Digital and BIM
Full BIM services and information management
The BS EN ISO 19650 information management role: BIM Execution Plan, information requirements, common data environment, federation and delivery reporting.
- Discipline
- Digital and BIM
- Typical timescale
- Set up before modelling begins, then run through every stage to handover
WHAT IT IS
BIM modelling and BIM management are different jobs. Modelling produces the model; management defines what information the project needs, who produces each part of it, when it is exchanged, and how it is checked before it is accepted.
BS EN ISO 19650-2 sets out that management function for the delivery phase. In practice it is a small number of documents that have to be real rather than decorative — the exchange information requirements, the BIM Execution Plan, the responsibility matrix, the master information delivery plan — plus a common data environment where information moves through defined states rather than being emailed as attachments.
Where SDE is the MEP designer only, this is scoped to the MEP part of it. Where the appointment is broader, the same function can be run across the whole delivery team.
WHEN YOU NEED IT
Where the appointment requires delivery to BS EN ISO 19650, which on public sector, healthcare, higher education and large commercial work it usually does.
Where several parties are modelling and there is no agreed convention between them — the point at which two teams have named the same space differently and neither model can be relied on.
Where the client intends to operate the building from the model after handover, in which case the information requirements have to be set at the start, because retrofitting them at Stage 6 means surveying a finished building.
And where a project has a BIM Execution Plan that was written to win the job and has not been followed since. That is a common and recoverable position, but it needs someone to hold it.
OUR PROCESS
The client's exchange information requirements are read first, and where they do not exist they are drafted — a specific, answerable question against each one. "Model to LOD 400" is not an information requirement; "each air handling unit carries manufacturer, model, duty, electrical load and maintenance access clearance by Stage 4" is.
The BIM Execution Plan is then written against those requirements rather than from a template, with the responsibility matrix and the master information delivery plan as the operative parts of it. Naming, classification and shared coordinates are agreed before anyone models, because every one of them is expensive to change afterwards and invalidates references when it is.
The common data environment is set up with the work-in-progress, shared, published and archive states actually enforced, so the current version of a piece of information is unambiguous.
Models are federated and checked on a published cycle — geometry, clash, and information completeness against the requirements. The information check is the one usually missing: a model can be clash-free and still fail delivery because half the assets carry no data.
Delivery is reported against the information delivery plan, so what is late is visible while it can still be recovered.
DELIVERABLES
What you receive
- Exchange information requirements, drafted where none exist
- BIM Execution Plan written against those requirements
- Task information delivery plan and master information delivery plan
- Responsibility matrix by system and stage
- Common data environment structure and state definitions
- Naming, classification and shared coordinate conventions
- Federated model with geometry, clash and information completeness checks
- Delivery reporting against the information delivery plan
STANDARDS
Standards applied
The editions in force at the time of design. Where a standard is amended mid-project we confirm which edition the appointment is based on.
- BS EN ISO 19650-1:2018Organization and digitization of information about buildings — concepts and principlesBSI
- BS EN ISO 19650-2:2018Delivery phase of the assetsBSI
- BS EN ISO 19650-3:2020Operational phase of the assetsBSI
- BS EN ISO 19650-5:2020Security-minded approach to information managementBSI
- BS 1192-4:2014Fulfilling employer information exchange requirements using COBieBSI
- BS 8644-1:2022Digital management of fire safety informationBSI
- Uniclass 2015NBS unified classification for the construction industryNBS
QUESTIONS
Common questions
What is the difference between BIM modelling and BIM management?
Modelling is producing the geometry and data. Management is defining what information the project needs and making sure it arrives — setting the exchange information requirements, writing the BIM Execution Plan, assigning responsibility for each piece of information, running the common data environment, and checking deliveries against the requirements before they are accepted. A project can have excellent models and still fail its information delivery.
What is a BIM Execution Plan?
A BIM Execution Plan sets out how a project team will produce and exchange information: the standards and conventions in use, the software and formats, the shared coordinate system, the responsibility matrix showing who produces what, and the information delivery plan showing when each exchange happens. Under BS EN ISO 19650-2 a pre-appointment version is produced with the tender and a confirmed version once the team is appointed.
What is a common data environment?
A common data environment is the single agreed source for project information, with each piece of information held in a defined state — work in progress, shared, published or archived — and a controlled transition between them. Its purpose is that the current approved version of anything is unambiguous, and that superseded information stays available without being mistaken for current.
Do you provide the information management function or only the MEP models?
Either. Where the appointment is MEP design, the information management function is scoped to the MEP task team — task information delivery plan, model checks and delivery against the requirements. Where the appointment is broader, the same function can be run across the delivery team, including the exchange information requirements, the BIM Execution Plan and the common data environment.