An organization should conduct a strategic planning process to establish BIM objectives and set the direction to focus future implementation efforts The planning activities help an organization to set the goals and objectives, while directing the means and methods for achieving them.

While organizations might be looking for sources that provide a “one solution fits all approach” to plan for the implementation of BIM, it is important to understand that no two organizations are alike. Keeping that constraint in mind, the BIM Strategic Planning Procedure can be separated into three primary steps: 1) Assessment, 2) Alignment, and 3) Advancement. Templates have been created to support each of these steps and to document the relevant information. These templates are included in the appendices and are also located at http://bim.psu.edu.

Figure 2-1: BIM Organizational Strategic Planning Procedure

The Need for a Strategic Plan for BIM Integration

Strategic Planning helps ensure an organization is ready for the implementation of a new process or technology with planned resources. If implemented correctly, it can promote collaboration within an organization and greatly reduce the chances of failure. Several benefits gained through creating a BIM strategic plan include the development of:

• A clear understanding of the organizational goals and BIM objectives in a given time frame;
• The effective allocation of organizational resources for key BIM competencies and priorities;
• The provision of a benchmark from which progress in each of the competency categories can be measured at milestones to assess transitions; and
• The promotion of teamwork and an integrated perspective for planning with multiple opinions from different individuals within an organization.

Like any new process, BIM implementation within an organization has a learning curve associated with it. This is of importance for organizations with relatively low or no experience with BIM, as a lack of familiarity can carry risks throughout the stages of implementation. With more detailed planning, an organization will be able to achieve improved clarity of the process, which will reduce risks and increase the overall value of implementation.

The BIM Planning Committee

A BIM Planning Committee should be assembled prior to the start of Strategic Planning. The team members should include individuals who have background knowledge and experience with BIM and its processes, and should represent a diverse group of members from across the organization. In cases where the organization cannot compile a Planning Committee with previous BIM experience, it may be advantageous to seek assistance from third-party BIM implementers. The Planning Committee should include the following:

BIM Champion: A person who is technically skilled and motivated to guide an organization to improve their processes by advocating adoption, managing resistance to change, and ensuring implementation of a new technology or process, should be selected to lead the BIM initiative. The BIM Champion should have the ability to direct funds and staffing as necessary to support the BIM efforts. It is important that an individual with authority, leadership, and motivation is selected to champion this process.

Executive Representation: Without the involvement of high-level executives, it is most likely that the planning team will not be able to gain the necessary resources to plan and implement the recommendations that are developed. By including executives, key decisions to proceed are more easily facilitated.

Middle Management Representation: The middle managers are responsible for operating their departments and achieving goals set by the planning process. They are responsible for the daily operations of their division by monitoring and delegating work to the technical workforce. These managers should be involved in the core planning necessary to manage resistance to change that may occur throughout the BIM implementation phase.

Technical Workforce Representation: The technical workforce includes personnel who are directly involved with the technology and processes that drive the implementation of BIM on a daily basis. They are the most experienced employees in terms of the operations, and they implement and use technologies to improve processes within the organization. They are likely to be the most affected by any BIM adoption process. Being responsible for the standard workflows that are subject to change due to integrating BIM, they are also the most likely to resist the change. Involving the workforce in planning can be quite beneficial to the committee since their involvement can help foster acceptance of the new processes and provide insight into the challenges in modifying processes.

When assembling the BIM Planning Committee, considerations should be given to involving personnel with specific responsibilities and capabilities including:

• An individual(s) who can champion the planning throughout the organization;
• Decision-makers who have authority to grant access to resources required by the team (e.g., time, funding, personnel, and infrastructure);
• Individuals who might be directly affected by the adoption or change;
• Motivated individuals who can contribute to the process and are supportive of improving the process through change;
• Implementers of the BIM process; and
• Individuals who will be able to monitor progress and manage the process change

Establish BIM Planning Committee Mission

The BIM Planning Committee Mission states the purpose for the existence of the BIM effort. A mission statement for the BIM Planning Committee stems from an understanding of a number of items including: the type of the organization; the mission and vision of the organization; the facilities group(s) that support the organization; and the challenges faced by these operating units.

The scope and focus of a committee’s Mission Statement can vary based on the expertise and level of understanding of the committee. The committee’s statement generally explains their existence to achieve the organizational mission and vision with the use of BIM, or extend into details by mentioning an improvement in a specific process or technology for the organization.

The BIM Planning Elements

Throughout all steps of Strategic Planning, there are six core elements, referred to as the “BIM Planning Elements” that must be assessed. The BIM Planning Elements are:

Figure 2-2: The BIM Planning Elements

Strategy

Defines the BIM goals and objectives; assess change readiness; and management and resource support.

Uses

Identifies the methods in which BIM will be implemented, or BIM Uses, for generating, processing, communicating, executing, and managing information about the owner’s facilities.

Process

Describes the means to accomplish the BIM Uses by documenting the current processes, designing new BIM processes and developing transition processes.

Information

Defines the information needs of the organization, including the model element breakdown, level of development, and facility data.

Infrastructure

Determines the technology infrastructure to support BIM including computer software, hardware, networks, and physical workspaces.

Personnel

Establishes the roles, responsibilities, education, and training of the active participants in the BIM process establish.

Assessment: Conduct Organizational BIM Assessment

The first step in Strategic Planning is to conduct an assessment of the organization. The assessment includes evaluating the organization both internally, to determine the current status, and externally, to determine its performance within its business market. The goal of this process is to identify possible areas of adoption and implementation of new processes and technologies.

Document the Current Implementation of BIM

The Planning Committee should measure the maturity of the BIM Planning Elements. A BIM Organizational Assessment Profile has been developed to assist the Planning Committee with assessing the current maturity level of each of the elements.

There are a number of approaches that the organization can use to collect information for assessing their status. The most common and efficient method of gathering the required information is by conducting interviews with the operating unit’s personnel who are directly involved with the performance of the organization. Other methods that supplement this process include organizational-wide surveys, document analysis, process observations, and workflow analysis. Example questions that could be used to assess the current condition of an organization and its units could be related to the duties of the organizational unit, the information they manage, the process of managing information, some of the challenges associated with the process, etc.

The Organizational BIM Assessment Profile is a matrix, which has been developed for the purpose of assessing the organization’s maturity of the Planning Elements. The first step is to determine the current maturity level of each of the planning elements. This can be accomplished by scoring their maturity based on the description given in the matrix. The profile provides a basic description for each of the maturity levels identified within the planning elements. The Level of Maturity begins with zero (0), which represents nonexistence or non-use of that element within the organization, and continues to level five (5) in which the planning element is optimized. By using the assessment profile, the organization can quickly document the implementation status for each category. Figure 2-3 shows a section of the Organizational BIM Assessment Profile, with an example of the current maturity level highlighted.

A template spreadsheet of the profile is available for free download at this link to the Organizational BIM Assessment-Version 1.03.

Figure 2-3: Organizational BIM Assessment Profile

Identify Opportunities for Improvement

By analyzing business performance, the Planning Committees will be able to identify key performance indicators that will help determine which aspects of the organization require improvement. Apart from identifying status, performance measures are assessed to control behavior towards the intended goal; inform external stakeholders of information requirements; and empower decision making. Organizations can benchmark their performance against other organizations to determine opportunities for improving their processes.

Most strategic planning literature specifies that internal and external analysis include an assessment of the administrative, political, economic, stakeholder, and technological features. For a facility owner, however, these aspects also include the business processes, organizational structure, organizational culture, procurement strategies, financial considerations, and market positions.

Readiness Assessment

The Planning Committee should consider the readiness for change of the organization. Without ensuring that the committee has assessed the needs and accommodated for these prerequisites, it will be difficult to start the strategic planning process. A list of elements that the committee or the organization should consider before initiating the strategic planning procedure includes:

• Defining the BIM Champion, a Planning Committee, and/or a consultant to initiate the procedure;
• Gaining involvement and buy-in from the top-level management and stakeholders;
• Establishing the availability of adequate time, resources, and funds for the planning effort; and
• Gaining a fundamental understanding that strategic planning for BIM is a continual effort and is not a one-time event.

Alignment: Establish Desired Level of Implementation

Once the organization has conducted an assessment of its status, the BIM Planning Committee should establish a desired level of maturity for each of the planning elements. Careful deliberation should be exercised with the selection of a target level that is measurable and achievable. The inherent capabilities of an organization such as experience and knowledge are some of the competencies that have to be considered when targeting maturity levels. Additionally, the Planning Committee will need to determine future BIM Objectives and BIM Uses for the organization.

Establish BIM Goals & Objectives

Establishing BIM Goals and Objectives helps provide a direction in which the Planning Committee should proceed. The BIM goals should be measurable, and include items such as reducing operational and lifecycle costs; improving operational workflows; understanding and defining information needs; or developing internal quality assurance systems. Goals can also target the workforce and their capabilities by providing education and training to the team members, or developing the necessary infrastructure to support BIM integration. It is incumbent upon the committee to identify goals that provide value to the organization, and that support the overall organization goals, mission and vision. These goals can be organized and prioritized (see an example in Table 2-1).

Table 2 -1: Example Organizational Goals

Determine BIM Uses

A BIM Use is defined as a method or strategy of applying Building Information Modeling during a facility’s lifecycle to achieve one or more specific objectives. The BIM Uses at this stage of the planning process are identified based on the goals and objectives. For example, if an organization wants to manage as-built record models and maintenance information on the building equipment, then record modeling and asset management could be beneficial BIM Uses. Some goals and objectives may directly imply the specific implementation of a BIM Use, while others may require several Uses to support a goal.

Table 2 -2: Example Organizational Goals

There are many ways in which BIM can be used to improve the facility owner’s processes. The following, while not a comprehensive list, are some BIM Uses applicable to facility owners. In most cases, owners are already performing these items through other methods, however without the context of BIM. The integration of BIM and facility data within these tasks allow for improved and often more cost-effective processes. Some of the more critical BIM Uses in operations include:

Record Modeling: Record Modeling is the process used to depict an accurate representation of the physical conditions, environment, and assets of a facility. The record model should, at a minimum, contain information relating to the main architectural, structural, and MEP elements. It is the culmination of all the BIM Modeling throughout the project, including linking Operation, Maintenance, and Asset data to the As-Built model (created from the Design, Construction, 4D Coordination Models, and Subcontractor Fabrication Models) to deliver a record model to the owner or facility manager. Additional information including equipment and space planning systems may be necessary if the owner intends to utilize the information in the future.

Building Maintenance Scheduling: Building Maintenance Scheduling is a process in which the functionality of the building structure (walls, floors, roof, etc) and equipment serving the building (mechanical, electrical, plumbing, etc) are maintained over the operational life of a facility. A successful maintenance program will improve building performance, reduce repairs, and reduce overall maintenance costs.

Building System Analysis: Building System Analysis is a process that measures how a building’s performance compares to the specified design. This includes how the mechanical system operates and how much energy a building uses. Other aspects of this analysis include, but are not limited to, ventilated facade studies, lighting analysis, internal and external CFD airflow, and solar analysis.

Asset Management: Asset Management processes in which an organized management system is bi-directionally linked to a record model to efficiently aid in the maintenance and operation of a facility and its assets. These assets, consisting of the physical building, systems, surrounding environment, and equipment, must be maintained, upgraded, and operated at an efficiency that will satisfy both the owner and users in the most cost-effective manner. It assists in financial decision-making, short-term and long-term planning, and generating scheduled work orders. Asset Management utilizes the data contained in a record model to populate an asset management system which is then used to determine cost implications of changing or upgrading building assets, segregate costs of assets for financial tax purposes, and maintain a current comprehensive database that can produce the value of a company’s assets. The bi-directional link also allows users to visualize the asset in the model before servicing it potentially reducing service time.

Space Management & Tracking: Space Management & Tracking is a process in which BIM is utilized to effectively distribute, manage, and track appropriate spaces and related resources within a facility. A facility building information model allows the facility management team to analyze the existing use of the space and effectively apply transition planning management towards any applicable changes. Such applications are particularly useful during a project’s renovation where building segments are to remain occupied. Space Management and Tracking ensures the appropriate allocation of spatial resources throughout the life of the facility. This use benefits from the utilization of the record model. This application often requires integration with spatial tracking software.

A detailed list of BIM Uses for all lifecycle stages along with descriptions, value, resources, and competencies required is provided at http://bim.psu.edu.

Establish Desired Levels of Implementation Maturity

Having mapped the status of the Planning Elements within the organization, the desired levels should be identified in the maturity profile. These desired levels should be the areas that would need to be achieved for reaching the BIM Objectives. An organization may not need to advance to level five to obtain the desired level of BIM implementation.

Figure 2-4: Organizational BIM Assessment Profile with Desired State

The alignment to a desired Level of Maturity may require a considerable amount of time. The Planning Committee should not only identify the desired levels, but also investigate the level of effort and potential schedule for making the change to inform the planning of their stages for integration. It is important to consider the difference between their desire and the ability for the organization to change. An organization should understand that while it might desire to reach a particular level of maturity; it also needs to plan the outcome based on its ability to do so over a realistic period.

Finally, you must consider the interdependencies associated with each BIM Use. When considering a BIM Use, it is helpful to develop a long-term plan to map out the progression of BIM Uses. For example, if you desire Digital Fabrication as a BIM Use, it may require Design Authoring and 3D Coordination as prerequisites.

Advancement: Develop an Advancement Strategy

The implementation process will vary from one organization to another depending on the goals and objectives, the size of the organization, time and financial investment, and experience with BIM and the available resources. Advancement planning helps the Planning Committee determine a defined approach to avoid the risk of escalating costs and misdirected time and resources. Advancement planning also establishes a baseline to track progress at predetermined milestones or points in time.

Strategic BIM Roadmap

Roadmapping is the process of displaying the integration of strategic changes in a business process. A roadmap quickly communicates the key components of the organization’s strategic plan in a simple graphical representation or snapshot view.

To roadmap the BIM strategy for an organization, it is valuable to understand the type of information to be displayed and the steps involved in developing a roadmap. The categories defined for developing a strategic roadmap include:

• Planning elements;
• Time frame;
• Current status of the organization with BIM (Where are you now?);
• The desired end state of the organization with BIM (Where do you want to be?);
• Intermediate stages or milestones required to be achieved (How to get there?); and
• BIM Uses that will be used internally within the organization.

CASE STUDY EXAMPLE: Penn State Office of Physical Plant Roadmap

Figure 2-5 shows an example of Penn State’s Office of Physical Plant’s BIM Strategic Roadmap. The vertical axis delineates the levels of implementation within the organization, while the horizontal axis provides the goals with anticipate completion timeframes.

Figure 2-5: Penn State OPP Strategic BIM Roadmap

Roadmaps are used as a tool to plan, visualize, and implement a strategy. Since each organization is different in terms of the objectives and services that they perform, customization will be required to leverage maximum benefit from road mapping. Some sections of a roadmap that should be considered by an organization are:

1. TIME: Time can be represented in a number of methods (i.e. months, quarters of a financial year, years, or milestones). Organizations should consider representing time in short intervals (the Penn State OPP Roadmap in years) when considering their next adoption phase. The latter part of the time axis which shows the maturity in more advanced stages of development, longer periods may be needed to achieve the long-term vision and objectives of the organization.

2. INTEGRATION / STRATEGIC DRIVERS: Significant effort should be placed on the development of integration/strategic drivers. To push the integration of a process or technology, it is important to identify the layers and sub layers that are defined by the strategic drivers. The drivers also include the BIM Uses that the organization intends to integrate over the period determined by the BIM Planning Committee. The space on the earlier section along the time scale will display the current situation of these planning elements, the middle layer with the milestones or intermediate goals, and the later portion with the end state followed by the long-term vision.

3. SUPPORTING INFORMATION: The Planning Committee needs to identify the information to be displayed on the roadmap in addition to time and the drivers. These items include the people responsible to implement the phases, checkpoints throughout the time frame, and links between drivers that support the advancement of one another.

The development of a detailed roadmap involves multiple work sessions or workshops with various members of the Planning Committee and the operational units of the organization. An analysis of the status, the desired level of maturity, and the gaps to be bridged should be identified. The sequence in which the BIM Planning Elements are to be approached should be assessed based on the BIM goals and objectives.

Business Case for BIM Use(s)

An effective Business Case generates support, participation and leadership commitment required to transform an idea into reality. For most organizations, a Business Case is necessary to gain support and to justify investments for implementing the targeted BIM Use(s) to the management and key decision makers in the company. The Business Case does not focus on the details of the implementation of BIM, nor detailed contract language, but rather is focused specifically on the business drivers to consider when investing in a BIM Use(s).

The development of a Business Case is a collaborative effort. The BIM Planning Team, including representatives from the operating units affected, creates the Business Case. A Business Case for BIM Use(s) includes the following items (at a minimum):

• Executive Summary of Business Case
• Table of Contents
• Introduction and Background
• Business Drivers and Problem Statement
• Desired Business Goal(s) and Objectives
• Proposed BIM Use(s)
• Cost / Benefit Analysis: Estimated Benefits and Metrics, Cost Estimates, Risk Assessment, Assumptions
• Implementation Timeline
• Final Recommendations

An appropriate amount of time should be devoted to developing the Business Case. Some research has suggested that a general rule of thumb is that the development of the business case should take approximately five to ten percent of the anticipated implementation / transition time. The length of the Business Case should be kept to a minimum for a clear and concise understanding of factors weighing into the decision whether or not to implement a BIM Use(s).