What do we want for the holidays?

A fair level playing field for all construction work, be it prevailing wage, Davis-Bacon, union, etc.

Living the LiDAR life!  As-built scanning of work in place, thus producing point clouds of data tied to planned models (see TruView by Leica Geosystems), becomes part of a workflow in the industry.

Earned value management being real. In a recent article in Constructech magazine, EVM is described as "data sources that compare the budgeted value of work scheduled to the earned value of work completed" while looking at the actual physical work in place (through LiDAR). 

The article's conclusion was that companies only do this when they are required to for government contracts when they should be running their businesses this way. Garrett Harley of Oracle adds, "Suddenly they've got these requirements that they have to adhere to and they're forced to try and figure that out."   Not good for the development of best practices because you are always behind the eight ball looking to catch up.

Proprietary data being clearly defined. Subcontractors should be reporting certified payroll electronically with time-phased budgets to contract tasks, with the "actuals" reported in a form where the funding agency can build a better conceptual estimating database for future projects, based on real information. This actual data is non-proprietary and is now currently collected in written forms, or in emailed reports, which are not tied to an owner's database. 

Attract the youth! Bring forth dynamic progressive building methods with clear objectives and deliverables measuring perfomance, in a meaningful way. Use the latest software innovations to make this an exciting industry to work in, field or office.

Merry X-mas and a Happy New Year to the ENR community!!