User requirement capture in construction IT: The case of the DIVERCITY project

Sarshar, M; Arayici, Y

Abstract

There is a gap between construction IT (CIT) research and its uptake within the construction industry. One way to reduce this gap is better requirements capture and testing during CIT research.
DIVERCITY was a European consortium of researchers and practitioners from the construction industry who attempted to develop a virtual environment that enables the industry to better undertake the client briefing and design reviews. The project had the acronym DIVERCITY – ‘Distributed Virtual Workspace for Enhancing Communication within the Construction Industry.’
This paper explores the user requirements capture of the DIVERCITY project. DIVERCITY has large and evolving requirements, which must consider the perspectives of multiple stakeholders, such as clients, architects and contractors. However, virtual environments such as DIVERCITY are not currently in use in the construction sector. Practitioners are often unsure of the detail of how virtual environments would support the construction process, and how to overcome some of the barriers to the introduction of new technologies. This complicates the requirements capture process.
The paper starts by establishing the importance of requirements capture in the CIT community, as well as explaining some of the current methods and trends in requirements capture. This is followed by an explanation of DIVERCITY’s requirements capture process and exploration of some of its strengths & weaknesses. Finally some discussion and lessons are offered on how to improve the requirements capture & testing process in the CIT research community.

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: CIB World Building Congress
• Start Date: May 1, 2004
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2004
• Deposit Date: Nov 26, 2010
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 5, 2016
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference