Implementation barriers of computer integrated construction: A usability perspective

Computer Integrated Construction (CIC) is one of the most active areas of the Construction Information Technology (CIT) research. Within the last decade researchers have proposed many advanced IT prototypes in order to improve data exchange problems in the construction industry. In spite of the great success of the technical demonstrations, very few of these projects have been successfully transferred to industry. Researchers are becoming increasingly interested in identifying the reasons for this lack of implementation. Several issues related to organisation, process, technology, people have been identified. Some of these issues have been addressed well. For example, problems of integration related to technology and process have been discussed by many researchers in different sources. Researchers have also reported end user related problems, some of which include having low IT skills, not being aware of the benefits of integration and feeling threatened by technological innovations. Although these are important issues, the relation of end users with CIC prototypes has not been the area of focus for researchers. One of the main reasons for this is that researchers have hardly tested the prototypes in real life conditions. A great majority of the prototypes in this area have been abandoned just after development and have not been experimented with in a practical sense. This research aims to identify the end user - IT prototype relationship in CIC research from the usability point of view. 4D planning is selected as a test bed for this identification process. 4D planning is a part of CIC and it is well understood by many academics and practitioners. As a result of this, a 4D planning prototype, which depends to central project databases and neutral data exchange standards, has been developed and validated with end users in a real life case study in order to identify end user related implementation problems. The case study has revealed end user related problems in three main categories: Effectiveness of the prototype, efficiency of the prototype and user satisfaction. The identification of these three categories has provided evidence of whether the proposed IT prototype is an improvement for the users in various categories, such as time and effort to complete the job, contribution to decision-making, communication and facilitation of work, etc. Moreover, it has brought evidence that the lack of implementation of the CIC prototypes is also related to the usability of the prototypes.