Investigating the relevance of quantity surveying profession in the ever-changing construction environment

Abstract

The construction industry has been regarded as one of the important national economic growth indexes. Customers' requirements in the construction industry have become more complex and demands for innovative technologies, customized designs and materials, environmental sustainability solutions, and productivity improvement have been increased significantly. As a response to these challenges and to meet the ever-increasing complexity of construction projects, industry professionals have to be equipped with appropriate competencies and must be committed to continuous developing and deploying new skills. As Quantity Surveyor (QS) has provided financial services and economic consultations for construction projects, this profession has contributed to the planning and controlling a construction project over the years. The current ever changing environment of the construction industry demands Quantity surveyors to update their knowledge and skills to cope with the changes. In order to provide insights for quantity surveyors to be able to manage a construction project productively and increase their ability in accordance with the current demand of the construction industry, this research conducts a questionnaire survey and interviews. As a result, the most critical challenges for quantity surveyors are adopting new technologies such as BIM for their current practice and increasing their knowledge regarding sustainable attributes for a construction project. This research also disclosed that the expected emerging roles of quantity surveyors are sustainable advisory ability and BIM ability for cost management. The research findings are expected to advise the current quantity surveyor and quantity surveying companies to prepare future competencies in accordance to the global trend. It is critical for QSs to recognize the future business directions and improve their ability to respond quickly to changes in order to guarantee their careers in the competitive modem construction industry.