A characterization framework to document and compare BIM implementations on construction projects

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a new way of working and AEC professionals and researchers are trying to understand its implementation and impacts. To develop this understanding, one of the approaches is to study what happened on past projects that have implemented BIM and to synthesize the differences and commonalities. However, the current BIM stories typically present fragmented project data that cannot capture BIM implementations in a structured, sufficient, and consistent way. In addition, the currently available BIM guidelines lack validation by a large number of projects. Given these shortcomings, AEC professionals and researchers cannot achieve knowledge that guides them towards well-defined, measurable, and monitored BIM implementations. A framework to characterize BIM implementations is needed to link the broken chain "from data to knowledge". Through case studies on 40 construction projects, this research provides a framework to characterize why, when, for whom, in what level of detail, with which tools, how, for how much, and how well BIM implementations are done on projects. With the characterization framework, past projects can be documented sufficiently and consistently so that BIM managers or BIM researchers can compare a group of BIM projects to gain insight into how to maximize the benefits of BIM. The contribution of this research is a characterization framework that: Organizes project data of BIM implementations into categories, factors, and measures with an increasing levels of detail; Sufficiently and consistently captures why, when, for whom, at what level of detail, with which tools, how, for how much, and how well BIM implementations were done on the 40 case projects; andSupports cross-project comparisons of BIM implementations to gain insights into implementation patterns (i.e. , how to plan a BIM implementation to maximize benefits).