The benefits of applying a client-oriented approach when delivering BIM

The traditional sequential approach within the building design framework simply no longer lends itself to the cuttingedge techniques of the current AEC industry evolution, with digitalization and collaborative practices as the main background.

Some other industries, such as software design and development, use advanced planning practices to focus on the product and team management (i.e. Agile methodologies).

On the one hand, the complexity of construction schedules is traditionally managed from a project management perspective but increasingly moving towards more efficient methods such as Lean Management and Last Planner System. On the other hand, early lifecycle stages (strategic definition and concept, developed or technical design) have different behaviours and needs from project requirements. There are frequent changing project requirements, particular designs, and unique products with a high focus based on the owner/client expectations in many building projects. Flexibility and high reaction are the features that we need to react efficiently and effectively in front of the client. That’s when methods from industries with such requirements could be helpful in using BIM production.

Change is a necessary part of every organization when society’s environment is demanding it, such as in enterprise BIM implementation. However, many companies manage change and BIM implementation very differently and, in most cases without success, causing confusion for their employees, escalating investment, and inconsistent results and processes across the organization.

By taking a managed approach to enterprise BIM implementation via a change management plan, the risk is minimized, the cost is reduced, time shortened, and performance maximized.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Agile share the need to communicate the development of products with very high expectations on the part of the client or contractor in terms of results, especially in the design phase, the initial stage of the development phase according to ISO-19650. Therefore, BIM can be defined as utilizing a shared digital representation (information model) of a built asset to facilitate the design, construction, and operation processes, providing a reliable basis for decision making.

Furthermore, this methodology defines the agent relationship, differentiating between the appointing (client) and appointed (executing team) parties. The former is unequivocally defining the information requirements, the needs, and what is expected. That is one of the first points of connection of BIM with the premises of Agile: oriented to the client’s needs.

Traditionally, with the deployment of exclusively sequential approaches, the construction sector has relied almost solely on development modalities based on predictive planning, with fixed scopes, where the fulfilment of the expectations of the appointing party is obviated by the progress of the activity itself in time and resources.

Despite the inherent benefits of BIM becoming progressively evident in various adoptions in recent years, there are potential obstacles to coordination and communication between disciplines. These are not properly managed, resulting in task rework and inefficiencies in expected deliverables. That is particularly prominent in the asset design phases, where different disciplines must coordinate to respond to a shared project’s requirements. Aspects such as the contractual framework emerge as the critical factor in the emergence of inefficiencies in collaboration.

As one of the most applied techniques from Agile, Scrum goes a step further by providing three key aspects that optimize the application of BIM: proactivity, relational exchanges, and a more suitable framework for innovation. In the first and taking into account the ‘Iron Triangle’ constraint model, the scope is freed up, by setting the variables time and resources, and this condition opens the door to the proactivity of multidisciplinary teams. That is where BIM capabilities in simulation optimize the process at a very high level, minimizing the failure to meet expectations. And it is in the relational exchanges of information, two-way communication between clients and development teams guarantees more excellent coverage of expectations and any changes in scope. The bidirectionality between the parties has the so-called Scrum Product Increment as its vehicle. The incremental BIM deliverables development by the appointed parties according to ISO 19650 responds to the changes suffered after each of the deliveries at the end of the different cycles previously defined in the Sprint Planning.

David Delgado Vendrell DDV openBIM Solutions openbim@ddv.cat www.ddv.cat Barcelona (Catalonia)

The regularity and limited time dimension of the Time Boxes reduces deviations in the expected results. This characteristic applied to BIM gives the development teams an optimal framework for innovation as a third fundamental aspect. Limited resources and demanding requirements push team members to extensively use existing advantages by applying processes, tools, and communication in a highly digitalized environment such as BIM.

In conclusion, communication strategy and coordination between disciplines become the critical aspects of optimizing any BIM-based digital transformation process in construction. That is where Agile methods complement BIM, providing an optimized framework for highly demanding environments in terms of scope and technological complexity, responding with greater reactivity and efficiency to the client’s requirements.