Like any form of change management, implementation of BIM would require great planning & preparation. Change implementation has to be in a phased manner with proper planning and execution, let’s look at some the four key phases in BIM implementation.

The Four Phases of BIM Implementation

• Evaluation/Assessment
• Preparation for the Transition / Project Pre-Planning
• Execution of the Plan / Design and Construction
• Operations and Maintenance through Experience and Expertise

Evaluation or Assessment
Publish the implementation plan and intent for Building Information Modeling in your organization as part of an internal assessment procedure. The following steps are some of the best practises which would help you in the initial phase of BIM implementation.

• BIM Ready Evaluation – Evaluate your teams capability in terms of technology and processes
• Feedback – conduct feedback sessions on with internal team about adopting technology, processes and workflows
• Due Diligence – Evaluate the legal contracts and deliverables expected from each party
• Management take – Ensure that the higher management fully supports the decision to adopt BIM in the organization.

Preparation for the Transition / Project Pre-Planning
Project pre-planning is paramount for successful transition to BIM. A Standardisation in technology process and trained people is critical for success of technology implementation.

• Standardisation: Make provisions for uniform standards for software implementation ensure to lay down a process flow for information exchange, archiving and updating data on a real-time basis so that no crucial information is lost
• Training: Internal Team has to be equipped with the new software so plan for numerous Training and Development sessions to increase their expertise in using BIM.

Execution of Plan/Design and Construction
The execution of the plan must be decided collaboratively in accordance with every stakeholder in the project. This phase defines the social interactions of the project team throughout the BIM construction life cycle. A BIM execution plan includes:

• Portfolio management
• Test case based planning and implementation
• Spatial planning
• Team restructuring
• Information handover
• Defining new roles and responsibilities
• Measuring performance

Operations and Maintenance
The high level digital model built in the design phase can be taken as a base for operations and maintenance phase as well. The best practise is to use building data from this model and rework on it, to incorporate operations and maintenance for the facility,

Here are some the factors that determine if the high levels design model can be used for used for operations and maintenance:

• Which elements were integrated into the model in its design phase?
• Was the digital model regularly updated to include the most recent and accurate information?
• Were all stakeholders who are authorized to access the digital model able to retrieve data with ease?

Every organisation requirement and structure is different and activities performed in these phases might differ as per their requirement

Different phases of BIM implementation and proposes standard procedures that can ensure smooth transition to BIM technology however the success on BIM implementation would largely depend on willingness and capability of current organisation. Hence it’s advisable to lay down step by step process and the execute diligently for successful implementation.