| dc.description.abstract | The use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been burgeoning in the construction industry because of its various advantages, which include the reduction of cost and duration, enhanced facilities management, and positive Return on Investment (ROI). Seeing the benefits from using BIM, building owners have started requesting contractors to submit the building information models integrated with necessary information, which can be used later for facilities management. As construction is presently growing complex and is in need of many specialized skills, contractor’s proficiency is getting more important than before. Selecting a qualified contractor is one of crucial and basic requirement to the success of a BIM project, because the probability of project failure is greatly related to contractor’s competency. However, it has been challenging for owners to select the right contractors who understand BIM, especially since not all owners know how to figure out which contractor is proficient in BIM. Although several contracting evaluation models have been introduced, it may have some challenges to be used by owners for client-contractor interviews. It is because some tools requires enough knowledge and experience about BIM, and some of them are self-grading systems for improving contractor’s weaknesses in terms of using BIM. A questionnaire that can be easily used for evaluating contractors’ proficiency in BIM is what owners may need.
The goals of this research are (1) to develop an effective questionnaire that can be used by owners when selecting contractors, and (2) to investigate the usability of the questionnaire by using in-depth interviews with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). This study explores various BIM manuals to determine their user-friendliness and practicality in evaluating a contractor’s level of BIM proficiency. Moreover, the requirements for the BIM projects are investigated through BIM guidelines to create a prototype questionnaire, which would ideally provide deeper and more informative responses from contractors when interviewed. The questionnaire is then investigated to figure out the usability of the questionnaire and get feedback for future development. This thesis details the steps for questionnaire development, the outcomes of interviews, and the suggestions and feedback for questionnaire improvement. | en |
