A Relational Case-Based Reasoning Framework for Project Delivery System Selection

An appropriate project delivery system (PDS) is crucial
to the success of a construction projects. Case-based Reasoning (CBR)
is a useful support for PDS selection. However, the traditional CBR
approach represents cases as attribute-value vectors without taking
relations among attributes into consideration, and could not calculate
the similarity when the structures of cases are not strictly same.
Therefore, this paper solves this problem by adopting the Relational
Case-based Reasoning (RCBR) approach for PDS selection,
considering both the structural similarity and feature similarity. To
develop the feature terms of the construction projects, the criteria and
factors governing PDS selection process are first identified. Then
feature terms for the construction projects are developed. Finally, the
mechanism of similarity calculation and a case study indicate how
RCBR works for PDS selection. The adoption of RCBR in PDS
selection expands the scope of application of traditional CBR method
and improves the accuracy of the PDS selection system.

• Yang Cui
• Yong Qiang Chen

• Relational Cased-based Reasoning
• Case-based Reasoning
• Project delivery system
• Selection.

[1] ASCE. (2000). "Quality in the construction project: aguide for owners,
designers and constructors (second edition).” Reston, Virginia, 16.
[2] Anderson S., Oyetunji A. (2003) "Selection procedure for project delivery
and contract strategy.” Construction Research, 1-9.
[3] Alhazmi T., McCaffer R. (2000). "Project procurement system selection
model.” Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 126(3),
176-184
[4] Al Khalil M. I. (2002). "Selecting the appropriate project delivery method
using AHP.”International Journal of Project Management, 20, 469–474
[5] Armengol E., Plaza E. (2001). "Similarity Assessment for Relational
CBR.” 4th International Conference on Case-based Reasoning, LNAI,
2080, 44-58.
[6] Armengol E., Plaza E. (2000). "Bottom-Up Induction of Feature Terms.”
Machine Learning, 41, 259-294.
[7] Chan C. T. W. (2007). "Fuzzy procurement selection model for
construction projects.” Construction Management and Economics, 25,
611-618.
[8] Chen Y. Q., Liu J. Y., Li B. G., and Lin B. S. (2011). "Project delivery
system selection of construction projects in China.”Expert Systems with
Applications, 38, 5456-5462.
[9] Cheung S. O., Lam T. I., Wan Y. W., and Lam K. C. (2001). "Improving
objectivity in procurement selection.” Journal of Management in
Engineering,17(3), 132-139.
[10] Construction Industry Institute. (2003). "Owner’s Tool for Project
Delivery and Contract Strategy Selection User’s Guide.” Research
Summary IR165-2, Construction Industry Institute, Austin, TX.
[11] EI-Diraby T. A., Lima C., and Feis B. (2005). "Domain Taxonomy for
Construction Concepts: Toward a Formal Ontology for Construction
Knowledge.” Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, 19(4), 394-406.
[12] Ibbs W., Chih Y. Y. (2011). "Alternative methods for choosing an
appropriated project delivery system (PDS).” Facilities, 29(13/14),
527-541.
[13] Lo, S. C. and Chao Y. (2007). "Efficiency assessment of road project
delivery models”. InComputation in modern science and engineering:
Proceedings of the internationalconference on computational methods in
science and engineering, volume 2, Part B(Vol. 963, pp. 1016–1019).
[14] Love, P.E.D., SkitmoreM., and Earl, G. (1998). "Selecting a suitable
procurement method for a building project.” Construction Management
and Economics, 16 (2), 221-233.
[15] Luu D. T., Ng S. T., Chen S. E. (2002). "Fuzzy membership functions of
procurement selection criteria.” Construction Management and
Economics, 20(20), 285-296.
[16] Luu D. T., Ng S. T., Chen S. E. (2003a). "Parameters governing the
selection of procurement system - an empirical survey.” Engineering,
Construction and Architecture Management, 10(3), 209-218.
[17] Luu D. T., Ng S. T., Chen S. E. (2003b). "A case-based procurement
advisory system for construction.” Advances in Engineering Software,
34, 429-438.
[18] Luu D. T., Ng S. T., Chen S. E. (2005). "Formulating Procurement
Selection Criteria through Case-based Reasoning Approach.” Journal of
Computing in Civil Engineering, 19(3), 269-276.
[19] Luu D. T., Ng S. T., Chen S. E. (2006). "A strategy for evaluating fuzzy
case-based construction procurement selection system.”Advances in
Engineering Software, 37, 159-171.
[20] Mafakheri F., Dai L., Slezak D. and Nasiri F. (2007). "Project Delivery
System Selection under Uncertainty: Multicriteria Multilevel Decision
Aid Model.” Journal of Management in Engineering, 23(4), 200-206.
[21] Massie S., CrawS., and Wiratunga, N. (2007). "When Similar Problems
Don’t Have Similar Solutions.” 4th International Conference on
Case-based Reasoning, LANI, 4626, 92-106.
[22] Masterman, J.W.E. (2002). "An Introduction to Building Procurement
Systems.” 2nd ed., Spon, Press, London.
[23] Ng, S.T., Luu, D.T., Chen, S.E. and Lam, K.C. (2002). "Fuzzy
membership functions of procurementselection criteria”. Construction
Management and Economics, 20, 285-96.
[24] Oyetunji, A.A. and Anderson, S.D. (2006). "Relative effectiveness of
project delivery and contractstrategies”. Journal of Construction
Engineering and Management, 132(1), 3-13.
[25] Ribeiro, F. L. (2001) "Project delivery system selection: a case-based
reasoning framework” Logistics Information Management, 14(5),
367-375.
[26] Tserng H.P., Yin S.Y.L., Dzeng R.J., Wou B., Tsai M.D., Chen W.Y.
(2009), A study of ontology-based risk management framework of
construction projects through project life cycle. Automation in
Construction, 18(7), 994-1008.
[27] Zhou, F. Y., & Ke, H. (2013). Research on Influencing Factors Index
System for Selecting a Project Delivery System. In The 19th International
Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management.
509-517.