BIM MATURITY ASSESSMENT AND CERTIFICATION IN CONSTRUCTION PROJECT TEAM SELECTION

Abstract: To implement BIM in a construction project successfully, all the project participants as BIM users must have minimum BIM capabilities. Before any project starts, assessing BIM capabilities of project stakeholders is a concern for construction clients. The main problem of public clients regarding BIM is that they have no mechanism to ensure that the key participants, they hire for a BIM project, have the minimum capabilities (i.e. BIM Infrastructure, processes and qualified resources) to participate in design and delivery of the project. The high variability of firms' readiness to work with BIM may impose a high cost for the client and other mature members of the supply chain. Therefore, construction clients need a way to ensure minimum BIM maturity of participants, such as a maturity audit to assess BIM competency of potential project team members. From a client's perspective, "minimum BIM qualification" means "minimum capability to use BIM". The current BIM maturity models try to assess BIM capabilities level of firms, but lack BIM uses assessment. This research proposes a prototype that focuses on capability of firms in specific BIM uses, while measuring their general BIM capabilities. The research methodology is based on an iterative literature review followed by focus group discussions. Through literature review, the researchers propose BIM platform maturity model. Then, BIM experts discuss on possible improvements. It is expected that by using this model, construction clients may achieve more BIM benefits, i.e. reduced cost, time, and increased quality of project, through selection of BIM-qualified project team members

BIM maturity assessment and certification in construction project team selection

To implement BIM in a construction project successfully, all the project participants, as BIM users, must have minimum BIM capabilities. Before any project starts, assessing the BIM capabilities of project stakeholders is a concern for construction clients. The main problem however is that they have no mechanism to ensure that the key participants they hire for a BIM project have the minimum capabilities (BIM infrastructure, processes and qualified resources) to participate in the design and delivery of a BIM project. The high variability of a firms’ readiness to work with BIM may impose a high cost for the client and the most mature members of the supply chain. Therefore, construction clients need a way to ensure a minimum BIM maturity, such as a maturity audit to assess the BIM competency of potential project team members. From a client’s perspective, “minimum BIM qualification means “minimum capability to use BIM”. The current BIM maturity models try to assess the BIM capability level of firms, but do not focus on BIM Uses. This research proposes a maturity model that focuses on the capability of firms for specific BIM Uses, while measuring their general BIM competencies. The research methodology is based on a review of literature and focus group discussions. Through literature review, the researchers proposed a BIM uses maturity model. Then, BIM experts discussed possible improvements. After an analysis of the discussion, the author proposed the resulting model. It is expected that by using this model, construction clients may achieve more BIM benefits through the selection of BIM qualified project team members, i.e. reduced cost, time, and increased quality of project

Fitness Assessment, Athlete’s Monitoring Cycle and Training Interventions in Team Sports

Team sports training are progressively growing, and thus challenging strength and conditioning coaches and head coaches. As part of a well-prepared training strategy, it is important to establish a functional relationship among fitness assessment, load, and well-being monitoring and readiness analysis to identify the consequences of training stimulus for players. Each of these topics has already been isolated in research; however, it is important to bridge the gap between them and establish a greater and more comprehensive approach among fitness adaptations, training monitoring, and specific interventions performed. This may help us to achieve a clearer view of the big picture in terms of the consequences for players, such as, considering their exposure to successful biological adaptations or less successful cases, including illness or injuries. As it is clear that more research should be performed on the relationship among these dimensions and topics, the aim of the Special Issue on "Fitness Assessment, Athlete’s Monitoring Cycle and Training Interventions in Team Sports" was to publish high-quality original investigations, systematic reviews, and meta-analysis in the research field of team sports. We have published 22 articles that cover the topics of performance assessment and relationships between fitness measures; training load monitoring, well-being, and readiness in team sports;training interventions; complementary strategies for performance (e.g., nutrition, supplementation, psychology, injury preventions, and recovery); and determinants of illness and injuries in players

The effects of routing and scoring within a computer adaptive multi-stage framework

This dissertation examined the overall effects of routing and scoring within a computer adaptive multi-stage framework (ca-MST). Testing in a ca-MST environment has become extremely popular in the testing industry. Testing companies enjoy its efficiency benefits as compared to traditionally linear testing and its quality-control features over computer adaptive testing (CAT). Test takers enjoy being able to go back and change responses in review time before being assigned to the next module. Lord (1980) outlined a few salient characteristics that should be investigated before the implementation of multi-stage testing. Of these characteristics, decisions on routing mechanisms have received the least attention. This dissertation varied both item pool characteristics such as the location of information, and ca-MST configuration characteristics such as the ca-MST configuration design (e.g., 1-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3-4). The results from this study hope to show that number correct scoring can serve as a capable surrogate for IRT calibrations at each step and that even if three-parameter scoring models are used at the end that the number correct method will not misroute as compared to traditional methods

Autogenic regulation training (ART), sickness absence, personal problems, time and the emotional-physical stress of student nurses in general training : a report of a longitudinal field investigation

A field investigation was carried out with student nurses entering General Training in a School of Nursing.  Autogenic Regulation Training (ART), sickness absence, personal problems, time and their emotional physical  experience was evaluated. Measures used in the study included:The Sickness Absence Record (SAR)The Mooney Problem Checklist (MPC)The Crown-Crisp Experiential Index (CCEI)and The Personal Observations Inventory (POI)Data was collected at different time periods early in their nurse education. The study was carried out to  investigate the effectiveness of ART in providing a method of coping with individual stress. Analyses were made  between and within an ART group of student nurses and a comparison group who did not receive training in  ART. Consideration was also given to individual differences of student nurses in each group.Particular attention was paid to the hypotheses that 1) ART is associated with reduced sickness absence in  student nurses when analysed against a comparison group' of student nurses not trained in ART; and 2) ART is  associated with reduced stress in student nurses when compared with student nurses not trained in ART. 'It  is generally concluded that student nurses trained in ART may reduce their level of sickness absence and can  alleviate stress for some student nurses. However, examination of individual student nurse reports of ART and  its usefulness and practice within these group data, suggest more complex interpretations of the study. Despite  the study limitations, implications for methods of stress control for nurses, curriculum development and  cost-effective savings for nursing administrations are suggested, and possibilities for the development of  comprehensive counselling services for nurses are raised. These issues it is suggested, should be examined within a broader programme of research into coping with stress amongst nurses

Harmonizing CMMI-DEV 1.2 and XP Method to Improve The Software Development Processes in Small Software Development Firms

Most software development organizations are small firms, and they have realized the need to manage and improve their software development and management activities. Traditional Software Process Improvement (SPI) models and standards are not realistic for these firms because of high cost, limited resources and strict project deadlines. Therefore, these firms need a lightweight software development method and an appropriate SPI model to manage and improve their software development and management processes. This study aims to construct a suitable software development process improvement framework for Small Software Development Firms (SSDFs) based on eXtreme Programming (XP) method and Capability Maturity Model Integration for Development Version 1.2 (CMMI-Dev1.2) model. Four stages are involved in developing the framework: (1) aligning XP practices to the specific goals of CMMI-Dev1.2 Key Process Areas (KPAs); (2) developing the proposed software development process improvement framework based on extending XP method by adapting the Extension-Based Approach (EBA), CMMI-Dev1.2, and generic elements of the SPI framework; (3) verifying the compatibility of the proposed framework to the KPAs of CMMI-Dev1.2 by using focus group method coupled with Delphi technique; and (4) validating the modified framework by using CMMI-Dev1.2 questionnaire as a main item to validate the suitability of the modified framework for SSDFs, and conducting two case studies to validate the applicability and effectiveness of this framework for these firms. The result of aligning XP practices to the KPAs of CMMI-Dev1.2 shows that twelve KPAs are largely supported by XP practices, eight KPAs are partially supported by XP practices, and two KPAs are not-supported by XP practices. The main contributions of this study are: software development process improvement framework for SSDFs, elicit better understanding of how to construct the framework, and quality improvement of the software development processes. There are possible avenues for extending this research to fulfil the missing specific practices of several KPAs, examining other agile practices and using CMMI-Dev1.3 to improve the framework, and conducting more case studie