A Planning Procedure for the Identification and Development of Owner Information Exchange Requirements for Capital Facility Projects
Open Access
- Author:
- Kasprzak, Colleen Marie
- Graduate Program:
- Architectural Engineering
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- August 22, 2013
- Committee Members:
- John Messner, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
- Keywords:
- Building Information Modeling (BIM)
Owner
Facility Management
Processes
Systems Engineering - Abstract:
- The implementation of Building Information Modeling (BIM) has enabled the processes to effectively and collaboratively develop, manage, and support capital facility projects. However, project teams are still challenged with interoperability issues between software packages, incompatible information exchanges, and a lack of owner-developed requirements for integration into their facility management (FM) systems. Through initial research, it was determined that very few owners have defined their actual needs and how this information can be leveraged in their management systems, the level of detail necessary to maintain information efficiency, and how data developed during the project can be integrated into their facility management systems. By defining these requirements internally through a structured procedure prior to project conception, stakeholders will have the opportunity to streamline the information exchange process during design and construction into the operations of a facility. The focus of this study was to develop a planning procedure for institutional owner organizations to determine appropriate facility requirements for construction projects and integrate BIM into their chosen facility management system. The planning procedure can lay a foundation for creating a structured process for identifying, defining, and managing data needs for all phases of the facility lifecycle. Qualitative research techniques were employed for this research. To develop this procedure, it was necessary to examine the current state of the industry and existing owner initiatives. Concurrent with this focused literature review; a participant as observer case study and a series of semi-structured interviews were conducted to develop the finalized planning procedure. The resulting contribution of this research is a planning procedure that can assist an owner organization in determining appropriate facility information requirements for capital facility projects and integrate BIM data into their computerized facility management system. The developed procedure defines a method for identifying, defining, and managing data needs for all phases of the facility lifecycle. This protocol is suitable for both facility owners and project teams to use as an initiating step towards facility information planning and to develop the procedure to suit the specific project information needs and owner operational requirements.