Deriving Functional Requirements for BIM-based Design e-Collaboration

Abstract

The design phase in a construction project is a complex process due to various disciplines, which continuously collaborate for design, e.g., architecture, landscape architecture, structural, mechanical, and lighting/electrical engineering. During the collaboration process, there are number of obstacles which can cause low productivity and quality of design. These obstacles could be summarized as follows: (1) Time and space constraints which are caused due to the dispersion of the participants (2) Difficulty in communication between the various participants (3) Efficient management of information produced in the design collaboration. To solve these problems, BIM-based Collaboration System (BCS) has been developed. However, although there are various BCS in practice, the expectation on productivity improvement using the e-collaboration has not been met. This is because most of the BCSs are composed by too many functions for design project. It could cause decreasing productivity of design collaboration because of distribution of information, time and cost for training, increased probability of error, and low usability. Therefore definite primary functional requirement should be derived to prevent decreasing productivity. For this, this paper derives primary functional requirement for BIM-based design e-collaboration, using analysis of existing BIM-based collaboration systems, Delphi survey, and Focus Group Interview (FGI). Then the assessment of derived 33 functional requirement in 4 categories is performed for validation of this research. The results of this research may be used for developing BIM-based collaboration system reflected user requirement fully which enable information and data exchange, and to manage building model, drawing, and other submittals effectively. The authors regard that it would be improving the productivity of design e-collaboration and the quality of design in design phase.