Lessons learnt from customization of a BIM tool for a design-build company

This paper summarizes the five-year development project of Construction Director, a BIM (Building Information Modeling) tool. During the first year, the development team from National Taiwan University (NTU) completed the architectural design of the system after conducting intensive interviews and meetings with key CTCI Corporation (CTCI) stakeholders. The NTU team then implemented the BIM tool for 4D simulation in the second year. During the following year, the NTU team tested and modified the system to overcome any usability problems. In the fourth year, the NTU team worked closely with CTCI and created a process to integrate the BIM tool into the company workflow. The system was then officially deployed on a design-build project in the final year. This paper summarizes the Lessons Learnt during each year of the project, and concludes that a trusting environment was the key contributing factor to the success of the project. This paper is not expected to only be beneficial for large companies who are planning to develop their own customized solutions, but it is also meant to be useful for software developers who are involved in similar projects. The experiences may help reduce overall investment risks, simplify the development process and guarantee the eventual success of introducing a new solution to a company.