Application of PIP in the Construction Projects for
Beijing Olympic Games
Guangbin WANG 1
1 2
CIFE, Stanford University
94305-2040 CA USA
Abstract—Information technology has played a more and more
important role in Chinese construction industry, especially after
the emergence of Project Information Portal ˄ PIP ˅ , which
provides a web-based project document management,
communication and collaboration working environment for the
participants. Taking PIP developed for the Construction Projects
of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games as a case, this paper introduces
its background, objectives, functions and developing process, in
an attempt to provide reference for the use of PIP in large
projects. (Abstract)
Keywords- PIP, Project management, Project communication
(key words)
I. INTRODUCTION
The construction engineering for Beijing 2008 Olympic
Games is a mega-project consisting of many sub-projects. 37
gymnasiums for competition will be built and 59 for training
will be rebuilt. In addition, the city's infrastructure construction
projects such as the transportation and electro-communication
facilities prepared for the Olympics are included. Problems will
be caused if traditional management modes are used in
Olympic construction engineering:
ƒ Great risk and difficulties in objective control exist
because of high capital cost and long duration,
ƒ Difficulties lie in government’s macro control and
supervisory work,
ƒ Project document problems with communication and
information processing and shared by the parties.
Information Technology (IT) is now routinely used in the
construction industry as a tool to reduce the previous problems.
The use of IT improves coordination and collaboration between
firms participating in a construction project, leading to better
communication practices. Its benefits include an increase in the
quality of documents and the speed of the work, better financial
control and communications, and simpler and faster access to
common data as well as a decrease in documentation errors.
Project Information Portal (PIP) is the web-based
information technology that best facilitates a collaborative
working environment in a construction project. Its use as a
communication medium can help information transfer occur
faster and more effectively and enable new opportunities for
the development of distributed systems that can cross
organization boundaries and provide a unique opportunity for
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Xiaoli YAN2; Wenjuan ZHANG2
SEC, Tongji University
Shanghai 200092 China
teamwork and workflow automation. The Web can also
overcome the incompatibilities of data formats through smart
browsers and servers. Therefore, independent project
participants using different hardware platforms can share the
same system over the Web. PIP is also a platform that can be
accessible by project teams located in different organizations. It
basically provides a centralized, commonly accessible, reliable
means of transmitting and storing project information. Project
information is stored on the server and a standard Web browser
is used as a gateway to exchange this information, eliminating
geographic and boundary hardware platform differences.
In order to meet the requirements of the development, the
Chinese construction industry is strengthening its
informatization and vigorously promoting the application of
information technology. During the past few years, the
government and A/E/C firms are increasing their interests in IT
applications to facilitate construction projects. The
development of PIP for construction engineering of Beijing
2008 Olympic Games is an example.
II. OBJECTIVES OF THE PIP DEVELOPED FOR BEIJING
OLYMPICS CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS
The PIP developed for Beijing Olympics construction
engineering is a communication platform between the
management departments and the participants of the Olympic
engineering. It is also an integrated platform of some of the
engineering management application software.
The PIP development should conform to international
norms and demonstrate Chinese characteristics, in another
word, it should provide both the visualization integrated
environment adapt to the international management institution
and the engineering management modes suitable for Chinese’s
situation. It should provide secure, convenient, swift and
efficient, intellectualized information services to the
construction participants of the Olympics. It should provide
dynamic and real time working environment for management.
The PIP aims in improving the management technology
and efficiency. It enables to collect, grasp and deal with
information about the schedule, quality, cost and emergency
quickly and smoothly, while provide support for decision. By
using PIP, the sub-projects of the Olympics construction are
coordinated and controlled systematically, all the related
governmental department such as planning, engineering,
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environment, municipal, communication, weather, information, C. Functions of the Olympic Games projects PIP
etc. are connected jointly and they can cooperate in managing The functions of the Olympic Games projects PIP can be
and controlling the whole project, ensuring the harmonization, divided into five function blocks, followed by fig. 2.
integration, efficiency of the Olympics construction. All these
provide references for the decision maker. Control versions of doc.
The application of the PIP can largely reduce the
construction cost. More important, it is an important part of the
Scientific Games, the Digital Games and will make great Document query
contribution for the building of Digital Beijing, also it plays Document
great role in improving and accelerating the informatization of Document editing on line
management
Chinese construction industry.
……
III. FUNCTIONS OF PIP OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES PROJECTS
Public information
A. The Users Information
publication
The first of development of the PIP is investigation of Function Electric bidding
function requirement and system analysis. During the first step, of PIP of
the
the developer should take in-depth research into the real Beijing ……
construction situation and study different users’ ideas and 2008
requirements. After considering all the factors, a list of the Olympic Information
s communication Email
users that will use the PIP is presented in Fig.1.
Discussing/videoing on-
PIP USERS li
Help on line and training
Collaborative
work 9LGHRPHHWLQJ

……
Dept. of Olympic Owners, Investors Media,
Organization Designers, , Commun
Work flow Apply and confirm on line
Comm., Contractors, Consulta ity
Government depts., Suppliers nt, people management
In. organizations etc. Research etc. Work flow support
etc. er. etc.

……
Fig 1. The users of the PIP analysis
B. Information covered by the PIP Fig.2 Function of the PIP of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
Different kinds of information involved in the Olympics
construction engineering include organizational information, Fig 3 and Fig. 4 are some images from the PIP has been
management information, technical information and economic developed.
information. In detail, there are planning and designing
management information, cost, schedule and quality
controlling information, safety management information,
environmental protection information, conference information,
contract management information, risk management, bond and
claim for compensation management. The information should
be covered generally by the PIP, and may be in different forms
of data, files, images and videos.
B iji
In another point of view, the core information that
constitutes the PIP follows as:
• Planning information:
• Investing information
• Design information
ぴ
• Construction information
• Procurement information
• enterprise information
• human resources information
Fig 3. the PIP applied in Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

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 the field of project management but lack in IT technology
knowledge, the project management training of the IT
technical team, who are familiar with IT development but
need some knowledge about project management.
C.
Fig 4. the PIP applied in Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
IV. DEVELOPMENT OF THE PIP OF OLYMPIC GAMES
The development of the PIP of Beijing 2008 Olympic
Games needs proper organization, training, software and
hardware support, which are the four pillars that uphold the
PIP platform.
A. Organization support
The organization support includes the organizational
structure and corresponding background, the task dividing
principles, management rules, information coding and
information system. The development of the PIP needs the
following organizational support:
• The inner organization framework and management
flow are clear and decided,
• The mode of project management is confirmed and the
program files of project management are established,
• The engineering department of the Olympic
Organization Committee has designated some people to
take part in the whole PIP development process,
• The data of the system requirement analysis is acquired,
• The system design scheme has been censored and
sanctioned,
• The equipment of the computers, network and related
hardware are provided,
• The system and software that have been prescribed by
the engineering department of the Olympic Organization
Committee in related contracts,
• The coordination of the development team and the
participants of the whole projects are expedite,
• The data collecting has proper guarantee measures
including the system guarantee, the agreement guarantee
and the censorship mechanism guarantee.
B. Training support
Training support includes the training of leaders team,
who decide the direction of the whole organization, the IT
training of the project management team, who are familiar in
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Software support
The software support includes:
• The solution scheme of the platform structure and the
way of the information transmission. The solution
scheme that the platform structure adopts is multilevel
distributed structure. The first level is the platform of the
Olympics Organization Committee, and the second level
is the individual project team. The multilevel structure is
characterized in capable of distinguishing different
management levels’ management responsibility and
scope easily, simplifying the difficulty of the structure
system, assigning work with clear interface and
operating smoothly.
• The integrated data resource scheme.
—the integration of the database of qualification of the
enterprises and the individuals of the construction
ministry,
—the integration of the database of program files of the
construction ministry,
—the integration of definition of the dynamic
information of the process controlling and the cost
controlling,
—the integration of the existing information resource
according to the data standard and specification
published by the supervising information system of
the national construction industry.
• The integrated software scheme
—the software such as P3 can be integrated in the
schedule management field.
—the software such as CGB(developed by Chinese
enterprises )can be integrated in the cost management
field.
—the software such as Expendition can be integrated in
the contract management field.
—the data format of the committee working platform is
required to be compatible and to connect with the
management system of the Beijing Olympics
Organizing Committee after communication with the
technology department.
—the PIP is sure to integrate with the application
system that specified by the committee and be
compatible with them in data format.
—the PIP can be connected with the contractors’ and
sponsors’ system.
• The data security solution that combines the software
and hardware. The solution considers three sides
including the ways to ensure the security in the
information lay, the physics lay and the specified web
environment.
• The solution of the system development technology
route. The solution adopts the Microsoft’s platform and
the SUN platform. The structure of the server is
Windows + SQL Server˄or Oracle˅,the application
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 system is java which includes J2EEǃJDBCǃEJBǃ
XML, the development tool is IBM WEBSPHEREǃ
JBUILDERǃJSP, etc.
D. Hardware support
Hardware support includes the confirmation of the
hardware system scheme and the establishment of the
hardware system. The demand draft for hardware facilities
includes:
• The facility requirement for engineering department’s
official environment
—the chief server and related facilities comprise of 3~4
enterprise server providing the serve of document,
application, database, backup system and big screen
display facility, disk, firewall, etc.
— the local area network facility for the first level
comprise of two department server,20~30 PC of high
performance, and some portable computers.
• The second level management level(department). two
workgroup server, 3~5 PCs of high performance
• Solution of vast area network: FDDI, DDN special line,
dial-up, etc.
V. CONCLUSIONS
The PIP is already running in the Beijing Olympics
construction now, it has been approved that the PIP has
provided the working environment for communication and
collaboration among all the participants, including different
companies, different departments in the same company, and
subsidiary company, which ameliorates the project
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management level and improves the efficiency. On the one
side, the leader can know about how the projects located in
different areas are implementing, makes decision on time and
then delivers it right then, on the other hand, the underlings
can get the directive from the upper leader in time and then
execute it with no delay.
Beijing 2008 Olympic Games is a mega-project. The
application of PIP has greatly improved the working
efficiency. The objectives, functions, structure and developing
process of the development of the PIP of Beijing 2008
Olympic Games are presented in this paper and will provide
useful reference for use of PIP in large projects. Basing on the
existing use status of PIP, this paper presumes the
development trends of PIP in future.
REFERENCES
[1] Shizhao Ding,Yoshito Itoh, “Toward the development of a integrated
management procedure – lifecycle management system for construction
project”, World Project Management Week, Hongkong,2002
[2] Stephen R. Hagan, PBS Project Information Portal Part One; Part Two
㧘e-newsletter of the Construction Industry Coalition Council㧘April
2004 㧘 www.constructionchannel.net/ newsletters/april_2004/
newsletter0404.html
[3] C. Brohn, A. Gayoso, S. Male, D. Mitrovic, T. Hassan, F.Garas, I.
Hunter, Large scale engineering in construction, user requirements for
IT—initial results, Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on
Concurrent Enterprising ICE’97,Nottingham, UK, 1997, pp. 407– 419.
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