Digital Backbone of Collaborative Project Delivery: Mapping Organizational Pathways to Common Data Environment Adoption

Abstract

The increasing complexity of construction projects exacerbates information management difficulties in collaborative project delivery. Although the common data environment (CDE) is increasingly recognized as the digital backbone for stakeholder collaboration, information exchange, and governance, its adoption remains fragmented across organizations. This study aims to support effective CDE adoption for collaborative project delivery by examining the critical challenges, strategies, and success factors and analyzing organizational differences in CDE adoption pathways. Through a systematic literature review and expert interviews, 14 challenges, 19 strategies, and 14 critical success factors (CSFs) were identified, followed by a survey-based analysis using fuzzy synthetic evaluation and nonparametric tests. The results indicate that financial and human challenges are the most significant challenges, whereas institutional policy instruments are perceived as the most effective strategies. The findings further show that respondents prioritized connectivity and integration CSFs, suggesting that CDE adoption depends on ecosystem-level interoperability rather than isolated software implementation. Significant organizational differences regarding CDE adoption were also identified across developers, contractors, and consultants. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on information management by revealing CDE adoption dynamics and the organizational differences that influence CDE implementation. Practically, the findings provide policymakers and industry stakeholders with guidance to better align institutional policy support with technical ecosystem requirements, thereby advancing technology-enabled collaborative project delivery and the digital transformation of the construction industry.