Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research Vol. 8, No. 2, 2018, 2668-2672 2668 www.etasr.com Hatem et al.: Motivation Factors for Adopting Building Information Modeling (BIM) in Iraq Motivation Factors for Adopting Building Information Modeling (BIM) in Iraq Wadhah Amer Hatem Baquba Technical Institute Middle Technical University Baquba, Iraq wadhah1970wadhah@gmail.com Abbas Mahde Abd Architecture Engineering Department Diyala University of Engineering Baquba, Iraq abbas.mahd@gmail.com Nagham Nawwar Abbas Civil Engineering Department Diyala University of Engineering Baquba, Iraq nagham.nawwar@gmail.com Abstract—Building information modeling (BIM) is an integrated and comprehensive system including whatever is related to a construction project and its stages. It represents a unified database for all project data through which project documents are available to all stakeholders. This paper evaluates the factors driving the adoption of BIM in Iraqi construction projects in different ministries and adopts quantitative approach to collect data by using a questionnaire survey specially prepared for this purpose which was distributed to experts in the ministries of the Iraqi construction sector. Returned data were subjected to proper statistical analysis. Results showed that the highest motivation for BIM application is to include it in the educational curricula, raise awareness through courses and workshops and contracting with international experts with experience in BIM field. Keywords-construction project; building information modelling; BIM; Iraq; motivation factor I. INTRODUCTION Construction industry is witnessing a paradigm shift that tends to achieve higher productivity, efficiency, quality, sustainability and infrastructure value while reduces the life cycle costs and time [1, 2]. One of these techniques is building information modeling (BIM) which is a technological and procedural shift in the construction industry [3]. Actually, the evolution of computer science as well as information technology has caused a positive change in the processes of most industries [4]. BIM is an advanced process consisting of a combination of virtual aspects, systems and concepts facilitated within a unified environment [5]. It includes the application and keeping of integrated digital representation of different information across different project stages [6, 7]. There are many BIM applications [8] which can be used to support constructability, scheduling, analysis, cost estimating and sequencing [9]. BIM as a new paradigm has a great potential for integration into the life cycle of construction projects [10, 11]. One of the main benefits of BIM is the accurate geometrical representation of building parts within an integrated information environment [12]. Furthermore, BIM reduces the duration and cost of the project, improves maintenance management and increases the building value [7]. BIM also improves communication between the different project parties [13]. On the other hand, BIM as a new phenomenon seeks to renew the practices of the construction industry, so it is subject to several challenges facing its application [14]. For the implementation of BIM, good planning and a coordinated approach with considerations for implementation and innovation management is required. II. FACTORS MOTIVATING THE APPLICATION OF BIM When authors in [15] investigated the factors that motivate the application of the BIM, he concluded that the two most important factors were leadership and a supportive environment. Author in [16] agreed on the importance of leadership as a key point in facilitating the application of BIM. The government should take the leadership role in the implementation of the BIM, but this is not enough. It should support and cooperate with other parties who have an impact on the development of Iraqi projects, such as specialists in the private sector, contractors or other specialists [16]. Making BIM mandatory was considered by specialists as an effective way to motivate institutions to move to BIM as this experience proved to be successful in the UK, USA, and Singapore [16]. In the context of mentioning cooperation, authors in [17] pointed out that one of the most important points to facilitate the task of implementing the BIM is the deployment of new cultures urging cooperation among stakeholders. Providing adequate training and upgrading knowledge of BIM will enhance its application [18, 19]. In the other hand, contracting with experienced BIM and professional trainees for BIM software is a step in facilitating the application and use of BIM [20]. Table I provides a summary of top BIM motivation factors according to previous researchers’ studies. III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This paper studies the factors motivating the application of BIM in Iraq. The data were collected using the field survey method through the design of a special questionnaire for this purpose and its distribution to the engineers working in the Iraqi construction sector in both Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and Ministry of Construction, Housing, Municipalities and Public Works (in Diyala Governorate as a case study). Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research Vol. 8, No. 2, 2018, 2668-2672 2669 www.etasr.com Hatem et al.: Motivation Factors for Adopting Building Information Modeling (BIM) in Iraq TABLE I. SUMMARY OF BIM MOTIVATION FACTORS IN PREVIOUS STUDIES Country and reference Motivation factors for BIM adoption Country and reference Motivation factors for BIM adoption USA [21]  Strategies to reduce strong resistance  Improve cooperation skills  Acceptance of stakeholders to BIM Australia [22]  Improvements in information technology (IT) infrastructure  Improvements in computer hardware and software  Government interest through the adoption of BIM for many demonstrator projects USA [18]  Increase the level of knowledge of BIM  Provide adequate training  Coordination among stakeholders in the project  Provide adequate support by senior management for BIM application. Australia [23]  Coordination among stakeholders in the project  Provide adequate support by senior management for BIM application  Contribution of different parties (education providers, specialists, supply chain Alliances) to develop broad lines towards application of BIM UK [24]  Adopting collaborative methods and approaches within the design team  Provide staff with experience in the field of BIM  Provide contract forms that are suitable for use of BIM  Development of standards for use of BIM Korea [25]  Organizational and individual confidence towards the use of new technology  Provide adequate training  Develop commitments to use BIM within the organizations and firms  The government's obligation to use BIM in projects China [26]  Prepare validation for BIM tools  Pressure by government  Coordination among stakeholders in the project Malaysia [27]  Compelling and supporting by the government  Provide adequate training  Provide adequate support by senior management for BIM application Australia [28]  Provide adequate support by senior management for BIM application.  Develop higher strategies that encourage cooperative work, conflict resolution and reduce the strong resistance to change towards new technologies  Develop a plan for BIM adoption by the government.  Not only training to expand knowledge of BIM, but dealing with external organizations of investors and experts with expertise in the field of BIM Nigeria [29]  Increase the level of knowledge of BIM  Expanding the scope of research related to BIM  Provide adequate support by senior management for BIM application.  Provide adequate training  Facilitate educational facilities for the purpose of supporting their use  The government's obligation to use BIM in projects A total of 130 questionnaires were distributed, 65 in the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and 65 in the Ministry of Construction, Housing, Municipalities and Public Works. 114 were returned at a response rate of 87.7%. The questionnaire included two main parts: the first part is the personal information regarding the respondent: gender, age, academic qualification, specialization, group and work experience. The second part included 13 items representing the importance of motivation factors for the application of BIM designed in the five- Likert scale [30] from 1 to 5, 1 being not important and 5 being very important. After the collection of the questionnaires, they were arranged, unloaded and analyzed using the statistical packaging for social science (SPSS) software, Version 24. The statistical analysis represents the creation of some descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation and also calculated the value of the relative importance index (RII) in order to give ranks to the items. IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION A. General Information for Respondents The demographic characteristics of target respondents are shown in Table II. B. Statistical Validity and Reliability Access to acceptable results within any research requires the use of accurate measurement instrument as one of the basic requirements. Among the main objectives of the researcher is to design his research tool and make it characterized by three main qualities (be meaningful, be accurate, be efficient) [31]. Therefore, validity and reliability tests were conducted on the obtained data from the pilot survey which was conducted before the main study. Validity of instrument can be defined as the degree to which the instrument measures what it is supposed to measure [32, 33]. For the purpose of the test statistical questionnaire validity internal consistency was performed. Through internal consistency correlation coefficients between each element in a particular part are measured with the part as a whole [34]. Table III shows the values of the Spearman rho correlation and p-values for all items. Results showed that correlation coefficients ranged from 0.496 to 0.755 and all p-values were less than 0.05 which indicates that the items are consistent and valid to measure what has been set to measure. Reliability indicates the stability of the results when these are redistributed again for the same sample. One of the most common methods of calculating reliability and the value of the Cronbach’s alpha constant from 0 to 1 and the closer to 1 indicates the high degree of reliability [35]. Table IV represents a classification for the degree of reliability according to the value of the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. When the Cronbach’s alpha method was conducted for the questionnaire, the results were shown within the good limits with 0.899 value. This result confirms the reliability of the questionnaire. I P C. of the Th the the Engineerin www.etasr Information abo Gender Age (years) Academic qualification Specialization Group (Job) Practical experien (years) TABLE Motivation Fa M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8 M9 M10 M11 M12 M13 TAB C Motivation F This part con BIM. These eir adaptation, hese items wer e results were e analysis of d ng, Technology r.com TABLE II. ut Cat M F 2 3 4 Mor Di Ba M P O Ar Civil Electric Mechani O De Con Projec Site O nce Les 1 1 Mor E III. INTERN actors Co C 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 C٭ C٭٭ BLE IV. REL Cronbach's alph α≥0.9 0.9>α≥0.8 0.8>α≥0.7 0.7>α≥0.6 0.6>α≥0.5 0.5>α Factors of BIM nsisted of 13 it items were ta modification re then subjec then analyzed data is the rela y & Applied Sci RESPONDENTS P tegories Male Female 20-30 31-40 41-50 re than 51 iploma achelor Master Ph.D. Other rchitect l Engineer cal Engineer ical Engineer Other esigner nsultant ct manager engineer Other ss than 5 5-10 11-15 16-20 re than 20 NAL QUESTIONNAI orrelation Coefficient 0.644** 0.751** 0.691** 0.773** 0.662** 0.683** 0.670** 0.679** 0.702** 0.714** 0.679** 0.625** 0.500** Correlation is significan Correlation is significan LIABILITY CLASSIF ha Degree Ex Ac Que Una M Adoption tems that moti aken from pre and integratio cted to the res d. One of the ative importan ience Research Hatem et al.: M PROFILE Percentage ( 77.2 22.8 32.1 24.7 32.1 11.1 1.8 75 11.6 10.6 1 6.3 64 9.9 14.4 5.4 14 9 10 56 11 19.5 24.8 15 24.8 15.9 RE CONSISTENCY Sig. (2-tailed 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 nt at the 0.05 level (2-ta nt at the 0.01 level (2-ta FICATION [35] e of reliability xcellent Good cceptable estionable Poor acceptable ivate the appli evious studies on at certain p spondents' view techniques us nce index (RII) h V Motivation Fac (%) Y d) ailed) ailed) cation s after points. w and sed in ). The pur par R whe com wei resp exe sing con med “sig whe thu sam was For ans the rela acc of edu edu resu lack of thro con con BIM spe cou and app resu it is the imp Vol. 8, No. 2, 20 ctors for Adopti rpose of its use rt in the questio ( * ) W RII A N   5 5 5( ) 4( 5( n n RII n    ere W is th mponent (rang ight (which eq pondents. Sign test is ecute based on gle sample th nditions and i dium value fo gn” for all the ether it is gre s gives a bino mple values [3 s performed w r the Likert fiv swer is equal o descriptive s ative importan cording to (RII Figure 1 show the thirteen i ucational base ucation in uni ult may have k a curriculum the study. M ough worksh nferences) too nstruction sect M. The third r ecialists with untries have p d the use of plication of B ults are less th s found that m BIM motiv portant”. Fig. 1. Rela 018, 2668-2672 ing Building In e is to give a r onnaire [36]: 4 3 2 4 3 2 1 ) 3( ) 2( ) ) n n n n n n n       he weight gi ging from 1 quals to 5) and equivalent to n dealing wit hat is not com its idea is ba or the distribut e values of sa eater or less th omial probabi 37]. The sign with a cut off ve point scale or more than 4 statistics sign nce index R I, mean and sta ws the values items. Results for BIM by m iversities) rep taken the top m related to BI 1 (promote lo hops and co ok second ran tor suffers fr rank is for M1 experience i revious exper their experts BIM in Iraq. han 0.05, and b more than 0.61 vation factors ative Importance I nformation Mod rank for each 1) ) n iven by resp to 5), A repr d N represents “One sample th the value o mplying with t ased on the a tion of the sam ample dependi han the hypot ility for the o test of BIM value of 4 an e the assumpti . Table V illus n test results, RII and the r andard deviati of the relative s showed that making it part resented the p rank because IM, especially ocal awarenes urses as we nk, probably rom poor kno 13 (contracting in BIM filed rience in the a has a positi Since all p-v by the ratios s 1% of the resp s as “Impor Index (RII) for M 2670 deling (BIM) in item in a parti (1) (2) pondents for resents the hi the total numb e t test” and of a medium the parametric assumption o mple and then ng on the val thesis medium observed patte motivation fa nd 61% percen ion is that 61% strates the valu the value o rank of the on). e importance i t M7 (establis t of the curric highest rank. e Iraqi univer y in the early s ss of BIM ben ell as specia because the owledge rega g with internat d), because m application of ive impact on values in sign shown in the T pondents evalu rtant” and “ Motivations Factor n Iraq icular each ighest ber of it is for a c test of the n give ue of m and ern of actors ntage. % for ues of f the items index sh an culum This rsities stages nefits alized Iraqi arding tional many BIM n the n test Table, uated “Very rs Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research Vol. 8, No. 2, 2018, 2668-2672 2671 www.etasr.com Hatem et al.: Motivation Factors for Adopting Building Information Modeling (BIM) in Iraq TABLE V. RESULTS OF BIM MOTIVATION FACTORS STATISTICAL ANALYSIS NO Items Sign Test M ea n S D R II % R a n k N Observed Prop. Sig. 1- tailed ≥4 <4 ≥4 <4 M1 Promote local awareness of BIM benefits through workshops and courses as well as specialized conferences 100 14 0.88 0.12 0.000 4.36 .82 87.19 2 M2 Government policy is to make use of BIM mandatory through developing special laws 83 31 0.73 0.27 0.006 3.93 .97 78.77 12 M3 Provide government support for the implementation of BIM in companies and firms 93 21 0.82 0.18 0.000 4.15 .86 83.16 7 M4 Detailed analysis of project life cycle costs to convince the clients of financial returns from using BIM 91 23 0.80 0.20 0.000 3.99 .92 79.82 11 M5 Disseminate positive views to reduce strong resistance to change resulting from adhering to traditional practices and programs 92 22 0.81 0.19 0.000 4.01 .89 80.35 10 M6 Raise the level of public-private partnerships 86 28 0.75 0.25 0.001 4.04 .85 80.88 9 M7 Establish an educational base for BIM by making it part of the curriculum education in universities 101 13 0.89 0.11 0.000 4.36 .77 87.19 1 M8 Allocation of financial funding to support the costs of BIM adoption 93 21 0.82 0.18 0.000 4.16 .83 83.16 6 M9 Raise awareness of cooperation culture importance between different stockholders 88 26 0.77 0.13 0.000 4.05 .87 81.05 8 M10 Development of contracts and legal rules governing the use of BIM 83 31 0.73 0.27 0.005 3.93 .84 78.60 13 M11 Raise the employment rate for fast-learning ages of engineers 95 19 0.83 0.17 0.000 4.20 .89 83.86 5 M12 Develop skills of inexperienced engineers through Specialized systematic programs 99 15 0.87 0.13 0.000 4.22 .94 84.56 4 M13 Contracting with international specialists with experience in BIM filed 94 20 0.82 0.18 0.000 4.28 .93 85.61 3 V. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS This paper studied the factors that motivate the application of BIM in Iraq. This was discussed through a theoretical study that included a comprehensive survey of previous studies followed by analysis of the results of the survey that was prepared for this purpose and results showed that the highest three factors are “BIM is to include it in the educational curricula”, “Raise awareness through courses and workshops”, and “Contracting with international experts with experience in BIM”. A set of recommendations are needed to be considered including the need to update the curricula of civil engineering and architecture and these curricula should be working on student development in both modelling skills using BIM tools as well as working skills within the BIM collaborative environment. 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