction projects, they are long term investments so their impacts on economy, environment and society should be considered...
Risk assessment based on probability-impact (P-I) ratings is the most widely used approach in project-based industries such as the construction industry. However, there are various criticisms about utilization of the P-I rating approach because there are factors and assumptions that are hidden within the risk ratings that cannot be conveyed to deci...
Visualisation facilitates representation and communication of information to help make sense of it
and make informed decisions. In construction project management domain, there is a growing
interest for applying visualisation to present construction data and track performance in a more
effective way. However, regarding project risk management, curr...
Most of the today’s construction organizations are executing several projects concurrently; however, their management routines do not respond to the need of concurrent execution of projects. Portfolio management enables effective management of the right projects for the organization considering its resources, capabilities, strategic objectives, env...
Timely completion of dam and hydroelectric power plant (HEPP) projects is indispensable for the countries constructing them due to their economic, political, and social impacts. Robust and stable schedules should be created at the beginning of these projects in order to realistically estimate project durations considering uncertainties and variatio...
In this paper, we present a computerized method as an add-in to MS Project™ for risk identification and estimation of delay. A delay analysis ontology is incorporated so that the users can identify causes of delay at the activity level and assess frequency and impact of risks using their previous experience, expertise and judgement. Testing and val...
Arbitration is an increasingly popular alternative form of resolution for construction disputes. After the establishment of the Istanbul Arbitration Center, the question of whether international parties would prefer it instead of other popular venues has arisen. Previous studies have found that the reasons for preferring one seat of arbitration ove...
Although construction is a project-based industry, management focus has recently shifted from projects to project portfolios to meet strategic objectives of companies that require holistic analysis of the projects undertaken. Dependencies between projects within a portfolio need to be taken into consideration since they may significantly affect the...
Energy demand has been increasing, but traditional sources of energy are depletable. New investments are needed in renewable energy production. Hydroelectric power plants are often considered a feasible renewable source of energy and are often organized as a public private partnerships (PPP). However, risk factors stemming from the macro environmen...
Portfolio management comprises of identifying, prioritizing, authorizing, managing, and controlling projects, programs, and other related work to achieve specific strategic business objectives. Utilizing a knowledge-based portfolio management approach can be a critical success factor for construction companies. This research aims to present a taxon...
Companies’ ability to learn from projects is a source of competitive advantage in project-based industries. Learning from experiences in international markets is particularly important for global contractors so that the right bidding strategy can be developed, effective project governance systems can be established, and similar mistakes are not rep...
Risk assessment in construction projects is one of the crucial and complicated process to undertake, especially when considering subjective risk assessment because decision-makers may perceive risk factors based on their personal experience and judgment. Even objective risk assessment is effective and providing better results, it is not used widely...
Delay is a common problem of the construction sector and it is one of the major reasons of claims between project participants. Systematic and reliable delay analysis is critical for successful management of claims. In this study, a delay analysis ontology is proposed that may facilitate development of databases, information sharing as well as retr...
Performance of the construction projects have been criticized for many years due to their low productivity rates and cost overruns as well as significant delays. Increasing number of dissatisfied customers compel practitioners to reform conventional practices of construction management. Lean construction has emerged as a result of these efforts in...
Yapı Bilgi Modellemesinin yaygın olarak kullanılması ile birlikte fiziksel yapılar ve
çevrenin bilgisayar ortamına geçirilmesi önem kazanmıştır. Bu bağlamda, yapıların
mevcut durumunun belirlenmesi, yapım sırasında fiziksel ilerlemelerin takibi ve hasar
tespiti gibi işlemler dijital ortamda yapılmaktadır. Lazer tarama teknolojisi bu işlemlerin
gerç...
İnşaat sektöründe faaliyet gösteren firmalar büyüdükçe, portföylerinde barındırdıkları
projeler de çeşitlilik göstermektedir. Her bir inşaat projesi birbirinden farklı özelliklere
sahip olmasına ve farklı amaçlara hizmet etmesine rağmen temelde benzer aktivitelerin
benzer koşullarda gerçekleştirilmesi sonucunda oluşmaktadır. Bu nedenle, projelerde...
Günden güne gelişmekte olan inşaat sektöründe projeler giderek karmaşık bir hal
almakta, bu gelişimin doğal bir sonucu olarak da inşaat şirketleri birden çok projeyi eş
zamanlı yürütmek durumunda kalmaktadır. Bu kapsamda, şirketlerin geleneksel
yönetim teknikleri yerine, bütüncül bir yönetim anlayışı sunan portföy yönetimini
benimsemeleri gereği do...
İnşaat sözleşmelerinin tarafları arasında ortaya çıkması muhtemel uyuşmazlıkların tahmin edilerek daha ciddi boyutlara ulaşmadan önlenmesi veya etkilerinin indirgenmesi; para, zaman ve diğer kaynakların daha etkin bir şekilde kullanımı açısından önemlidir. Bu amaçla, uyuşmazlıklar ortaya çıkmadan önce yapılan tahminler ışığında önlemlerin alınması,...
İnşaat sözleşmelerinin tarafları arasında ortaya çıkması muhtemel uyuşmazlıkların tahmin edilerek daha ciddi boyutlara ulaşmadan önlenmesi veya etkilerinin indirgenmesi; para, zaman ve diğer kaynakların daha etkin bir şekilde kullanımı açısından önemlidir. Bu amaçla, uyuşmazlıklar ortaya çıkmadan önce yapılan tahminler ışığında önlemlerin alınması,...
Investigation of market entry strategies is critical for the success of international contractors. Establishing partnerships is among the most effective vehicles of operating in international markets. The major objective of this paper is to analyze the partnership behavior of contractors in overseas projects. In this respect, social network analysi...
Introduction:
Expert witness reports, prepared with the aim of quantifying fault rates among parties, play an important role in a court's final decision. However, conflicting fault rates assigned by different expert witness boards lead to iterative objections raised by the related parties. This unfavorable situation mainly originates due to the su...
Knowledge management in project based industries is critical as in the case of construction industry. Besides being a project based industry, factors specific to construction projects also make it harder to capture knowledge. Construction projects are held in dispersed locations, by different parties involved, with variable objectives; all of which...
Construction projects are open to risks due to their multi-partied, environmentally dependent and complex
nature. Unexpected situations generally lead to delays resulting considerable time and money losses. This
makes delay and delay analysis to be the core subject matter during execution of construction projects.
Therefore project participants sho...
Many factors, such as unforeseeable events, managerial and financial problems of contractors, insufficient technical capacity of site teams of contractors or Consultants, and so on, may lead to delays in construction projects. Proper analysis of compensability and quantum of a delay event is of prime importance. Any delay analysis application can b...
The importance of fit between an organization's implementation of project management (PM), and its business level strategy is emphasized in the literature. However, there are a limited number of studies investigating the relationship between business level strategy and implementation of PM in the construction industry. This paper aligns one of the...
Ontologies have a place in knowledge sharing with their ability to capture real world information in a machine readable environment. Their application varies from any approach structured on ontological commitment to meta-level ontologies serving for variety of purposes. This variety continues also in methodologies for constructing the ontologies. T...
Proje portföy yönetimi, projelerin tekil olarak yönetilmesi yerine portföy içerisinde bir arada yönetilmesinin hedeflendiği bir yönetim biçimidir. Portföy yönetimi şirketlerin stratejik hedefleri doğrultusunda proje seçimlerini yapmasını ve projelerini bu hedefler doğrultusunda yönetmelerini sağlamaktadır. Projeler şirket stratejisine katkısı ile p...
Üretimdeki fireyi minimize ederken, nihai ürünün değerini maksimize etmeye odaklı yalın üretim prensibi, imalat endüstrisinde benimsenmiş ve başarılı sonuçlar elde edinilmiştir. Yapım projelerinde sıklıkla yaşanan bütçe ve planlama hedeflerinin gerçekleştirilememesi sorunu, yalın üretim prensiplerinin inşaat sektörüne de uygulanmasını teşvik edici...
Günümüz inşaat projeleri, teknolojik gelişmelerin ve sektördeki rekabetin artması ile birlikte, eskisinden daha karmaşık ve yönetilmesi zor hale gelmiştir. İnşaat projelerinin gecikmeye yatkın yapısının, güncel rekabet baskısı ile birleşmesi, gecikmeleri çoğunlukla kaçınılmaz hale getirmektedir. Bu kapsamda, projelerin başarılı bir şekilde sonuçlan...
Effective risk assessment and management is critical for success in international construction projects. This paper proposes a knowledge-based risk mapping tool for systematically assessing risk-related variables that may lead to cost overrun in international markets. The tool uses an ontology that relates risk and vulnerability to cost overrun [1]...
Risk management is critical for success in project-based industries, especially in the construction industry. In current literature, various risk-based decision support systems have been proposed to systematically identify and assess risks. However, majority of these systems use the risk ratings assigned by the decision-makers, mainly, probability...
Purpose
– The positive effect of differentiation strategy on achieving competitive advantage among construction companies is widely acknowledged in the literature. However, there exists only a limited number of studies in the construction management literature that investigate the drivers and modes of differentiation. The purpose of this study is t...
Multiagent systems (MASs) consist of several autonomous entities, called agents, that interact with each other to either fulfill their own interests (competition) or reach a common goal (cooperation). In MASs, negotiation is the key form of interaction that enables groups of agents to arrive at a mutual agreement regarding some belief, goal, or pla...
The major challenges of project risk assessment may be attributed to the knowledge requirements for determining the level of uncertainty and the development of complex models to predict project outcomes. The duration-cost influence network is an adequate model that can be used for activity-based risk modeling. In this study, a scenario analysis fea...
The major aim of this research is to demonstrate that causal relationships exist among various risk factors that necessitate identification of risk paths, rather than individual risk factors, during risk assessment of construction projects. International construction projects have more complex risk-emergence patterns because they are affected by gl...
The aim of strategic group analysis is to question the existence of clusters of firms that implement a similar strategic perspective and performance implications of strategic group membership. Strategic group analysis is usually carried out by conducting statistical cluster analysis in which a company is assigned to a single strategic group. Howeve...
Economic globalization is increasingly affecting both the construction industry and academia. It is changing the traditional roles of civil engineers and construction managers. Cross-cultural collaboration and communication skills, multinational team management skills, the ability to overcome the social challenges of geographically distributed team...
Risk management is about identifying risks, assessing their impacts, and developing mitigation strategies to ensure project success. The difference between the expected and actual project outcomes is usually attributed to risk events and how they are managed throughout the project. Although there are several reference frameworks that explain how ri...
Measuring the performance of joint ventures has been an important research topic for a few decades. No consensus on an appropriate definition and measurement of performance of international joint ventures (IJVs) has yet emerged, and the validity of the underlying measures is still questionable. In this study, the construct validity of measures that...