Info Management

The construction industry both in Europe and globally is in continuously efforts to improve the process and procedures in project delivery. One of the areas within the sector that has been improved compared to others is the ‘information’. The BIM Methodology across the national and international standards have been guided the direction of a better structured information across all the stages of a project.

The importance of a structured information can impact in the results of the project delivery. The ROI through the lifecycle of the project can vary depending on the quality of the information. Data and information unstructured can produce a rework, waste of time, over cost or, even more, a critical impact in the asset.

Focused in the construction industry plus the national and international standards, the BIM methodology, through the BS & PAS standards, showed the direction to the industry on how to achieve better performance in the project delivery. Moreover, the ISO19650 developed the idea that the BIM Methodology shall be part of the Information Management strategy of the projects. It goes deeper to demonstrate that ‘information’ is even more important. Graphical and nongraphical information shall be standardized in order to achieve the different goals of the stakeholder involved in a project, across the lifecycle of the asset.

Why is important the Data governance?

The effectiveness of data & information is aligned with the level of maturity of the business in the standardization, the process, the procedures and the governance of them. Poor data across a project can impact in the results, either economically or in quality.

Bilal Succar, in 2008, developed a similar idea of the data governance, but focused in models of a project either Revit, ArchiCAD, AECOsim… but furthermore, the idea shall be extrapolated to proper Data, it does not matter graphical or non-graphical, and take as a foundation of the data governance the workflow developed by him:

There are several benefits in data governance, and even more when the information is created by many stakeholders during a long period of time, for example, a hospital. Since the development team starts to produce reports, calcs, budgets… until operations and the maintenance team are generating new information for operating the asset or the demolition of the asset.

• Avoid inconsistency data through stakeholders

• Structure of naming convention and standardized the process of document naming

• Better reports based on the correct data used

• Avoid human mistakes and automate data process

• Compliance with data privacy, regulations and laws

But, the most important benefit in the data governance is to break down the silos thought the organizations and also through the different stakeholders involved in the whole lifecycle of the project.

Conclusion

The importance of a clear strategy on data governance is crucial for a business. The strategy will impact in the performance of the business and their projects. The business value shall be demonstrated as part of the challenges across the different silos. But the most important thing, would be the supporting from the business boards and the achievement of the implementation. Once both actions are aligned, the pillars of the data governance will guide the entire business across all the departments and all the projects. The quality, management and storage of information will demonstrate and differentiate the maturity of the business compare with other competitors.

The AEC industry has a long way to achieve this data governance implementation across all the stakeholders involved in the projects. From the concept design team creating data and metadata that will be used by the operators in the facility management. The communication between both ends of the rope must be done as soon as possible. Thus, the standardization of the data its creation, naming, storage and share will be crucial to avoid any misunderstanding of information.

Open question

Think about what is more important for you and what is more important for the asset throughout the lifecycle of the project, it does not matter the role you have across the AEC industry:

A graphical detailed element with no data, but really detailed for Coordination 1:1 and for good VR/AR

A low level detailed shape that covers the x,y,z of the element but with all the metadata needed from the Preliminary Design to Facility Management