Mobile Computing Technology Adoption Issues for Inspectors in the AEC industry

The architectural, engineering and construction (ABC) industry's geographically dispersed nature makes for a great environment to apply the use of mobile computing technologies (MCT) for data management activities in the field. In general, the challenge within the AEC industry, with respect to the adoption of MCT, is that common practice lacks a comprehensive and collaborative method for the selection and assessment of potential technologies and focuses primarily on an assessment of potential for operational efficiencies. There is a tendency to avoid the inclusion of more complicated aspects of assessing MCT.;Through the TIS - MCT Adoption Method two MCT were selected and assessed. The results obtained indicate that the TIS - MCT Adoption Method was capable of providing TIS with the information needed to make the decision to adopt. The results also supported the comprehensive and collaborative nature of the TIS - MCT Adoption Method for the specific nature of the TIS case study by providing a distinguishable difference in acceptance between the two MCT that were assessed.;An adoption method was created to meet the need for a comprehensive and collaborative tool to aid in the adoption of MCT for AEC industry scenarios. This method, the MCT Adoption Method, was created through the enhancement of the adoption decision making process in the AEC industry (Rankin and Luther 2006) incorporating aspects of the method for selecting features of mobile technology (Goggin et al. 2007), the method for designing commercial software applications (Kaasinen 2005) and the context-relevant lab-based evaluation of mobile applications (Lumsden et al. 2006). Application of the MCT Adoption Method was performed in a case study with the New Brunswick Department of Public Safety Technical Inspection Services (NB DPS TIS, or TIS for short), resulting in an advanced version of the method that was tailored to the specific nature of the case study. The advanced method was named the TIS - MCT Adoption Method.