Exploring the development of, and initial exposure to, a BIM-enabled collaborative project information management tool

The coordinated management of construction project information across separate actors within temporary project organisations remains largely unsystematic. Even on small-scale projects, the volume of people, companies, and interfaces that contribute to the project delivery process add to levels of project complexity. To ensure more effective collaborative practice, there is a need for a more structured and consistent approach to project information and process management. The focused use of building information is considered to be beneficial in these regards, however to help better realise such aspirations and the predicted benefits of the use of BIM, a series of supporting standards and tools have been developed for incorporation into industry working practices. One such item, the BIM Toolkit was developed as a possible solution to many of the challenges of facilitating collaborative working and information management practices on a BIM-enabled project. The dual aims of this work are to first document the development of this process innovation, and then explore the first exposure of it to a range of relevant industry practitioners. A series of qualitative interviews were held which yielded concerns around several aspects of the use of the BIM Toolkit in the project delivery process. These revolve around information classification, compatibility of existing working practices and use of communication channels. As such, several anticipated consequences regarding use of the toolkit are revealed, useful for those wishing to use it on their projects