In our previous article we explained what a BIM Execution Plan (BEP) is, why it is needed and how to create it. It is well known that sometimes within projects the BEP does not work and we want to analyse the reasons behind this. Some of the problems can be managed with additional information included in the BEP while others can be solved taking the right actions at early stages.
Below is a list of reasons that can make a BEP to fail:
- Lack of information about the project
As defined in our previous article, the first step of a successful BEP is to provide basic information about the project to allow everyone involved and not involved in the project to have a general idea of the project scope. In addition to this, defining clear project’s milestones and a good identification of key team members is essential.
Problems related to the lack of information about the project can include:
- Inaccurate project duration and key project milestones
- Very short project durations will stress resources into the project increasing information produced. This will make more difficult the review of the information produced by the whole team.
- Very long project durations will be difficult to manage as is very likely that team members will leave all the work to the last weeks of the milestone/project.
SOLUTION: The client needs to understand the requirements of the project and how long each stage will take. The client is not expected to have knowledge of all the areas of the project, so the consultants must inform the client during the BEP pre-contract of the real timescales of the project and update this during the whole length of the project.
- Inaccurate information about main key members of the team. It is important to identify the person who is going to be the contact from the consultant side. Sometimes this person is named simply based on his/her position within the company, regardless of whether he/she will in effect be involved in the day to day of the project. Not having this information might delay the sharing information process and could result in information being missed and mistakes being made in the project design.
SOLUTION: Use the roles and responsibilities section information to include members of the team who are actually going to be involved in the day to day of the project, managing the project within the subconsultant, and also indicate the role of each member within the project.
2. Unrealistic project goals
Project goals are created in the BEP to help the project team to understand what it is expected from the project at each stage. However, sometimes goals are inaccurately high requirements and are set to inaccurate/not achievable timescales.
SOLUTION: Client to be aware of the consequences of inaccurate goals or goals with very high requirements. It is important that the clients goals can be achieve within the proposed timescales. This requires a deep discussion between client, contractor and consultants to review goals and amend them to be SMART.
Smart goals should be as follows:
- Specific – What it is wanted to accomplish, who is involved, what limits are involved, why goal is important and where it is located. The goal should be clear and specific so the project team can focus on achieving it.
- Measurable – How much (time, cost, resources, etc) are needed, when it is accomplished. Goals should be measurable to track progress.
- Achievable – How can the goal be accomplished, how realistic is the goal. The goal should stretch the abilities of the design team but still remain possible.
- Relevant – The goal should match other needs of the project, be applicable in the current socio-economic environment.
- Time-bound – The goal should have a target date or stage, so the project team has clear timescales to work toward.
3. Unrealistic BIM Uses
BIM methodology can be used in all areas but sometimes this might delay the project itself or increase the cost if the BIM uses are not defined correctly at the beginning of the project. It is important to understand what the result at the conclusion of the project is and how the information produced will be used in the future or along the project.
SOLUTION: Contractor and designer have to agree to the BIM uses stated by the client and if these are unrealistic due to the client’s expectations, they should make the client aware as soon as possible to get a better definition of these BIM uses. If they client still wants to consider those BIM uses, both contractor and designer should carefully analyse those BIM uses and develop a method of their execution.
4. Incomplete BIM Processes
Sometimes it is not clear how the objects need to be modelled or the level of the detail needed in each project phase. Other times, it is not clear who is responsible for producing some of the information coming from additional/unexpected tasks. Finally, another problem is the lack of information about what information is needed and when.
SOLUTION: All the previous problems happen because of incomplete information within the BEP about how to deal with these circumstances and how to find the responses to each of the problem. This can be managed with the creation of BIM implementation processes for the BEP that visualize in a clear way how these situations are dealt. In addition to the processes, an Information Exchange Sheet will identify who is responsible for each task, with what level of detail an when the information is needed.
5. BEP very long, too complicated, or outdated
Everybody involved in the project should be able to read and understand the BEP to be aware of the requirements of the project. BEP should be easily readable, however sometimes is produced with a lot of information making it very long and with lots of technical language. Although it is expected that everybody reads the BEP, it is known that long documents are more difficult to be read and it should be avoided. Also, acronyms and technical language require deep knowledge of the subject and not everybody involved in the report will have the required knowledge.
SOLUTION: BEP should include aspects that are key for the project using a language easy to understand for everybody (technical and non-technical people). Sometimes it is needed to explain one methodology, stage or a process. To avoid this to affect the extents of the document, this information can be included in an Appendix or in a separate document that the BEP will refer to, so those people who requires to check that information will still have access to it, without making the main document too long. It is expected that some acronyms and technical language will be needed as part of the main document and a good practice is to include this within the BEP as one of the initial sections or in one Appendix, so people can check if required.
The BEP is created at the beginning of the project and during the development of it, some changes/updates might occur, such us: changes in the design team, timescales, scope of works, etc. The BEP is the document someone that a new member of the project should read when joining the project and if the BEP is not updated regularly, its information might be outdated.
SOLUTION: To avoid having outdated BEP, it is a good practice to review it regularly. This can be set up within the BEP document itself, so there is the obligation of doing it. The timing between revision would depend of the type of project and its complexity but the BEP should be reviewed every 3 or 6 months to capture all the changes in the project.
6. Wrong use of the Common Data Environment
Common Data Environment (CDE) is the place where the information is shared between the teams involved in the project and managed by the Project (BIM) Information Manager. This should be accessible by at least one person in each design team and the information within the CDE should be kept updated.
SOLUTION: When choosing the CDE for the project it is important to understand the amount of information that is going to be produced and the size of the design team, so there is enough capacity in the CDE and it allows access to the design team. Good communication between the Project (BIM) Information Manager and BIM Coordinators is needed to grant access to the right people in the design team and to keep the information updated within the CDE.
Prior to BIM, the information was shared by email or hard copies and this is a system that some design teams continue doing currently. Information sent by email might not reach all the members of the design team or might be lost within the email folder without the appropriate actions being taken.
SOLUTION: It is important to include within the BEP, as response to the Employer’s Information Requirements (EIR), how the information is going to be shared, where and how often. The Project Manager of each design team is responsible for checking that the information is shared as indicated in the BEP and the BIM Coordinator is responsible for checking that this is coordinated.
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