This month has been a special blessing to me. I am glad to announce that for the first time, my academic research work was published in an international peer-reviewed journal.
Specifically, my article titled “A Survey on the Current Status of Building Information Modelling (BIM) Adoption in Quantity Surveying Practice in Kenya” was published in the International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation. This is an open-access platform for advancing global knowledge across engineering, science, technology, medicine, management, humanities, social sciences, education, and other areas of specialisation.
I have always had a keen interest in advancing the creation and sharing of new knowledge through research and innovation. In my work, I have allowed myself room for experimentation and always look out for employers who are flexible enough to allow me to try new things and be creative in my problem-solving.
Getting published was one of my goals in professional life. Now that it has started happening, I am looking forward to what lies in the future with optimism.
Anyway, let me give you the story shortly:
My Graduate Studies
In the last quarter of 2023, I joined the Technical University of Kenya in Nairobi for studies. The course is the Master of Construction Project Management at the Department of Construction and Property Studies.
I had practised quantity surveying for five years, delivering construction projects for clients in both the public and private sectors. My professional registration was the career milestone that opened an opportunity for me as a Graduate Assistant in the same institution. The master’s course was timely and relevant in my plans of combining academia, research, and industry practice in my long-term career.
The course is a combination of one academic year of taught lectures. Here you attend classes and sit for written exams. After passing these, you proceed to the second year, which is mainly research, where you are required to produce a master’s thesis and some publications at the end.
The requirement for producing journal publications was something I looked forward to fulfilling. It would set me on the path I so admired for long, that of contributing to the production and sharing of knowledge to advance innovations and solve real-life problems in my country, especially in the construction industry.
Further, the area of Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a specialisation I have been pursuing due to its promise of automating manual repetitive tasks in the quantity surveying profession, which was argued would significantly improve the quality of the professional practice and quantity surveying service delivery. Therefore, the thesis is centred around that area of interest.
After collecting and analysing data from the fieldwork, I managed to write my first draft of the thesis. With reviews from my designated supervisors, I improved on it. Then came the journal paper, which was based on one of the objectives of the study. It was a special moment for me to learn through doing, a skillset that is going to form the foundation for future work that will shape the construction industry in Kenya for the better.
About the Research Paper
The paper “A Survey on the Current Status of Building Information Modelling (BIM) Adoption in Quantity Surveying Practice in Kenya” is intended to share the research findings with the professional and research community. These findings will be useful to many stakeholders, as argued in the article.
Here is the abstract of the research paper:
“Building Information Modelling (BIM) offers the capability to automate building quantity take-offs directly from a digital information model. This can save the time spent by the QS manually measuring and counting items to focus on more valuable cost advice for the success of the projects. However, cost management and cost control remain the most significant challenges facing construction businesses worldwide. This paper aimed to establish the current status of BIM adoption in the Quantity Surveying Practice in Kenya. A mixed-methods research design was used, where quantitative results from the survey questionnaire were validated using qualitative results from the interviews. 167 responses were received out of 270 targeted respondents, and 5 interviews. The results indicated a below-average adoption rate, with a mix of computer-aided onscreen measurement and traditional paper-based practices prevalent. BIM use is less planned and more of a by-chance implementation. Institutions of higher learning should incorporate BIM in their quantity surveying curricula, and professional bodies in their seminars to build awareness on the benefits of its use for the QS profession.”
How to Access It?
If you are interested in reading the paper, use this link to access it: https://doi.org/10.51244/ijrsi.2025.1210000284
Or, you can download the PDF document attached below:
With that out of the way, let’s get back to work.
Cheers!
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