SiteSetu Academy · Free short course
How a Building Gets Built: Project Lifecycle and Software Stack (India)
18 short lessons that follow one building from the owner's brief to handover: who does what at each stage, which gates the job must pass, and which software and files carry the information from one team to the next. Written for Indian sites. No signup needed.
Optional free certificate: pass the 12-question final assessment at 70%+.
- 1Brief & concept
- 2Design development
- 3Engineering
- 4Drawings & approvals
- 5Estimate & tender
- 6Planning & procurement
- 7Construction
- 8Interiors & finishing
- 9Handover & FM
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The whole course is free and open — no signup needed to learn. Enter your details only if you want us to track your progress on this device and issue a named certificate after the final assessment.
6 modules, 18 lessons
Take them in order. Each module follows the job one step further, and every lesson ends with a short quiz.
Module 1
Stages, Roles and Gates
The nine stages every building passes through, the people who own each stage, and the approval, GFC, tender and completion gates that freeze decisions along the way.
Module 2
Design Tools: CAD, 3D, BIM, Renders and AI
What 2D CAD, 3D modelling and BIM each produce, why renders and AI images are design intent rather than a source for quantities, and the file formats that carry a design from one team to the next.
Module 3
Engineering: Structure, Services and Coordination
How structural analysis becomes reinforcement drawings and a BBS, how MEP services are designed, and how clash checks and a common data environment keep disciplines from colliding on site.
Module 4
Quantities, Cost and Tender
How quantities are taken off from PDF, DWG or a model, how SOR, DSR and rate analysis turn them into a priced BOQ, and how the tender leads to RA bills checked against the measurement book.
Module 5
Planning and Site Control
Schedules and the critical path, the indent to PO to GRN chain that controls material, and the daily records (DPR, attendance, measurement) that keep a site honest, on WhatsApp or in an app.
Module 6
Interiors, Finishing and Handover
How an interior concept becomes shop drawings, how modular factories turn them into cut lists and CNC files, what a proper handover contains, and how to choose a software stack for your kind of project.
Also free at SiteSetu Academy
Go deeper on two stages of the lifecycle: measuring and pricing the work, and reading the drawings it is built from.