## 2 Research Background  
### Construction Reporting  
Many problems in the construction industry involve communication and reporting procedures, with ineffective reporting systems leading to poor project management [11; 14; 15]. Construction reports, therefore, are often required by clients as a means of monitoring project progress, estimating production rates, and resolving disputes and claims [6]. Project reporting involves the collection and structuring of large volumes of site data from nu merous field management activities by many site personnel on a frequent--even daily--basis [16; 17]. Given the amount of preparation work required together with the frequency of submittals, reporting has become a time- and effort-intensive procedure that can result in notable increases in overhead costs of the project.  
Various construction field management tools have been developed to establish project reporting systems tailored to the needs of contractors, while ensuring the reporting requirements of projects are met [2; 6; 16]. For example, [PERSON] [18] developed a daily construction project management system that rapidly reports and shares site information and project progress status between project participants. Similarly, [PERSON] and [PERSON] [19] developed a construction management information system consisting of daily reports as well as cost management and design-change management modules to compile daily site management information. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [3] proposed a model to facilitate automated data acquisition from construction sites by deploying an information technology platform. Their goal was to integrate automated data acquisition technologies to collect required data for progress measurement purposes to support efficient time-cost tracking and control of construction projects [3]. Following the same line of work, [PERSON] et al. [16] proposed an approach to automatically generate daily reports from text messages exchanged through a commonly used text messaging system.  
It is important to note that the aforementioned models were primarily focused on effective data acquisition, information flow, and communication to facilitate the monitoring of site work, incurred costs, and potential challenges [3; 20]. Although these studies have addressed the downstream aspect of reporting, they have been developed with the assumption that reporting requirements are already defined and known in advance. In practice, however, reporting requirements for complex types of construction, such as oil and gas or infrastructure projects, often differ between projects and from contract-to-contract, making the time, resources, and costs associated with report preparation difficult to approximate. Methods for automating the extraction of contractual reporting requirements or the estimation of time and cost implications associated with reporting, however, remain relatively unexplored.  
Importantly, the lack of research literature in the area of contract documentation is not indicative of the practical importance of this issue. Discussions with experienced professionals at a construction company in Alberta, Canada, revealed that contractors are very interested in techniques that can support the extraction, management, and time-cost prediction of reporting requirements. Once considered an obligatory and static activity, contractors are beginning to explore methods capable of enhancing the planning, and therefore efficiency and cost, of project reporting--particularly for complex types of construction where contracts are often specific to each individual project.