Construction industry not so bad?¶

I was surprised when I read in a weblog entry by Phil Windley that the construction industry can serve as an example for the software industry. [ ... ] the construction industry is large, profitable, and honorable business.

Normally the atmosphere in the building and construction industry (at least on its IT research conferences) seems to be that the construction industry is as worse as the software industry.

• Not delivering on time.
• Frequently over budget (2x or 3x for major infrastructure projects is normal).
• It seems more like a craft than factory-like production work. (Not necessarily a bad thing).
• Construction is mostly building one-off prototypes. How many houses of exactly the same type do you build?

On the other hand, just like in the software industry, there are lots and lots of great projects where a lot of innovation and some good process planning is applied. And there are a lot of smart companies around.

Personally, I'm having a great time working in both industries at the same time :-)

Update: see also the last two paragraphs in this post.