ITcon Vol. 20, pg. 332-346, http://www.itcon.org/2015/21

BIM standardisation efforts - the case of Sweden

submitted:October 2014
revised:June 2015
published:September 2015
editor(s):Turk Ž
authors:Martin Hooper, PhD Student
Dep. of Design Methodology, Construction Sciences, Lund University, Faculty of Engineering, Lund, Sweden Martin.Hooper@construction.lth.se
summary:Nations around the world are feverishly developing new standards relating to Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the construction industry which may enable teams to leverage greater value from BIM implementation and model authorship efforts. This study reflects on ongoing standardisation initiatives in Sweden and considers where current research efforts fit in. There is limited research presenting stakeholder perceptions on current BIM standardisation efforts whether driven by industry representatives or the research community. To address this gap, through a national survey, we studied the impact and correlation of particular process-orientated standardisation initiatives and related research efforts within the field of BIM. The aim is to determine the level of importance of common themes and establish their legitimacy. BIM experts are asked to rank individual standardisation projects and research themes and offer comment on their relevance in a context of national BIM initiatives. In doing so, we capture views on the value and contribution of ongoing BIM standardisation initiatives, are able to position current research efforts within a landscape of other national strategic BIM programmes and gain insight to the level of integration between industry and research communities working in this field. We found broad underlying support of the ongoing BIM standardisation efforts happening in Sweden. Results indicate scepticism over standardised BIM-Planning protocols such as those to be found in the US, but strong support for national BIM guidelines and associated state-driven vision. In addition, respondents highlight a number of alternative standardisation needs that are either missing or low priority on the national BIM standardisation agenda, including requirements management and measures to overcome barriers to BIM. Difficulties exist in translating standards from theory into practice and more local case examples are needed. Our findings are important; they tell us which standardisation efforts are important and help us to understand what aspects are essential to support stakeholders in achieving common BIM goals. They indicate emerging trends upon which further studies can build and contribute to literature on state-of-the- art BIM standardisation.
keywords:BIM, Building Information Modelling, Standards, Standardisation, Research Initiatives
full text: (PDF file, 1.324 MB)
citation:Hooper M (2015). BIM standardisation efforts - the case of Sweden, ITcon Vol. 20, pg. 332-346, https://www.itcon.org/2015/21