## 2 Materials and Methods
### Data Collection and Research Sample  
Data collection was carried out through an online questionnaire. The questionnaire was divided into several parts that were content related. The first part of the questionnaire focused on the characteristics of the respondents. This included information about the participant in the construction project; the size of the construction company (How many employees does your construction company have?); the work experience of the project manager (How long have you been working as a project manager?); the participation of foreign capital and know-how (Do you use only domestic capital and know-how?; Do you use foreign capital or know-how of another parent company?); construction project size and characteristic of buildings (How big is the construction project, based on which you assess the level of impact of information and communication technology in the context of the life cycle cost issue?).  
The second part of the questionnaire dealt with direct questions on the perception of the implementation factors of using information and communication technology (Specify the information systems used in project management and planning life cycle cost management; Specify the extent and frequency of use of these technologies based on the scale provided). The next part focused on issues related to the impact on construction life cycle management and implementation factors of information and communication technology (based on the Likert scale, respondents defined their perception of selected implementation factors of using ICT for cost management in individual stages of a construction project; these data were based on real results of construction project costs (1--change up to 5%, 2--change from 6% to 10%, 3--change from 11% to 15%, 4--change from 16% to 20%, 5--change over 21%).  
The third part of the questionnaire survey also included questions focused on using information and communication technologies and quantifying the impacts of the implementation of information and communication technologies on the life cycle cost. Respondents who stated that they use selected information technologies should also quantify the impact on the life cycle cost (as a percentage) and the degree of improvement in communication between participants in the construction project.  
The list of implementation factors resulting from the use of ICT was compiled based on a thorough theoretical analysis of resources and research dealing with the implementation factors of ICT in the cost management of buildings [22; 23; 24; 25; 26; 27; 28; 29; 30; 31; 32]. Experts reviewed the long list of implementation factors in the field by interview. These were mainly project managers and financial managers in the field of cost management in the construction industry. These interviewed managers came from Slovak construction companies and investors. Based on a theoretical long list of ICT implementation factors, and consultation with project managers, a researched list of implementation factors was established.  
Respondents answered the questions using an evaluation based on a 5-point Likert scale, where the value of 5 represented very significant and 1 represented not significant. Questions on some cost issues were filled in as nominal or relative indicators. The questionnaire also contained a detailed explanation of the interpretation of the Likert scale's values, as mentioned in the previous paragraph.  
The research involved respondents who represented the main participants in the construction project. These were most often significant contractors and sub-contractors, but also included investors and architects. Regarding job positions were concerned, among the suppliers were project managers and cost managers. Among architects, participants were often designers from design studios. The investor was represented through the finance department and financial managers. A more detailed specification of the research sample is shown in Table 4.