Our research team was led by Ed McCann and Tom Barton. Their principal assistant was Bruce Martin, and the literature review was completed by Kell Jones.

The research was driven by Expedition Engineering and principally supported by the CITB, through its Growth & Innovation Fund. The industry steering group included: Alinea, Anglian Water, Bam Nuttal, Byre Brothers, Carillion, Costain, Graham Construction, Keltbray, Imtech, Prater, Berkeley Group, Sir Robert McAlpine, Southern Water, Stanhope, Taylor Woodrow, Wates.

The research team adopted a “Grounded Theory” methodology by asking, and then investigating the most plausible answers to the following questions:

• What are the principal systemic errors in the UK construction industry?
• What are the causes of error in the UK construction industry?
• What methods are used to capture information about the financial cost of error in the UK construction industry?
• What are the most effective methods for avoiding error and minimising the consequences of error?

Data was collected via workshops with our steering group, and structured interviews with the steering group members plus other companies in the Industry. Quantitative data collected, relating to individual error occurrences, included:

• Description of each of the errors
• Description of the causes of each of the error occurrences
• Assessment of the financial cost of each of the error occurrences

Data was analysed by the GIRI research team and the emerging findings were discussed by the steering group whose expertise helped identify theories.

The structured interviews were conducted, and quantitative data collected on the basis that no information would be published that would allow any opinion, error, defect, error incidence rate or defect incidence rate to be linked to a particular company or individual.