Advancing interoperability is a recognized global opportunity. Business drivers are compelling; information technology (IT) is readily available; owners and operators recognize they are limiting their value benefits with individual point solutions that are costly to maintain; and software vendors recognize interoperable software helps to establish greater market penetration, which leads to competitive advantage. Improvement in efficiency and productivity is possible by advancing interoperable practices and tools. Compelling metrics and decision-support tools are needed for breakthrough improvements.
The building industry is developing an Information Delivery Manual (IDM, ISO 29481) to specify the types of information required during facility construction or operation and to identify information needed in activities such as cost estimating, volume of materials, and job scheduling. The components of the IDM that define the process map include business rules, functional parts, exchange requirements, and verification tests. The capital projects industry has made significant investments to develop and encourage deployment of two major industry data standards: ISO/PAS 16739 (BIM‐IFCs) and ISO 15926. Advancing interoperability requires four building blocks:
- Business Case (return on investment or ROI, metrics, business case) defines the cost and risks associated with moving forward with implementing standardized, structured information exchanges for sustainable, whole life cycle outcomes.
- Culture Changes (training, resources) support people as they implement the new processes and adopt the new tools and technologies to deliver the business case (ROI) to their organizations.
- Information Delivery Processes (processes, systems, and tools) enables all stakeholders (e.g., owners, consultants, clients, contractors, and suppliers) to execute capital project tasks (activities) and to manage and communicate all electronic product and project information across all stages of the capital project life cycle.
- Information Management (data specifications, standards, and testing) allows for the exchange, coordination, tracking, and synchronization of information without the issues of ambiguity, integrity, or security.
These four building blocks are needed to enable standardized, structured information exchanges and thus advance interoperability within the capital projects industry. Establishment of new work practices are needed to implement interoperability on a large scale. The call to action is to develop new work practices and implementation guides to help adopters of new interoperability technologies and tools understand the impact on their people. Use case studies are needed to develop the most effective for the successful uptake of new interoperability tools and technologies. Achieving interoperability will enable significant savings and opportunities for step change improvements in work efficiencies.