Research ArticlePractices and Processes in BIM Projects: An ExploratoryCase Study

Conrad Boton and Daniel Forgues

Department of Construction Engineering, Ecole de Technologie Superieure, Montreal, Canada

Correspondence should be addressed to Conrad Boton; conrad.boton@etsmtl.ca

Received 5 May 2018; Revised 1 July 2018; Accepted 10 July 2018; Published 6 August 2018

Academic Editor: Eric Lui

Copyright © 2018 Conrad Boton and Daniel Forgues. (is is an open access article distributed under the Creative CommonsAttribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in anymedium, provided the original work isproperly cited.

(e results of an exploratory case study dedicated to a BIM project are presented and the perception that professionals have oftheir practices and the BIM collaboration processes is discussed in this study. It suggests that the roles of BIM specialists are not thesame from one discipline to another and that they are not just technical roles. In addition, the information subprocess seems tocrystallize around BIM managers, which tends to create two sources of leadership in a project: BIM managers and projectmanagers. Finally, the study shows a gap between the planned processes and those actually used in the project. (e use of a bigroom, to bring together the owner and the other disciplines, seems to be particularly useful. It serves as an integrator, andinformation is better shared.

1. Introduction

(e building information modeling (BIM) approach is dra-matically changing the way projects are managed in archi-tecture, engineering, and construction. (e BIM approach’srecent technological developments are full of promises. Byproviding a three-dimensional model as a central componentof construction projects, BIM gives the construction industrythe tools it needs to better manage its duality of process andproduct [1]. (e model of the product can, therefore, be morefinely analyzed upstream in order to both open up the designprocess and fine-tune the construction.

With the increasing success of the BIM approach,construction management practices are evolving, showingmore clearly the limitations of the current theories [2–4].Indeed, the use of three-dimensional models as the maindatabase and vector of exchange during the life cycle of thebuilding greatly not only improves [5] but also increases[6, 7] the need for integration in the supply chain and theinformation sharing. Moreover, with the success of the BIMapproach, the vision of the project is no longer limited to thefacility’s beginning of life but extends to its whole life cycle,including its operation [8] and its end of life [9]. (us, client

requirements are no longer limited to functionality orquality requirements [10] but increasingly incorporate theneed to capture during the design and construction phasesall the information required for facility management andcomputer-aided maintenance [11–13]. (e gradual captureof this required information and the need to rethink col-laboration around the BIM model dramatically changes theinformation processes in the project. (en, the projectmanager does not appear to be sufficiently equipped tomanage this new information perspective [14] that seems tobe taking place in the project and the current core tools seemnot sufficient to support his work.

More generally, it becomes important to study thepractices in construction projects in the BIM era so as tounderstand the context in which these changes occur. (echanges in practices concern, in particular, the processes putin place that the BIM approach is supposed to modify ina positive way. (e establishment of clear and formalizedinformation exchange processes is an important condition forthe success of BIM projects [15]. (us, the process models, aswell as the formalisms to represent them equivocally, take animportant place in the BIM guides and other protocols.Another aspect of the BIM practices is the use of a common

HindawiAdvances in Civil EngineeringVolume 2018, Article ID 7259659, 12 pageshttps://doi.org/10.1155/2018/7259659

physical space (big room) dedicated to the project team. (euse of such a common space is supposed to provide thestakeholders with an intensive collaborative work environ-ment that can significantly reduce the decision-making la-tency [16, 17]. However, many distributed collaborationenvironments, such as knotworking [16], are proposed asalternatives to big rooms. It becomes important to evaluate towhich extent big rooms are helpful for practitioners.

Based on a real BIM implementation exploratory casestudy, this paper explores how the project and BIM spe-cialists perceive the gap between as-planned BIM imple-mentation and the actual processes used in a fast-trackproject. (e article is organized in three main sections.(e first section explores the literature regarding the in-formation flow and collaboration in construction projectsand how the actual BIM processes on projects compare tothe as-planned ones. (is section also examines, froma theoretical perspective, the BIM-related roles in con-struction projects and how they position in regard to theproject managers’ role. (is literature review is followed bythe middle section, which describes the research method-ology and then presents the main results of the case study:the managerial roles in the project, the need for all of theproject disciplines to share a common physical space, theperceived reliability of the processes proposed in the BIMexecution plan, and how the use of BIM could be improved.(e paper concludes with a discussion regarding the evo-lution of the roles of the BIM specialists, how the in-formation subprocess is being crystallized around the BIMmanager, and the reliability of the proposed BIM processesfor effective collaboration.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Information Flow and Collaboration in ConstructionProjects. Information flow, along with material flow, is oneof the two main flows appearing in the typical supply chainin construction industry [18] and corresponds to the sub-process of information identified by Bjork [19]. Even if theinformation subprocess is less tangible than material sub-process, it is crucial for the success of construction projectsbecause the information is, with material and energy, thethird fundamental component of sociotechnical systems[20]. As stated by Winch [14], “the management of con-struction projects is a problem of information, or rather,a problem in the lack of information required for decision-making”.

(e construction industry, characterized in particular byhigh fragmentation [21], is considered to have low pro-ductivity compared to other comparable industries [22].Some decades ago, Winch was asking “why the constructionof housing and other built products has been so resistant tothe virtuous cycle of simultaneous cost reduction and qualityimprovement that has benefited most other industries overthe last century” [23]. One of the main issues in the industryis related to collaboration and information exchange [24].Indeed, while other discrete manufacturing industries havefound a way to optimize their production process in orderto achieve optimal results, collaboration in construction

remains problematic despite much effort devoted to un-derstanding and improving it. Indeed, an important re-search effort has been made to improve it in the recentyears, notably through the use of information technologies[25–27], including the building information modeling(BIM) approach.

Many case studies reporting BIM-based collaborationexperiences have been proposed in the very recent literature.Poirier et al. [28] presented a case study on how BIM impactscollaboration in the construction industry. (e main aim ofthe study was to propose an understanding, based on threemotivation elements: the needs for a departure from thepredominately positivistic view, the need for a systemicunderstanding, and the analysis scarcity at the individuallevel. (e results identified five cognitive determinants(requirements, expectations, intentions, incentives, andcapabilities), and “the impact of BIM on collaboration isunderstood as a reshaping of an individual’s cognitive de-terminants, which influence a team member’s framing ofevent patterns enacted throughout project delivery” [28].Similarly, Liu et al. [29] tried to understand the effects ofBIM on collaborative design and construction. (ey iden-tified eight concepts that have influence on the developmentof BIM collaboration, including IT capacity, technologymanagement, attitude and behavior, role-taking, trust,communication, leadership, and learning and experience[29]. Mignone et al. [30] relied on a hospital constructioncase study to evaluate how collaboration in BIM-basedconstruction networks could be enhanced through organi-zational discontinuity theory. (e results include a concep-tualization of typical barriers to collaboration in BIM-basedconstruction networks and how to deal with the identifiedbarriers. Kim et al. [31] used the study case of a large-scaleconstruction project to evaluate the value of the constructionBIM. Among the findings of the research, the trade con-tractors were asked how much they think BIM has con-tributed to their works. (e respondents acknowledged theadded value of BIM in reducing the average delay ofa construction period and the additional construction cost[31]. Merschbrock and Munkvold [32] explored the effectivedigital collaboration in construction through the case studyof a BIM-based hospital construction project. (e studyidentified a set of key factors enabling digital collaboration,including change agents, BIM contracts, a cloud computinginfrastructure, and new roles and responsibilities differentfrom the traditional ones [32].

2.2. As-Planned versus Actual BIM Use in Projects. An im-portant particularity of the construction industry lies in itsfragmentation and the fact that the various actors involvedin construction projects come from different organizationsand have to work together temporarily in order to achievea common objective. (us, a good collaboration and in-formation exchange are critical for the projects’ success butremain challenging in the industry despite many and variedresearch efforts.

To allow an effective implementation of BIM and toensure an optimal exchange of information in construction

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projects, various BIM guides have been published. (eseguides help project team in developing appropriate BIMexecution plans (BEPs). It can reasonably be argued that theBIM execution plan represents for the BIM managers whatproject plan is for project managers. Indeed, “many prob-lems related to uncoordinated collaboration emerge if teamsdo not develop and sign off on what is commonly known asBIM Execution Plans [. . .] as early in a project as possible”[33]. (e BEP is intended to “orchestrate the entire col-laborative process when using BIM” [33]. Various templateshave been proposed in order to help BIM managers indrafting effective BEPs. However, the BIM content orga-nization is comparable from a template to another one.Typically, a BEP contains the following:

(1 )(e project information, including the project goals,delivery strategy and milestones, and the BIM usesand deliverables

(2) the BIM resources and planning, including themodel structure, the technological infrastructure,and the structure, schedule, and delivery of BIMmodels

(3) the collaboration and information exchanges, in-cluding the collaboration procedures, the staffingand roles, the key contacts, the information exchangeprotocols, and formats

However, as stated by Holzer, the use of BEP “has not yetbecome standard on all medium- to large-scale constructionprojects” [33]. A study conducted by Eadie et al. [34] showedthat while BIM execution plans have been extensively used tosupport BIM use at all the project stages, its perceivedbenefits have been realized by less than 50% of the users.Moreover, a large proportion of the practitioners report anaverage gap between the planned BIM processes and theactual BIM processes used in the project.

Having a deviation between the as-planned processesand the actual ones is not unusual in the constructionindustry. de Blois et al. [35] have shown how significantdifferences may exist between as-planned processes andthe actual ones, and how the traditional linear processesare overshadowed by iterative ones. (e BIM approach issupposed to improve collaboration in the industry, andthe BIM underlying processes need to be reliable. (egeneric linear processes proposed in the BIM executionplans and guidelines seem to not be adapted to somecomplex projects like the one described in this study. Forexample, in the case study, the practitioners consider thatthe proposed processes are too obvious, not detailedenough, and too linear to be used as is, especially for fast-track projects, one of the advantages of the research re-cently presented by de Blois et al. [35] lies in the systemicapproach theories that they refer to in order to address thecomplexity of the interaction among project structuresand processes. Similarly, the BIM approach could benefitfrom a better understanding of the systemic nature of theconstruction industry in order to improve collaborationprocesses. Current trends for improving constructioncollaboration are based on good practices from other

industries such as aerospace and automotive. Meanwhile,utilizing the systemic approach to address the construc-tion industry has been advocated by various researchers[1, 28, 36].

2.3. Big Room in BIM Practices. (e “Big Room” conceptcomes from lean construction theories and consists ofbringing “together cross-functional teams under one roof toexplore problems” [37]. In the context of BIM projects,Kerosuo et al. [16] consider big rooms as “one application ofIPD that has been created in large healthcare projects in theUS” in order to allow designers to “work side by side in thesame place in order to share information with each other ina better way than working separately in different designoffices” [16]. Indeed, big rooms can be very helpful in fa-cilitating the collaboration processes involving the projectstakeholders working in the same room [38]. In such en-vironments, it is possible to collaboratively “refine the de-sign” by using a wide-ranging list of possibilities, in order toachieve the objectives of the projects with a good level ofconfidence [38]. In the integrated design process, the degreeof confidence seems particularly high for establishing costsand budgets at feasibility phase, defining constructionmethod and selecting building systems at conceptual designphase, for producing time schedule, determining manage-ment team and structure, and carrying out risk assessment atboth conceptual and preliminary design phases and forassessing workflow patterns, determining major mechanicalequipment, establishing the control systems, and definingsite layout at the detailed design phase [38].

Big rooms are more and more used to improve BIM-based collaboration in construction. Applied to BIM pro-jects, big rooms provide similar benefits and appear to bemore economical by allowing an effective coordination ofthe design work in a shared space [16]. However, it has beennoted that it is challenging to implement on small con-struction projects and more adapted to large constructionproject [16]. (us, some innovative collaboration practicesare emerging, including knotworking, a novel-distributedcollaborative practice, to better support collaboration insmaller BIM-based projects [16]. Kerosuo et al. [16] pre-sented a comparison between big room and knotworkingapproaches and concluded that “full-time commitment toa Big Room collaboration in a single project may be difficult”for practitioners in Finland where “some constructionprojects are customarily smaller”. While this applies to theFinnish construction industry, it seems necessary to evaluateif it is the case in other contexts.

2.4. +e Traditional Role of a Project Manager. A projectmanager’s role is crucial, and his or her competence is seenas “clearly a vital factor in the success of a project” [39].Moreover, the main failure factors identified for projectmanagement include “the wrong person as project manager”[40]. Kerzner [41] stated that “the major factor for thesuccessful implementation of project management is thatthe project manager and team become the focal point ofintegrative responsibility.” According to Cooper [42], the

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basic business of a project manager is to deliver an endproduct that is compliant with performance requirementsand within the budget and time limitations specified by thecustomer. (e generic responsibilities of the project man-ager include defining the work’s requirements, establishingthe work’s extent, allocating the required resources, plan-ning the activities’ execution, monitoring the work progress,and adjusting possible deviations [40].

Since projects generally involve professional specialistsfrom different disciplines, the role of the project manager isalso seen as an integrator with relationship managementresponsibilities [43]. Project managers are then consideredas integrators whose aim is to achieve a “unity of effortamong the major functional specialists” [44]. As an in-tegrator, the project manager has to accommodate personalgoals with the global objectives and to ensure a good teamintegration as well as consistent and efficient informationflow.

New roles, such as BIM managers, are emerging in theconstruction projects in order to complement the projectmanagers. Similarly to the Project Management Body OfKnowledge (PMBOK) Guide [45], some BIM execution plan(BEP) guides are also appearing in order help BIMmanagersin their job, by providing guidelines and processes [46–48].But it seems that the responsibilities of BIM managers, onlytechnical in the past, seem to have evolved into moremanagerial responsibilities [49]. And it is important toevaluate how both project managers and BIM managersposition themselves in relation to the generic processesproposed in the BEPs.

2.5. +e Emerging Roles of BIMManagers, Coordinators, andChampions. Assuming that the changes induced by theimplementation of information and communication tech-nologies such as BIM are not purely technical, Froese [50]stated that changes to management processes are necessary.Indeed, BIM can be a “catalyst for Project Managers toreengineer their processes to better integrate the differentstakeholders involved in modern construction projects”[51]. Froese [50] identified three main types of impact onconstruction project management, including (1) the need toexplicitly manage project information and informationsystems; (2) the need to recognize, to represent, and to moreexplicitly manage the interdependencies due to the highdegree of integration and collaboration across the tasks ofa project; and (3) the need for the project team to recoursetogether to full virtual prototypes “as the central activity forthe design and management of the project”.

According to Froese [50], the fundamental changes arethen prompted by the fact that the project team membersneed to collaborate, using computer-based tools, to producecomprehensive “virtual prototypes of all aspects of a con-struction project as the central activity for the design andmanagement of the project” [50]. (e distance betweentechnical competencies and management functions ina project must then be considerably reduced; and conse-quently, managers need to be closer to the virtual prototypes.In February 2013 issue, AEC Magazine stated that the

changes made by BIM are so important that it is utopian tothink that a computer-aided design (CAD) manager alonecan coordinate its implementation in a firm [52]. Instead,there must be support from the senior hierarchy as well asa practical method for change management. Managing BIMinvolves different levels of responsibility and technical ex-pertise that require new roles not only in the use of tech-nology and modeling standards but also in the coordinationof BIM implementation contexts [53].

Barison and Santos [53] have tried to inventory the newroles and responsibilities that are coming with BIM. Aninteresting outcome from their work is that these roles arenot simply related to technical competencies but they alsoinvolve integration and leadership-related aspects. Botonet al. [54] proposed a distribution of the weights of BIM-specific knowledge expected for different BIM specialists(Figure 1). Based on previous related works, they identifiedthe BIM manager, the BIM analyst, the BIM modeler oroperator, the BIM facilitator, and so on.

Davies et al. [49] proposed a review of the definitionsproposed in various BIM guides and standards on the BIMspecialist roles.(is very interesting work showed significantoutcomes including how these roles are being developed inan “uncoordinated manner.” Specifically, the work showed“a lack of definition of client-side roles in the BIM process,the inclusion of organizational BIM roles and activities inproject-level guides and standards, and overlapping use ofsimilar role titles to describe different functions within BIMproject teams.” But, according to Davies et al. [49], all theseroles can be categorized into four major groups: two projectroles (project BIM manager and BIM coordinator) and twoorganizational roles (BIM modeler and internal BIMmanager).

2.6. +e +eoretical Role of the BIM Manager. One of themost often cited new roles is that of the BIMmanager, who isfar from a simple substitution of the usual CAD manager[52]. (e BIM manager’s role is the most commonlymentioned in the literature. Compared to other BIM-relatedroles, it has been extensively described in the existing BIMguides and protocols [49]. However, according to Holzer, itis challenging to describe what BIM managers do because itis a role in transition [33]. Indeed, “What was once asso-ciated with responsibilities for overseeing BIM model de-velopment is now more and more associated withinformation management, change facilitation, processplanning, technology strategies, and more” [33]. (us,Barison and Santos [53] stated that “the main function ofa BIM Manager is to manage people in the implementationand/or maintenance of the BIM process” [53]. While thisdefinition seems interesting, it is important to distinguishthe project role of BIM managers from their organizationalrole [49].

In his project role, the BIM manager is responsible todevelop and deliver the BIM execution plan and to establishthe project’s BIM protocols. He is also responsible for thequality insurance, the BIM project meetings’ preparation,and the project records management [49]. (e BIM

4 Advances in Civil Engineering

manager’s organizational role depends on the “size andcharacteristic of an organization” [33]. In smaller compa-nies, it can combine, at the same time, di�erent roles in-cluding BIM modeler and project architect [33]. Moregenerally, he is often the BIM representative of the speci�cdiscipline (BIM coordinator) [49]. It is then “not uncommonfor the same individual to undertake project and organi-zational tasks”.

In terms of degree of authority, inmany BIM guides, “theBIM Manager role is the overarching project role” while inother documents, he is “expected to report to the ProjectManager who has the oversight role” [49]. According toHolzer, “there is likely to be a time where BIM Managersbecome obsolete and their responsibilities will become partof project management in general” [33]. However, it is notclear yet how these roles coexist in the real-life context. Tofully understand the di�erent roles and the related chal-lenges in the current BIM practices, it seems necessary to gofurther the theoretical works presented above and to analyzea real representative project in which the di�erent roles areinvolved.

3. Research Methodology

3.1. ResearchApproach: ExploratoryCase Study. According toGerring [55], a case study is “an intensive study of a singleunit for the purpose of understanding a larger class of(similar) units.” Case studies are more generally de�ned asempirical and o�er a rich description of a phenomenon inparticular instances, typically based on a variety of datasources [56]. �eoretical propositions and constructs canbe created by using case-based evidence [57]. �e casestudy method can use both quantitative and qualitativeevidence [33]. �is information can come from observa-tions, verbal records, and �eldwork, with multiple data

collection methods including ethnographies and participant-observation, [58]. Case studies thus represent a researchstrategy [58], and the case study method is then de�ned asa “way of de�ning cases, not a way of analyzing cases ora way of modeling causal relations” [55]. �is approach isdistinguished from other methods by its reliance “on co-variation demonstrated by a single unit and its attempt, atthe same time, to illuminate features of a broader set ofunits” [55]. One of the most practical results of casestudies is their use in forming descriptive inferences [55].�e case study might be descriptive, explanatory, or ex-ploratory [59].

�e exploratory case study aims at extending the un-derstanding of social phenomena that are considered ascomplex [60]. It is used as “a sound and sensible �rst step”when extensive empirical research has not been yet dedi-cated to the topic of interest [60]. �e use of such an ap-proach may be justi�ed when the terrain is little known orstereotyped views are imposed [61] In these cases, it ispossible to “better de�ne a problem, suggest hypotheses to bechecked later, generate ideas for new services, collect re-actions on an emerging concept, or pretest a questionnaire”[61].�is approach is not based solely on assumptions and isgenerally �exible and not rigid structured [61]. �e aim ofthe study reported in this paper is not to generate �nal orde�nitive evidence but to suggest some hypotheses to bechecked later, in future works.

3.2.DataCollection. �e exploratory case study presented inthis section is related to the expansion of a Canadian airport,and the main aim was to study how BIM has been imple-mented in the project. It was conducted during the �rst halfof 2015 while the project was still in the design stage. �eresearch approach is based on four major data collection

BIM researcher

BIM advanced consultant

BIM manager

BIM analyst

BIM consultant

BIM software developer

BIM application developer

BIM modeler/operator

BIM facilitator

Modeling skillsManagement skillsTheory/standard skills

Figure 1: A distribution of the weights of BIM-speci�c knowledge expected for di�erent BIM specialists [54].

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tools: review of project documentation, survey, semi-structured interview, and observation.

(e first step of the research consists of a review of theproject documents the project team made available to theresearchers. (e reviewed documents include the project’sBIM execution plan, the project organization chart, theappendices dedicated to the BIM processes, and the ap-pendices related to the profiles of the BIM stakeholders.Some other documents related to the BIM modeling ac-tivities have also been reviewed by the researchers. (esedocuments include the BIM objects organization tree andnomenclature, the file transfer protocol, the clashes andinterferences management process, the quality control plan,generator of conflict spheres guide, the BCF-based collab-orative communication process, the LOD specifications file,the CODEBOOK tutorial, and the data transfer tool guide.

(e second step of the research consists of an onlinesurvey to capture and understand the perception andopinions of the project’s stakeholders. Indeed, the projectdocumentation made it possible to understand the BIMpractices as planned, but the survey not only brought inmore details, it also and especially made it possible to un-derstand the actual practices of the project as perceived bythe actors involved. In addition to the general issues, thesurvey consisted of three parts, corresponding to the threedimensions generally used to study the implementation ofBIM: technology, organization, and process. (e question-naire is composed of 56 questions and is built on theSurveyMonkey online system. It is organized into threegroups of questions. (e first group of questions aims atunderstanding the profile of the respondent. It is composedof 15 questions including the respondent’s specialty, busi-ness area, firm and size, the BIM competencies and skills,and the previous experience in using BIM.(e second groupof questions is dedicated to the use of BIM in the studiedproject.(is includes the proportion of the dedicated to BIMin the project, the evaluation of the use of BIM in the project,the client involvement, the coordination between thestakeholders, the perceived impact of BIM on workingmethods, and technical questions about the use of specificsoftware (Revit, CodeBook, etc.), and hardware equipment.(e third group of questions evaluates the actual use of BIMcompared to the as-planned processes and tools. It includesthe evaluation, from the practitioners’ perspective, of theapplicability of the BIM execution plan, the BIM use anddata exchange processes, the 3D coordination mechanisms,the levels of development (LODs) of the BIM models, themeans of communication, the inter- and intradisciplinaryclash detection processes, and the quality control processes.(e questionnaire was only sent to actors involved in thisparticular project with managerial roles, and a total of 10responses were received (Figure 2).

Following the online survey, semidirective interviewswere then carried out to deepen various aspects of theimplementation of BIM in this project. (e aim was toconfront the project actors with certain inconsistenciesbetween the as-planned practices (from the project doc-umentation) and the actual ones arising from the onlinesurvey results. A total of nine people were interviewed.

(e topics discussed mainly revolved around the orga-nization of work in the project, the management and thesharing of information in the BIM processes and relatedchallenges, and the potential individual recommendationseach interviewee could provide. Table 1 shows the dis-tribution of the interviewees according to their disciplinesand roles.

Using ethnographic research methods, the researchersfinally observed the project practices and documentation onsite for methodological triangulation purposes. (e aim ofthe triangulation is to consolidate the results of the previoussteps. With an average duration of one hour, several ob-servations were made over a period of two weeks, accordingto the methods discussed by Hartmann et al. [62]. (e dailywork of BIM managers and other BIM-related roles weremonitored in order to deepen the mapping of activitiesrelated to the BIM process in the project.

3.3. +e Studied Case. (e business managing firm ofa Canadian airport wants to stimulate its growth byexpanding its property portfolio. After conducting a marketstudy in 2013 to forecast the attendance at the airportthrough the next thirty years, the firm estimated that theconstruction of a new terminal would meet both its needsand those of airlines and future passengers. (e long-termgoal is to offer long-haul flights to destinations outsideCanada. To maximize the growth of the airport, its newinfrastructure must meet high requirements in terms ofquality and operation. (e details of the project are pre-sented in Table 2.

(e business management firm decided to implementBIM for this airport expansion project, as they identified theneed for improved coordination during the design andconstruction phases as well as to optimize equipmentmanagement through the integration of BIM technology andtheir current facility management system. Based on both theexperience of the owner and the recommendations ofa consultant firm, a BIM execution plan was defined, basedon the BIM project execution guide proposed by Pennsyl-vania State University [63]. (is plan identifies the projectobjectives, the priorities, and the related BIM uses, de-scribing the responsibilities and the generic processes to beapplied. It is very specific, as it identifies the technologicaland software environments and the need for exchanges andcoordination between the various trades.

Among other goals, the owner’s main aim is to suc-cessfully implement BIM during the design and the con-struction phases, as well as to integrate BIM informationwithin its existing facility management system for futurepurposes. To ensure a good understanding of the challenges,an iterative process was set up to study the project’s needs indetail. While this was a very important step, this processinduced a significant delay. For this and other reasons, a fast-track approach was then adopted for the project delivery. Infast tracking, the normal duration of a project may beconsiderably reduced. A fast-track project is one whoseduration can be reduced up to almost 70% compared toa similar traditional project’s duration [64].

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4. The Main Results

4.1. �e Managerial Roles in the Project. �e project ismanaged by a project manager designated by the owner andassisted by external consultants. Five main trades are in-volved: architecture, structural engineering, civil engineering,MEP (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing) engineering, andgeneral contracting. �e �rms involved in the project com-posed a team dedicated to the project; these included, froma theoretical point of view as planned in the project docu-mentation, a project manager and a BIM manager per dis-cipline, except for the general contractor (Figure 3).

In practice, each �rm uses its own hierarchy and or-ganization, but the BIM execution plan places a particularemphasis on the responsibilities of the BIMmanagers. Froma theoretical point of view, these responsibilities are mainlyrelated to the management of the models’ content, qualitycontrol, and 3D coordination. In practice, the architecture�rm and the MEP �rm have designated dedicated actors(other than the project manager) to hold this role in theirorganization. �e BIMmanager designated by the structuralengineering �rm seems to have a more general role that canbe likened to that of a project manager. He is assisted bya BIM coordinator who is responsible for internal BIMmodel management.

In practice, the BIM managers’ roles are not reallysimilar from one discipline to another. �e BIM managerdesignated by the architecture �rm has both technical andmanagerial roles. He is responsible for the weekly upload ofthe architectural models and their integration with the othermodels. He de�nes in advance the elements to be checked forintra- and interdisciplinary clash detection. He also ensures

that each of the designers conducts their internal qualitycontrol on the architectural model after working on it duringthe week.

�e MEP �rm has a unique hierarchy due to thecompounded nature of its business. �e designated BIMmanager is coupled with a BIM administrator dedicated toeach branch (ventilation, electricity, plumbing, etc.) withwhom he organizes the work for the whole team. He per-forms visual inspections of the MEP models. In addition toensuring that MEP technicians check the quality of theirmodel, he performs the important job of managing andcorrecting the warnings in the Revit software. �e aim is toproduce models that have the fewest errors possible.

�e BIM manager designated by the structural engi-neering �rm plays a more general role than in the other twodisciplines. He works with the project manager to plan andto organize the work to be performed by the structuralengineers. He also ensures the quality of the 2D conceptualrendering provided by his designers, without having any realresponsibility for the content of the 3D models. �is rolebelongs to the BIM coordinator responsible for qualitychecks on the models.�e BIM coordinator role here is quitesimilar to the BIM manager role in the other �rms.

�e contractor also designated two BIMmanagers on theproject to lead the 4D and the 5D aspects.

Table 2: Information on the case study.Budget (i) $277M

Delivery method (i) Fast-track constructionmanagement

Main constraintsof the project

(i) �e need to improve coordinationduring the design and constructionphases and to optimize the facilitymanagement(ii) �e high requirements in termsof quality and operation(iii) �e importance of carryingout the work within extremelytight deadlines(iv) �e need to carry out the work inaccordance with the budget forecasts

Existing conditionmodeling (i) 2014

Design phase (i) 2015Beginning of theconstruction phase (i) Spring 2015

End of the project asplanned (i) Winter 2018

Table 1: Distribution of interviewees.

Disciplines Number ofinterviewees Roles in the project

Architecture 02 (i) BIM manager(ii) Programme manager

MEP 01 (i) BIM manager

Structure 03(i) BIM manager(ii) BIM coordinator(iii) Project manager

Managing contractor 02 (i) BIM manager(ii) Project director

Owner 01 (i) BIM managerTotal 09

What is your role on the project? (many choices possible)60.0%50.0%40.0%30.0%20.0%10.0%

0.0%Project manager BIM manager Designer Technician Others

Figure 2: Roles of the respondents to the survey.

Advances in Civil Engineering 7

�e case study shows a crystallization of the informationsubprocess around the BIM managers, creating two separateleadership poles in the project. �e �rst is related to theproject plan embodied by the project manager. It is based onthe management of the project activities according to thework breakdown structure (WBS). �e second managementsystem, related to the BIM execution plan, is embodied bythe BIMmanager and is mainly based on the management ofthe project information. As a result, while the BIMmanagersfocus on the model-based information �ow, the projectmanagers do not seem comfortable with themodel and focuson the work and the material �ow. “�e project manager ismainly responsible for submitting the documents and fo-cuses on the percentage of completion of the work [. . .] Henever got involved in 3D coordination,” says a MEP team

member. �e project BIM manager is more precise: “Due tothe lack of BIM knowledge and processes by the con-struction manager, he was unable to manage his teams inaccordance with the work�ow required for BIM. [. . .] Healso did not knowwhen he had to call on me to advise him inthe proper distribution of BIM roles and tasks to his sta�,” hesays.

4.2. As-Planned versus Actual Processes. As stated above,unlike current project management practices, the prepara-tion of a BIM execution plan (BEP) is collaborative. BIMmanagers act as facilitators and coach to help the teamdevelop a shared plan and to elaborate the strategy for theproduction of the models in the course of the project.

OwnerBIM team

ArchitectureBIM team

ArchitectureBIM

manager

Architectureproject

manager

Projectmanager

Project andconstruction

manager

ProjectBIM manager

ConstructionBIM manager

ConstructionBIM team

Contractor

Externalconsultants

MEPproject

manager

MEP BIM manager MEP

BIM teamCivil engg.

projectmanager

Civil engg.BIM

manager

Civil engg.BIM team

Structuralengg.

BIM team

Structuralengg. BIMmanager

Structuralengg. project

manager

Contractorteam

BIM practice actor

Traditional practice actor

Project team

High collaborative level

Figure 3: Managerial roles in the project (source: Project documentation).

8 Advances in Civil Engineering

(e plan is then supposed to be fully reliable, and theproposed processes are expected to be close to those that willbe implemented.

Regarding the BIM execution plan provided at the be-ginning of the project, the respondents do not have anyentrenched position. Overall, one-fourth of them clearlythink that the recommended processes are not precise anddetailed enough and the same proportion think the opposite.(e other half seems to have a strict neutral position. (eprocesses detailed in the BIM execution plan were notstrictly applied. Instead, they were seen more as guidelines toallow the practitioners to be guided in their actual work. It is“difficult [to apply the proposed processes] because we fi-nally are only doing a modeling job instead of a productionjob,” commented a practitioner whose firm did not im-plement BIM before this project. Note that no one indicatedthey used their own processes, rather than those in the BIMexecution plan but some deviations can be observed.

(e opinions of the respondents differ about the gapbetween the processes in the BIM execution plan (and otherproject documentation) and the actual ones. On a rankingscale of 1 (no deviation) to 10 (very strong deviation), fiftypercent of them note “only a very few deviations,” while thesame proportion indicates there were average and significantdeviations.” To better understand the gaps between theprocesses in the BIM execution plan (and other projectdocumentation) and the actual ones deployed, it is helpful tostudy how the different processes are perceived by thepractitioners. (ree main groups of processes were used inthe project: information exchange and synchronizationprocesses, 3D coordination and interference detectionprocesses, and quality control processes. (e deviation isperceived as average for the three groups of processes.However, while the proportion of people who indicate thatthe processes used totally comply with those recommendedin the BIM execution plan is the same for the three differentgroups of processes, and it appears that gaps are consideredto be less important for synchronization processes (25%chose “Low gap” instead of 12.5% for the other processes).

During the semidirected interviews, all the interviewedparticipants believed that the processes recommended by theexecution plan were too theoretical and too general and werenot adapted to the project. “(e processes in the BIM ex-ecution plan remain very theoretical, and there are nota large number of people who use these documents to workon a daily basis, despite the fact that the recommendedprocesses show the main principles of the project,” saida BIM manager. In general, the proposed processes are seenas difficult to apply and not close enough to the project’sreality. It should be mentioned that even if it was claimedthat the execution plan was inspired by the PennsylvaniaState BIM Project Execution Guide, the proposed processesare not described using the Pennsylvania State formalism.(e formalism used was also not the BPMN advocated by theBuilding Smart alliance. “It is a great effort to have outlinedthe processes to follow but they are natural and too obvious.[. . .] Ideally, it would have been useful to show the in-formation requirements at some given moments. Here,nothing is detailed enough,” said a BIM manager. Beyond

the formalization issues, one of the main criticisms prac-titioners made about the execution plan is that it does nottake into account the particular need in a fast-track projectfor different disciplines to coordinate with each other. “Wetried to apply the processes proposed in the BIM executionplan. But the fast track project is not linear,” noted a BIMcoordinator. Actually the structural engineering firm had toissue its first outcomes very quickly, before the other firms,while taking into account the evolution of the architecturaland the MEP models. In collaboration with the otherstakeholders, it has finally been decided that deadlines wouldbe applied to MEP engineers and architects only on the partsof the model required to produce the structural models. Onthis subject, the study has noted some particular needs forcoordination between the architects and the structure, forwhich the two firms have adopted the exchange of manu-script sketches.(ese sketches represent a quick and efficientway to convey valuable information from architects to thestructure firm so that it can adapt its models and deliver itsdeliverables on time and with the required quality. “Ar-chitects make large use of this medium to quickly com-municate their ideas. We can then update our model basedon these sketches; it is a fast and effective way to transmit lastminute information when it is necessary,” said the BIMmanager of the structural engineering firm.

Moreover, issues related to the quality control processeswere noted by multiple practitioners. For the structuralengineering firm, too many quality control processes weredescribed in the execution plan that were not adapted totheir situation. (ey believe that an effective quality controlas described would take three full weeks, which is totallyunthinkable with such a fast-track project where the modelswere continually evolving. (e participants adopted thecollective idea of advancing the models and performinginterference detection at planned moments when the ap-propriate elements had been modeled properly. Anotheraspect of quality control is related to the contractor who,according to the execution plan process, had the re-sponsibility to audit the models and their compliance to theUniformat standard.(is process, planned to bemanaged bythe contractor, raised some contractual liability questions.While it was not possible to validate these assertions duringthe observation period, some stakeholders believed that BIMmanagers should be responsible for interdisciplinary qualitycontrol.

4.3. +e Use of a Common Physical Space. One interestingparticularity of this project lies in the fact that all of theproject team members had to share a common physicalspace provided by the business managing firm near theconstruction site. (e idea here is similar to the “Big Room”concept and is designed to collaboration synergies amongdisciplines. One of the study’s goals is to understand how therespondents perceive the impact and the potential difficultiesemerging from working in a common space with otherdisciplines on the project’s efficiency. (e unclear contractclause regarding such open space work was perceived ashaving a significant impact by the respondents. Indeed,

Advances in Civil Engineering 9

compared to a traditional project configuration, working inthe same physical space during a project seems to have a verypositive impact on communication, collaboration, and trustbetween stakeholders, and on information and data ex-change. “(e project office focused on this specific project.No other project is likely to monopolize our minds. Here, allthe teams are mobilized for this one project,” said a BIMcoordinator. “(e common space is very useful. It bringstogether the owner and the other disciplines. It serves as anintegrator, information is better shared. Small succinctmeetings are very effective,” added the project manager.(isphysical proximity contributes to a common synergy, thefeeling of working around a goal common to all, simplifiesthe design phase, increases the effectiveness of decision-making, and contributes to the understanding of a project’sspecific BIM processes. “At the preliminary stage, there isabout one BIMmeeting per month. It seems sufficient, giventhat the workspace is conducive to speaking directly with thepeople concerned in case of problems,” a BIM manager said.Another BIMmanager added “We have a great advantage inbeing in a common physical space. (is provides quicksolutions. (ere is no loss of time or information wheninteracting with other professionals.” Moreover, a very largeproportion of the respondents felt very positive about theirdesire to work in such colocation configurations in futureprojects.

5. Conclusion

Based on an exploratory case study, this paper explored thepractitioners’ perception of the BIM and project manage-ment practices. It then discussed the evolution of the roles ofthe BIM specialists, how the information subprocess is beingcrystallized around the BIM manager, and the reliability ofthe proposed BIM processes for effective collaboration. Itraised some hypotheses that deserve to be investigated infuture works. (e first hypothesis is related to the new rolesa BIM project requires, including that of the BIM manager.(e project manager seems to no longer be the single centralactor of the project; the BIM manager seems to now appearand to act as a new major player, with some managerialresponsibilities. (e possible crystallization of the in-formation subprocess around the BIM managers reveals theimportance of information management in BIM projectsand how it is necessary to clearly redefine the connectionsand the interactions between the workflow and the in-formation flow. It seems that the information-centeredapproach proposed by Winch [14] for the management ofconstruction projects could be very helpful in the future.(elast hypothesis is related to the ability of the current BIMprocesses (advocated in BIM execution plans or guidelines)to successfully support the use of BIM in constructionprojects.(ese processes appear to be too generic and do notreally take into account all the complexity of the con-struction industry dynamics.

Compared to the recent relevant similar case studiespresented in the literature review section, this study providesa new perspective of the professionals’ perception of BIMprojects and proposes new hypothesis to investigate. But

some inevitable limitations and interrogations remain,mainly due to the exploratory nature of the case study. Asstate in Section 3, the exploratory case study can be con-sidered as a sensible and sound first step, which main aim isnot to generate definitive conclusion but to suggest hy-potheses to be checked later. (e flexible structured form ofthe conclusions can then be read in this perspective. Re-garding the survey, it would have been interesting to havemore respondents but despite our efforts, only a limitednumber of practitioners were available for the survey and theinterviews.

Future works will focus on investigating the hypotheses,with a particular emphasis on how systemic theories couldcomplement the current approaches in improving thecurrent BIM processes for a more successful collaboration.

Data Availability

(e data used to support the findings of this study areavailable from the corresponding author upon request.

Conflicts of Interest

(e authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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