Capitalizing on early project decision-making opportunities to improve facility design, construction, and life-cycle performance—POP, PM4D, and decision dashboard approaches

In this paper, we assess the requirements of architecture, engineering, construction (AEC) decision making and explain the limitations of state-of-the-art practice and theory in supporting informative formulation, clear and flexible evaluation, and quick re-formulation of AEC alternatives. We introduce the concept of Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) through results from several case studies that utilized Product, Organization, and Process (POP) Modeling and the Product Model and the Fourth Dimensional (PM4D) approaches in supporting design, construction, and life-cycle performance decisions. While VDC applications contribute to more accurate, informative, and efficient formulation of AEC alternatives, we discuss the needs for research on a Decision Dashboard to formally represent, organize, and decouple various decision contents (i.e., options, alternatives, predictions, and criteria) to support better evaluation and re-formulation of AEC alternatives.