Thank you Hamza; your kind words are much appreciated.

Hi Mario. Thank you for your comment. On the face of it, Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Business Integration Methodology (BIM) share the three-lettered acronym but not much more. Digging deeper, I found that both are affected by the same approach to measuring performance through Capability/Maturity assessment. This of course doesn’t surprise me (and I suspect wouldn't surprise you) to learn of similarities or overlaps. This is true of any knowledge that peels under the skin and tries to uncover systems, concepts and relations; knowledge is one yet manifests itself in multiple means. Having said that, I’m keen to learn more about the ‘other BIM’ if you kindly point me in the right direction. I’ve tried to locate more info on Accenture’s website but came back empty handed. Thank you again for your thoughtful comment and hope you continue reading and contributing to BIM ThinkSpace. Bilal

Thank you Hamza…BIM Competency as a general term can be misleading. A person can be an expert in some areas and completely incompetent in others. That's why I'm a bit careful not to say someone is or isn't a BIM Expert because we can't measure 'BIM Competency' as a single block. We need to measure whether a person is competent against the 9 complementary competencies and take other factors into consideration – especially a person's discipline, field knowledge,speciality... Also, the skill needed to use BIM software tools efficiently is only part of the overall picture. How small or big that part is depends on the role the person plays on a particular project. Creativity is a core competency but I see no relationship between it and between the software tools used. Of course, some software tools are better for creative work, others are better for documentation, analysis, costing, and so on...BIM needs a range of tools not just one or two.

Wa Alaikum Assalam Imran...Thank you for your kind words and the reference provided. The three BIM capability stages you've mentioned are based on minimum, quantifiable requirements and are thus easy to understand and use. Although I'm happy some of my research has been referenced in peer-reviewed journals, I actually get more satisfaction when I learn of organizations adopting BIM Capability Stages and - more importantly - BIM Maturity Levels as a basis for their implementation efforts. I know of a few but I'm hoping my next research-based project (http://www.BIMexcellence.net) will convince more organizations to adopt these stages/levels to measure and improve their BIM performance. Thanks again.

Thank you Imran for your kind words; all the best to you and your students. Hope to meet you again in Wollongong if you're attending this year as well.

Hi Kristian, Thank you for your comment. I'm not aware of any other initiative or academic work similar to AIA’s Model Progression Specifications or BIPS’ information levels. I personally haven't used BIPS' classification in my consultancy work but did earlier try to use LODs (E202 – 2008) on a large collaborative BIM project. I faced a few issues with how LODs are structured which prompted me to develop a modified information classification system. I’ll be discussing it in the next BIM Episode; please stay tuned. Bilal

Link has been updated; thank you Plessey.

I agree with you Rasmus. Cutting corners, BIM washing and trying to grab at the low-hanging fruit can only be beneficial for a short while. Eventually, companies will realise the need to stop wasting time and to start investing in BIM - that is if they want to improve their long-term productivity and to maintain their competitiveness. Some realise this early; others rather late.

Thank you Jeffrey.

Thank you aecaadgroup for your comment.

Many thanks David!...You've just made writing the next episode much more difficult :~)

Hi Jared, Your site has now been added to BIMSearch.net All the best... Bilal

Thank you Finith, great to hear from you.

Hi Hee Chang, Nice to meet you too. Welcome to BIM ThinkSpace! Bilal

Hi Virve, I actually discovered your blog a few days back and added it to my custom search engine (BIMsearch.net). Looking forward to receive your comments once you had a chance to go through the posts. True, I'm a slow writer; very slow indeed. Thanks!

Costs and benefits are not, of course, the same thing. Reusing the example you provided, there's an important difference between the cost of BIM, the price paid by the Owner to the Designer for a BIM service/product, and the benefit from BIM, the value of this BIM service/product to the Owner irrespective of its price. The diagram above discusses benefits not costs. However, I partly agree with the spirit of your comment…If the Owner is paying extra for receiving a BIM-enabled service (e.g. a coordinated model - less RFIs) , then you're absolutely right and the Owner is actually subsidizing the Designer’s transformation to BIM. However, if the Owner is receiving extra value at practically the same pre-BIM price, then this argument does not stand.

I agree with you that engineers can pass a lot of benefit up the construction supply chain when they use 'smart tools' as you put it. However, I'm not sure that they stand to benefit themselves at the same rate as owners/operators or construction companies. Let's take two examples at the far ends of the above diagram: architects and owners. On one hand, architects have invested the most energy in implementing BIM tools and concepts but, in my view, stand to reap the least benefits out of that investment in the long run. Sure, they would benefit themselves in the short-medium term but they'll eventually pass all the hard-earned value to others when BIM becomes mainstream and competition kicks in. On the other hand, owners have so far invested the least energy in exploring BIM yet stand to benefit the most from it...Just think of the enormous value of linking object-based models to FM, GIS, BMS or business logic databases. The point really is, stakeholders belonging to the Operation Cluster [O] stand to benefit more than those in the Construction Cluster [C] who in turn benefit more than those in the Design Cluster [D]. However, when you observe who is currently leading the BIM adoption/investment, you’ll find the reverse order.

Hi Scott, I've added bimreviews.com and bimsoftware.net; bimpages.com was already indexed. Thanks,