**3. Methodology**

The objective of this study was to explore the current status of FM practices by establishing Facility Management Unified Classification Database (FMUCD) and performing data-driven analysis for facility management in higher education institutions. Figure 2 illustrates the overall research framework. First, the survey questionnaires were distributed to the universities for data collection. Second, phone interviews were conducted, various questions about facility management practices were asked, and detailed work order history data from CMMS were collected from each university. At this stage, NLP analysis (topic modeling and sentiment analysis) was additionally conducted based on interview transcripts. Third, the database was developed using the collected raw data where all work orders were classified into different descriptive codes based on the Equipment Naming Convention; it was designed for this study by integrating the standard classification of major grouping elements of building Uniformat II with the elements published in Whitestone Cost References [19,23]. Lastly, further quantitative analyses were conducted: (1) statistical comparison analysis, (2) risk-profile analysis, and (3) outlier analysis.

**Figure 2.** Overall research framework.
