Formulating the application functional requirements of a BIM-based collaboration platform to support IPD projects

Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) is a new project delivery mode that is primarily characterized by all its participants, such as the owner, designer, and contractor, and specialties, such as architectural, structural, and Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP), being involved earlier in a construction project and working collaboratively using Building Information Modelling (BIM) technology to enhance the overall merit of the project. Thus, collaboration among participants and specialties is critical in IPD projects. The challenge is that existing collaboration platforms may be unable to support the collaboration among multiple participants and specialties efficiently due to this characteristic. This paper formulates the application functional requirements for such a BIM-based collaboration platform by analysing case studies of IPD projects appearing in the literature and in industry documentations after formulating a 5-step method to justify whether a dedicated BIM-based collaboration platform needs to be developed for IPD projects and to facilitate its development if it is needed. First, the collaborative tasks among participants and specialties in IPD projects are identified with a DSM (Dependency Structure Matrix) method and verified by conducting a questionnaire with experts. Then, the application functional requirements are designed based on these collaborative tasks. Finally, 11 commercial collaboration platforms are examined to determine whether they can meet all the identified requirements and the requirements, which they cannot meet, are verified by conducting another questionnaire with experts. It is concluded that a dedicated BIM-based collaboration platform is necessary, and the formulated application functional requirements can be used in the development of such a platform or for customizing an existing commercial collaboration platform to better support IPD projects.