Evaluation and review of BIM protocols between participants for efficient BIM execution in construction projects

A demand has emerged in architecture, engineering and construction industry for successful project in terms of time, cost and quality with reducing decision changes and problems which occur during the execution of construction projects. Collaboration should be increased between participants and project's entire information should be managed correctly to fulfil this demand. BIM was developed with the help of improving technology to meet these requirements and demands. BIM could be identified as a process which exists through conception to demolition of building that uses hardware and software to create not only two dimensional but also three dimensional project outputs, supports collaboration between project's participants, provides information exchange and in the case of efficient usage it decreases mistakes, provides advantage in terms of time and cost through providing collaboration. BIM related protocols must be developed to execute BIM effectively and get high efficiency by Project's participants from BIM utilization. AIA Digital Practice Documents developed by American Institute of Architects (AIA), ConsensusDOCS 301 BIM Addendum developed by Associated General Contractor of America (AGC) in the USA and Building Information Model (BIM) Protocol developed by Construction Industry Council (CIC) in the U.K. to fulfill this requirement. Aim of this thesis is determine the subjects that should be include in the protocols to maintain BIM process effectively, meet participant's demands, achieve project with anticipated success and fulfill project requirements in the project that intend to utilize BIM. Primarily, BIM's structure and elements has addressed in the second section of the thesis to create full understanding of BIM. Second section of thesis has a general explanation of BIM which includes definition of BIM, BIM maturity levels, BIM relationship with project delivery systems, project's functions which can perform with BIM and BIM benefits and challenges, after this explanation information related to Model which is main output of BIM process and organizational, technical and legal BIM requirements has addressed and BIM protocol's qualifications are established based upon these main information. According to these information BIM protocol's should have following qualifications: • Should create common understanding of BIM among Project Participants, • Should indicate all Project Participant who will be involve in the execution of BIM, • Should indicate all Project activities which will be perform with BIM, • Should be applicable to all Project Delivery Systems and BIM maturity levels, • Should include educational or other requirements for BIM adaptation, • Should indicate software and hardware requirements, • Should include new roles and duties and responsibilities of these new roles, • Should indicate BIM Model's scope, • Should indicate entire data types which are will be created and used during the BIM process, • Should have definition of entire model elements including their level of development and usage information, • Should describe its relation with main contract, • Should contain definition of terms in the protocol, • Should indicate standarts that will be used in the BIM process • Should include data exchange methods, • Should include rules about safety, storage and archiving of Project digital data. Also, countries attitude to BIM and what kind of initiative was done by public, special and educational organizations also stated in this section. AIA BIM Protocols contain three documents which are E203-2013 Building Information Modeling and Digital Data Exhibit, G201-2013 Project Digital Data Protocol Form and G202-2013 Project Building Information Modeling Protocol Form. E203-2013 Building Information Modeling and Digital Data Exhibit's aim to provide duration for Project Participants to create expectation regarding to BIM and digital data usage and procedures and protocols related to developing, using and exchanging of digital data. E203-2013 Building Information Modeling and Digital Data Exhibit contains five section to achive this aim and these are General Provisions, Transmission and Ownership of Digital Data, Digital Data Protocols, Building Information Modeling Protocols and Special Terms and Conditions. G201-2013 Project Digital Data Protocol Form purpose is to documents procedures and protocols about transmission, use and exchange of digital project communication, submittals, contract documents and payments documents. G201-2013 document compose of three sections which are General Provisions Regarding Use of Digital Data, Digital Data Management Protocols and Transmission and Use of Digital Data. G202-2013 Project Building Information Modeling Protocol Form intend to document procedures and protocols related to development, transmission and exchange of BIM models and establish requirements of model elements at five level of developments and authorized uses. Each AIA BIM protocols and each section that protocols contain was reviewed in detail because of AIA BIM Protocols have been accepted as more comprehensive than other protocols in the thesis and compared with AGC and CIC BIM protocols in the third section of thesis. As a result of review and comparison, stated differences between AIA and AGC and CIC BIM protocols in terms of context and qualifications. Comparison between third section's findings and BIM protocol's context and qualifications established in the second section and subjects does not exist or what kind of differences protocols have are defined in the fourth section of thesis. As a result of comparison and review, it's determined that AIA BIM protocols contain all context and qualifications, except intellectual property rights, that required for any BIM protocols to execute BIM, whereas AGC and CIC protocols do not include certain required context and qualifications or included it differently. BIM protocols, which must develop for efficient execution, will not have any purpose and importance in the environment that has lack of understanding the importance and awareness of BIM. Therefore, organizations which support development of architecture, engineering and construction industry, such as independent institutions and universities should take some action to increase of BIM awareness and governments should follow policies about encouraging even mandating BIM utilization. It will be possible to provide important social benefits and achieve more quality construction projects with development and increased usage of BIM.