Requirements engineering in innovative systems developments for the construction industry

Collaborative working using innovative integrated VR based IT systems inconstruction has become a reality as many activities are performed in adistributed manner with the construction stakeholders situated in discretegeographical locations. Computer Integrated Construction (CIC) is the typeof innovative integrated information system that helps to reduce thefragmentation and enables the construction stakeholders to collaboratetogether in the construction projects. Researchers have raised that theconcept of CIC has been the subject of research for many years but theuptake of this technology has been very limited because of the developmentof the technology and its effective implementation.Furthermore, the industrialist and researchers conveyed that the networking,collaboration, information sharing and communication will be popular issuesin the future, which can be managed through CIC systems. In order forsuccessful development of the technology, successful delivery and effectiveimplementation of the user and industry-oriented CIC systems, therequirements engineering seems a key parameter.Requirements engineering is the branch of systems engineering and it isrelated to the issues of the development of the technology and its effectiveimplementation. That is to say, it helps what to develop, how to develop andwhen to implement. Requirements engineering is concerned with the goals,desired properties and constraints of complex systems such as the CICsystems that involve software systems, organisations and people.Furthermore, it covers all activities related to the acquisition, specificationand maintenance of requirements throughout the lifecycle. It also covershow requirements relate to business processes, work redesign, system andsoftware architecture and testing and validation.Therefore, this thesis is about the development of a requirementsengineering process through case study research. The case study of theresearch is the DIVERCITY project, which is the latest CIC development inthe area of Construction IT. DIVERCITY was a large EU funded project in thearea of construction IT undertaken by a European consortium of researchersand practitioners from the construction industry. DIVERCITY is the acronymfor Distributed Virtual Workspace for enhancing Communication within theConstruction Industry. The DIVERCITY system presents the mechanism tosmoothly and collaboratively conduct the construction projects from earlybriefing stage to the detailed design stage and even further by the end of theconstruction phase in construction project lifecycle over an integratedenvironment.The requirements engineering process that has been developed in theresearch is targeted at the computer integrated construction (CIC) systems.The key features of the requirements engineering process are the following:(1) ready-to-use, (2) simple, (3) domain specific, (4) adaptable and (5)systematic, (6) integration with the legacy systems. The method has threekey constructs: techniques for requirements development, which includes therequirement elicitation, requirements analysis/modelling and requirementsvalidation, requirements documentation and facilitating the requirementsmanagement.In short, this thesis focuses on the system development methodologies forthe user and industry driven VR based integrated systems development forthe construction industry and its theoretical contribution to the fields ofConstruction IT and Requirements Engineering