Decision support system for building information modeling (BIM) software selection: A case study in construction feasibility stage

The adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) software has proven to be beneficial to the construction industry to improve the design, analysis, construction, operation and data management. Due to the variety of BIM software on the market, choosing the right BIM software in construction projects is deemed to be a complicated decision making process. Previous studies revealed that software selection is mainly made based on popularity and recommendation from other companies. Consequently, inaccurate selection would lead to the underutilised features and negative effect the investment on the BIM software. Based on literature, there is a lack of systematic approach to select the right BIM software for specific project requirements. This highlights the needs for decision making tools to select the appropriate BIM software. This research aims to develop a Decision Support System (DSS) named topsis4BIM which integrates graphical user interfaces, BIM features database, Fuzzy TOPSIS and Web 2.0 tools. A real construction project was used as a case study for demonstrating and validating the DSS framework. The findings indicate that the use of topsis4BIM improves the BIM software selection process compared to the current practice. In addition, it also produce a new framework for the next generation DSS using Web 2.0 tools. The study introduces an innovative and economical decision making approach that can guide construction practitioners towards the betterment of BIM adoption