A review of specialist role definitions in BIM guides and standards

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Authors

Davies, Kathryn
Wilkinson, Suzanne
McMeel, D.

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Date

2017-10

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Journal Article

Ngā Upoko Tukutuku (Māori subject headings)

Keyword

BIM specialist
professional practice
guidelines
handbooks
professional roles
BIM (building information modelling)
BIM industry standards

Citation

Davies, K., Wilkinson, S., & McMeel, D. (2017). A review of specialist role definitions in BIM guides and standards. Journal of Information Technology in Construction (ITcon), 22, pp.185-203.

Abstract

Many handbooks and guides have been developed to assist with the adoption and implementation of BIM for organizations and projects. This paper examines the ways in which roles and responsibilities of BIM specialists are defined across an international selection of 36 of these documents. The purposes of BIM guides are examined and categorized, and the expertise and intentions of their developers are considered. The number and variety of guides and standards available raises concern, as findings suggest that while BIM practice generally is becoming more standardized, BIM specialist roles may be developing in an uncoordinated manner,even when companies and individuals consider themselves to be following best practice guidance. Specific shortcomings identified include a lack of definition of client-side roles in the BIM process, the inclusion of organisational BIM roles and activities in project-level guides and standards, and overlapping use of similar role titles to describe different functions within BIM project teams. The use of BIM guides to define project and organizational roles requires further attention in the wider professional context of BIM implementation and practice, in order to strengthen BIM practice and reduce ambiguity and uncertainty.

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© 2017 The author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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