ITcon Vol. 17, pg. 333-350, http://www.itcon.org/2012/22

Unorchestrated symphony: The case of inter – organizational collaboration in digital construction design

submitted:April 2012
revised:September 2012
published:September 2012
editor(s):Amor R
authors:Christoph Merschbrock, PhD Research Fellow,
Department of Information Systems, University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway;
christoph.merschbrock@uia.no
summary:This paper presents the findings from a study of collaborative work among design professionals invirtual modeling for building construction. The research is based on interviews conducted with members fromvarious design professions. We analyzed a building project comprising a network of organizations interrelatedby their information systems, to gain a better understanding of collaborative design based on BuildingInformation Modeling (BIM). The findings suggest that the actors did not fully exploit the capability of BIM totransform and improve project communication, as they did not adjust the inter-organizational processesaccording to the BIM technology. Instead of effective collaboration, we found a system of “automation islands.”To achieve full business-process integration, the actors would need to establish a shared organizing vision forBIM. This organizing vision needs to align inter-organizational processes and the functionality of BIM. Ourfindings illustrate weaknesses in existing practice and highlight possible improvements.
keywords:building information modeling, construction project, digital design, inter-organizational systems, collaboration, configuration analysis, case study
full text: (PDF file, 0.391 MB)
citation:Merschbrock C (2012). Unorchestrated symphony: The case of inter – organizational collaboration in digital construction design, ITcon Vol. 17, pg. 333-350, https://www.itcon.org/2012/22